Page 12 of Small Town Boy

“OMG, yes!” Kenzie squeals. “Two, actually.”

“Two?”

“Kenz has to get married twice,” Sylvie says, barely containing her laughter.

“Not married twice; we’re only doing the one ceremony. But there are two receptions. Which is a lot of extra if you ask me, but it’s a small price to pay so that we can have the nice, small, intimate wedding we want here in Hickory Hills.” She turns to face me, the smile of someone deep in love on her face. “My fiancé is⁠—”

“A rock star. So I’ve been told.”

“He’s country, but same difference,” she waves off.

“Dustin and Kenzie had a very epic reunion last fall—” Sylvie starts.

“That’s dramatic!” Kenzie cuts her off.

Willa places her hand on my arm, leaning in. “It was pretty epic. We’ll have to tell you the whole story sometime.”

“Oh, please do. I love an epic.” We all laugh, Kenzie rolling her eyes.

Milo reappears, setting down a full glass in front of me, shaking his own head at our laughter. The smile on his face tells me he’s used to it and knows better than to ask. Which leaves me feeling pretty good.

In fact, sitting here with these ladies feels damn good. It might be surface level stuff—filling me in on what I’m walking into with this town—but they’ve accepted me without question. They genuinely seem happy to have me here, pulling me into their girl gang. Something I desperately want.

Something I’m also still wary of.

But I push that down. I’m not going to let one bad apple turn me off friendship as a whole. So I picked poorly the last time. This time would be different. These women would be different. I can already tell by the easy camaraderie that this isn’t a group that has time for cattiness or backstabbing. A school teacher, a librarian, and a former beauty queen, all sitting in a bar—it sounds like the start of a joke. Instead, it’s the first indication to me that maybe Hickory Hills could be home.

“Enough about us,” Sylvie says, pointing toward me. “We’ve been besties since we were five. We want to get to know you.”

Five? Wow…

“Ummm…I dunno. I’m so bad at this.” I swallow hard, trying to find something—anything—to tell them. I pick up the glass in front of me, buying time by taking a couple of long gulps. The lemonade is cold and tart, clearly handmade and not out of some jar. "Born and raised in Boston. Although, I went to Brown, so I spent four years in Providence but then got my first job back in Boston and moved back. Other than that, I’m pretty normal. I think. Books, movies, all that stuff. I’m not much into the outdoors, unless you call reading on the patio outdoorsy.”

“You said you were an only child. How did your parents take the news of you moving away?” Kenzie asks.

“My parents are gone. Car accident when I was in college. But, I like to think that they would have been excited for me with this new opportunity.”

A chorus of “I’m sorrys” surrounds me as they react to my sharing. Much like Noel in the car, their reactions sound and feel real—like my parents had also been ripped from their lives the same as mine. Emotion hits me out of nowhere, tears suddenly pricking at the corner of my eyes.

Oh shit.

I won’t cry, I won’t cry…

I clear my throat, forcing all the feels back down where they came from.

“Sorry, don’t mean to be a downer. For the second time in two days, nonetheless. Same factoid kinda killed the conversation with Noel on the ride down yesterday.”

“Conversation?” Kenzie picks out that one word, eyes going wide, head tilting toward me in interest.

“You and Noel had a conversation?” Sylvie follows.

“Yeah. I mean, it wasn’t an in-depth heart-to-heart or anything. But he thought ‘we should get to know each other’ or whatever. So he asked me questions.” I shrug. I know Willa said he was the quiet type, but it wasn’t like he was mute.

“Noel. Noel Keller?”

“Asked you questions?” Kenzie follows up, as if she’s finished Sylvie’s question.

“I think? Unless there is a different Noel,” I reply, turning to Willa for confirmation. All I find is the beautiful blonde nodding slowly, brows quirked together.