Page 635 of Cold Case, Warm Hearts

“I know,” Jessica said.

Kendall’s face turned cherry red. Sydney wondered if there had ever been anything between them.

Jessica called out to everyone, “Y’all go sit down, and I’ll start putting the food on the table.”

Sydney moved to join the group until Jessica stopped her. “Would you mind helping me in the kitchen?”

“Not at all.” Sydney’s mind went back to an incident that occurred when she and Jessica were in the fifth grade.

“Mom,I want that ribbon for my hair,” Jessica said.

“Here, we’ll cut it in half. Then you and Cindy will match.” Mrs. Winters snipped the royal blue ribbon and handed a length to Cindy.

“Thank you, Mrs. Winters.”

Mrs. Winters clucked her tongue. “Cindy, please call me Ruth. I’m much too young to be aMrs.”

Jessica’s eyes narrowed. “You cut mine crooked. I’m going to fix it.” She grabbed the scissors and started snipping while Cindy tied her ribbon in a bow around her ponytail.

“Now mine’s too short!” Jessica’s lips formed a pout and her eyes went to Cindy’s hair. “Hers looks good, and mine looks terrible!”

Before Cindy knew what was happening, Ruth reached out with the scissors and snipped the ends of her ribbon so it would look just like Jessica’s.

“What wouldyou like for me to do?” Sydney asked, trying to put the incident back in the past. That was a long time ago. It was possible that Jessica had changed over the years. She should at least give her the benefit of the doubt.

“Put the ice in the glasses, will you?”

Sydney nodded.

Jessica moved close to Sydney, and her voice lowered to a whisper. “I’m so glad you and Kendall are dating.”

“Excuse me?”

Jessica charged on. “Kendall’s been so down in the dumps these past few months. It’s good to see him smiling again.”

Sydney raised an eyebrow. “Why has Kendall been down?”

The corners of Jessica’s full mouth turned down. “Didn’t he tell you? I thought you knew.”

“Knew what?”

At least Jessica had the decency to look embarrassed, whether or not that was truly the case. “Kendall and I were—um—we used to go together.”

Sydney’s mouth went dry.

“I broke Kendall’s heart. I didn’t know whether or not he’d ever get over it.” She looked at Sydney. “I always knew he’d eventually settle … um, find someone else.”

“Hey, what’s takin’ so long?” Chuck’s yelled.

Sydney stepped away from Jessica and began chunking cubes of ice in the glasses.

“We’re coming,” Jessica called back at him. “Just be patient.”

Jessica pulled out cans of Ginger Ale. “I’ll pour, and you take them to the table.” She smiled. “So glad we had our little chat.”

Jessica filled the glasses so full that Sydney had to walk slowly to keep them from spilling on the floor. She finally got all the glasses to the table except for her own. She went back to retrieve it and noticed that there was only an inch of soda in her glass. She looked at Jessica who shrugged and said, “Sorry, that’s all there was left.”

Sydney tooka bite of chicken parmesan. The fact that it was indeed very good made Jessica’s earlier comments sting even more.

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