* * *
True to his word, my phone chirps about an hour later. It’s a text from Jake. A list of things to get from the grocery store. As I’m scrolling through it, my phone rings and startles the crap out of me. When I finish fumbling to keep from dropping it, I see that it’s Tori.
Again.
She’s called me at least a dozen times in the last week. It’s not that I don’t want to hear what she has to say. Well, I don’t, but now I feel a little more willing to. She’s been my best friend for a lot of years. The least I can do is listen to her.
No, one of the biggest reasons I don’t want to talk to her is that I feel like Jake and I are living in a bubble, one that could pop at any moment. And I want to enjoy every second of it while I can. I don’t want anyone intruding on our time together. Tori included.
I hit the red button to decline the call and set my phone back on the table.
Maybe later. Right now, I’m going to the store. I don’t really have time to talk to her.
At least that’s what I tell myself.
After running a brush through my hair and putting on some lightly tinted lip gloss, I text Jake that I’m leaving and head for my car. He’s out in the orchard. Somewhere.
It only takes me about fifteen minutes to get to the one and only grocery store in Greenfield. I look at the clock when I pull into a parking spot in the lot. Two forty on a Thursday afternoon. I shouldn’t be running into anyone I know at such an odd time.
I grab a buggy and pull up Jake’s list on my phone. I start in the produce section. For having such a hellion reputation around town for most of his life, he sure does practice mostly clean living. He drinks a beer or two on occasion, but mostly drinks water and eats healthy foods. He runs almost every day and he stays active. He doesn’t smoke or do drugs. He’s in outstanding physical condition, something I can personally attest to, and I can’t think of one thing I’d change about him.
Unless it was that he’d fall in love with me . . .
I mutter to myself all the way through the fruit, chastising my stupid, stupid emotional self for going there. I’m not even sure that’s what I’d want.
The hell you’re not!
I have to smile when the thought pops up. It sounds in my head like Jake would say it in real life. Same tone, same kind of expression. Same . . . Jake.
I sigh. I think it’s safe to say that, no matter my intentions or how hard I tried not to let it happen, Jake got under my skin.
“Just how the hell long are you gonna ignore me?”
I jump when Tori’s furious voice barks from behind me. I was so lost in thought, I didn’t even hear her approach me.
I sigh again.
“Tori, I just didn’t want to get into it yet. Can’t you give me some space?”
“Space?” my oldest friend says, her bright blue eyes flashing and her very ample bosom heaving. With her long blond hair thrown over one shoulder and her chin lifted in defiance, she looks like the cover of a magazine. “I’ve seen you once all summer. The only bigger space than that is death!”
“Don’t be so dramatic.”
Tori’s lip pooches out in a pout. “You’re making me dramatic. What do I have to do to get through to you? All I want is for you to hear me out.”
I knew it was coming. I had just hoped to avoid it a little while longer. “Fine. You talk, I’ll shop.”
“Really? I’ve been your best friend since the womb and I get half your attention while you shop?”
I grit my teeth. This is really unhandy.
“All right, then let’s go to the café and have a cup of coffee.”
“The coffee here sucks,” Tori says with a curl of her lip.
“Tori! Not the point.”
“Right, right, right,” she says, shaking her head like she’s clearing it. “Okay, that’s fine.”
I turn the buggy around and head back toward the front of the store and the little lunch-area-slash-café that dominates one side of the building, just past the pharmacy. “How’d you find me, anyway?”
“I saw you pull in. In a town this small, it’s a miracle you’ve been able to avoid me this long.”
“I’m guessing you haven’t talked to Mom or Dad then?”
She looks at me like I’ve completely lost my mind. “Hell no! Are you nuts? And get the lecture of a lifetime on what a devil-worshippin’ skank I am? I think not.”
“What-ever! You know my parents would never say any such thing. And to be honest, they don’t even know what happened. I haven’t, uh, I haven’t told them yet.”
“Really? So they have no clue why you dumped Shane?”
I shake my head.
“Well, I’m gonna be honest. That doesn’t bother me one bit. I’d rather they not hate me until you’ve heard the whole story.”
I make no comment. I just keep steering the cart toward the café until I find an empty booth to park it beside. I throw my purse in first and slide into one side of the booth. After I’m situated, I take a deep breath and fold my arms on the table in front of me, lacing my fingers together.
“Stop that!” Tori blurts.
“Stop what?”
“Stop doing that. You look like you’re just biding your time until you hand down my death sentence.”
“I’m not your judge, Tori. God is.”
“Thank goodness for that. At least He knows what I was trying to do.”
Even though the wound from the whole episode has gone practically numb (no doubt thanks to the attentions of one Jake Theopolis), it still irks me to remember finding her in bed with Shane. And that she’s now going to sit here and try to explain it away.
Whatever, I think with an internal roll of my eyes. It’ll all be over soon enough.
“So, say what you need to. I’ve got some shopping to do.”
Tori gives me a withering look, but says nothing. After a few seconds, she sits up straighter in her seat and clears her throat.
“Okay, let me just remind you that it’s me who’s been telling you for over two years now that something’s not right with Shane. I told you, he’s a hound dog in sheep’s clothing.”
My laugh is bitter. “Thank you for so kindly showing me that you were right.”
Tori slumps forward and reaches out to cover my hands with hers. “You needed to see it, Laney. You needed to see it to believe it. Before you married that jackhole. No matter what I told you, you always believed in him. And that’s great. Until the person you have so much faith in isn’t worth it anymore.” She pauses, as if to let her words sink in before she continues. “Laney, I love you. I would never, never, never do that to you. If you’ll remember, I knew you were going to Shane’s early. You texted me that morning to say that your pedicure had been cancelled and that you were going to surprise Shane.”