Page 27 of Seeing You

Luckily, he laughed. “I promise to behave.”

It would have been easy to say yes, but she was still hesitant. “I need to think about this. It seems so fast and…”

“It’s been ten years. If anything, it’s long overdue.”

Another nod. “I’ll meet you up there at say…six? I have to get up really early in the morning, so I go to bed early.”

“I can pick you up. That’s not a big deal.”

“But if we get into a fight, neither of us is going to want to get in the car together and I certainly don’t want to have to call Levi or Chloe or Ashlynn to come and get me.”

“I promise you right here, right now, in front of…your coworker here, that won’t happen.” He looked over at Jade. “You have my word that this will be a completely cordial and pleasant evening.”

“He sounds sincere, Bill,” Jade said. “But I’ll make sure your brother doesn’t go to sleep until you text that you’re home. How does that sound?”

Marcus looked between the two of them in confusion.

“Oh, Jade’s my sister-in-law,” she explained. “Jade, Marcus. Marcus, Jade.”

After they exchanged pleasantries, he went back to looking at her, waiting for an answer. “What do you say? Can I take you to dinner? Please?”

Inwardly she groaned, but maybe it was time for them to just talk everything through and get the closure like he said. She’dspent far too many years agonizing over the way things went down. For all she knew, this one dinner would help her break free and finally move on. Maybe this was the thing that had been holding her back from finding a man to fall in love with.

Finally, she nodded. “Okay. That would be nice. Thank you.” Letting out a soft sigh, she asked, “So, what else can I get for you? I have the banana chocolate chip muffins today, and I promise to give it to you free of charge.”

He laughed softly. “That’s not necessary. I deserved the muffin to the face.”

“Well…”

“Okay, other than the muffin, let me get a slice of the lemon pound cake, two chocolate chip cookies, two pieces of coffee cake, and a blueberry muffin.”

“You got it!” After boxing everything and ringing him up, she gave him her address and told him she’d see him at six.

Please don’t let this be a mistake.

At four-thirty, Billie opened her front door to find Ashlynn standing there with an armload of clothes and a duffel bag.

“Um…what are you doing here?”

She took one look at Billie and huffed. “It looks like I’m just in time. Is that what you’re doing with your hair?” And before she could utter a word, her sister was walking down the hall toward the bedroom.

“Ash? Seriously, what are you doing here?” She caught up with her in her primary bathroom and found her setting up brushes and sprays. “Well?”

Without stopping, Ash replied, “Jade told me you’re going out with Marcus tonight. You need to look amazing so he can eathis heart out and realize everything he lost. I’m here to help with your hair, makeup, and what you’re going to wear.”

“I don’t need any help. I think my hair looks fine and I was just going to wear my black pants and a floral blouse. No big deal.” But then she looked at herself in the mirror and realized she looked tired and a little washed out. “And for the record, I’m not trying to make him eat his heart out or even impress him. This is strictly so we can have the conversation that we never had, and then we can move on.”

“Pfft…I call bullshit on that one.”

“What? Why?”

“Sit. I need to get started on your hair.”

No sooner had Billie sat, than Ash was running a brush through her hair and waving the curling iron around.

“First of all, it’s always about making an ex eat their heart out. Even if it was an amicable breakup, you always want them to have regret. It’s just science.”

“Yeah, um…I don’t think that’s a thing…”

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