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Cam shovesa spoonful of potato salad toward my face. “Taste it.”

I take a bite.

“What do you think?” she asks, her eyes wide with anticipation.

“Damn good, girl! You made that?” I raise a questioning eyebrow. Cam isn’t a cook. She’s a boxed meal type of girl. A box of mac and cheese or a bag of ramen noodles have nothing on her. But food…with real ingredients? That’s a new skill.

“I know, right? Can you believe it? Did you know it has eggs in it? Isn’t that crazy? I never thought that potato salad included eggs.” She shrugs her shoulders, a content smile on her face.

I love seeing her this happy. It’s been a long time.

I shake my head in amusement and take a swig of beer. “Who are you? And what have you done with my best friend?”

“What can I say? Love makes you go soft. I'm officially soft and sappy, my friend.”

“Oh. My. God! Seriously!” I begin walking around, pretending to search for Cam under the table, in the pantry, and behind the couch. “Cam, where are you? Cam! Come back, Cammy! There's an imposter in the kitchen!” I yell obnoxiously.

Dropping the spoon in the potato salad, she holds her sides in laughter. “Stop! And you know I hate that name. It's too close to Candy, and Candy sounds like a stripper’s name.”

“Ah, there’s my girl. Some of that Campbell Grace feistiness is coming back.” I place my beer on the counter, walk around behind Cam, and wrap my arms around her in a forceful hug. “No, really, I’m just teasing. I'm very happy for you. You remind me of your old self, and if I’m honest, I have missed her.”

“I don’t think I can get her back, Lex.”

I release her and hop up onto the counter next to the bowl, my legs dangling. “Well, of course, you'll never be the same girl you were when you were eighteen, but you would be different now, anyway. People change. We grow up. Right now, you're the best you’ve ever been. You have some of your carefree happiness back, but you still have your attitude. You are the perfect version of yourself.”

She chuckles dryly, shaking her head. “I don’t know about that.”

“Well, I do.” I slap my hands on my thighs. “Okay, enough about you. Who all is coming to this shindig?”

“The normal people.”

“And they are?”

“The same people who were here the first time you came to one of Deacon’s barbecues with the addition of Claire and Ben and some of the other firefighters.”

“So Boss will be here?” I swallow.

“Yep, he will.”

I swing my legs back and forth as nervous energy builds in my stomach, causing me to feel queasy. “Oh, that’s great.” I sigh.

“Don’t stress about it. He's a great guy, and he'll be cool regardless of how you two ended it. He’s not one to hold grudges or dredge up the past. Just be yourself, and you'll get along fine.”

She finishes placing the sliced tomatoes next to the onions and other burger fixings on a tray.

“Yeah, I know. I just feel stupid with how I acted last time,” I admit with a shrug of my shoulders.

“No one is perfect, Lex. I think we all know that too well. So you made a mistake. Who the fuck cares, right? No one here is going to hold it against you. These are good people.” She squeezes my knee.

“Right. Yeah, it’s fine.” I chug a bottle of water and toss the empty into the recycling bin before I grab another. “Totally fine.”

CHAPTER16

BOSS

Deacon mentioned earlier this week that he was flying Lexi in this morning. I’m glad he gave me the heads-up, but it doesn’t make me any less nervous.

Why am I nervous?

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