Page 17 of Crossed Lines

We burst out laughing at that. “The woman I am? Where’d you hear something like that at?” I ask.

“Girl, I don’t know. It just came to me.”

I’ve moved on to the toy aisle now. I pick up a bracelet-making kit off one of the shelves. It doesn’t even look like it’s been opened. I already know Jade is gonna love it. “Listen, I appreciate you looking out for me, but I can assure you, nothing is going to happen with Beck and me. When you come to town, you’ll meet him and see.”

“What exactly will I see?” she asks.

I add a hardly used jumbo box of sidewalk chalk to my pile of goodies. Jade and I can use this in the backyard. Beck has a large concrete pad out back with a grill and a table and chairs. We can move all that out of the way and use it as our canvas.

“You’ll see that Beck is… Beck is all man. And I’m just Willow.”

“Willow Banks. You are so much more than just Willow. Don’t ever let me hear you say that again.” Macy is my biggest hype woman. Anytime I’ve ever had an ounce of self-doubt, she swoops in and pulls me up. I love her for that. “And I’ll be the judge of what I see when I’m there. Speaking of which, I’m thinking about coming at the beginning of July. Tell me what dates work best for you.”

“Ok, I’ll ask Beck what his schedule looks like and get back to you.”

“Yes, I can’t wait to see what his…schedule looks like,” she says, alluding to more than just asking him his schedule.

I roll my eyes even though she can’t see. “Alright. I gotta go. My hands are getting full.”

“Ok, well, call me or text me or send a carrier pigeon. Anything so that I know you haven’t forgotten me!”

“I could never forget you, Mace.”

“Well, obviously.”

We say our goodbyes before I hang up and continue my search for fun things for Jade and me to do. I’m probably buying way too much, but this is fun for me.

After my shopping trip for fun kid activities, I’m in the kitchen cooking dinner when Sawyer gets home. He promised he’d be home early today since I’m off work. We’ve barely gotten to spend any time together since I’ve been home. Our evenings so far have been us plastered in front of the TV, half asleep from our busy days.

“Something smells good,” he says, walking into the kitchen and putting his lunch box down on the table. “Wait, is that… salad? Please don’t tell me you went to college and got all healthy on me.”

“Oh god. It’s not going to kill you to eat a vegetable. Besides, it’s lettuce. Practically zero nutritional value. You’ll be fine,” I tell him.

“If you say so. What are you making?” he asks.

“I found this recipe for chicken Caesar salad tacos,” I tell him. One of my favorite things to do at night is scroll through social media and save recipes I might want to make one day. Since I’m home, he’s going to be my guinea pig for a few of these.

“Uh huh. And what’s wrong with regular tacos?” he asks.

“Nothing. Just trying something different,” I tell him with a side-eyed glance.

“Alright. Alright. You know I’ll eat it.”

“Yes, you will.” When I started teaching myself to cook while I was living here, Sawyer would always be my taste tester. He’d eat it all even if it tasted like absolute ass.

I finish cooking the meat while Sawyer changes out of his work clothes. He comes back in just as I’m putting the food on the table for us.

“What’d you do today?” he asks as he puts the smallest amount of salad on his taco.

Shaking my head, I tell him, “Well, I unpacked a little bit. Then I hit up the thrift store and got some things to do with Jade. I treated myself to lunch in town, and then I came home. Did some laundry. Sat on the couch for a while before I decided to make dinner.”

“Sounds like a productive day.”

“It was.”

“How are things going with Jade and Beck?”

“Fine. Good. Jade is easy to hang out with.” It’s on the tip of my tongue to tell him that I think Beck is more attractive than he was before I left for college, but I know Sawyer would get upset. Sawyer has been a great big brother to me, but boys have always been an awkward conversation. I learned that quickly at fifteen when I tried to tell him a guy in one of my classes told me he liked me. Sawyer immediately shut down the conversation by saying I was too young to have a boyfriend. I learned that anything to do with boys would have to be discussed with my friends or their mothers. I didn’t have a lot of friends, so I mostly just had to keep it all inside.