“So, tell me about this Lauren girl,” Deacon said as we took a break. “What’s her story?”
“She’s a friend of a friend,” I said. “My buddy Brett. Good guy. His wife is Lauren’s best friend. I’ll introduce you to Brett and Harleigh soon.”
“Ahh,” Deacon said. “It just seemed like maybe there was some history there.”
“What do you mean?”
“Nothing,” he continued. “It just seemed like you two were really familiar. Like maybe you dated or something, or you’ve been crushing on her.”
“You looked like you were pining for each other,” Everett said. “Some star-crossed lovers shit.”
“Alright, Shakespeare,” I said. “I’m not pining for her.”
“Are you sure?” Deacon asked. “I’ve never seen you make puppy-dog eyes before, and you definitely had puppy-dog eyes when she talked to you.”
“And you seemed like you weren’t terribly happy about Deacon staring at her ass,” Everett added.
“I wasn’t staring,” Deacon said, defending himself. “It’s just that she has a fantastic backside, and it happened to be two feet away from me, so I looked. Sue me.”
“I might,” Everett said. “Or Carter will. Emotional distress.”
“Well, joke’s on you,” Deacon said. “I’m sinking everything into the company and this cabin. You’ll get nothing.”
“I’m not suing,” I said, “because I’m not pining.”
I felt like I was protesting too much. All I was doing at that point was confirming everything they said. It was kind of true, though. I wasn’t happy about Deacon clearly staring at her ass, whether she noticed or not.
Was my crush that obvious? I was able to admit it to myself—that was no big deal. Of course I crushed on her. She was gorgeous, and I saw her regularly at the diner or around town. But it hadn’t really gotten beyond that. I didn’t even know if she was single. For all I knew, she had a man waiting for her at home. Hell, I’d be surprised if she didn’t. She was amazing.
I steered the conversation back to other things, and before long, we were arguing about sports the way we had since we had rucksacks and were thumping around in the sand. Everett was a big fan of the Dallas Cowboys, and they had stunk out loud for so long that neither Deacon nor I had the heart to give him too much shit over it, but we had to do something when he started bragging.
When the trucks were finally empty, I said my goodbyes and got back in my car. They offered to order a pizza and have a little party, but I wasn’t feeling drinking.
I had a party to go to the next day. Harleigh and Brett would be expecting me to not be hungover at their twins’ birthday party. Plus, there were the other guests that would be there. And I knew that one of them would be Lauren.
4
LAUREN
With the twins’ birthday party scheduled for noon, I took the entire day off, figuring after the party I could treat myself to a night of relaxation. It had been a while since I actually took a day off. Rather than worrying about having to work dinner service, I didn’t put myself on the schedule for the day. I figured this way I could focus all my attention on the birthday party. Having the party early in the day gave me lots of time after. And I thought I’d want to sleep in, but I was up and going like normal around eight.
Shooting off a text to Harleigh, I asked if she needed any help setting things up, and she said it would be lovely to have me there early. So, I grabbed a shower, got dressed in a cute sundress that had been hiding in the back of my closet since I bought it a year before, and hopped in the car to head up the mountain.
As much as I liked her being in town, once she was hooked up with Brett and had the kids, it just made sense to be somewhere they could spread out. I was also low-key jealous of their place. Tucked away at the end of a long driveway, the cabin was cut into the mountain and was one of the most serene, peaceful places I had ever seen.
I always thought, maybe one day, I’d save up enough money to buy a cabin like that myself and live close enough that I could visit my friend whenever I wanted. But that was a pipe dream, I knew. It would take a long time to save up enough money to wrench one of those properties away from the people living there, and I’d probably be an old maid by then.
When I got to her place, I noticed a truck out front that wasn’t Brett’s but looked familiar. I was wondering whose it was when I knocked on the door and Harleigh came out, one of her girls draped sleepily over her shoulder.