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Bones had asked me what I did for work. And I didn’t have a good answer for him. I spent my time how I wanted. It was a luxury most people never had. I realized that.
It did make me wonder what he did, though. There were so many things we didn’t know about each other, things we’d eventually learn if we chose to continue spending time with one another.
And that line of thinking brought it all back to what Charlie had mentioned.
Most people I knew didn’t marry for love. They married for convenience, money, and business. My mother and father had married for love, but they’d come from a similar background. They weren’t fighting an uphill battle to be together.
“Are your parents happy together?” I asked her suddenly.
“I think so. Why do you ask?”
“Just thinking.”
“About…”
“About marriage. And love. And how it’s hard even if you don’t have the deck stacked against you.”
“The divorce rate is close to sixty percent now if you’re twenty-five or under,” she said.
“That’s a lot.”
“It’s not very comforting, that’s for sure.” She paused. “Your parents were stupidly happy.”
“Grossly happy.” I smiled softly. “They definitely were not the norm.”
“Your mom and Arnold are happy, though. Right?”
“I think they are. But I wonder sometimes, you know? They’ve known each other for a long time. Maybe it’s just familiarity.”
“Maybe,” she agreed. “You’re thinking about Bones, aren’t you?”
“I guess.”
“And you’re wondering if you have a shot in hell of making this work long term.”
“There is no shot in hell,” I said quietly. “There’s no way at all this actually works. And it’s too soon to even be thinking about something like that.”
“It’s never too soon,” she said. “This is what we do. You get that, right?”
“I didn’t think about it with Tyler. I mean, I guess I didn’t really have to because it was supposed to work out. It was supposed to be graduation and a ring on the finger, a big house, and babies for my mother. My life was supposed to look so different than it does now.”
“Regrets?”
“No.” I frowned. “I thought we were solid and sure. I thought he was steadfast. I thought he’d be the rock the ocean waves crashed against in a storm.” I let out a small laugh.
“What?”
“Nothing, just—with enough force, rock turns to sand.”
The scent of sugar and caramel hit me the moment I stepped into Pie in the Sky. I took a deep breath and savored the aromas. Normally, I didn’t begrudge my inability to partake in sweets, but today, I resented the hell out of it.
It was my own fault, for going into the land of temptation.
“We just got Fluffernutter to stop peeing on the bathmat. You really think we’re ready for another dog?” Jazz asked Brielle as she moved the glass jar of espresso beans and cleaned underneath it on the counter.
“I think our dog needs a dog,” Brielle insisted as she closed the bakery display window. She looked up and saw me. “Hayden!”
I smiled. “Hey.”
