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“If everyone is finished,” Mrs. Rose said, “I'll bring
out dessert. Everyone likes carrot cake, don't they?”
Everyone mumbled in agreement around the table, and Hadley stood up. “I'll help you, mom.”
“No, dear, you can stay here and visit,” she said. “I'll be just a second.”
Hadley stared at us, sitting around the table, and for the first time, I almost felt bad for her. She seemed to be under a microscope and not sure which way to look. To varying degrees, we’d all been disappointed when she’d married Chris and our friendships had cooled. She seemed to feel that coolness resting on her shoulders.
Hadley sat down again and focused her attention on Grayson. It was obvious she loved that little boy. I could see it in the way her eyes lit up with joy whenever he smiled or laughed, to the mother bear vibe she was totally sending to the rest of us. He was a cute kid and looked exactly like his father. I felt a slight twinge of sadness for all that we’d lost. My parents were on the other side of Grayson, and my mother was doting upon the little boy. I finished my glass of wine and leaned back in the chair, sighing deeply and checking my watch as Evan nudged me in the side with his elbow.
“What?” I asked.
He leaned closer to me and whispered, “Leave the past in the past. Forget about it and stop being a dick,” he said. “Things are different now.”
“Don't you think I know that?” I muttered. “For one thing, my best friend is never coming back.”
“That's not Hadley's fault.”
Evan had a point. She didn't force Chris to become a police officer, that was something he'd been completely fired up to do. It wasn’t her fault that a raid had gone horribly wrong and he’d been killed in the line of duty.
Still, as irrational and unfair as I knew it to be, part of me did blame her. That part of me blamed her for taking him away to San Diego – a large city with more crime than we had here in Castle Creek. If he'd have only stayed put, he'd still be alive. Period.
“If she – ” I started to argue, but Mrs. Rose came back into the dining room, plates in hand and I shut my mouth without finishing my statement.
She was beaming proudly with her hands filled with plates of carrot cake. I stood up, taking some from her and passed them all around.
“Thank you, Gabriel. Always such a gentlemen,” Mrs. Rose said.
“My pleasure,” I said.
I followed her back into the kitchen, to help her with the remaining plates. Before we stepped back into the dining room though, she stopped me and fixed me with a penetrating stare. I stood rooted to my spot, curious about what was on her mind.
“I know Hadley broke your heart, but I've always liked you, Gabriel,” she said. “I do hope the two of you can reconcile and leave the past where it belongs.”
My jaw clenched tightly. “There's nothing to reconcile, Mrs. Rose,” I said. “The past is the past.”
“Please, we're all adults here, call me Shirley,” she said with a smile. “By the way, you're not seeing anyone, are you?”
“Not at the moment, no,” I said.
My fiancé, Jessica, and I had split up about six months ago. I'd called it all off when I realized she really was more in love with my money than me. Not to mention the fact that I found out she had a man on the side. It had been like a sledgehammer to the gut and I was beginning to think it was hard, if not impossible, to find a faithful woman. “Well, I hate to be pushy, but I think you and Hadley should get together sometime, reconnect,” she said. “I think it would be good for the both of you to heal and move forward.”
I sighed, running a hand through my hair. “I don't want to sound rude or flippant, but I think that ship has sailed, Mrs. Rose – ”
“Shirley,” she corrected me with her bright smile and a playful tap on my nose.
“Alright then, Shirley,” I said, even though it felt weird to call her by her first name. Ever since I'd known her, she'd always been Mrs. Rose to me. “Like I said, I think that ship has sailed. Hadley and I are better off as friends, nothing more.”
She shook her head and shot me a look I couldn't quite read. Perhaps she was disappointed in my answer, or she just didn't believe me. Either way, I knew it was true. Truthfully, even being friends was a stretch. As much as I'd missed her all these years, there was still a lot of crap in our pasts. Crap I wasn't able to just forget about just because she happened to be single again.
“I remember a promise you made to my daughter,” Shirley said softly.
She didn't have to elaborate, I knew exactly what she meant. I stood there, my arms loaded up with plates.
“Well, I had intended on keeping my promise,” I muttered. “But, Hadley made other plans.”
I pushed open the swinging door between the dining room and kitchen, grateful to exit the conversation. I passed around the remaining plates, handing one to Hadley then putting one in front of Grayson too. The little boy looked up at me with big, brown eyes, watching everything I did. I smiled down at him, even though inside, it was killing me. He looked so much like Chris that it pained me to look at him sometimes.
