Blue swallowed a mouthful of French toast and washed it down with coffee. “So you’re going to leave her again, then.”
He said the words casually enough, but underneath there was a faintly sharp tone. They’d been best friends for a long time, but Ava was the hometown girl so Blue would naturally have some conflicted loyalties. “But this time she’ll know I’m leaving and I won’t be gone long before she hears from me. Like maybe before I even hit the state line.”
Blue’s face relaxed. “So you think maybe you two can finally make a go of it?”
“I’d like to think so.” He took a bite of his breakfast, taking his time savoring it while he thought about the question. “I think we’re spending more time looking back than looking forward right now. I know we have to for there to be any chance she’ll forgive me, but it can be frustrating.”
“Yeah, but when you hurt somebody that bad, it doesn’t just go away because you come back. And while you’ve been off living your dream, she’s been back here picking up the pieces of hers, so it might take her a while.”
Jace didn’t have a while, though. He hadn’t been lying about maybe not even making it to the state line before he called her, but talking on the phone wasn’t the same as being with a person. And him leaving to go back to Nashville could put her right back in the mindset he wanted her to avoid.
“I know one thing,” Blue continued. “If you sweet-talk Ava into running off to Nashville and being Mrs. Jace Morrow, I hope Joe and Beth hire somebody nice to take her place here. Whitney hates waiting on people and she can be mean. Last time she had to be out front, she told me she wasn’t in the mood to make me a chocolate milk and made me drink it white instead.”
Jace laughed and picked up his fork again. He still had quite a mountain of biscuits and gravy to make his way through, and he wasn’t going to get it done while talking. His mind was on other things than chocolate milk anyway.
Mrs. Jace Morrow. It had a nice ring to it.
* * *
“You’re early.”
Ava stopped, looking at her mom. While the words were normal enough—and she was, in fact, early—there was a little bit of something that looked like panic in her mom’s expression. She’d just come from out front, so maybe she hadn’t known Ava had come in the back door to the kitchen and she’d startled her.
“I had nothing better to do, so I figured I might as well be bored here. Maybe I’ll wipe down the menus or something.”
“Okay.” But she didn’t sound too sure about it.
There was obviously something going on. “Why are you acting weird?”
“It’s not nice to call your mother weird.”
“I didn’t call you weird. I said you’re acting weird and it’s getting weirder by the second.”
“Jace is out front.”
“Okay.” But she probably didn’t sound much more sure of the word than her mother had. Her pulse quickened and she had to work at not sprinting to the swinging door to look through the small window for a glimpse of him.
“Is that a problem for you?”
“He’s already been in, Mom. And I know you know that because everybody in town knows it.” She smiled, forcing herself to relax. “And you know he wasn’t going to come home without having Dad’s biscuits and gravy.”
Home. But it wasn’t. Jace’s home was Nashville and she’d do well to remember that.
“He’d barely gotten through the door before your dad was fixing his plate.” Her mom paused, frowning. “Not because he was happy to see him. Just...he knew what he’d be ordering is all.”
“I understand, Mom.” Her parents had loved Jace, though, and she knew it wasn’t much easier for them having him around right now. Ava walked to the wall that separated the actual kitchen from the storage and dishwashing area to peek around. “Hi, Dad.”
“Hi, honey. You’re early.”
“I was bored.” He gave her a skeptical look that made her roll her eyes. “I didn’t know Jace was here until Mom told me just now.”
“She didn’t,” her mom echoed from behind her.
“I’m going to go out front and say hello,” she told them. “Do not watch through the window, please.”
When they both gave her angelic smiles she didn’t believe for a second, Ava laughed and pushed through the swinging door. There were customers at several tables, but Jace’s unmistakable laugh mingled with Blue’s drew her gaze immediately to the back section. She watched Jace with his friend, wishing she could forgive him as easily as Blue appeared to have.
But their relationship had been different. There were no shared dreams of music, marriage and babies. And Blue had actually left Cottonwood Creek first, going off to college on the backs of a partial scholarship and two part-time jobs.
After shaking off the seemingly ever-present past, Ava put a smile on her face and walked to their table. Blue’s plate was empty, but it looked as if Jace was still working on his biscuits and gravy. He’d put a pretty good dent in it, though.
“Hey, guys.” They both turned to look up at her, and the fleeting excitement that crossed Jace’s face at seeing her made her heart do a quickstep in response. She picked up Blue’s plate so it looked like she had a reason other than seeing Jace to be there. “Everything okay?”
“It was great, as usual,” Blue said.
“I’ve been thinking about Joe’s biscuits and gravy since I got to town,” Jace said, “and they’re even better than I remember.”
“Still working on it?”
He looked down at his almost-empty plate and heaved an exaggerated sigh. “I’m not ready to give up yet.”
She laughed and his eyes crinkled when he grinned up at her. Their gazes locked for a few seconds and she didn’t look away. The connection between them was still strong, and she thought of it like an invisible thread that was slowly darning the hole he’d left in her heart.
“I’d take some more coffee if you don’t mind,” Blue said, jerking her attention away from Jace.
“Sure thing.”
After dropping the dirty plate in the bus pan stashed by the kitchen door, she refilled their coffees and did a lap around the café with the pot. Then, after glancing back at Jace—who caught her looking and gave her a wink—she grabbed the bus pan and went through the door back into the kitchen.
And almost broke the noses of her mother and Whitney, who must have shown up while she was out front and joined Beth in spying on her.
“You two are ridiculous,” she said, walking past them. After giving her dad a cheery wave on the way by, she carried the tub of dirty dishes to the washing station.
“He watched you walk away,” Whitney said.
“Intently,” her mom added. “That’s a good sign.”
After setting the bus pan on the counter with more of a thump than was necessary, making the glasses rattle, she turned to face them and put her hands on her hips. “When did you two suddenly become Team Jace?”
“I’m not on anybody’s team,” her mom said. Then she stopped and, clearly flustered, shook her head. “I mean, if there are teams, I’m one hundred percent Team Ava, but I don’t think there need to be teams is all.”
Whitney shrugged. “Or one of those celebrity couple team names. I guess he’d have to go first, like Jay-va, because Ace doesn’t sound like a name.”
“We’re not a couple,” Ava said firmly, wanting to nip that idea in the bud.
“You might think differently if you saw the way he was looking at you,” Whitney said.
Beth nodded. “For a man who’s put away as much biscuits and sausage gravy as he has this morning, he looked awfully hungry.”
“Mom!”
“We want you to be happy, honey. And it’s not just about the way he looks at you. You’re my daughter and I’ve seen
the way you look at him. And the way you think when I know you’re thinking about him.”
“I’m happy, and it has nothing to do with Jace.” Which wasn’t entirely the truth, but also not entirely a lie.
Whitney tilted her head, scowling. “You don’t look happy. You look a little ticked off, to be honest.”
Ava tilted her head back, hoping for some divine intervention or something, but when nothing happened, she surrendered to the inevitable. “If I tell you two something, you have to swear you won’t tell a soul. And you won’t overreact.”
“I’m your best friend,” Whitney pointed out. “Who would I tell?”
“Maybe me if it was important enough,” Beth said. “But I’ll already know and, if I’m guessing right, this’ll be the last thing I want to talk to your father about, so I think we’re good.”
“I kissed him.”
They both stared at her in stunned silence for a few seconds, and then they moved toward her in such perfect unison that Ava would have laughed at them under different circumstances.
“What do you mean you kissed him?” Whitney hissed.
Her mom frowned. “When did that happen?”
“Yesterday, when we were decorating.”
“And you didn’t say anything until now?”
“I wouldn’t have said anything at all if you weren’t bugging me about the way Jace keeps looking at me.”
Her mom leaned closer. “And?”
“And then Whitney sent me a text telling me the café was starting to get busy.”
“I don’t care about that,” she said, waving her hand to help make her point. “What about that kiss?”
“It was just as good as they used to be.” Maybe even better, since she’d been craving it for years. Nobody kissed her like Jace Morrow did.
“There has to be more than a kiss,” Whitney said. “So that was yesterday. What’s happened between then and now?”
“Nothing.” Both women looked disappointed. “Sorry. I came back to the café and then I went home and we haven’t exchanged cell numbers, so other than him sitting out there right now, looking at me the way you two say he is, nothing.”
“But you’re going to do something, right? Have you seen what that man can do with his hips on stage?”
Ava snorted. “I taught him to move like that, but off-stage, if you know what I mean.”
Her mom put her hands on her hips. “Ava Nicole Wright!”
Whitney laughed. “Yeah, she knows what you mean.”
“You’re the one who’s talking about how hungry he looks,” Ava told her mother. “And since that plate’s probably empty by now, we know exactly what you were talking about.”
“Are you gonna?” Whitney asked, with no further explanation needed.
“That would be stupid,” Ava said, when she knew the word no should have been what came out of her mouth.
“Why?”
“Because it’ll just make everything messier. It’s already hard and that would make it harder—don’t you dare say it, Whitney Cassidy—when he goes back to Nashville.”
It was her mom who said it out loud. “Maybe he’ll ask you to go with him.”
Ava sucked in a breath, trying to ignore the hopeful leap her heart seemed to take in her chest. “That’s not going to happen. For heaven’s sake, Mom, he hasn’t even been back a week.”
“You were together for years.”
“And then apart for years because he dropped me like a hot potato to sign with Carrie Bond. Or am I the only one who remembers that?”
They both looked contrite, but then Whitney made the face she always made when she was about to yeah but something Ava said. “Maybe you’re trying too hard to remember it.”
That hurt. “There hasn’t been a single day since he left St. Louis that I’ve managed to forget it.”
Because she regretted ever confiding in them and didn’t see the conversation going in any direction she wanted to go, Ava pushed past them and went back into the dining area. Of course that meant coming face-to-face with Jace but, after giving him a tight smile, she went to the rack that held the menus and yanked them all out. After rinsing a cloth in the bucket of bleach water kept at hand, she scrubbed the cover of the top one before opening it and doing the same for the center spread.
It was busy work that gave her hands something to do, but not her mind. It preferred to stay focused on Jace and, though she limited herself to the occasional quick glance, she could hear his voice. Not well enough to make out his words, but enough so the murmur was a constant reminder of his presence.
Her mom came out at some point, finishing up with her customers before she and Joe headed out for the day. Of course, it was just Ava’s luck that when Blue waved and walked out and Jace walked to the register, Beth was nowhere to be seen.
After dumping the rag in the bucket of water, she walked to the register and took the slip from him so she could punch the total in on the register. “Your treat, huh?”
“I offered and Blue didn’t really fight me on it.” He grinned to show there were no hard feelings.
Of course there weren’t. Jace could afford it. “I’m glad you two have reconnected. You were close growing up.”
“Yeah, it’s good. We’ll keep in touch.” He pulled out his wallet to give her cash, and then gave her a card that had a phone number written on it. “Speaking of which, I thought... I don’t know if you’d want it or not, but I realized you didn’t have my number.”
Ava took it and looked at the number written in his handwriting. There was nothing else on the blank card and she thought it was odd, but it probably stopped him from getting a deluge of calls if it fell into the wrong hands. Then she ripped a page off her order pad and wrote her cell phone number on it.
“Did you rethink my invitation?” he asked after tucking the paper away in his wallet.
“What invitation was that?” Maybe he’ll ask you to go with him.
“To sing with me tomorrow night.”
“I don’t sing anymore, Jace. I told you that.”
“That’s a loss for everybody,” he said, regret turning the corners of his mouth downward. “But mostly for you. You were so happy when you were singing, and you’re breaking my heart, Ava.”
“Then I guess we’ll be even.”
Their eyes locked, and it was him who looked away first. “I’ll see you at the party, I guess. But call me or text if you get in the mood to chat.”
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” she said. And then she called after him, “But I’m not singing, Jace. I mean it.”
He just turned and shot her a grin before disappearing out the door.
Chapter Seven
The old schoolhouse was as full as Ava had ever seen it. That was good news for the Santa fund, but it didn’t bode well for any private conversations happening and that wasn’t a bad thing.
Other than that brief moment at the funeral service, this would be the first time she and Jace were in the same space in front of most of the town and people would be talking. And things were different now. Going into the funeral service, she’d felt a lot of things most of them probably expected her to feel. But now they’d kissed and she had no idea what she felt and that she didn’t want anybody else to know, outside of her mom and Whitney, of course.
And she couldn’t help wishing she hadn’t told them, either.
As she’d expected, Jace was the center of attention and she could barely get near him, never mind talk to him. He’d sent her a text message that morning, wishing her a good morning and she’d sent one back. Then he’d said he was excited about the party and sent three emojis. The man’s head. The microphone. The woman’s head.
I’m not singing with you, she’d sent back.
He’d responded with a
smiley face and that was the end of the conversation. Jace had always had a tendency to get stubborn about things, but she could be stubborn, too.
Like any function that was in any way connected to the women from church—which was pretty much all of them—the dessert tables reigned supreme. Unlike other events, though, the Christmas party was a bake sale, with all proceeds going to the Santa fund. And there were also silent auction sheets for homemade desserts for the holidays and Ava went all in bidding on the apple crumb cake.
She talked to everybody, but never for more than a few minutes because it was crowded and there were always people bumping or interrupting and shifting around. The entire time, she was aware of where Jace was and what he was doing.
Mostly he signed autographs and took more selfies with people than she could count. He looked relaxed and happy, though, and she figured that must come with practice. Then the Christmas music stopped playing through the speakers and Mrs. Lowry climbed onto the stage.
“Okay, ladies and gentlemen, it’s time! Y’all know Jace Morrow very generously agreed to sing for us tonight, which is quite a treat. Jace, come on up here.”
He was smiling as he took the stage, carrying his guitar case, and she shouldn’t have been surprised when he found her immediately in the crowd and winked. She couldn’t help smiling back.
Once Mrs. Lowry had returned to the crowd, Jace raised the microphone. “Thank you, Mrs. Lowry. I’m honored y’all asked me to sing for you tonight, and it’s a real pleasure. Most of you know I’ve sung at the annual party a time or two in the past, and being able to be a part of Cottonwood Creek’s Christmas is a true joy for me.”
He paused while the crowd applauded, and Ava clapped along with them. Once they quieted, Jace started to speak again.
“I’ve forgotten a lot of things when I travel. My razor. My passport once, which really upset some people. And once I managed to leave for a major tour without any clean underwear. Luckily there were stores along the way.” He had to pause while the crowd laughed, and then he rested his hand on the black guitar case. “But there’s one thing I never forget. She’s always with me, wherever I go. I don’t usually take her on stage, but when I’m writing, she’s with me. This is a special occasion, so I thought I’d bring her with me tonight.”
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