Page 91 of The Wedding Favor

I also didn’t want to come between Abe and his family. He’d been without them for years. I wouldn’t be the person who caused more problems between Abe and his dad.

I was suddenly very glad this job had a time limit on it. End of summer, Hallie would go back to school. The shop would open, Hallie’s grandparents would return, and I would get back to… whatever was waiting for me. I wouldn’t see Abe every day and the crush would pass. He’d find someone else who had a stable job and a fully funded Roth IRA. Maybe I’d get invited to the wedding.

Was that my lot in life now? To attend the weddings of men I had history with?

“Dad.” Hallie raced down the hallway and slid to a halt in front of his office. Her previous dry shorts and t-shirt were sopping wet. “Jeff taught me how to power wash.”

“I can see that. Did any of the water make it on the floor?”

“Kind of.” She giggled and turned to me. “Did Dad fix your problem?”

I’d been so distracted that I’d completely forgotten why I’d marched myself into his office in the first place.

“What’s wrong?” Abe asked, his eyes moving between Hallie and me.

“Nothing,” I said quickly.

He cleared his throat and gave me a pointed look, one that said “you’re lying.”

I winced. “Okay, yes, I do need to talk to you about something.”

His gaze held mine for a long moment before he seemed to make his mind up about something. “Hal, let’s go get you cleaned up and in dry clothes and then we’ll go to Boscoe’s for burgers. How does that sound?”

“Yes!” Her tennis shoes made a squealing noise as she hopped up and down. “Um, do you think Iris can go with us?”

“Oh, it’s okay,” I said. “You go spend time with your dad.”

Abe turned smiling eyes on me. “My treat. We can talk then?”

“Please, Iris,” Hallie said. “They have the best chocolate shakes.”

I should absolutely say no. This was not how I created distance between us. And yet, for the second time that day, my mouth took over. Plus I really needed a dose of chocolate.

“You should have led with that. I never turn down chocolate.”

THIRTY-FIVE

“I’m still not sure why he chose me but I never asked. I was afraid if he thought about it, he’d wonder, too.”

—excerpt from the unpublished memoir,

Darling, I Must Say by Gloria Hayes

“This is taking forever,” Hallie said.

“They just took our order five minutes ago. It will be here soon,” Abe said. “Patience, grasshopper.”

Hallie’s face scrunched up in annoyance. “I’m hungry now though.”

He pushed the coloring page and crayons the server had left on the table toward her. “Color.”

“Fine.” But she picked up the crayons and started to color a dancing hamburger hot pink.

Before we’d driven into Houston for dinner, we’d swung by the house for Hallie to change and Abe to shower off the day’s work. His hair wasn’t quite dry and hung in waves to just above his shoulders. He hadn’t shaved for a few days, and the scuff was doing all the right things for his jaw.

Hallie whooped when the server arrived with our food.

“Can I get you anything else?” the server said to Abe. She was a cute blonde with bouncy… everything. She knew it too.