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“Hopefully their pizza is still as good as it was back in the day.”
She shrugged. “Maybe even better.”
They got a table and it wasn’t long before the four were reminiscing about old times. Roni watched Jimmy and Owen talking as if no time had passed and they were all still in high school. Having Brianna sitting there next to him wasn’t helping. She kept shaking her head and reminding herself she hadn’t fallen in a time warp, and she and Jimmy weren’t still together.
Every now and then, she’d catch herself wanting to lean into him or touch his arm. But he wasn’t the same, she reminded herself.
Theyweren’t the same.
Brianna and Owen told Jimmy about how they got back together after she almost married another, and how they found their pride and joy, Bandit.
“He is the best dog you’d ever meet, though he almost died when he ran off chasing a rabbit and fell into the river on our wedding night,” Brianna told him.
“Luckily, Candy and Lincoln rescued him, which caused the two of them to fall in love and get married too,” Owen added.
Laughter filled Jimmy’s eyes. “Wow, since when did Pineville become the town for romance?”
“That tends to happen when you live in a small town where everyone knows each other,” Brianna said happily.
“Yeah, even my brother Eric is now with Melanie Gable. You probably don’t remember her, she moved away when we were teens, but she owns the Gable Inn downtown.”
“She was with me this morning when we went to Frankie’s,” Roni told him, not wanting to think about Frankie’s.
“I think I remember the Gables. Didn’t your brother cause the accident that killed her mother?” Jimmy asked Owen.
Owen grimaced. “The key word there was accident.”
“That’s a lot to get over.” Jimmy’s gaze caught Roni’s and held until Roni felt the urge to squirm in her seat. “If she could get over something like that, maybe you could forgive me too?”
Something moved inside her. Something she didn’t want to think about. How could she? If she did, she’d have to admit she was softening toward him. A little. “Maybe,” she muttered, but she wasn’t promising anything.
“Tell us about Frankie’s,” Brianna said, taking a bite of her pizza.
Jimmy quickly glanced her way, and Roni nodded. “It’s okay. Tell us,” she said, her voice coming out sharper than she intended.
“Not much to tell,” he said. “My dad opened the coffee shop after he retired. He couldn’t stand sitting around the house with nothing to do, and he’d always had a dream of opening a coffee shop.”
“That’s really cool,” Owen said. “Good for him.”
Roni shot him a glare. Whose side was he on, anyway?
“Yeah, Dad really loves it. He likes talking to the customers and booking the music. He always dreamed of playing in a band and never did, but then he started booking them to play in his shop.”
“I love that,” Brianna said, then threw Roni an apologetic smile.
Roni had heard enough, and was about to say so, when Jimmy continued.
“That is, until he got sick.”
The words stuck in her throat, and she started to cough. Yes, she knew that but conveniently put it out of her mind. She sighed as she watched the worry in his eyes and realized she’d been making this all about her.
“What? How?” Brianna asked.
“He started getting chest pains and shortness of breath. As I told Owen earlier, he had a triple bypass a few weeks ago.”
“Oh no, is he going to be okay?” Brianna asked, her eyes pooling with concern and mirroring Roni’s own.
“Yes,” Jimmy said instantly. “Or at least I hope so. I’m not really sure, but the doctors are optimistic.”
