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I wipe my palms down my jeans, stretch my legs out under the table, trying to get comfortable in the increasingly tight denim.
“You always loved to read. Sounds like a good fit.”
“I thought so.” She pops a second cherry in her mouth, rolling it around with her tongue, and now I have a rapidly growing stiffy. Good thing I’m covered by the table.
“How’s your family? They moved out to Colorado, right?”
“Yeah. My sister Jessica has two kids now, and she and her husband have big jobs. They’re both lawyers and were struggling with childcare, so my parents decided to move closer and help out.”
“Wow—that was nice of them.”
I shrug. “My sister might have a different opinion. I think my mom was tired of traveling out there all the time to see her grandkids. She’s practically living with them now.”
Sloane giggles, a soft, tinkly sound that bounces off thehard surface of the table, her face glowing under the pendant light.
“And Ansley? Where’s she now?”
“Ans is out there now, too. She was in Manhattan for a while, but she said the city was bad for her chi. Blocked her chakras or something, I don’t know. She yaps so much about all that stuff, and I only understand like a quarter of it.”
Sloane sips at her milkshake, smiling. “Ansley was always entertaining. Do you get out there to visit much?”
“I’ve gone out a couple times. Jessica has a nice house in the ‘burbs. Last time I was relegated to the basement rec room because Ans had the guestroom, but it was fine. At least I had my own space.”
Angela bustles up to the table, lifting the baskets of food from a black tray and setting them down in front of Sloane and me.
“Here’s the burger and fries, kids. Enjoy.” She shuffles off without asking if we need anything else.
“Best fries in town.” Sloane salts the golden pile of crinkled potatoes and my stomach growls. Reaching for the ketchup, I squirt a healthy blob on the bun before taking a big bite.
“Mmmm—best burger too. I missed the burgers.”
“Dude—Chicago has great food! The pizza, the beef sandwiches, the sausages?—”
“The food was good. But nothing’s better than Southern cuisine.” I swallow hard, realizing how much I missed Thunder Creek.
And Sloane.
I should have reached out sooner.
But now’s not the time for regrets. There are plenty of those to go around at the moment.
“Remember when we came here after y’all won the State Championship?” She swirls her straw around in the melting chocolate shake.
“Yeah, that was a great night. Free food for the whole team and we doused your dad in lemonade, like we won the big game or something.”
She laughs, shaking her head, dark hair spilling over her shoulders. “He did not love that. I do believe he grumbled about the lemonade ruining his shoes for a solid month afterwards.”
“Sounds about right.”
“And we got full access to the juke box and even the usuals didn’t mind listening to ‘HeyJude’on repeat.”
I chuckle. “Yeah, we were pretty obnoxious, in retrospect.”
Sloane’s hand darts out, squeezing my forearm. “But we beat Lighting Ridge! Y’all earned jukebox rights.”
“That was a great night. One of the best.” My gaze slides up to hers, the gold flecks in her wide hazel eyes glittering, and all the feelings come roaring back—from that night and all the other nights we spent together.
Hundreds of nights. The two of us talking and laughing, sharing the very best parts of ourselves with each other. But also the scary parts—the worries, the fears, anxiety about the future.
