Page 26 of Rim Shot Rebound

Kelsey wasn’t sure she could handle pizza, but she’d heard the place had good salads. Not to mention house-made cheese curds. One cheese curd wouldn’t kill her. “Sounds great.”

“Any particular reason you spaced out back there?” Natalie asked about half a block down the road. “I saw you leave with Eric in his car Saturday.”

Kelsey laughed. “And you waited until today to ask me about it? Wow. I’m impressed.”

“You should be. My restraint on this has been downright fucking fantastic.”

Thank goodness for Natalie. Kelsey needed a good laugh. And a few extra curse words. She reined them in around Eric. Not because he’d asked her to or that he ever would, but because she knew it bothered him. A little, at least. Most of the time she wasn’t even consciously watching her language. She simply matched his. It just kind of sort of happened after a while together.

“Well?” Natalie asked.

So much for restraint.

“We hung out.” Kelsey smiled remembering that afternoon. How she’d relaxed more and more with every step. “He took me on a brewery tour.”

Natalie nearly tripped over her own feet as she snort-laughed. “Oh my gosh. How the hell did you weasel out of that?” She paused. “Or did you tell him?”

“No. It was fine. We did the tour, then I told him I got too much sun on the gig.”

“Being pasty paid off?”

“This time,” she said. “And he was really…I don’t know. It was good.”

“And?”

“And we went back to his place to work on the new song.”

“And?” Natalie’s voice got deeper with each repetition of the word.

“And the song is really coming along.”

“And?”

Kelsey cleared her throat. The pizza place was ahead on their right. “And then we stopped working on the music.”

“And?” Natalie dragged the word out long and slow. No way Kelsey was going to weasel out of this.

“And we talked. About a lot of stuff. I didn’t tell him, but we had a really good talk.”

They stopped in front of the door, and Natalie blocked it with one hand on the handle. “Then why didn’t you tell him?”

There wasn’t an easy way to make Natalie understand. Not really. But the worst part was that Kelsey was having a hard time making herself understand lately, too.

“What if nothing has really changed? What if we end up right back where we were?”

Natalie frowned. “That’s a fair question.” After a few seconds, she pulled the door open and held it for Kelsey to walk inside. “But what if you don’t? What if, this time, everything works out the way it’s supposed to?”

Kelsey waited a second and considered. Natalie was right, of course. That was all just as possible as her doomsday fears. The more she listened to Natalie and the more time she spent with Eric, the more she believed that maybe there could be a future for them.

“Inside, Kel. There’s pizza inside. Good damn pizza.”

Kelsey laughed, then walked through the door.

Natalie followed her inside. “Now, after we order, you can tell me all about the other stuff you left out.”

 

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