Page 100 of The Cost of Forgetting You

“Mostly spent time with my uncle, Gary.” Tess’s eyes widen. “Still weird to call him that.”

“Tess recently found out she has an uncle she’s never heard of,” Alicia explains. Her gaze flits back to Tess. “How’d you find him again?”

Tess shrugs. “One of those DNA testing kits. Apparently my grandpa knocked someone up in college and she never bothered to share the news. Gary didn’t even know the man who raised him wasn’t his dad.”

“That’s wild,” I say.

“Right? What’s crazy is, it felt like I’d known him forever.” Her gaze softens, the corners of her mouth drooping. “He reminds me so much of my mom.”

“Did he have a wife? Kids? Do you have a bunch of cousins, too?” Alicia asks.

“No, his wife had already passed, and they didn’t have any kids.” Something in Tess’s expression shifts. “Lots of friends who he treats like his children though.”

Alicia smirks. “Including the guy who was determined to woo you?”

“Yes. That guy was a menace.” Tess waves her hand dismissively. “Gotta give him credit for persistence, I guess.”

I snort. “He sounds like Truett.”

Tess’s gaze shifts to me. “Is that your boyfriend?”

The sip I’d taken catches in my throat, and I cough. “God, no.”

“Truett Parker. His family had that cattle farm off Sowell Mill Road,” Alicia supplies.

The waiter returns, buying me time to clean myself up. The mimosas are a myriad of colors ranging from classic orange to an unnaturally vibrant blue. He places them on the table, narrowly avoiding taking out my water glass.

“Ready yet?” he asks, eyes on Tess.

“Sure.” She sighs, passes him a paper menu she must’ve lifted from the checkout counter, and orders with a charming smile that sends him swooning.

Now I see how we got tableside service.

Alicia and I panic-order from memory, which certainly gives her a leg up, since I’ve only been here once before. The cashier-turned-waiter scrawls it all down on the back of his hand, then disappears to calm the masses waiting at the counter.

“I remember Truett, I think, now that you mention it. Blond hair, dimple, painfully attractive?” Tess giggles, unaware that she’s brought this entire restaurant to a standstill with her beauty.

Now that’s what I call remarkable.

Jealousy sparks in my chest, unwarranted and irrational. I take a sip of the bright blue mimosa—artificially sweet but delicious—to bury that feeling.

Alicia shoulder-bumps me. A smirk stretches her vibrant pink lips. “How are things going with him?”

“Ooooooh.” Tess braces her elbows on the table and perches her chin on folded hands. “Gimme the scoop. Is he as dreamy out of those jeans as he is in them?”

“I thought you didn’t know him,” I quip, stalling. Heat creeps up my neck and shoots down my spine. I shift in my seat, but there’s nowhere for that feeling to go. It settles within me, a permanent fixture these days.

Tess laughs. It’s bright and breathy as a summer breeze. I wish I could be like that, all carefree and unaffected. No one meeting her would ever suspect her past is so marred. Meanwhile I carry mine around on my shoulders, a heavy coat even on a sweltering day like this one. People probably note it immediately as out of place. Note me as out of place. And I reinforce it by isolating myself further.

“I’m terrible with names,” Tess explains. “But I always remember a nice ass in Wranglers.”

I scan her features, each one more perfect than the next. She’s all things feminine and yet simultaneously so confident that she commands the room, even from this corner table. I couldn’t compete with a woman like that on my best day, and after yesterday’s events, I am certainly not at my best.

“Relax.” Tess reaches across the table and smooths her forefinger over the skin between my eyebrows. “I can practically hear those gears in your head working overtime. I’m not interested, just an admirer of fine art. Promise.”

“And besides,” Alicia adds, returning what smells strongly like a lavender mimosa to its slot on the board with a grimace, “Truett has only ever had eyes for you, Delilah.”

Tess claps excitedly, wriggling in her seat. “Oh, I love that! Soulmates!”

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