Sidecar Crush

Hope? For what? For me and Leah Mae to reconnect after twelve years? As if we were going to wander off together and reminisce about being kids. Or talk about those summers when we were teenagers, and I’d been too shy to make a move.

Not that I would have. Me and Leah Mae were just friends. Always had been.

Damn it, I was doing a lot of not talking again. Where in the hell was Opal?

“Kelvin, this is Jameson Bodine,” Leah Mae said, gesturing to me. “We grew up here together.”

Kelvin seemed to notice me for the first time. He looked me up and down with a quick flick of his eyes. I wasn’t dressed all fancy and sophisticated like him. But I was wearing a clean t-shirt and decent jeans—nothing that I ever wore in my workshop. That stuff always wound up with burn holes all over it.

“Jameson, this is Kelvin Graham,” Leah Mae said.

“Leah’s fiancé,” Kelvin said.

Leah Mae glanced at him like something he’d said surprised her. Kelvin tipped his chin to me.

I decided to be the bigger man and offer to shake his hand. Some things needed to be handled like a gentleman. “Nice to meet you.”

Kelvin shook my hand with a firm grip just as Opal finally made an appearance. She glanced at Leah Mae and Kelvin, then back at me, and lifted one shoulder in a little shrug.

“Babe, is this the only store in this town?” Kelvin asked Leah Mae while Opal started ringing up my purchases.

I turned my back to them and focused on getting my money out. Tuned out the conversation they were having. I paid, and Opal handed me the bag.

“See you later, Jameson,” she said.

I started to go without saying anything else, but my pride got the better of me. I did have something else to say to Leah Mae, and I wasn’t going out like that. Pausing, I looked back at her, and she met my eyes.

“I know the fishing pole wasn’t your fault,” I said. “It looked faked, if you don’t mind me saying so.”

She nodded slowly. “Yeah, thank you.”

“Good to see you again, Leah Mae,” I said. “I hope you enjoy your visit.”

Her smile lit up the world. “Thanks, Jameson. It’s good to see you too.”

Clutching my bag, I nodded and turned for the door. Because I was a gentleman, I glanced over my shoulder and tipped my chin to her fiancé. “Kevin.”

“It’s Kelvin—”

The door closed behind me before I heard the rest of what he was going to say, if anything.

My pulse raced as I got in my truck and slid my groceries over to the other seat. Had I really just seen Leah Mae Larkin at the Pop In? Or was I in the middle of a strange and terrible dream where my childhood friend was the most beautiful woman I’d ever laid eyes on, and she was wearing another man’s ring?

Damn it. It wasn’t a dream, but the rest of it was true.

I shook my head, like I could shake loose out of my stupor. I needed to get myself together. Of course I was going to run into Leah Mae one of these days. Her dad lived here, so chances were she’d come back to visit at some point. And we were old enough that one of us being engaged or married was a distinct possibility.

Not that I’d ever been anywhere close to that with a girl. I’d dated Cheyenne Hastings for a while in high school, but she’d dumped me for Cody Wyatt. After that, I’d been out with a handful of other girls, but nothing that had lasted long. Then there was Willa Sawyer. But that hadn’t been much of a relationship. She’d been someone I could turn to when I needed it, but neither of us had expected much from the other. We’d known it wasn’t going to last forever.

So Leah Mae was here, and she was engaged. That was all right. I ought to be happy for her. After all, she’d been my friend. Weren’t you supposed to be happy for your friends when something good happened to them?

But happy wasn’t what I was feeling as I drove back out to my house.

4

LEAH MAE

T he sun lit up the little kitchen in our rental cabin. I stood at the sink, gazing out at the lake. I’d been all over the world, but there was nothing quite like a mountain lake in West Virginia. Especially on a summer day. The water sparkled, and the trees fluttered in the breeze. I opened the window to let in some of the fresh, clean air, closing my eyes and breathing it in.