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Before I had a chance to answer, she had her arms around my neck, squeezing so hard I could barely breathe. “You know, just around.”
Shaking her head at me as she pushed me away, she rolled her hand for me to go on. “So, are you married? Kids?”
Wiggling the back of my fingers at her to show her no ring, I shook my head as I searched for Dom.
Pinching my sleeve in her fingers, she motioned to the bonfire with her head. “Well, come on. We have a lot of catching up to do.”
After she whacked me with her elbow, she turned sideways to face me, her bony legs crossing over each other. “So, what have you been up to since you left?”
Puffing my cheeks back at her, I couldn’t seem to find a single interesting thing to tell her about what I’d been through. “Nothing exciting. Just working mostly.” My shoulder bounced back at her. “But when I did my weekly chat with Dad and noticed how white his hair was, I figured it was time to come home.”
Grabbing her fingers, I pulled her to a stop. “I’m sorry that I just fell off the face of the Earth like that. I was just...” Her eyebrows arched at me to explain, and I sighed as I shook my head at all the ways I’d messed up. “I was not in a good place and couldn’t be here anymore. It wasn’t personal.”
Swinging our hands, she nodded, and the hurt in her eyes went all the way through me. “It felt personal to me.”
I stole my hand back to wipe my eyes with my sleeves. “Today has been eye-opening for me. I found out many things that I thought were true were lies, and I’m just” — my hand sliced through the air between us — “right at the edge again. You know?”
A gust of wind flipped her hair over, and I straightened it with my fingers. “I’m sorry I hurt you, and I know I can’t take it back. But I’m ready to grovel if it makes you love me again.”
Squinting up at me, she shook her head, that same sweet concern she always had for me scrunching her face together. “What are you talking about? What lies?”
“Ugh.” Groaning at how stupid I felt, I fluttered my eyes back at her. “Remember when I met with Missus Vasser right before graduation because she said she wanted to get to know me better?”
She nodded, and I pulled on her wrist to keep walking. “Well, it was an ambush. And as soon as I walked in, she told me they were moving back home to Texas, and I was only confusing him.” I swung my finger back and forth to the tune of all Missus Vasser’s bullshit. “That I was breaking up his family and dragging him down with my poor white trashiness. Yada-yada-yada.”
She squeaked out a laugh, and I smiled back at her. “Yeah. I feel like a dumbass now that I know the truth. Hindsight, huh?”
Steering me toward the kegs, she took her eyes to the other side of the fire. “He’s here tonight. You should go talk to him.”
She pulled a red plastic cup from the stack and handed it to me. “I would like nothing better. But I’m quite sure his mother’s shady ass isn’t any more fond of me now than she was twenty years ago.” Leaning into her, I crossed my fingers. “Unless she happened to get run over by a bus or something?”
Giggling back at me, she grabbed the nozzle for the keg. “No, sorry, still very much alive.” After she filled her cup, I held mine out for her, and she nodded. “And still running his life, big time.”
The hose returned to the clip, and she shook the foam from her fingers as we walked away. “His dad died a while back. So, she guilts him into living in the guest house because she can’t” — she made a quote with her fingers — “take care of herself.” She sipped the top away and swung her finger over everyone around us. “No woman here would touch him with a ten-foot pole with Mommy Dearest popping in morning, noon, and night. He’ll be single forever if you don’t save him.”
Gulping down the mouthful of beer I hung onto, I shook my head back at her. “Yeah, well, my father wasn’t any better. He knew the truth and just thought I would forget Dom was the love of my life.” Knowing he was here all that time chasing his dreams anyway while I was pining away for him and struggling on my own brought tears to my eyes every time I thought about it. “No man I ever dated stood a chance against his memory. No one.”
Pulling me to a stop by the fire, she shook her head and swept her thumb over my cheek. “It’s no accident that you’re back and you’re both single. Don’t pass up that chance with him again.” I brought the cup to my mouth and sipped between each sniffle, and she uncurled a finger from her beer. “And I expect that you’ll be around. I just got divorced, and he left me with a bunch of badass kids.” She blew air up into her face as her eyes got wider. “I can use all the help I can get. Believe me.”
Fighting off schoolyard bullies for me as long as I could remember and wiping away my tears more times than I can count, Carolyn was the best friend anyone ever had. The least I could do for her now was return the favor. My hand slid across her back as I bumped her forehead with mine. “Anytime you need me. I promise.”
Her eyes flipped over my shoulder for a moment as the side of her mouth curled at whatever was behind me. “Just so you know. Dom’s waiting for us to stop talking.”
Twisting my knees, I peeked over my shoulder and wiggled my fingers at him. “Oh, God.”
Still as beautiful from his head to his feet as he was the day I met him, Dom leaned over to set down his beer.
They say lightning doesn’t strike twice in the same place, but that’s not true. I felt the same burst of icy energy move through every nerve as I did on the first day of school. “How do I look?”
Hooking her arm over my neck, she pulled me with her as Dom stood up from his chair, wiping his hands off on his thighs. “Like you’re about to snag yourself a doctor.”
22
Only Takes One
Dominic
Like a clock reminding me Faith still hadn’t shown up yet, the frogs croaked on the river behind me.
