Page 87 of Yours and Mine (Friends with Benefits)

“I guess since we’re technically not married, I’m still single.” I kissed him on the cheek and hurried toward the group of girls.

Marge winked at me before turning around. The moment she did, I felt like a swarm of bees was buzzing around me, squeezing me into the center. Except they were girls, all single girls. From the corner of my eye I saw Molly standing at the side. I waved to her to come over, but she shook her head.

It was all over before I got a chance to lift my hands in the air. The bouquet was coming straight for me. I felt a push on my right, then on my left, also from the back, and as I concentrated so I wouldn’t fall or get stepped on, the flowers hit my head and were snatched by Katie, a girl from our school, one year younger than me.

Marge mouthed, “I’m sorry” toward me and blew me a kiss. I went back to Nick, pouting. I never realized just how much I’d wanted to catch those flowers.

“What’s the matter?” Nick took me into his arms.

“I didn’t catch the bouquet.”

“You don’t believe in the superstition, do you? We make our own destiny, Jo. You and I, well, there’s no doubt in my mind that one day this will be us.” He pointed to our parents.

“I love you, Nicholas.”

“I love you too, Joelle.”

That last week Nick was home, my mood shifted from bad to worse. I stopped jogging, stayed in bed longer than usual, and dreaded the final goodbye. As much as I wanted our time together to last longer, it only seemed to speed up, and then Nick was gone.

Chapter 21

“Jo!” I heard Carter call me from outside, and I opened my eyes.

“Yo, Jo!” he called out again, in a loud whisper.

What in the world is he doing?

I put on a pair of sweats and a shirt and went out to meet him. My father and Marge were already at the bakery, and given that I’d been feeling under the weather, I had stayed in bed longer than usual. Still, this was way too early for Carter to be calling me outside my window.

I opened the front door and met him on the front porch. “Do you know what time it is?”

“Seven?”

“Quarter to.”

“I thought you bakers wake up early.”

“And I thought you were studying for the firehouse.”

“I’m off today, and I’m knee-deep in trouble.”

“What happened?”

He pointed to his left, where a familiar cow was standing by the roadside, chewing on the chrysanthemums I had planted by the driveway. It had been two weeks since Nick left, and I couldn’t get myself to smile, no matter how much my parents, Carter, and Molly tried, but something told me that today would be the day I broke through.

“Betsy escaped. She came to my house this morning, and now she won’t stop following me.”

“Carter, what does this have to do with me? Couldn’t you have brought her back to Mrs. Gladstone’s and tied her up, instead of walking her here?”

“I would have, if she didn’t moo at me each time I approached.”

“That’s what cows do. They moo.” I chuckled at Carter’s perplexed face. He was acting like a complete city boy, as if he’d never seen a cow before.

“Yeah, but this one’s different. Watch.”

He took a wary step toward Betsy, who of course never stopped watching him from the side, and stopped when she bobbed her head up and down.

“See, she’s going to attack.”

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