“I already bought it,” she said. “What difference does it make?”
Elijah crossed his arms. “I don’t want it.”
Mom put a slice on a plate and shot me a look.
I grabbed the plate and took it to the table. “Come on, Eli. Mom didn’t mean to get the wrong pizza, and it wouldn’t be right to waste it.”
His little brow creased. “Will they be mad?”
“Who?”
“The Baileys.”
I reached out and ruffled his hair. “No, buddy. They won’t be mad. They’d eat the pizza, too.”
That seemed to convince him. He slid into the chair and started shoveling pizza into his mouth.
I got a slice for myself and Mom joined us at the table with hers.
“Speaking of Baileys, I’m surprised they’re not crawling all over this place, what with you being home,” Mom said.
I shrugged. “We’re not kids anymore. It’s not like they’re going to come running out the front door when I pull up.”
“I’m gonna be a firefighter when I grow up,” Elijah said through a mouthful of pizza.
“Are you?” I asked.
He nodded, making his hair flop on his forehead. “Just like Asher. And Logan and Levi.”
Mom sighed. “He’d follow those boys around like a puppy if I let him. Wants to do everything they do.”
“What’s your third-favorite dinosaur?” he asked.
“I…” My brow furrowed. “I have no idea. What’s your third-favorite dinosaur?”
“T-rex.” He took another bite.
Mom shrugged. Apparently third-favorite dinosaur was a normal question coming from him. “How’s Daniel? Does he miss you already?”
I wiped my mouth on a napkin. “Oh, no. We broke up a little while ago.”
“You did? I’m sorry. He seemed nice from everything you said about him.”
“It’s okay. He was nice, but it wasn’t serious. And we’re still friends.”
“You sure you’re okay?”
“Yes, Mom, I’m fine.”
“Who’s Daniel?” Elijah asked.
“He was Grace’s boyfriend,” Mom said.
Elijah set his pizza crust on his plate, his expression serious. “Is a boyfriend like getting married?”
“Not necessarily,” Mom said. “Sometimes a boy and a girl like each other a lot and spend time together. And they might get married someday, but they might not.”
“Oh. Okay, because Grace is gonna marry Asher.”
I met my mom’s eyes right as a flush hit my cheeks. “What?”
Mom’s lips curled in an amused smile. “Is she? What makes you think that?”
“She just is. Can I have more pizza?”
“I’ll get it.” I took his plate and got up, glad for an excuse to leave the table.
Why had that flustered me so much? I should have been able to laugh off his comment. He wasn’t even four; what did he know?
But there had been a time when I’d thought I would marry Asher Bailey.
I’d already accepted that Asher didn’t see me that way. We’d grown up together. How could a guy be attracted to a girl when he’d caught frogs in a creek and rolled down grassy hills with her? When they’d pummeled each other with snowballs and built forts in the woods together? I was probably like a sister to him.
His brothers certainly treated me like a sister, and that had always felt natural. They basically were my brothers.
But Asher… he’d always been different. I’d never seen him as a brother, not even when we were little kids. Best friend? Yes. Brother? No.
By the time I’d reached my teens, I’d started noticing things about him. The muscles in his arms and his thick, athletic thighs. His deep brown eyes, sharp cheekbones, and chiseled jaw. His charming smile. Asher was gorgeous and it had been impossible not to develop a crush on my best friend.
But he hadn’t felt the same. In fact, the older we’d gotten, the more we’d grown apart. Looking back, I figured it was just how these things happened. He’d wanted to date girls, not climb trees and splash in mud puddles with one. And since he hadn’t wanted to date me, here we were.
I glanced back at Elijah. He was too young to remember the days when Asher and I had been inseparable. So what had given him the idea that we were going to get married?
It was probably because the circle of people Eli knew mostly included me, Mom, and the Baileys. He didn’t realize there was a whole world of people out there, and that growing up next door to someone didn’t mean you’d marry each other someday.
Someone knocked on the front door and Elijah popped out of his chair. “I wanna get it!”
I put Eli’s second piece of pizza at his now-empty place at the table. He threw open the door and a little thrill of excitement I didn’t want to feel made my stomach flutter.
It was Asher.
4
Asher
“Asher!” Elijah said, throwing the door open. “We have pizza and Grace is home.”
“Hey, buddy.” I ruffled his hair, but my attention was only partially on him.
Grace stood next to their kitchen table with her hand on a chair. Her hair was up in that cute ponytail she always wore, and her feet were bare. She had bright blue eyes and an upturned nose, and her full lips parted when she smiled at me.
Damn, those eyes. And that smile. She lit up the whole room.
I opened my mouth to say hi—I needed to stop staring at her before this got weird—but Elijah hooked his hands around my forearm and lifted his legs, hanging from my arm like it was a tree branch.
“Whoa.” I flexed to keep him steady and lifted him off the ground. “There’s a monkey on my arm.”
“Eli, don’t do that,” Grace said.
I carried him inside, his feet dangling. “It’s too bad there’s only this monkey here and no little boys.”
Elijah laughed. “Why?”
“Because Gram made pie, and monkeys don’t get pie.”
His feet hit the floor and he let go. “I’m a boy. Can I have some?”
“I don’t know. You’ll have to go ask Gram.”
Without another word, he dashed out the open door.
“Sorry if I ruined his dinner. Gram asked me to invite you over for pie before my brothers eat it all.” I gestured over my shoulder, jerking my thumb in the direction of our house.
“It’s fine; at least he ate one slice.” Naomi smiled and stood, wiping her hands on a napkin. “I better bring his shoes, since he ran off in socks.”
My gaze went to Grace again while Naomi grabbed Eli’s shoes and left. She’d moved toward me, or I’d moved toward her, or maybe both. For some reason it was kind of hard to tell what was happening, except that we were now only about a foot apart.
“Hey. Good to see you.”
The corners of her mouth lifted and something in her eyes tugged at me. “You too.”
The air felt thick, like there was an invisible barrier between us. She was only a step away, but it might as well have been a mile. I didn’t like it.