He smiled brightly as he walked backwards down the steps. “Absolutely.”
“Hi, Aaron,” Jodi sing-songed as they passed each other. She turned her attention to me, giving me a silent thumbs-up as she waggled her eyebrows suggestively.
I rolled my eyes.
Jodi practically tackled me once she got to the porch, and I stumbled back at the impact.
“I have been waiting for days to come see you and that mean old brother of yours wasn’t having any of it,” she whined into my neck.
“You saw me this morning,” I said.
She let me go. “Doesn’t count. But now that you’re back at Gigi’s, I can bring you my specialty smoothie whenever I want.”
I accepted the smoothie she held out. It was green, and didn’t smell great. “Um. Thanks.”
“It’s a spinach-lime smoothie with bananas and blueberries, along with a scoop of protein powder. I promise it tastes better than it looks.”
I took a tentative sip. “Oh wow,” I said. “It’s actually good.”
She rolled her eyes and smiled, and for a moment, she looked so much like her brother it made my brain stutter. “Yes, it actually is.”
I sat on the porch swing and patted the empty space next to me. “Sorry. But it is a pretty impressive shade of green.”
She settled beside me and we began to move back and forth. “Videos of baby goats aside, I’ve missed you.”
I winced. She was diving straight in.
She continued. “And if you’re really only staying the six months, fine, but you need to know how I feel.” She took a deep breath and I braced myself. “When you left, it was like I lost a brother and a sister.”
My stomach clenched. I’d truly had enough of the deep emotions today, but we needed to have this conversation.
I faced her. “Losing your brother…I couldn’t stay here, Jodi, surrounded by memories that were everywhere I turned. He was my life. He was this town. And once I left, it was all I could do to stay in touch with Gigi and Rick and Ceci. Mainly because I knew they’d send a search party out for me if I didn’t.”
Jodi reached for my hand and squeezed. “I might have stalked Ceci to keep up with you.”
“I believe it. But being back here,” I swallowed, “it’s a lot. It’s,” I sighed, unable to put the past week and a half into words. And now? With Aaron? What the hell was I doing? “Just, a lot.”
Jodi gave me an understanding look. “You don’t have to feel guilty, Devon.”
I felt guilty, all right. Only it wasn’t just about not keeping in touch with her.
“But we couldn't really…grieve without you here. You know? We needed you. It’s OK that you couldn’t do it, no one blamed you. But that doesn’t mean we didn’t need you.”
“I’m so sorry,” I whispered. “I was an asshole.”
She gave a watery laugh. “Yeah. You were.” She wiped her eyes and stood. “Could you stop?”
“Being an asshole? I’ll try,” I quipped.
She looked at me thoughtfully. “I should go. I’ll check on you later?”
I nodded, still sitting on the swing.
She hesitated, then closed the distance to wrap her arms around me in a quick hug. “Okay. Um. Bye.” She bounded down the steps.
I stared after her. What was I supposed to do with all these feelings blowing through me? I’d never known. I guess that was part of the problem. Losing Jason had nearly flattened me, and I swore to myself that I’d never go through that again.
The only way to do that was to get the hell out of this town as soon as the six months were up.
And stay away from Aaron.
11
AARON
BREAKFAST SHOULDN’T BE this hard. But when you’re cooking it for a bunch of ungrateful guys in a firehouse, it is definitely a pain in the ass. I slapped Price’s hand as he reached for the bacon.
“Owww,” he whined, cradling his hand against his chest. “The hell, man?”
“Wait till everything’s on the table,” I shot back.
“I was just going to see if it was crispy enough. You never make it crispy enough.”
I rolled my eyes. “Ten years I’ve been making you breakfast and this is the first time you say anything about me not making the bacon crispy enough? Fuck off.” I shooed him away with a laugh.
My only comfort was that the kitchen was big and bright. The windows were huge, the dishes were mismatched, the right front eye of the gas stove always needed a little extra love, and the appliances were new in the nineties, but the square footage was phenomenal. I’d take what I could get.
Chief pulled condiments out of the once-white fridge. “Price, set the table.”
