Page 16 of Secret Southern Promises

Lindsay let out a loud scoff. “As if it’s any of their business! And besides, didn’t you tell them you were over Boone years ago?”

“I thought I was,” I admitted, glancing down at my plate. “But then Boone walked into the store yesterday.”

There was a pause on the other end of the line before Lindsay’s voice came back, sharper this time. “Wait, Boone came into Magnolia Mart again?”

“Yep,” I said, already knowing where this was going.

“And?” she pressed.

“And he bought some groceries.”

“Girl,” Lindsay drawled. “You know I am going to need a play-by-play of what happened.”

I sighed and picked at the eggs on my plate. “Uh, well, he bought stuff and said he needed to figure out how to cook. I told him he’d either figure it out or ask someone for help. Then he suggested me and mentioned Mama’s ham salad. I told him TV dinners would be on sale next week if he couldn’t figure out how to cook.”

Lindsay let out a dramatic gasp. “Whoa, whoa, WHOA! Back it up to where he said youcould be the one to teach him how to cook.”

I rolled my eyes and took a bite of the eggs. “He didn’t mean anything by it, Lindsay.”

“Uh, why would you say that? Did hesayhe didn’t mean anything by it, or are you just downplaying the fact that the man wastotallyhitting on you?”

“Boone didnothit on me.”

“Yeah, he did,” she insisted, her voice smug through the phone.

“You weren’t even there,” I retorted. “He didnothit on me. He’s just desperate to figure out how to cook.”

“And out of all the people in Magnolia Grove, he wantedyouto help him. He didn’t ask Sam or Renee, did he?”

I wrinkled my nose at the thought. “God, no. I think I might puke if Boone dated either one of them.” Not that it should matter to me.

Lindsay laughed. “The man was hitting on you, Dolly. And he rightfully should. You broke his heart all those years ago, and now he’s back to make you his.”

“Wrong,” I said, dragging out the word. “He’s back because he got hurt. That’s it.”

“Yeah, but why Magnolia Grove? He could have gone anywhere, Dolly. Why here?”

That was a good question, one I didn’t have an answer to. Boone could have picked anywhere in the world, but he chose to come back to this small town. “I guess he still thinks of it as home.”

“Mm-hmm,” Lindsay hummed, clearly amused.

I narrowed my eyes, even though she couldn’t see me. “What does that ‘mm-hmm’ mean?”

“Oh, nothing. Just a thought popped in my head.”

“And what is that thought, Lindsay?” I asked, already feeling a headache coming on.

“Oh, nothing you need to worry about right now.” She cleared her throat quickly, dodging my question. “Oh, look at the time. I need to finish getting ready for work. Call me later, okay?” she said, her tone rushed.

I sighed, knowing she wasn’t going to give me a straight answer anytime soon. “Fine. Talk to you later,” I agreed and hung up the phone.

I looked down at my now-cold breakfast and sighed again, pushing the plate aside. The idea of eating had lost its appeal.

Boone West hadnotflirted with me. No way. He was just trying to learn how to cook, nothing more.

But, as much as I tried to convince myself of that, a small part of me couldn’t shake the thought that Lindsay might beright. Why had Boone come back to Magnolia Grove after all this time? Of all the places he could have gone, why here?

I didn’t want to dwell on it, but the questions kept circling in my mind. More than anything, I was worried about him finding out about Nash. I had spent so many years keeping that secret buried deep, and Boone coming back now was stirring everything up.

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