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Moved here.
She hadn’t moved here. She was just here for work….
“Not as much running as I’m used to,” Jordan replied, dragging her mind back to the conversation. “I tried running around outside the rental, but…not a lot of places to go.”
Hailey laughed. “No, not really. You can only loop around the bakery and Tucker’s so many times, right? You should take a run by the lake. That’s where the high school track team practices.”
“Oh, I’d forgotten there was a lake nearby.”
Hailey nodded. “Ten min
utes or so from your place. I mean, it’s not a fancy path or anything, but it’s pretty in its way.”
“And it’s open to anyone?”
“Eh. Technically? Private property. But nobody minds. Here, give me your phone. I’ll text myself, and then later I’ll message you with the best place to park your car to get down to the trail.”
“That’d be great,” Jordan said, as she handed over her phone so Hailey could enter her info.
“Okay, I should get my junk-food-mobile out of here,” Hailey said, giving the phone back. “My mother in-law is with the littles today, but if I’m gone too long, she’ll start promising them ice cream for dinner, and I’ll be the bad mom who has to say no.”
“How old are they?”
“Beau is six, meaning he loves bugs and dirt and all the usual boy stuff. Ann is three and likes bugs and dirt even more than her brother does. They’re monsters, but they’re my monsters and all that.”
Jordan smiled. “I’ll let you get back to them. It was really nice seeing you!”
She meant it. Hailey was impossible not to like.
“Add some chocolate to this mess or I’ll have to break up with you,” Hailey said, waving her finger over Jordan’s cart as she started to move away. “Oh, hey, actually, speaking of chocolate…you have plans tomorrow?”
“Other than working on casting my net to catch Luke so I can drag him back to New York? Not really.”
Hailey laughed. “Bait him with Cool Ranch Doritos. He’s got a crazy weakness for them. But anyway, a bunch of us are meeting for book club tomorrow. You should join.”
“I’m a fast reader, but not sure I can read whatever the book for discussion is by tomorrow,” Jordan said regretfully.
Hailey waved her hand. “Nonsense. We hardly ever discuss the book. It’s more an excuse to get the guys to babysit while we all drink wine. Talk about boys.”
“Okay, then,” Jordan said. “I’d love to.”
“Perfect. Then you can tell us what you and Luke were fighting about at the bar.”
Jordan snorted. “I’ll give you three guesses, and you only need one.”
“Keep working on him,” Hailey said. “The guy needs someone to push his buttons, snap him out of his funk.”
“Can you please tell him that?”
“Oh, he quit listening to me a long time ago,” Hailey said.
“But he did once?” Jordan asked, a little puzzled.
Hailey didn’t reply; instead, she blew Jordan a kiss. “I’ll text you about the running-track and book-club deets. But only if you promise to add something non-organic to your cart, ’kay?”
Jordan waved goodbye to Hailey, then did an eenie-meenie with the Greek yogurt she’d been debating, going for the one with honey and almonds mixed in.
She was nearly to the checkout stand when she made a snap decision, backpedaling to the frozen section, where she stopped in front of the ice cream display.
