Page 24 of Endless Southern Love

Lemon fights hard not to roll her eyes. It’s an expression I’ve seen many times. Back in the day, I used to think it was cute. Today, it pisses me off. “Why you are being like this?” she asks under her breath.

I shake my head. “Have a good day, Ms. Walsh.” I exit and then turn around. “Fix the bullying issue without embarrassing my daughter or I’m going to the school board.”

“Wade—”

I don’t give her a chance to give me some fancy pants rebuttal or lame excuse. On my way out, I peek through the window of Goldie’s class and see her at her desk, smiling. I hope her grin stays there all day and she can actually enjoy herself.

When I finally make it to Jitterbug Coffee, the morning crowd has dissipated. I wave at Emma Sullivan who is a barista by day and bartender at night over at River’s Edge, as I make my way over to one of the tables in the corner. My mom sits there, sipping on a cup of coffee.

“Hey, Wade,” Emma says when she brings a cup over to me. “Black?”

“Yes, ma’am. Thank you.”

My mom leans forward and whispers. “So, why are we meeting?”

“I had a run in with Lemon this morning.”

Her eyes widen and I shake my head. “Not like that.” If Lemon and I had the kind of run in I wanted, I don’t know if I’d be telling my mom about it. I’d probably find the tallest cliff and scream it at the top of my lungs or call my best friend Jed. As is, the conversation we had left a lot to be desired and I’m not sure how to proceed. In all the years, I haven’t been able to shut off or change my feelings about her, and even now I’m wondering if she meant what she said.

“Anyway, this is going to sound odd, but I think she’s jealous of Goldie.”

“What?” Mom’s face scrunches. “That’s the silliest thing I’ve ever heard.”

“Right, but she said something this morning and now I can’t get it out of my mind.”

“Let’s start at the beginning, Wade. First of all, talking to Lemon is a good thing. When was the last time you spoke to her?”

I adjust my hat and sigh. “The day I went and told her about Ana being pregnant. She slammed her door in my face after telling me she never ever wanted to speak to me again.”

“So, did you do all the talking then?”

I shake my head. “Nope, she started in on me at five-thirty this morning. Yammering about how it’s too early to work and how she was going to call Declan.”

“Did she?”

“Nope.” I take a drink of my coffee. “Kept talking though, which I liked because that’s huge progress.”

“And you’re still alive,” Mom says.

“There’s that.” I laugh and take another drink. “But the talking turns to arguing, which doesn’t surprise me because we haven’t resolved any of those feelings from years ago. When I brought up the shit that happened at school, Lemon said something that struck me as odd.”

“That she’s madly in love with you?”

A smirk plays on my lips. I’d be over the moon happy if she’d said that. “No, she brought up me cheating on her?—”

“You were on a break!” Mom whisper yells and throws her hands up. “I swear that child . . .”

“You know this and so do I. She doesn’t believe we were. Anyway, she said something that gave me pause.” I wait for my mom to interrupt me, but she doesn’t. She raises her eyebrow as if I’m stalling. I clear my throat. “She asked if I cared how it made her feel to see Goldie every day.”

“What?”

“Odd?”

“Very.”

I nod. “Yeah, so I started thinking. Do you think Lemon’s jealous of Goldie?”

Mom sits back in her chair and fiddles with her mug while contemplating. Her face scrunches in concentration and then softens. “I could see her being jealous of Ana, but Goldie? Marigold is an innocent child in all of this.”

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