Tumble (Dogwood Lane 1)

Her head cocks to the side, and she considers my words. She draws in a long breath before speaking again. “Have you seen anyone but Claire?”

My throat squeezes. “Yeah.”

“Who?”

“Dane,” I admit, toeing the floor with my shoe.

The longer she goes without a reply, the faster my heart beats. The deeper the silence gets, the clearer the picture of him becomes in my mind and the harder the knot that I’m beginning to hate twists in my stomach.

Finally, I look up at her.

“How’d that go?” Her words are pronounced carefully, each syllable nice and even like I’m some kind of caged tiger that might pounce if mishandled.

“It went fine.”

“Fine, huh?”

“Yup. Fine.”

“All right. If that’s all you want to say, then so be it.”

I blow out a breath. “That’s all I want to say. He’s really just a guy I happen to have a history with whom I ran into recently. It’s fine. It was just some stupid juvenile obsession, and that’s over.”

“You sure about that?”

No. “Absolutely.”

“Miss Aerial!” Our attention turns toward the gym as the little girl from the café waves. “Is that Neely? From the videos?”

I give her a little wave, trying not to laugh as the troop of little faces look like a celebrity just walked in.

“Hi, girls,” I say.

They give me a mix of waves, laughter, and a couple of shrieks that leaves me feeling like a million bucks.

“I thought you looked like Neely from the videos,” Mia gushes. “But I didn’t think it was really you.”

“It’s really me.”

“Miss Neely is going to help us around here. Would you like that?” Aerial asks them, to which they wholeheartedly agree. “Good. Now, Mia, show me what you’ve been working on.”

Mia turns toward the opposite end of the room, her chest rising and falling a couple of times before she sprints down the mats and tosses her small frame into a roundoff back handspring.

Her friends clap as she jogs toward us, a smile splitting her cheeks.

“Great job, Mia,” Aerial exclaims.

“Very good,” I tell her when she reaches us. “I didn’t think you had that yet.”

Aerial gives me a weird look. “How do you know her?”

“We met at the café,” Mia tells her. “I told her about the show.”

“Oh,” Aerial draws out. “I see.”

“Are you coming?” Mia asks me.

“I’m going to try. Okay?”

Aerial cuts in, giving Mia a pointer about her back handspring. I’m too distracted by my phone to pay much attention. It’s a number local to Tennessee, but I don’t know it.

“Hello?” I ask, turning away from Aerial.

“Neely? It’s Claire.”

“Oh, hey.” I laugh. “How’d you get my number?”

“Your mom.”

“Naturally,” I say, shaking my head. “What’s up?”

“Mucker’s tonight. Nine o’clock. Be there. This is not a request.”

“I don’t know . . .”

“I do. Be there or I’m coming after you,” she insists. “I’ve told everyone you’ll be there, and I don’t go back on my word. So, come. Okay?”

Glancing over my shoulder, I see Aerial smiling at me. I consider telling her no and spending the night brainstorming ways to get my life back together. But something about the way Aerial looks at me, and the way Claire seems so determined, makes me reconsider. Maybe I need a night away from the pressures of New York after all. If it’s weird at Mucker’s, I can always leave, and if nothing else, it will give me good stories to entertain Grace with.

“Okay,” I relent. “I’ll be there.”

“Yay! Let me know if you need a ride.”

“I’ll be fine.”

Except for the ache in my cheeks from smiling so hard.

CHAPTER SEVEN

NEELY

And then that movie star walked in. What’s his name?” Grace asks. The phone muffles as she bobbles it on her end. “You know who I mean. He’s in that movie I love.”

“Oh, him,” I reply, rolling my eyes. “I know exactly who you mean.”

“Damn it. Now it’s going to drive me nuts.” She takes a breath before carrying on about her story from dinner. As she delves into the whos and whats of her evening, I tune out and focus on mine.

Mucker’s sits before me like an old friend. The one-room sandwich shop, with its basket of fake ferns hanging by the front door, may as well be holding its arms wide open. It’s been a staple of the community for fifty years. Focusing mostly on pizza and burgers with a decent selection of beer, it’s the place to go in Dogwood Lane once the sun goes down. It’s the only place, too, but that’s beside the point.

There’s a door inside that opens into a lot that was once a dilapidated basketball court. The owners bought it years ago and put a brick wall waist high around the perimeter. With some added shrubs and black iron fencing, it’s a cozy little patio that gets more use than the seven or eight tables inside the actual pub.