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“What?”
“Happens to be a bit of a dead zone right about here. You really are lucky I was drivin’ behind you, or you would’ve had to take those cute little boots on a long walk.”
Laney’s eyes flashed with contempt, and she grabbed her purse and her friend’s off the floorboard in the back seat of the convertible. “Let’s go wait in the truck.”
“You do that,” I said as she passed me, barely resisting the urge to turn around and watch her go.
Laney Cole was back in Charlotte Oaks, and she’d invited Riley Conrad to our high school reunion. I hadn’t thought this day could get much worse after seeing the sticky squirrel situation under Shifty’s hood, but boy was I wrong.
In fact, I envied the dang squirrel.
5
LANEY
“Laney Cole, you’ve been holding out on me,” Paisley said with a smirk after closing the heavy truck door behind her.
I settled into the middle seat, staring straight ahead, trying to play it cool. “No I haven’t.”
“Gimme the bacon without the sizzle. There’s no way you’re just that man’s old friend.”
“It doesn’t matter,” I said simply. “Yes, we have history. But it’s of the ancient variety.”
She snorted. “Didn’t look ancient to me. I thought you two were gonna set a tumbleweed on fire with the way you were looking at each other.”
I closed my eyes, feeling a blush slide up my neck and cheeks. Then I pushed out a laugh and tried to play it off. “Girl, what is this, the Wild West? Do you see any tumbleweeds out here?”
“It’s just an expression.”
“Pretty sure it’s not. But anyway, there was no fire between us. There was awkwardness. That’s why I didn’t want to come.”
For a long moment, Paisley gaped at me, her mouth open so wide one of those rocks I’d run over would fit perfectly between her teeth. “Shut up. He’s the reason you haven’t been back here in six years?”
“Maybe.”
“Maybe?!” she all but yelled. Then she looked over her shoulder out the back window of the truck, trying to get a look at him. “Tell me everything.”
“No.”
“Why not? I’m your best friend.”
I grimaced at the wounded look on her face, then rolled my eyes when she stuck her tongue out to show me she wasn’t really hurt.
“Okay, how about the short version?” she asked.
I knew Paisley wasn’t gonna let this go. She was tenacious in all things, and when it came to juicy girl talk or binge-watching our favorite shows, she was like a dog with a bone. Not to mention the fact that she was the manager of a famous country singer. Tenacity would be missed in her profession, for sure.
“Fine,” I said through my teeth. “The short story is that Everett and I were best friends growin’ up. Our moms are best friends, and our families did practically everythin’ together. Then when we were in high school, that friendship finally turned to more, and everyone around here thought we’d be a tale as old as time.”
Paisley watched me like she was wishing she had a bucket of popcorn in her lap. “And then what happened?”
“Then, after we graduated, he left for the Marines, and I took off to Nashville.”
“And the distance was too much.” It wasn’t a question, more like a fact that she figured must be true because it seemed like the natural end to the story.
Except it wasn’t.
“No, we actually managed it as best we could. He planned to only stay in for four years, then wanted to come home to work in his daddy’s auto shop and take it over one day. Since Nashville isn’t too far from here, we figured our long-distance relationship wouldn’t be so bad once he got out. I think it was the fact that it was temporary that kept us together while he was in the Marines.”
