“And you’re doing all the flowers.” Mary-Beth added to the list before everyone gave her the sorrowful glance of lost loves and hopeless romantic notions.
“How you dealing with being on the farm?” Stella asked.
The table jolted, telling Mary-Beth someone had kicked Stella into submission.
“Stop. All of you, that was forever ago. I’ve moved on.” Mary-Beth looked across the table. “Now Jackie, though…”
Jackie held up her hand, as if trying to win a fly-swatting competition. “No. I’m not on trial here. We’re not having Ms. Horton’s wedding on my ex-boyfriend’s farm.” Jackie adjusted the leaves that Carissa had added and made them even more beautiful. That was her gift. Making things pretty.
“Please, he won’t even be there.” Mary-Beth lifted her own cup to her lips. “He’s been gone forever and a month.” Even as the words left her lips, she wondered how she’d make it through watching someone else marry on the spot she’d thought would be her wedding venue one day.
“A farm you thought you’d be living at for the rest of your life,” Jackie shot back.
Mary-Beth felt her hackles rise. “Maybe you’d be less prickly if you were to try dating.”
“Maybe you should take your own advice.”
Felicia cleared her throat. “You know, Declan took me to a great place in Creekside a few weeks ago.”
Poor girl tried to keep the peace, but she was going to develop an ulcer if she wasn’t careful, always negotiating the Fabulous Five drama. “Sounds nice. Maybe I’ll ask my date tonight if we can go there next time,” Mary-Beth announced to let Jackie know how wrong she was.
“This is date three tonight, right?” Jackie asked.
Mary-Beth eyed the cups. “Yeah, so?”
“We chipped in for a three-date gift.” Jackie’s expression morphed from combative to pleasant way too fast.
Mary-Beth’s hair stood on the back of her neck in warning of a friendship ambush. “That’s sweet of you, but I don’t need anything.”
“Oh, I think you’ll need these.”
Jackie opened the shoebox to unveil two pink, bedazzled, bejeweled, bewilderingly decorated tennis shoes. “Ah…thanks?”
“She figured you’d need these since you always run after the third date,” Stella said in an abrupt, I’m-not-sure-you-got-the-joke tone.
“I understand the purpose.”
“I tell you what. Let’s make this interesting.” Jackie’s evil grin made Mary-Beth stiffen. “You run from Seth, a guy you said after date one you thought you liked, then you have to wear these for one entire day in public.”
“And if I go on a fourth date, you have to go on one date with someone here in Sugar Maple of our choice.”
“Please, you’ll never go on a fourth date with anyone.”
“At least I go on dates. Unlike some people, I’ve moved on.”
“Ouch, southern girl’s been taking some lessons from me,” Stella mumbled under her breath but loud enough for all to hear.
Jackie shoved the shoes across the table and snagged her purse. “I don’t date because I’m not staying. I have plans for my life. But it’s a deal. That’s how confident I am you won’t make it through a fourth date.”
“It’s been over a year. When will you admit you’re not returning to the big city?” Mary-Beth asked but instantly wished she could pull her words back. They’d been friends without fail. Mary-Beth had even stayed by her side during the epic Judas Jackie man-stealing incident.
Jackie stiffened, her chin shot high, and she gathered her things.
Mary-Beth twirled her earring, trying to think of something witty to change the subject but decided on humble words instead. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to. I know it’s got to be harder to get over a divorce than a high school sweetheart running off for a college scholarship.”
Jackie pointed at the garland. “Make sure to finish that before you leave. I need to get to an appointment with a distributor for my new winter line.”
“Jackie, come on. I didn’t mean to hurt you.” Guilt ravished Mary-Beth, so she followed Jackie to the door.
Jackie paused, her gaze fixed out the front windows.
Mary-Beth yearned to make everything better for Jackie, but how do you repair a marriage that took down Jackie’s business and her heart all before she knew what was happening?
“I know that,” Jackie said. “I’m sorry, too.”
“For what?” Mary-Beth eyed Jackie, feeling a hint of warning creeping up from inside.
The roar of a bike echoed through the town square, and Jackie faced Mary-Beth with a questioning gaze. “I guess we’re about to see how well you’re really over Tanner McCadden.”
Mary-Beth’s muscles tightened, twisted, and turned her inside out. “What do you mean?”
Jackie pointed to a man unsaddling his Harley. He turned with the unmistakable football God, crowd pleasing, I’m-going-to-own-your-heart, sexy, haunting, lopsided grin.
Chapter Two
Leaves canopied the town square in rich crimson and yellow. Tanner had forgotten how beautiful Sugar Maple could be, with its rich vegetation and small-town charm. He removed his helmet, set it on the seat, and ran his hands through his disheveled, sweaty hair from the last four hours of driving.
The square looked familiar yet foreign, with new storefronts, more businesses, and new residents he didn’t recognize. That’s what happened when you avoided home for over a decade. Townspeople fluttered around the area, some gossiping about the dangerous stranger invading their territory, others pointing with a hint of recognition in their eyes. If he could’ve entered town incognito and ghosted away in the night, he would have, but that wasn’t going to be an option. Not with his brother deployed, his father gone, and his mom alone to run the entire farm.
He rubbed the pain in his chest. The one that reared up each time he thought of his father’s death. They’d been close once, before the man practically threw Tanner out of the tree house before he’d learned to fly. Sure, he’d come to his college football games until Tanner lost his scholarship and his father’s dream of Tanner making it to the NFL. After that, Dad had turned his back on his biggest disappointment, his eldest son.
“Well, if it isn’t Tanner, as we live, breathe, and I thought we’d probably die before he’d ever bless us with his presence again.” None other than Jaqueline Raynor strutted out the door of a coffeehouse with all the drama of a superstar attending an awards ceremony, and he had a feeling that he was about to witness a grand performance.
“Heya, Jackie.” He unzipped his jacket and slid it from his shoulders, buying himself a minute to prepare for whatever she was about to sling his way. His brother had filled him in on some stuff before he’d been shipped out, shortly after Tanner had left for college, and it sounded like the Fabulous Five had declared war on him. Well, the four since Mary-Beth had left for college before he could even pack for his own new life. Somehow, some way, he was labeled the bad guy, despite the fact that after they quarreled one time over his choice to attend Notre Dame instead of the University of Tennessee, she’d taken off without a word or phone call, and cut him out of her life forever. He’d been the one to try to patch things up, but she’d never answered any of his calls, text messages, notes. Nothing. She had ghosted him.