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I should ask about her brother, but her rigid posture after I’d asked about her parents was enough to make me rethink that line of conversation.
I handed a couple of twenties over the counter and waved off the change.“Well, it was nice talking to you.”
“We’ll have to catch up sometime.”
I didn’t immediately reject the idea.Laney hadn’t been my number one fan, but it’d had nothing to do with my father.It had been refreshingly not personal, a product of being young and selfish, but I wasn’t in a place to be social.“I’m only in town ten days at a time.”
She leaned a little closer, and her soft floral scent flowed over me.After high school, when she smelled like she’d dunked herself into a vat of Bath & Body Works lotion, I had expected a cloud of smothering perfume.“I doubt it’ll take long to catch up.”
Was she flirting with me?Loud, obnoxious, teenaged Laney had scared off everyone but Derek, but he’d grown up next to her, as had I.The Grangers’ land bordered mine and his.I’d joked with Derek about how he’d been afraid to break up with her.He’d find his tires slashed and his dog Bruster responding to a name like Petunia or something.
This Laney oozed confidence and enough aloofness to tell me she wasn’t looking for anything permanent, if she were interested in anything at all.She reminded me of…me.A familiar and possibly friendly face when we were surrounded by Barrons.
I wouldn’t mind catching up.Another time.I wanted to get home before the pizzas cooled off.Eli loved stringing cheese as far as he could, and I didn’t want to miss the way the kids practically tackled Kenny.
“Your number still the same?”she asked as I turned away.The tinge of hesitance was new.Laney had been a bull surrounded by bullfighters.She’d pushed and challenged until she’d made her point or the other side had given up.
“It’s different.”I’d had to change it after I got Payton out of my life and away from the boys.She’d had the random men in her life call me and pretend to be lawyers.Or just be a pain in the ass until I lost sleep or it affected work.I rattled it off.
Laney punched it in and gave me a smile that fell just shy of real.I might answer the phone just to find out what adult Laney was really like.Losing Derek had exposed the gaping hole in my life that was supposed to be filled with meaningful relationships.I wasn’t interested in dating anyone right now, but I couldn’t exactly do what my kids did on the playground—walk up to someone and say, “Do you want to be my friend?”
I made my way through the bar, using the pizzas as the plow to open a path, and calculated how fast I could get home to my kids and Kenny.I hoped Laney wasn’t looking for a hookup.I could use another friend.What I didn’t need was more drama in my life.
