One and Only

“I swear I don’t. This is perfect. I love it, Cade. We’re far beyond dating anyway. I mean, look at me. I’m not wearing shoes, my feet are up, and you even have my favorite wine. I’m good. I love everything, I promise you.”

Relief suffused his features. “Okay, I believe you, but next time we’re getting fancy at the Riverview and I’m buying. Now, taste the chicken and tell me what you think.” He cut a piece from my plate and held it aloft to feed me.

I opened my mouth to take the bite, then shut it with a giggle. “This is funny.”

His mock frown made me laugh harder. “Take a bite or I will turn this fork into an airplane and fly the chicken into your mouth like I do for Calla.” Calla was his niece. His younger sister Lily was her mom. I’d met her at Violet’s a few weeks ago, and though she was adorable, it had made me sad. Because if I were still married to Cade, I’d be her aunt.

“Not gonna lie, I kinda want to see you do the airplane noises. I will also accept choo choo and vroom.”

Now he was laughing too. “Try it. I’m a much better cook than when we were toge—never mind.”

I opened my mouth and he popped it in. My eyebrows went up. It was great. I covered my mouth with a hand as I nodded my approval. “It’s delicious. Tarragon?”

“Yep, it’s Gram’s recipe.”

“I never tried this one.” I used to go to their Sunday dinners all the time and had probably tasted most of their family specialties. “How is she? I haven’t seen her yet.”

“She’s good. She lives in the apartment above the garage now. Rose is married to my partner, Trevor, and they live in Gram’s house with his kids. You’ll have to come to the next Sunday dinner.”

A thrill shot through me at the thought of going to his parent’s house with him, but I decided not to think too hard about it for now or I would get carried away. “Rose is the only one of your sisters I haven’t seen in town yet. You already know that I’ve relapsed and am addicted to Violet’s coffee again, so we see each other all the time. And Holly and I ran the track at the high school together the other day. It was nice to catch up with her.” Part of what I missed when Cade and I split up was his sisters. They were awesome and had always treated me like I was one of them.

“She’s finished with her travel blog—she shut it down. Did she tell you? She’s staying in Sweetbriar now, just like you.”

I froze. I had thought of staying in town, that was true. But I hadn’t made a one-hundred-percent definite decision yet. “Uh—”

“Do you want to see what’s on TV and make this evening historically accurate?” His eyes twinkled as he sipped his wine.

“Let’s do it.” We could talk about my future non-plans and uncertainty later. Reality could wait. This was fun and I didn’t want to ruin it.

He powered it up, and the news was on. Trent was being interviewed about his new play for an entertainment segment. “Oh crap.”

This was just great; my second ex-husband was on the television while I sat eating dinner with my first ex-husband.

“Well, this isn’t awkward at all,” he quipped.

“Um . . .”

“You’re recently divorced from the best-selling author of the Adaline Paige Mysteries, Keli Marlowe. What happened, Trent? How are you holding up?”

“Keli will always be my best friend. Look, we got married on a whim. We were lonely. We were never meant to be man and wife. In fact, she’ll be back home right here in New York as soon as the latest Adaline mystery is done. We’ll have our usual celebratory lobster dinner and toast to another best seller. I’m fine, she’s fine. Everything is fine.”

Trent’s laughter rang out from the speakers, and I flinched, afraid to look at Cade and see his reaction. As far as Trent knew, that was my plan; he wasn’t lying. I hadn’t spoken to him about Cade, so he had no clue I had been considering staying in Sweetbriar.