“That’s all I’ll ask for now. If you decide to join us, we’re congregating at Taren’s. She and Zane run Hayes Orchard and Cidery and their farm is on the outskirts of town, off Brightmeadow Lane.”
I wave goodbye as she walks away. Maybe I will join them. Mom has her knitting circle on Saturday evenings, and she’s been nagging me to make friends.
Chapter Three
Mike
My brother is oneof the most buttoned-up, holds his own counsel, people I know. But he’s a great listener and when he does say something, it’s on point and usually the perfect solution.
“She’s back,” I mumble morosely over my pizza.
It’s our weekly Friday night football ritual - pizza from Salvatori’s, beer and ESPN on the wide screen with surround sound. I don’t know how Derek swings it, but he never has to work night shift during football season. There are only threeother deputies, so the tradeoff has to be a nightmare. He’s probably doing their laundry or mucking out stalls.
Or maybe he volunteers for the graveyard shift for the rest of the year. He’s always stuck working Christmas and New Year’s Eve, so maybe that’s the sacrifice he makes.
When I don’t elaborate Derek shakes his head. “There’s only one girl that ever made you question the entire meaning of your life. Bianca. ”
“Dude. It’s like she never left and time just stood still until WHAM SHAZAAM I’m in deep again the second I see her.”
“Maybe you need a catharsis.”
“A catharsis? You mean like an exorcism?
“No. You need to ger her out of your system for good. Maybe the only way to do that is to bang her and kill all those fantasies.”
I don’t think that’s the answer. I think it’ll just make my infatuation worse. “What if banging her has the opposite effect?”
He shrugs. “It’s a chance you have to take if you ever really wanna know for sure.”
I almost kissed her behind the curtains the day we were re-introduced. And I swear she has more freckles scattered across the bridge of her nose. I always wondered if she had themsprinkled in other places too. Maybe she’ll let me play connect the dots or draw constellations on her skin.
“So you think I should ask her out?”
He cocks his head. “Yeah, that would be the logical place to start.”
Great, my younger brother thinks I’m an idiot with no chill when it comes to women. “I have game,” I defensively tell him.
His eyes glimmer with a hint of mischief. “I never said you didn’t, Big Brother. But I never thought I’d see the day you came to me for advice about a woman.”
“I wasn’t really asking for advice.”
He snorts. “If you say so. Just do me a favor and don’t let on how much you like her. Or that you never stopped liking her. Letting a woman know you’ve carried a torch for that long makes you sound desperate.”
“I’ve been married.”
Derek rolls his eyes. “Your marriage doesn’t count. It only lasted for a year. You didn’t even make it out of the honeymoon stage.”
“We weren’t right for each other. And she was on the rebound. As soon as her ex was free again she filed for divorce. The only good thing that came out of that fiasco was the kid.”
“It would have ended anyway, bro. You never got over Bianca Cassidy. And yeah, Brady definitely makes life more interesting.”
“It’s not like that. I was over her when I got married.”
“You can lie to me, but don’t lie to yourself. Tell me what your plans are this weekend.” He crosses his arms and raises a brow.
“I’m fixing some fence for Bianca’s mom.”
“And if you catch a glimpse of your lifelong crush in the process it’s a bonus.”