“Oh, no, you don’t,” Lennox said, narrowing her gaze. She pointed to the worn leather spot I’d just vacated. “Don’t think you’re going to get off the hook from everything you have going on.”
Josie turned to me in surprise. “What’s going on with you? What have I missed?”
Over Josie’s shoulder, Lennox looked entirely too pleased with herself. I knew this talk was inevitable, especially with how I’d been acting lately, but this wasn’t really what I had in mind for a sisterly heart-to-heart. “Nothing,” I said, just as Lennox said, “Her ex is back in town.”
“Thomas?” Josie asked, sitting up. She was the picture of concern. “Do we need to call someone? File another restraining order? Are those universal?”
“Of course it isn’t Thomas. Do you really think he’d still be breathing if it was? Give me some credit,” Lennox said, crossing one leg over the other. “This is the other one. The high school sweetheart who disappeared under a stage name and popped back up one day with a freaking kid.”
Josie’s lips curled into an O. “That makes much more sense.” She turned back to me. “When’s your first date?”
“Oh, we aren’t going on a date,” I said, coughing. “That shiphas sailed. Been there, done that.” I tapped my chest. “Got the broken heart to prove it.”
“You can’t be serious,” Josie whined. “You can’t just let him go. What about fate? Destiny? It can’t be a coincidence he showed up here—twice.”
“Thrice now,” Lennox interrupted.
I rolled my eyes. “I’m pretty sure that’s the first time you’ve ever used that word.”
“What a time to do it, huh?” she said, giving me a smile. “Don’t change the subject. Have you asked him why he’s coming back around?”
I sighed, sinking back into the couch. “No.”
Josie and Lennox waited, unmoving, for me to say more, but I kept my lips shut. There was nothing to tell. No great second-chance love story for the ages that’d warm hearts and have my sisters turning to a puddle right here where they sat. It was just two people who, yes, may have shared history together, but that was it.
Wasn’t it?
I kept telling myself that was what I wanted, but after the other day, I wasn’t so sure. I’d felt such a kinship with Charlie in the treehouse, and when Grady and I had talked, it hadn’t been awkward. If anything, it’d been… nice. Which seemed like such a cop-out answer, even to my own ears, but it didn’t make it any less true.
If someone had told me I’d be talking to Grady Wilde again in any capacity, I would’ve called them crazy. I would’ve told them there was no way in hell the two of us would ever be in the same spot, let alone chatting about going back to that goddamned treehouse like we were two old friends and not brokenhearted fools.
“Well, why not?” Josie pouted.
“I—”
“Because she’s scared,” Lennox finished for me. She waited,begging for me to correct her, to argue with her, but there wasn’t any point. Nothing changed the fact that she hit the nail on the freaking head with that observation.
“I know what that’s like,” Josie said quietly. “I felt the same after Lincoln came back, and you know how hard it was for me to even look in his direction. It was like walking barefoot on pins and needles, knowing you’d eventually get poked but still wanting to get to whatever’s on the other side. But then?—”
“Oh, don’t say it,” I grumbled. “All you needed was a little push, and that’s what I gave you. I don’t need a pep talk, Josie. I need a lobotomy, a time machine, or a memory eraser. Maybe all three.”
“You were the reason I put all the fear behind me, though. You told me you regretted it.” Her voice was stronger this time. “That’d you do anything to have it back, and now you have your chance.”
It seemed like so long ago Josie had cried on my shoulder, not knowing what she should do about Lincoln. She’d been too damn scared and stubborn to go after what she truly wanted. In the end, I just had to make her see that—which I should’ve known would come back to bite me in the ass sooner or later.
“It’s different with us, Josie. There are a lot of wounds I don’t think we could heal. It’s too much,” I stammered. Hopelessness, my familiar friend, settled back into my chest and down into my stomach as I searched my mind for all the reasons talking to Grady was a bad idea. “For one, he’s married.” When neither of them responded, I added, “And they have a kid!”
“Do you know if he’s married? Has he said that?” Lennox pressed, leaning forward.
I thought back on our conversations, carefully sifting through each interaction. Grady had mentioned the woman in passing, mostly just when referring to something about Charlie, but I couldn’t remember him laying any claim to her while I was around. And he didn’t strike me as the cheating type.
Then again, people changed as life went on. I was no exception. It would be stupid to think the Grady standing in front of me was the same Grady I knew from high school.
“I don’t know,” I said, shoulders slumping in defeat. “I suppose not.”
“Then what’re you waiting for? An invitation? A red carpet rollout? Believe me when I say that man would do literally anything you asked for.”
“He would not,” I snapped back. “He’s just—I don’t know—being nice.”
