Page 22 of Paper Horses

“I can see why you never got over her,” Jessie said after the bathroom door slammed.

She came over and sat on the edge of the booth.

“I don’t know what you’re going on about.”

“Don’t give me that,” she said. “We’ve known each other too many years. You can feel the tension across the diner. It’s heating Dennie up in the back.”

“It’s nothing more than annoyance.”

She laughed, standing and putting her hands on her hips.

“You never let yourself be happy, Hudson. So content to walk around with that cloud over your head, to keep your heart locked away. She’s the reason, and I think she’s the only one who can lift that cloud. It’s time to let yourself be happy again.” She glanced back at the bathroom. “Not everyone gets a second chance. Take it, Hudson.”

“There’s no second chance with her.”

“That heat and those looks you’ve been exchanging tell me otherwise.”

“Jessie!” Dennie yelled from behind the window.

“Go get your order and stop interfering, or I’ll tell Carl you’re at it again.”

“I was right with Shirley and John,” she said, walking away just as Olivia came out of the bathroom.

“Who are Shirley and John?” Olivia asked as she sat.

“Did you really use the bathroom?”

Her eyes flew to me, proud and guarded.

“No, I would never. I needed to check my lipstick.”

I shook my head. “Do I want to ask why you would never use a restroom? And how do you go to the bathroom when you travel?”

Her lips pursed as she considered me, and I couldn’t help flicking my sight to them again.

“I don’t travel.” She said it so matter-of-factly, like it was a bullet point on her resume. “Unless it’s for business, like this.”

“What happened to Italy?” I asked, remembering how she went the first year we were dating. That summer had just about killed me, having her so far out of reach. But the trips stopped the next few years, and I just assumed it was because her mother’s death had disrupted them.

Her sight drifted to the window, and a forlorn look crossed her features.

“We never went back.”

I lowered my coffee, staring at her. She’d loved those trips, coming back that year tanned and relaxed, her hair almost golden from her time in the Mediterranean sun. Talking to me nonstop in broken Italian. Going on about her cousins, and the beaches.

As her eyes turned back to me, the light hit them, turning them a greenish-brown. Her lips lifted slightly.

“Until this year.” She played with her napkin, and I could see the change, the mask slipping. “Tori somehow convinced my father to give her the information, and Gabe and I went back with her and Reid in tow.”

I wanted to keep her in this moment, to have her stay like this. Wrapped in a happy memory.

“Reid?” I asked, afraid to move. Fearful that she’d snap back to the aggravating woman who was nothing like the girl I had loved.

“Their son.” Her smile grew, lips curving to highlight the freckles that she had covered with makeup. The ones I used to brush my thumb over, following their path with my mouth. “He’s a pain in the ass. You know he wakes me up at the crack of dawn, like he’s some kind of annoying alarm? I swear Gabe sends him to my room on purpose.” She laughed, and a crack formed in the wall that guarded my heart. “He knows I like to sleep in. The little shit.”

“Your nephew? That’s a bit harsh to call a kid.”

Another laugh that threatened to obliterate that wall. “No, silly. My brother. He’s a little shit.” And the smile slipped, her mood darkening. “Interfering ass is what he is.”