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Molly laughed, and then to my surprise, Dean joined in.
“I did, too,” he said casually. “From about second to fifth grade, I think. Maybe sixth?”
Jake turned to his best friend, looking at him like he’d never seen him before. “What the fuck? You, too?”
Dean shrugged, and I tried not to stare as he placed his arms up on the table. A twinge of guilt turned my stomach as I saw his prosthetic. “She was the only girl in our grade, man. What did you expect?”
“I guess I expected you to tell me sometime over the last three decades.”
“We were engaged.” He grinned. “For four years! I figured that might have been a clue.”
Dean’s wife was just shaking her head back and forth, laughing.
No jealousy. No anger.
They were all crazy.
“I love this conversation.” Molly laughed, making Jake groan. “I really do.”
“Just be glad Macon didn’t ask her to marry him, too,” Dean joked. “You were gone a really long time.”
Jake’s gaze went to me and then back to Dean, until finally, he just scooped more potatoes onto his plate.
“Asshole,” Jake muttered.
“I’m the asshole?” Dean scoffed. “You’re the Neanderthal who can’t handle the thought that someone had the hots for your wife—decades ago.”
“That’s because, decades ago,” he said, looking at her from across the table, “I already knew she was going to be my wife.”
They stared at each other, and it was the kind of look that made other people in the room uncomfortable.
It was the kind of look Marin had given me when she walked up next to me yesterday at Billy’s.
Like I was her world.
Like I was her other half.
Only for Jake and Molly, there was no acting involved.
“So, wait,” Marin said, thankfully interrupting the eye-fucking that was going on next to me, “you only had four people in your entire class?”
“You lived in Ocracoke for how long, and you’re only now figuring this out?” Dean laughed.
“It was only a few months actually,” she corrected him. “And I guess I knew, in the back of my mind, but I never really thought about it. So, you”—she pointed to us—“just the four of you…this is literally your entire class?”
We all nodded.
“It’s like a class reunion.” Molly laughed before adding, “Wait, did we have one of those?”
“No,” I answered, already seeing her eyes perk up. “And please don’t make us.”
The conversation seemed to just flow after that. Jake and I still kept a decent distance, talking mostly to others rather than each other, and by dessert…I didn’t like him any less than I had when I came.
So, that was progress, right?
Marin laughed more in those few hours than I’d ever seen. She connected with Cora and Molly, and I knew, just to see that smile, I’d spend a thousand hours with Jake if it made her happy.
I hadn’t forgotten the words Billy had said to me.
