“Bryce Evans is back in town.” I kept my face looking forward as I said the words. I wasn’t sure whether my beating heart or Anna’s gasp was louder.
“No way.” Anna’s voice was shocked and breathless and I grinned to myself.
“Yes. Mary Macalister and her posse came into the library today and I heard them talking about it.”
“So he’s back for good?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did he leave the army?”
“How would I know?” I sighed, exasperated.
“Is he going to go to college?”
“Anna,” I shouted. “How would I know any of that?”
“Sorry.” Her voice was small. “What are you going to do?”
“There isn’t really much I can do.” I bit my lip. “But we need to create a plan anyways.”
“Okay.” Anna paused. “Are you going to tell him about the letters?”
“Anna.” I shushed her. “You know we can’t talk about the letters.”
“Luke’s not here,” she sighed.
“There are listening ears everywhere, Anna.” I pulled into Steak N Shake. “We only talk about the letters in my room, in my house.” I paused. “With the windows and the doors shut tightly.”
“OMG, you would think you were in the CIA or FBI, Lexi. No one cares.”
“You know it can’t get out, Anna.”
“Why not?” She frowned. “It’s not really a big deal.”
“Anna.” I frowned at her saddened. She knew how important the letters had been to me. How I kept them in a locked box under my bed. I think they were my most prized possession.
“Fine.” She pulled out her phone. “I need to text Luke and tell him that we won’t be over for a while.”
“What? Why?” I looked at her, confused.
“I kind of told him we’d come over to play with him and Bongo when you picked me up from work.”
“Of course you did,” I laughed. “Don’t tell me Luke thinks I’m going to bring food over as well?”
“No.” Her voice was low.
“That’s a yes.” I rolled my eyes and sighed. “Anna, you do know that I now own a dog thanks to you.”
“Maybe Luke will look after him?”
“Yeah, right.” I tried to pretend I was angry, but I was too happy to do a good job. I told you my acting skills weren’t that great.
“You know you and Luke spend every day together anyways.” Anna smiled at me and looked at me with wistful eyes.
“Yeah, I guess so,” I laughed. Luke and his parents had moved next door to my mother and I when we were in 9th Grade and we did see each other almost every day. Honestly, I had seen him every day since he moved in, except for one summer when he had gone camping without me. We had bedrooms that faced each other and sometimes we spent nights talking on our walkie-talkies to each other. Luke was the male version of me—only he was taller, smarter and more sensible.
“Did he make a decision about moving to Boston yet?”
“No,” I frowned. “I told him he should go.”
“You’ll miss him though?” Ana opened the door for me and we sat down in a booth.
“Of course I will. But MIT. That’s an awesome, awesome opportunity.”
“Yeah.” She studied the menu. “And he can afford it now.”
“Yeah.” I felt a sudden dullness in my heart. Luke had gotten into MIT when we graduated from high school, but he hadn’t been able to afford the tuition. His dad had been laid off from his job at the post office and his mother was a CNA so there wasn’t much they could do to help.
So he had enrolled at the community college with Anna and I and started his own computer software company. He had graduated with his AA after one year and had made oodles of money creating educational software and selling them to some fancy internet company in San Francisco. He had paid off his parents’ mortgage and was now working on some new software for an online dating agency.
And now MIT was interested in him again, in fact, they had come wooing him. I was proud of my friend, but was scared to think about what my life would be like if he left Jonesville.
“Are you ever going to tell Luke about your letters to Bryce?”
“Maybe,” I sighed. “I just don’t think he’ll understand. He’ll think I’m sappy.”
“I think he would be happy to hear you were interested in a new guy.”
“Not really. Not after what happened in high school. He doesn’t really like Bryce. And he would not understand why some fake letters were important to me.”
“The letters weren’t fake!”
“Well, you know, my persona was. Who knows if Bryce would have responded if he had known it was me—Lexi Lord?”
“You think he would have ignored you?” Anna looked perplexed.
“No,” I laughed. “I doubt he even knows who Lexi Lord is.” I was being honest. Bryce Evans. Star Quarterback. Golden boy of Jonesville. Son of the mayor. Gorgeous stud. Bryce, the guy I had daydreamed about every day in high school, likely had no idea who I was. I doubt he would recognize my name or my face. And why would he? We didn’t hang out in the same circles. We’d never had the same friends. We had only ever had one real conversation, and that was on a night I hated to think about. It was the worst and best night of my life.
“Don’t look now,” Anna hissed at me from across the table. I looked at her in confusion.
“What?” I said, loudly. “I didn’t really hear what you said.”
“I said, don’t look now,” she whispered loudly and, of course, I immediately looked around the room.
My heart stopped before I saw him. I guess my body knew before my brain did. It was like I was tuned into him on some deeper level. I couldn’t stop myself from staring. There, standing at the counter, was Bryce Evans. He was by himself and his back was to me, but I knew it was him. I would recognize the back of his body anywhere. Even though he had cut off all of his hair.
I guess the army made him do it, which was a shame. He had had gorgeous, golden-blond tresses in high school—he’d looked more like a surfer than a football player. But now he had a buzz cut.
It was as if he had sensed me staring at him, because he turned around slowly, frowning, and looked around the restaurant. I was caught off guard and our eyes met. I stared at his face and was captivated by the deep lines of stress on his face. Bryce had aged past his twenty-three years. He looked at least thirty.