invited.”
“I didn’t know I needed an invitation. I apologize.”
“Well then.” He held out his hand and she shook it. His grip was bone-crushing. “Welcome to town.”
“Thank you,” she said, trying to draw her hand back.
But he held on, lifting her arm slightly, his eyes on the silver charm bracelet she was wearing. “Where did you get this?” he demanded.
With another tug, she slid her hand out of his and hid the bracelet with her other hand. “It was my mother’s.”
Morgan Coffey looked completely poleaxed. “My father gave that to my mother when they got married.”
Emily shook her head. Surely he was mistaken. “Maybe they just look the same.”
“The moon charm has an inscription:
Emily didn’t have to look. The words had almost been rubbed off, but they were still there. She could feel tears come to her eyes. “I’m sorry,” she said, fumbling as she took it off. She held the bracelet out to him, her heart breaking. “She must have stolen it.” After what she’d learned about her mother, she wouldn’t put it past her.
A muscle twitched at his jawline. “She didn’t steal it. Win, let’s go.” Morgan Coffey turned and left without another word.
Without taking the bracelet.
Win watched him go, then said to Emily, “That went better than I thought it would, actually.”
She looked away, blinking back the tears. “I don’t think I want to know how you thought it would go.”
He smiled and stepped over to her. He took the bracelet, which she was still holding out in her palm, and put it back on her wrist.
His touch was warm, and it seemed greater than him, somehow, like she could feel it beyond the places he actually touched. And there again was that comforting feeling. She took a deep breath, her tears disappearing. How did he do that, make her feel so wary, and yet so
He looked up from fastening the bracelet and met her eyes. He was still touching her wrist, and she was trembling with the effort to remain still. “Will I see you at the festival this weekend?”
Julia had asked her, but Emily hadn’t given her an answer yet. But she had the answer now. “Yes.”
“Friends?” he asked, and it sounded like he was asking her to do something perilous. He made her feel
She nodded. “Friends.”
WHEN SAWYER pulled into his driveway after work that day, he saw Julia sitting on the front steps of his townhouse, a white cake box on her lap. It never occurred to him that she knew where he lived. It made him feel important to her, somehow. Though that was probably his delusion speaking. It spoke to him often about Julia. But this explained the black pickup truck he saw parked at the curb a couple of blocks away. As he’d passed it, he’d thought it looked like Julia’s, though he had no idea why she chose to park so far away. He wondered if she didn’t want to be seen associating with him.
He stopped in front of his garage and cut the engine. He stepped out of his Lexus, bringing his briefcase with him. He’d been looking at potential rental properties that day. His family’s property management business was slowly expanding into neighboring counties. His father had been against it at first. For a very long time, their only client had been the Coffeys, who owned most of the rental property in Mullaby. It had been a constant battle with his father to get him to even entertain the idea of taking on other properties to manage. Now business was so good they were considering opening a satellite office.
As he approached her, Julia stood. She was wearing blue jeans and a dark blue peasant blouse, the ties of the neck open. She looked so beautiful and soft, with her big brown eyes and her light brown hair shining in the afternoon light. He couldn’t see the pink streak, and he had an incredible urge to find it. He’d always been fascinated by her, drawn to her the way curious people are always drawn to things they don’t understand. But he’d done a spectacular job of ruining any chance he’d ever had of being with her, and he’d done it at the amazing age of sixteen. Truly, he should get an award or something World’s Longest Regret.
The night he and Julia had had was amazing, and something he’d dreamed about for years. Up until that night, she’d only been a fantasy. He’d been the popular preppy kid; she’d been the school’s punk hardass. He’d never thought he’d have a chance with her, so he’d kept his distance and watched her from afar. That night was everything he’d dreamed it would be, although a little bittersweet. He’d meant-absolutely-everything he’d said at the time, all caught up in the fantasy come true. But adolescence is like having only enough light to see the step directly in front of you, and no farther. When Julia had left for school the next day, he’d gotten scared. He and Holly had the approval of not only his parents and hers, but everyone in school. Especially after what had happened with Dulcie and Logan that same summer, how the whole town had turned on her and looked suspiciously at her friends, he’d wanted to hold on to what he had, and he didn’t have Julia. Julia was water in his hands. She’d slipped right through. Lovely and strange and unpredictable, she’d been everything he wasn’t. Nothing he was used to. He’d reacted badly when she’d called him and told him she was pregnant. When he thought back to that conversation, it was like watching a movie. It was the only way he could deal with it, to totally disassociate. That wasn’t him. That was a ghost of himself, some horrible boy who’d forced a troubled girl to have an abortion because he hadn’t wanted to face the consequences of his actions.
But he ended up facing the consequences anyway. Fate has a way of biting you in the ass like that. He thought he’d moved on, first with Holly, then by throwing himself into the family business. But then Julia came back to town and he realized for the first time that he hadn’t moved on at all.
He’d just been waiting.
Waiting for her to come back and forgive him.
“I didn’t know you knew where I lived,” he said as he walked up the steps toward her.
“Apparently, I didn’t. Someone told me once that you owned that big house on Gatliff Street. I assumed you lived there. But Stella told me that’s where you and Holly lived when you were together, and that you’d moved here after the divorce.”
“Holly and I still own that house jointly, actually.” He stopped on the porch and stood in front of her. “When she moved to Raleigh, we agreed to rent it out and split the income.”
“Why didn’t you just keep living there?”
“It was too big. My family gave it to us as a wedding gift. Five bedrooms. It was a big hint for grandchildren.”
“Oh,” Julia said awkwardly.
“Don’t be embarrassed. I’m not. I’ve come to terms with it.”
She gave him a look that said she didn’t believe him. Then, changing the subject, she thrust the cake box at him. “I brought you a hummingbird cake,” she said. “I made it last night.”
He set down his briefcase and took the box from her, stunned. “You actually baked me a cake?”
“Don’t get all emotional on me. I have to tell you something. A couple of things, actually. I’ll save the big thing for later.”
Later. That was curious. And encouraging. He couldn’t help it. Later meant there would be time in between. Time to be with her. “And the cake is to soften me up?”
“The cake is because I know you like it.”
He gestured toward the door. “Come in,” he said, suddenly excited by the thought of her being in his house. It was almost as if, by having her step over the threshold, something significant would be accomplished. She would be closer to him. He would be closer to her forgiveness.
But she shook her head. “I can’t. I ran out of gas coming over here.”
“Ah. That’s why I saw your truck parked a couple of blocks away.”
She nodded. “I was just waiting for you to come home to give you this and to tell you something, then I have to walk to the gas station.”
“I can take you.”
“I’ll be fine,” she said dismissively. She didn’t want anything from him. Yet he wanted so much from her. “I do bake cakes because of you. Well, I
He wasn’t expecting that. He rocked back slightly on his heels.
