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“They are both pretty great men,” Lucy said. “All three of us have been best friends since we were in diapers.”
“I’m guessing that they didn’t follow you into town because they want to be just friends,” Alexis said. “I’m also guessing that you didn’t come to town just because you needed a vacation.”
Lucy sighed. She figured that it wouldn’t hurt to be a little honest with Alexis.
“You are right,” Lucy said. “They both, all of the sudden, decided that they wanted to be out of the friend zone. I guess they figured that it was time to get married and start a family, and I was convenient.”
“Honey, if they followed you hear all the way from Montana, it wasn’t because you were convenient. They must feel something for you. If they are both great men, why don’t you just pick one and settle down?”
Lucy said, “I only want to get married if I am truly in love with someone.”
Alexis gave a humorless laugh that almost sounded like a donkey’s guffaw.
“What is love? Does it even exist?”
“I like to think that it does.”
“I thought that I was in love with someone, but he wasn’t the person that I thought he was,” Alexis said, sadly.
“What do you mean?”
“I’ve known Luke since we were kids, although he didn’t run around in the same circles. I always had a crush on him. He came back to Ivy Springs after getting out of the military. Every time I looked at him, my heart lurched. Butterflies swarmed in my stomach and I thought about him constantly. But then, I found out that he was a shifter.”
“So,” Lucy said. “What difference does that make?”
“The Faisons have been at war with shifters for the last two hundred years. There is no way that I could be with a shifter.”
“Maybe it’s time to end the war,” Lucy said. “Nothing good ever comes of hate.”
Alexis shrugged her shoulders and said, “It doesn’t matter, anyway. Luke and his family completely disappeared. I doubt if I will ever see him again.”
“I’m really sorry that your heart was broken,” Lucy said.
In spite of what she knew about Alexis and her family, she truly did sympathize with Alexis.
“I guess it doesn’t matter,” she said. “Can I have a large mocha?”
“Of course,” Lucy said.
Alexis paid with a twenty, telling Lucy to keep the change, and left.
Clara stared after Alexis, her mouth open and her eyes wide.
“I had no idea that she was capable of any feelings,” Clara said. “But she actually seemed like she was sad that Luke had left. Of course, if he hadn’t, it wouldn’t have mattered, because he was in love with Jamie, anyway, but still.”
“People will surprise you, sometimes,” Lucy said. “Or, she might be changing. She might have learned to have feelings.”
“I don’t know,” Clara said. “I’m not sure that a leopard can change his spots for stripes and turn purple, because that is how extreme it is to think that Alexis might be capable of thinking of anything but herself.”
“Well, either she really did feel something genuine for Luke, or she is simply sad because he was something that she wanted but couldn’t have.”
“I vote for the second,” Clara said. “Although she was also super nice today. That’s not like her. And Dillon said that she went to his store to buy some gifts for a couple of kids who were staying at the resort.”
Lucy shrugged her shoulders and raised her hands, palms up as if to say, “I don’t know.”
Sitting down after the lunch rush felt so good. The bottoms of her feet ached and she wanted nothing more than to soak them in a hot tub. Her back hurt and she really needed a nap.
The bowl of baked potato soup and piece of French bread was delicious. Lucy wondered if she had enough time for a second bowl when her phone rang. She had turned it back on after Dean and Micah showed up, since everyone already knew where she was.
