Page 31 of Friends Don't Kiss

But for now, I set the star on a small paper plate next to the computer and mumble thank you.

I duck back into the bay right as Owen Parker appears, dangling the keys to his BMW, and slide back under the Corvette

“Owen,” I hear Orson say. “Why don’t you relax and have a muffin, yeah?”

I roll to the side in time to see Owen ignore the baked goods, his gaze instead trailing Kiara up and down with a gleam I can’t stand.

I roll from under the car, wipe my hands, and stomp back to the waiting room. By the time I get there, he’s chatting Kiara up, and she’s telling him about the hard time she’s having finding a commercial space within her budget.

“Full service, yeah?” I interrupt him, getting on the computer. “We’ll have her ready by tonight. D’you want the loaner?”

“Just a ride into town,” he says, looking at Kiara. “You going that way?”

“I’ll give you a ride,” I say. “Or you can have the loaner. Kiara isn’t going that way.” I grab my keys and open the door for him.

Ignoring Orson’s belly laugh behind me, I take a deep breath, step out, tilt my head up to the wide expanse of bluebird sky, my gaze following a cardinal until it lands within the cottony arms of a bush covered in snow.It’s gonna be alright.

“How’s business?” Owen asks once we’re in my truck. I expected him to rib me about being territorial about Kiara. I guess he’s matured and I haven’t.

“Pretty good. Better’n expected, actually. How ’bout you?”

“Good, good. Can’t complain.” Owen is the only lawyer in town, and everyone knows him. I stop at the intersection of Maple and Elm. Ms. Angela takes her sweet time crossing, then stops right in the middle of the crosswalk to wave at us, beaming.

We wave back.

As she trots to the other side—not because she’s holding traffic but because her friend Cheryl calls her from the steps of Shy Rabit—Owen says, “Tell me, how would you feel about joining the Select Board?” Only the largest cities in Vermont have mayors. The rest of us are governed by Select Boards, and their meetings are public. A good way to make sure all topics are discussed in the open, and no single person has the monopoly of decision-making. Cassandra is on the Select Board, as well as my mother’s friend Lynn, my friend Noah, and Owen.

Owen and I have history, and it’s not a pretty one. But it’s old history. Still, the fact he’s asking piques my interest.

I clear my throat and make a right into Morgan Way. “I don’t know, Owen. I’m not good at all this… debating stuff. I just like things to get done. No offense but you guys spend too much time talking. I don’t think I’d be good at—”

He turns in his seat to face me. “Well and that’s why you’d be the right person! No nonsense. Straight shooter. Get the stuff done. We need someone like you. Can you believe Stan moved away and despite posting the vacancy on Echoes several times now, only that old witch Louise came forward? People have no sense of civic duty. And I don’t mean you,” he adds quickly.

I give him my non-committal answer. “I’ll think about it.”

“Really?” He sounds genuinely pleased. Almost impressed. “We’d need to have your application in soon, so we can review it before the selection meeting.”

I nod. “Cassandra told me.” She asked me at Millie’s, the morning I fixed Kiara’s car, and again another time. I kept telling her I’dthink about it.

I pull up to Owen’s office, a brick federal building on a tree-lined street right off The Green.

He beams. “Ca-Cassandra? See? If you can make Cassandra and me see eye to eye… you’re really the person we need.” He gets out the truck, then leans back in. “I hope you join us,” he says, and for once I believe he’s being honest.Whyhe wants me to join is another story.

By the time I’m back at the garage Kiara is gone, and I get back to work with a low-level frustration that doesn’t let up until the end of the day.

But that evening at Lazy’s, sitting alone at the bar in front of my beer while Kiara and her girlfriends are laughing at a booth, the plan takes perfect shape in my brain.

There’s no rush. There’s a perfect place and a perfect time and a perfect way this is going to happen. I didn’t see it until now.

So for the next few weeks, I just let her be.

eleven

Kiara

WhyamIgoingto this engagement party again? I promised myself—promised—I wouldn’t deal with them for at least another year.

Yet here I am.

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