“Now,” said Jennifer, “I have to remind you that you need to call twenty-four hours in advance if you need to cancel or reschedule, or your’ll lose the deposit.”
“I will do that. Thank you very much.” Mina hung up and set her phone on the table in front of her, nerves humming with something between anxiety and pure, wild hope. She’d done it! Modern woman makes modern decision to have a child without the help of a man. News at 10! She snorted again at her own joke and leaned back in the booth. Making the decision—that was always the hardest part. And now she really had done it. The wheels were turning on the next phase of her life.
Bette came by to clear her empty plate and leave a new pot of hot water. Mina poured it into her mug and dipped in a fresh tea bag. She felt like she’d just finished a marathon, or something equally hard and taxing. The next challenge waited right around the corner, but for now she could take a breath and celebrate. She considered the dessert menu. Maybe she’d have pie. Why not? Bette’s pie was the best in the world, and she’d done it. Next week, everything started.
A commotion at the door wrenched her attention away from the decision between chocolate cream and apple. The diner door stood open wide, cold air gusting in. A tall figure in a cowboy hat—that was about all she could see—was…surrounded by other patrons? Mina couldn’t help staring. They were asking for selfies. Regulars at Bette’s, asking for selfies? Who had shown up in town, some Hollywood movie star?
A male voice floated over the chatter, which had risen to a fever pitch in a matter of seconds. It sounded…vaguely familiar. A shiver moved down her spine. She dragged the dessert menu over in front of her and willed the other noises out of her mind.
“Live life at full throttle, right, Liam?” That was a shout from one Mr. Parks, who’d been the football coach at Benton Ridge High School for thirty years. He’d only just retired. But he still hadn’t forgotten Liam Wells. Who could ever forget Liam Wells? Nobody in Benton Ridge, that was for sure. And not Mina.
God, she wished she could forget him.
Liam Wells, big-time rodeo star from a small town. He played up being from Benton Ridge as though the town had just been a backdrop for the story of his life. And Mina had played a bit part in that life. Heat spread across her cheeks in a vicious blush. She was sixteen again, sitting at Bette’s. Staring at the same menu. Swallowing down humiliation at what Liam had done. Her throat went tight with it. Mina kept her butt firmly planted in the seat. Did she want to grab her purse and sprint out of here at top speed? Yes. But would she do that in front of Liam? Not a chance.
All that had happened a long time ago. She wasn’t a sixteen-year-old girl with a broken heart anymore. She was a fully-grown woman who was going to be a mother. Who was going to make all her dreams come true. End of story.
She forced herself to turn in her seat and flag down Bette, who came over with a knowing look on her face. Mina ignored that look. Even if Bette knew all the details of what had happened fourteen years ago—and Bette almost certainly did, because this was Benton Ridge and Bette knew everything—there was no way Mina wanted to have a conversation about it. “I need my bill, Bette,” she said with a tight smile. Bette brought it. In slow motion, Mina took her card from her wallet. In slower motion, Bette made a round of the diner and came back for the little plastic tray that held the bill. It took several eternities to ring her up while Liam Wells stood in the doorway, making the whole place cold and posing for photos.
Mina scribbled her signature on the bill as fast as she could, tipped her phone and wallet back into her bag, and yanked it over her shoulder. Her heart seemed ready to burst out of her throat. Door, car, home. Door, car, home. If she could just get out of here without actually running into him, everything would be all right.
She stood and scanned the diner. Liam had moved inside, over by the pie case, still half-surrounded by people. No time to think—just go.
She was three steps to the door when she heard her name. No. No, no, no. Not today.
Mina kept her eyes forward and pretended to be thinking of something extremely engaging. She got the door open a single inch before the hand came down on her shoulder. Her entire body stiffened at the touch, and the breath went out of her.
“It is you,” came Liam’s voice. “I thought it was. How are you, Mina? Long time, no see.”
Well, she couldn’t freeze him out in front of everybody at the restaurant, now could she? Bette would see, and then Bette would know that Mina still had feelings about what had happened in high school. She turned to face him, feeling like a puppet on strings.
God, Liam Wells was handsome. His green eyes blazed out from a face that could have been cut from stone. Her stomach did a slow flip. “Liam, hi.” A strange, uncalled-for heat burned across the pit of her belly. Words—she could keep talking to him. She had to keep talking. “What are you doing in town?”
He gestured toward his leg. “Recuperating from an injury.” A frown darkened his perfect, stupidly perfect, face. “I’m stuck taking the winter off and rejoining the circuit in the spring. What about you? Do you still work down at the department store?”
He remembered. “No, I moved on a long time ago.” Why did she care that Liam remembered? It didn’t matter. “I work from home now. I’m a graphic designer.” She did more—she had a fashion blog and had recently been working with a friend from college to actually design clothes. But Liam didn’t need to know that.
Liam moved closer, his half-smile making her knees feel like Jell-O that hadn’t quite set. “Good for you. Honestly, that’s amazing. And you look amazing, too.”
She turned her head to the side so she didn’t have to face the compliment head-on. “Thank you.”
“If there’s anything you need, you call me, all right?” Liam drew a business card from his pocket and pressed it into her hand. “I know I still owe you.”
She stood there, frozen, holding the business card. Liam tipped his hat and turned away. His first step looked painful. Mina made it a point not to know things about Liam Wells, but it looked like whatever injury he’d had had hurt him. Still, by the time he got back to the pie case, there was no sign of the limp. Like he didn’t want people to know he was still hurting.
He glanced back over his shoulder. Their eye contact was brief, a blink—but she saw it, and she knew he was looking for her reaction.
She wasn’t going to give him one.
Mina went out onto the sidewalk, the wind a sharp contrast to the heat of the diner and Liam’s eyes, and shoved the business card into her purse. “I don’t need you, Liam Wells,” she said to the snowflakes lightly falling to the earth. “I don’t need anybody.”
2
Mina’s grandmother gave her a hard look from across the table at the nursing home. The tea Mina had poured for her had gone cold half an hour before, and Mina could sense that the visit was coming to an end. It hurt every single time.
“Grandma Aileen,” she said, keeping her voice light despite the ache in her heart. “Would you like some more tea?”
Her grandmother picked up the teacup with trembling hands and peered into it. “I’ve already got tea. Quite a bit,” she said. “Quite a bit.”