Page 17 of I Love a Good Challenge

“Oh, Lils.” She moves toward me. I know she wants to hug me, but I just can’t handle kindness right now. When it comes to Graham, I don’t deserve it.

Pivoting quickly and walking to the front of the store, I make a beeline for the pastry case. Our spring pastries are on display, and the lavender-and-honey macarons alone are enough to keep us in business this time of year, never mind our lemon crème-filled croissants.

“Lily Anne Thomas, don’t you run from me!” Sparrow appears beside me. A few customers look up from their once peaceful moment in our store to get in on the commotion.

“Don’t mind her.” I try to keep my voice cheerful while (lovingly) shoving Sparrow back toward the kitchen. She holds her ground, though. We’re in a weird standoff as she pushes me toward the registers, and I grip the counter in resistance. We’re grunting from the exertion of a tug of war with no rope. Suddenly, her hand slips over my eyes, and I squeal as she gains the advantage.

“Let me go!”

“No!” she insists. “Not until you tell me the rest. You’re just going to act like you hate him forever? You’re going to ignore him when you see him on the sidewalk?”

Drat. I should’ve known Graham would tell Rafe and that little sneak would tell my friend.

“Abandon ship!” I fiercely whisper while thinking again that there really should be better words for that level of volume.

“So, my best friend and Rafe’s best friend are just going to pretend they’re what . . . enemies?”

I lift my eyes toward the ceiling. Sparrow may have a few inches on me, but I’m scrappier. I untie the bow of her apron and hear her grumble of frustration as I wrap it around one of the cabinet handles. She releases me for only a second. Swiftly, I turn around to grasp the counter near the coffee station and pull myself away from her. I’m out of breath.

We look at each other for about three seconds before we burst into laughter. It’s loud, unrestrained amusement for how utterly ridiculous we are. And it feels good, even though I know I’m raw from vulnerability.

Sparrow wipes her eyes with her hand, and a flash of the lily tattoo on her wrist reminds me that she’s conducting this intervention for me. I peek toward the seating area, noticing Mrs. Kipper, one of our former schoolteachers, glaring at me over her coffee cup in the corner of the bakery. She points to the Quiet. Coffee is a private conversation. sign over one of the windows. It takes everything in me not to roll my eyes. The sign was a joke put there by Sparrow’s father, but Mrs. Kipper is clearly determined to ruin any sort of fun.

“We’re not in school,” I mutter. I stare down at the tattoo on my wrist of a sparrow in flight. Sparrow and I got them because of our bond. And it’s essential I remember that right now. “Are you mad?” I say in an undertone to my friend.

Sparrow’s eyes lock with mine, tears from our laugh fest still lingering at the corners of her eyes as she unwraps her apron string from the cabinet handle. “I’m not now.”

I nod, a bit relieved.

“I’m . . . concerned, though.”

She nods toward the back of the store. Anna has the good sense to start handing out samples, no doubt trying to cover for the little show we just gave our customers. Two friends attempting to get to the truth in a bizarre act of affection.

Back in the safety of the kitchen, I gather the ingredients I need to restart the chocolate I was tempering earlier. We have about a million (okay, that may be a bit of an exaggeration) chocolate bunnies to create this year for the egg hunt and Easter festivities, and I’m already behind. I can’t seem to work as fast with Graham in town.

Sparrow lingers near my station. “Lily, I love you. And I feel like I should’ve been a better friend and gotten to the bottom of what I was observing between you and Graham a lot sooner.”

I shrug. “We both know I wouldn’t have let you.”

Sparrow nods, her elegant frame going still. “Can you . . . are you still okay with being in my wedding?”

The hesitation in her voice guts me. I drop the ingredients on the counter, reach over, and pull her into a hug. I’m not an overly affectionate person with others, but there’s no way I will let her think she’s alone as she prepares for one of the most important days of her life. Besides Rafe and our crazy town, I know we’re the closest thing to family each other has. We are both only children, and my parents were always the more absent type. Sparrow and I see each other nearly every day—well, except for when I went off to LA, and we can see how that turned out with Graham and me.

Leaning back with my hands on her shoulders, I look her in the eyes. “Sparrow, I wouldn’t miss being a part of it for the world.”

Her eyes fill with tears. “Good. Rafe would’ve been devastated anyway.” She attempts a wink, but we both know she is incapable of winking, so it just looks like she’s having some sort of fit with one eye. Still, her attempt is admirable. “Will you behave?”

I laugh. “Oh, we both know that’s not possible.”

“Seriously, Lils, are you going to . . . what? Not be okay . . . but be able to make it through this? Really?”

I shrug and start melting the chocolate for the second time. “I’ll manage. We made an agreement, and I plan to drive him out of this town.”

“Lily,” Sparrow warns.

“It’s fine. I won’t physically harm him—intentionally. But having him constantly nearby is just burning me up inside. I can’t take it. I’m not sleeping.” I say the last point with a bit more inflection so she gets just how upsetting that part is. I need my sleep.

Sparrow shakes her head. “Where would you even send him? What do you mean drive him out of town? For the millionth time, we’re not in England, Lily. We may be a small town, but I swear you revert to olden days, like it’s perfectly acceptable to talk about ousting someone like this.”

---