Eyes never leaving the show, her mom grabbed one of the mochas. “He might turn her over to his father.” Her tone was caught somewhere between dread and excitement. Leandra Morales was a fan of the drama. As long as it stayed on the screen. In her own life, she just wouldn’t have it, divorcing Lexi’s father on the discovery of his infidelity, despite her Catholic upbringing. That had all happened when Lexi was fourteen, and was how she and her mother had landed in Wishful for a fresh start.
“Never gonna happen. He’s been secretly in love with her from the beginning.” Lexi actually had no idea if he was or not, but she’d watched enough telenovelas growing up that it seemed a safe bet.
On the screen, Maria’s eyes glimmered as she insisted she could explain, that it was all for the sake of her little sister.
Lexi tapped a finger against the lid of her cup. “Called it!”
They lapsed into silence for the last few minutes of the episode, which ended with the star-crossed lovers in a passionate embrace. It was ridiculous and over the top, as most telenovelas were. And still her heart gave a little twinge. When was the last time she’d had somebody kiss her like that? Hell, when was the last time she’d been on a date at all? She’d done her share of dating in college, though nobody had been serious. Since then she’d been far more focused on finding a way to make a living with her art. There’d been a couple of guys she’d seen more than once, but nobody worth making the effort for a real relationship. In truth, she didn’t think the right relationship would feel like work. So, either she simply hadn’t found the right guy, or she was fooling herself.
Leandra clicked off the show and pounced on the brownie. “Now, tell me what took so long.”
Lexi twitched her shoulders and bit into her own brownie. “It’s Wishful. You know there’s no such thing as coming back to town without having to chat with everybody and their brother.”
“Which everybody did you run into?”
“Mrs. Landon. She’s planning to bring a casserole over, by the way.”
“That’s nice of her. Who else?” Per usual, her mother’s sharp eyes missed nothing.
Lexi wondered if maybe she had a blinking neon sign above her head. She kept her tone as casual as possible. “I saw Zach.”
A delighted smile bloomed on Leandra’s face. “Oh good! He always asks about you whenever I run into him. I know he’s been wanting to see you.” She didn’t say it, but the implied question of why Lexi hadn’t made an effort to see him on her previous visits home hung in the air between them.
Lexi knew better than to bite. And she knew that her mother wouldn’t push. She’d never pushed Lexi to handle things with Zach any other way but how she wanted, even when it meant that Lexi had moved three states away. Not that she’d ever admitted he was the reason.
“Well, he’ll be seeing a fair bit of me while I’m home. He’s offered me a job. Sort of. He’s got more business than he can handle—nice problem to have, right?—so he’s going to make some referrals.”
“That’s wonderful, mija, and a big relief to me. I didn’t want to ask you to come for so long—”
“Don’t be silly.” She was all her mother had. No way was she shirking that responsibility. “Of course I was going to come. And we’re lucky I have the flexibility to do exactly that.”
But the relief of probably getting some kind of work while she was here couldn’t be overstated.
“How do you feel about spending time with him again?” Leandra’s eyes were full of far too much sympathy.
Lexi had never told her the whole story, but she’d always suspected her mom knew anyway. She’d worn her heart on her sleeve back then. Before she’d learned how to armor up and shove those more tender feelings in a deep, dark basement room of her heart.
“I don’t know. It’s good to see him.” In those minutes she hadn’t been freaking out, she’d drunk in the sight of him. The easy smile, those shoulders—broader now—that tapered down to narrow hips, the crinkles around his blue-gray eyes…
When she didn’t continue, Leandra nudged her knee. “But?”
Lexi mentally shook herself, choosing her words carefully, so she didn’t reveal too much. “We have a lot of history. Mostly good. But I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t worried it’ll be a little weird.” Then again, the weird was only ever on her side. She was the one who’d changed. Zach seemed just as blissfully unaware now as he had been in high school. There’d clearly been no epiphany on his part about why she’d up and almost disappeared.
Whatever. She was a successful adult, with a full life elsewhere, who was no longer crushing on her best friend. His obliviousness didn’t matter.
“Friendships are like the tide. They ebb and flow. You’ve been at an ebb with Zach for
a long time now. Maybe now the tide is turning.”
“Maybe,” Lexi conceded.
She just hoped she could keep her head above water.
Zach minutely adjusted the level of highlights in the image on the screen, but his attention wasn’t on the smiling teenagers in the shot. Another glance at the clock confirmed it was nearly five. Lexi hadn’t shown. He was starting to think maybe she wasn’t going to. Maybe it just wasn’t a good day for this. But if that were the case, why hadn’t she let him know?
He could call her mom’s house. It wasn’t like he didn’t still know that number by heart. But somehow it felt desperate to call her up to say, “Hey, where are you?” when they hadn’t even set a formal time to meet. He wasn’t desperate—not exactly—just…antsy. And he couldn’t figure out why. There was some part of him that worried she’d disappear on him again. Or maybe that he’d imagined yesterday’s encounter entirely, just because he’d missed her. Until he’d laid eyes on her, he hadn’t realized how much. And that was…crazy. Right? Not the missing her part, but this sense he had of needing to hang on. Maybe it was just his subconscious prodding him not to let things go back to this polite distance they’d had the last several years. She’d pulled away so gradually, somehow he’d missed it. What kind of a dick did that make him that he hadn’t noticed until it felt like it was too late to do anything about it?
Well, I’m doing something about it now.