by Magan Vernon
Eddie laughed, shaking his head. “I don’t know what we’re supposed to do now. I planned to show up to the bakery and maybe get a coffee with you or something, then convince you to let me take you to lunch, but since that didn’t happen, I’m out of ideas.”
My stomach grumbled, at probably the worst time, echoing through the room. Eddie rubbed the back of his head. “Shit, I guess I should have asked if you were hungry before we left. I can call Conti’s and order a pizza or something if you want. Are you still on your vegetarian thing?”
“My vegetarian thing?” I asked.
He pulled his phone out of his pocket and tapped on the screen. “Yeah. You know when you decided you wanted to help the animals, but then Dad would grill steaks, and I’d catch you nibbling a few bites off Clay’s plate when he wasn’t looking?”
I scoffed. “I did not do that!”
“You so did!”
I rolled my eyes. “Whatever. Okay, your dad makes a good steak, but it’s hard to eat any meat when you find yourself naming all of the cows. I can’t think about eating Rainbow Star or Mr. Darcy.”
“You seriously named one of the cows Mr. Darcy?” He raised an eyebrow.
“I could have come up with way worse names.”
Eddie smiled, putting the phone up to his ear, and rattled off an order for a large pizza alla Norma, Caprese salad, and breadsticks.
“Whoa. It’s just the two of us, isn’t it?” I asked as Eddie hung up the phone and put it back in his pocket.
“Yeah, but I haven’t had Conti’s since I’ve been back, and I’m craving some pizza with eggplant.”
“Oh … cool … yeah …” I looked around the room, trying to figure out what to say.
Eddie sighed, sitting down on the couch. “You know this doesn’t have to be awkward. We’ve been best friends forever. Just because some time has passed doesn’t mean things have to be any different—even though it seems like everything is. We’re both sort of single, and you have a little sister that I didn’t even know about until I saw her at the funeral.”
I finally plopped down on the couch next to him. “At least you didn’t ask if Violet was my daughter.”
He laughed. “Actually, I did ask my mom who she was when I saw her running around the yard. I had this whole wild scenario in my head that you married Nick Conti when I left and had a little kid that your mom was raising while you stayed home and worked nights at the restaurant.”
A small smile crossed my lips as I shook my head. “I’m the writer, yet you’re the one with the overactive imagination.”
Eddie’s arm went to the back of the sofa as he turned slightly toward me. “A million scenarios have run through my mind about you. You have no idea how many times I wanted to pick up the phone and call you, but I didn’t know what to say.”
“You could have started with something like ‘hey, I’m a big star now, but how’s it going since you’re stuck in Friendship’.”
He winced. “Yeah, that probably wasn’t the best way to start the conversation, which is why I never got that far.”
“I guess we can’t live in the past forever. We just have to move on from it,” I said, letting out a deep breath.
Eddie’s hand went to my cheek, his fingers under my chin, forcing my eyes to meet his. “Look, Brooke, I never expected to go this long without talking to you. When I met Mary at an awards show, I figured she would be someone to pass the time. I regret that things had to end so badly, that she’d cheat on me and put it online for the world to see, but I don’t regret that it brought me home. Whatever is going on with your boy in Austin, I don’t want to screw that up, but I want you to know that I don’t want whatever this is with us to be something to just pass the time. You’re the realest girl I’ve ever known, and I want to keep this real between us.”
I bit my bottom lip thinking of the right words to say. I’d wanted Eddie to tell me all of these things for so long, and now, it was really real. Even though he was just getting out of a relationship and I didn’t even know where I stood. It was as if we’d had ten years of foreplay and it was time to go into this full force or not at all. If we were going to do this relationship thing, as he was alluding, then it was time to go for it.
“I hope this all doesn’t just go down in flames. I don’t want to lose one of the best friends I’ve ever had if it goes wrong,” I said in a small voice.
He tucked a stray strand of hair behind my ear. “I don’t want that, either, Brooke, but I also can’t go on without us seeing where this road is going to take us. Now that it’s out there, we at least have to try.”
I leaned into press my lips to his, but before his breath was even a whisper on my lips, the back patio door opened, and loud boot steps sounded on the wooden floor. Seriously, how many times could I be labia locked?
I jumped back, gasping until I was at the opposite end of the sofa.
Tameem Jahid was a man who everyone noticed. Even in his late fifties, he was still a good-looking rancher with his short salt and pepper hair usually covered in a Stetson Stallion hat. He had a dark olive complexion over his six-foot-two frame that had spent many years working on the ranch and could probably bench press a cow with those biceps. But when Tameem smiled, it lit up his entire face and melted his tough exterior.
“Brooke Carrington, is that you in my house?” he asked, his Lebanese accent still thick even though he’d been living in the states for almost forty years.
I stood up, and Tameem crossed the room, embracing me in a big hug. The guy was always like a second dad or an amazing uncle. Having him take me in his arms and inhaling his familiar scent of Old Spice and hay was like coming home.
When Tameem released me, he kept his hands on my shoulders. “Haven’t seen you around these parts in a while. Your mom didn’t tell me you’d be staying.”
I nodded. “Yeah. I don’t know how long I’ll be here, but at least long enough to help get things settled.”
“Good. Real good,” Tameem said, squeezing my shoulder and looking at Eddie. “I see you two got reacquainted. Y’all aren’t causing any trouble, are you? I don’t want to have to bail anyone out of jail, and I think your publicist would kill me, Ed.”
Eddie laughed. “No, sir. Just ran into Brooke at the bakery and things got a little crazy, so we came back here. Conti’s should be coming by with a pizza any minute.”
Tameem nodded. “Good. Well, I’m glad to have you two both around again. You tell your mom y’all better be here for Thanksgiving supper next week. It’s a tradition that we aren’t gonna break.”
“Oh. Yeah. I’ll remind her.”
Thanksgiving. I didn’t even think about it being next week. I still had a ticket in my purse to fly to St. Louis with Drake to see his family. I’d met them a handful of times when they came in to visit during college, but I purposely avoided having him meet mine. Even after all these years together, I was still putting my guard up with him. I always thought it was because I was a giant commitmaphobe, but now, staring at the smiling boy next door, I knew the real reason why I couldn’t be with anyone else.
The doorbell rang and knocked me out of my reverie. Eddie squeezed my shoulder and slid past me to the door. “That should be the pizza.”
“Ey! Eddie Jahid! The Grand Pooh-bah himself is back!” a familiar deep voice said.
I turned around to see Nicky Conti standing in the doorway. His looks hadn’t changed much since high school, except he’d put on about another one hundred pounds. He’d always been the big teddy bear, and while everyone else was kind of an ass to me, Nicky was always the big brother looking out for me when I worked at the restaurant.
Eddie smiled, taking the food and pulling his wallet out to hand Nicky a very large bill. Nicky went to get change out of a black bag, and Eddie shook his head. “Keep it. It’s probably back asshole tax from all of those years I was a little shit, sitting in the back of the restaurant and making Brooke bring me free breadsticks.”
Nicky laughed a de
ep belly laugh. “You sure, man?”
Eddie smiled. “Positive.”
Nicky grinned, stuffing the large bill in his pocket. “It’s like a high school reunion here with you two together. It’s been a long time. How long are y’all staying?”
It always cracked me up that the Conti kids looked like straight-off-the-boat Italians, but then they opened their mouth, and their syrupy sweet Texas accent would come out. I guess that was what happened when Italian immigrants decided to settle in small town Texas and have three kids.
I opened my mouth to speak, but Eddie went first. “We’ll be around for a little while. Maybe we’ll have time to come by the restaurant.”
Nicky nodded. “Yeah, Pops would like seeing y’all. Well, at least he’d enjoy seeing Brooke. You know I married Dana Jones from our class. She’s pregnant now with our daughter, and she’s a good wife and all, but I think Pops would have preferred if Brooke had stayed on as a waitress instead of her.”
“Wow. Married? A kid? You’ve really gotten around, Nick,” Eddie said, lightly jabbing his shoulder.
Nicky nodded. “Yeah. You know, some of us stayed in Friendship and got married. Some of us went on to be famous country singers and authors. We all have our thing.”
Eddie smiled and squeezed his shoulder. “That we do, Nick.”
“Well, I’d better get back. I’m actually working in Richardson now, but when my little sister Lia told me that you ordered, I had to wrestle her to take the order. Call anytime and I’ll personally deliver, or if you want to get away from all those damn camera toters, give the restaurant a call, and we can work something out.”
“Thanks, man. I appreciate it,” Eddie said, shaking his hand.
Nicky turned toward me and gave me a hug, pulling me close. He pressed his lips to my ear and whispered, “If he hurts you again, you tell me, okay?”
I nodded but didn’t say anything else and smiled as Nicky winked and let go.
“Ey, Brooke, table eight needs a … whoa … what the hell?” Nicky Conti hovered over me as I sat on the dirty cement sidewalk in the back alley of Conti’s restaurant.
I wiped my eyes and stood up, wiping my hands on my jeans. “Sorry, was just taking a break.”
It wasn’t a total lie. I was getting a drink order at the bar when I saw a clip of a new Eddie Justice video on TV. Friendship’s darling, formerly known as Eddie Jahid, had now gone off to Nashville and just hit number one on the country music charts. Along with that came a rumored girlfriend who was on some hit teen soap opera and starred in the music video, half-naked and shaking her ass on the back of a tailgate while he serenaded her.
He’d been gone six months, and I hadn’t received a single call or email. It’s not like we were dating or anything, but I expected something from my supposed best friend.
“Ey, this wouldn’t have anything to do with Eddie, would it? I haven’t seen him around.”
I shook my head. “Didn’t you hear? Eddie’s a superstar now. Too good to come around Friendship.”
I opened the door, but Nicky grabbed my wrist. “Look, Brooke, you know you’re a great girl, right? The best. If Eddie Jahid can’t get his head out of his ass long enough to see what he left behind, then he isn’t worth you crying over.”
I smiled politely. I didn’t want to have this conversation about what Eddie and I were or weren’t at this point. Not that it mattered anyway. He was gone.
“Nothing’s going on with us, Nicky, but thanks.”
Chapter 5
I wanted nothing more than to lay in bed all day. That was what Sunday mornings were for, right? Well, not in the South.
“Get up,” Mom said, ripping the warm covers off me.
I groaned. “Seriously? Unless the house is on fire, it’s only seven AM, and I’m staying in bed.”
I reached for the blanket only for her to take it out of my reach.
“We have to be at Rockwall by nine for Violet’s Sunday school. You and Clay can go with me to bible study.”
“The hell?” I asked, sitting straight up. I couldn’t remember the last time we’d all been to church. When I was in high school, we were all ‘Chreesters,’ the Christmas and Easter churchgoers, but that was it.
“You won’t be going to hell if you get up and get ready. Clay’s in the shower now.”
“Clay’s on board with this?” I asked, raising an eyebrow. Somehow, I didn’t see my Mohawked, medically retired Army brother as a big churchgoer.
Mom smiled. “Yes, dear, sometimes people surprise us.”
I reluctantly got up since my blanket was gone, and if Mom was going to be this chipper about church, then those damn church ladies had better have made coffee and coffee cake. I might not be a morning person, but I would throw down for some baked goods.
I walked toward the bathroom, and the door opened to my half-naked brother with his wet Mohawk and a towel around his waist. In the time I’d been gone, I didn’t realize my brother had gone from the pain in the ass kid on the skateboard to an adult. An adult with tattoos and a six pack.
That didn’t stop me from smacking his stomach. “Nice bird tattoo,” I said, glancing at the large flying bird across his chest.
“It’s a bald eagle, you un-American hippie, and it’s better than that cheesy infinity symbol you have.”
“Shut up!” I smacked him again for good measure.
“Shit, does Mom even know you got that thing on Spring Break? I swore when you told me about it, I thought you were going to get Mexican rabies or some shit from that tattoo parlor in Mexico City.”
My face felt like it lit up to a million degrees. I had no other retort but to push Clay aside and make my way to the bathroom.
Clay laughed, shaking his head and leaning against the doorframe. “Shit, she doesn’t know, does she? What else doesn’t she know?”
“Nothing! And I’m an adult living on my own, so it doesn’t matter. Now, get out of the bathroom, dipshit,” I said, whinier than I had intended. I went to shut the door, but Clay caught it, his eyes widening.
“There is something, isn’t there? What is it? Did you have a kid in Austin and you’re here to get away from him and don’t want to tell Mom that she has a grandkid the same age as Vi?”
I rolled my eyes. “Do you have any idea how stupid you sound?”
“Or there’s a boyfriend you left back in Austin. Is it that pretentious dude who used to call me ‘Sport’ on Facetime? I bet you’re still with him but don’t have the balls to break up with him so you’re not telling Mom or Eddie.”
I widened my eyes. How the hell did my brother get so spot on? “Shut up, Clay, and just get out of here.”
I was finally able to shut the door and lock it, then let out a deep breath as I leaned against the dark wood. If Clay could figure me out that easily, it wouldn’t be long before everyone else did, either.
***
We didn’t make it in time for Violet’s Sunday school or Bible study. Apparently, we were all going to hell, and Mom had to explain to the old ladies why her kids couldn’t all get ready in time.
The First Baptist Church was one of five churches in tiny Friendship, Texas. All Baptist and all crazier than the last.
Clay, Violet, and I sat in the pew where Mom told us to and stared up at the giant wooden cross above the altar. I was surprised the entire place hadn’t burned down yet just from me setting foot in there. Luckily, I had a water bottle of wine in my purse in case things got hairy.
“Rhonda? Psst, Rhonda, is that the Carrington girl? The writer who was at the bakery with that country singer Eddie Justice? I thought she was in Austin?” one of the old church ladies not-so-subtly asked the woman next to her.
I rolled my eyes, and Clay looked at me with a mischievous grin. Slowly, I stretched my arms over my head and leaned toward my brother, not so quietly whispering, “I can’t wait to get out of church, so I can go home and get some Eddie Justice man meat.”
The old ladies gasped and started whisperin
g. They didn’t need to know that Eddie and I had only ever been next-door neighbors and friends. Well, until we spent the night breaking a tree branch, if that counted for anything.
“Are you trying to make the church ladies talk so Mom has a heart attack?” Clay whispered.
“Just having a little fun.”
Mom came to her seat next to Violet, and Clay just shook his head instead of continuing our conversation.
The music began, and I looked in the direction of the piano, expecting to see some little old lady. Instead, I saw Noah Riley. The same kid who played at Dad’s funeral. I didn’t know the guy did all of this, or why he never went off to school. It wasn’t as if we were out in a third world country; deaf kids had many options.
My thoughts about Noah were soon knocked out as I heard the low hums from the choir and one familiar voice stood out. Looking behind me and up toward the balcony, there stood Eddie in front of all the blue-haired women who all stared at him as if he was the second coming.
“Holy hell, Brooke, is that guy following you?” Clay whispered.
“Language,” Mom hissed.
I didn’t know when Noah started playing the piano or Eddie started singing with the choir, but church just got a lot more interesting.
***
After service, everyone gathered in the parish hall next to the sanctuary. Someone always brought snacks, coffee, and plenty of guilt to get you to sign up and volunteer for different committees.
“So, Brooke, how long are you back in town for?” an older lady with bright white hair and an even brighter orange sweater asked. I should have known her name, but I could never remember anyone’s name, which was really a pain in the ass when writing books.
I shrugged, placing some cheese and crackers on my Styrofoam plate. Part of me just wanted to get the hell out of there, but Violet had cried until we agreed to stay. It wasn’t half bad, I guess. The cheese went really well with the five-dollar pinot in my water bottle, and the more I drank, the less nervous I was about seeing Eddie.