Page 33 of More Than My Hometown

Errrr…what?!

“Oh, you just know Ewan’s got a secret dirty side to him,” Rose mutters, biting her lips, her own salacious grin appearing. “It’s always the quiet ones.”

“Know from experience there, Rose?” Alice quips, smacking her shoulder with the back of her hand.

“Sure do.”

The rest of the group laughs, but I barely register the humor, my mind still stuck on Dolly’s instructions. Don’t be quiet about what? And why is Ewan dying to give Willa payback? Payback for what? What is it that my friends know that I don’t?

“Expand and explain,” I say. “Payback for what?”

Shaking her head and laughing, Dolly sits back. “Go kiss your man.”

“You’re just going to hold this information hostage?”

She wouldn’t. Would she?

I glare at her across the table, the temptation to reach for the pie again growing by the second. Although this time it’s to throw at her. Because she would. She definitely would.

Worse, she is.

“C’mon, tell me.”

“When you woman up, I will.”

Uggggh….

As an only child, I never had to fight for the attention of my parents. However, with cousins like Dolly and Emily, plus their siblings, I certainly had all the push and pull that came with siblings. Even now though, I wouldn’t trade it.

Looking down at my phone, I note the time, doing the math in my head. “It’s already four fifteen. He’s helping Chet Farlow chaperone the seventh-grade environmental science camping trip until Saturday. They are rolling out at four thirty.”

“Then you better get moving,” Rose challenges.

“And what? Roll into the middle school parking lot, march on up to him, climb him like a tree, and plant one on him? In front of a group of thirteen-year-olds? And their parents?”

“I’d recommend skipping the climbing him like a tree part,” Emily comments. “Maybe ask if you can borrow him for a second, slip between the cars, tell him how much you’re going to miss him, and then plant one on him. But, yes.”

“Maybe throw in a there’s more of this when you get back,” Rose adds, waggling her eyebrows.

“You have to be kidding.” I glance around the table, all four of them staring back at me expectantly. They are not kidding.

“Welcome home, Maisey,” Dolly taunts.

Well…shit…

My insides tighten, the scene Emily described playing out in my mind, much like the one of us tumbling through his apartment did moments ago. Although this time, it’s not just longing that it comes with. It’s more. It’s pure desire. Pure excitement.

A bubble bursts inside me, releasing a feeling I can’t name. It’s comforting, invigorating, and energizing, making me feel like I could burst into giggles and take over the world all at the same time. I haven’t felt like this since…I don’t even know when. A long damn time. It’s the feeling of being at home mixed with the thrill of a first love and the wonder of what will come next.

Only one way to find out.

Picking up my fork, I shove the last bite of pie into my mouth as I push back from the table, not bothering to say goodbye to my friends. I’m on a mission now. A very important mission.

Ewan and I promised that this time we would communicate. We would tell each other things. I meant that promise. That means telling him how I’m feeling and what I want. It means taking matters into my owns hands if necessary.

Or my own lips, as it may be.

I’m out the door of Oh, My Lard! and down the street before I can think. I’m all muscle memory and autopilot as I make my way toward the middle school, simultaneously amped up and worried that I missed them. My worry is tamped down by my brain trying to make a game plan—attempting to work out exactly what I’m going to say when I get there. When I see him.