Page 13 of Cozy Girl Fall
“Pen.”
Penny’s ass hit the stool as she sat back down abruptly, reminded of the other aspect of Tasha’s friendship that had always been invaluable, if only slightly frustrating: Tasha was never afraid to call Penny on her bullshit.
“I quit my job. Spectacularly,” Penny blurted. There was no point in lying to Tasha; she’d always been able to tell when Penny was talking out of her ass. “My boss was an asshole. Like, with a capital ‘A’. I couldn’t take it anymore.” She shrugged. “I snapped, screamed at him in front of a restaurant full of people, quit mid-shift, and drove back to Magnolia Springs the next day.”
Tasha’s mouth hung open and she slowly shook her head. “If I didn’t know you so well I would have thought you were lying.”
“Yeah, not so much. Just the sad truth.” Penny understood the reaction. She was generally more inclined to apologize to the waiter for them getting her order wrong than to kick up a fuss,ever.
“It brought you back here to us though, which I can’t be too sorry about,” Tasha said, a small smilecurving her mouth. “You know I’m a big believer ofeverything happens for a reason.”
“Things have definitely beenhappening,” Penny muttered. “But yeah, I’ll be helping my parents at the orchard for the foreseeable future. Until I can find a new culinary job anyway.”
“Well, I’m glad you‘re here anyway. Just do me a favor?” She waited for Penny to nod before continuing. “Next time you leave, promise you’ll say goodbye.”
Penny’s eyes pricked and she bit her lip as she nodded. “I promise.”
“Pinky?”
She laughed but offered out her pinky finger, locking it around Tash’s. “Pinky.”
“Wow, looks like the band’s all back together.”
Penny’s smile dropped as she looked up and found Shelby Patterson standing beside their table. Coda Simpley, one of the girls who’d followed Shelby around like a lost puppy at high school, was hovering behind Shelby’s shoulder, looking totally uninterested in the conversation. Penny hadn’t got a good look at Shelby when she had passed her in the street a few days ago, too flustered by the whole coffee-soaked-jeans situation, but now she had no choice but to take her in, from her blonde balayage to the hem of her shimmery tasseled dress.
Admittedly, Shelby looked great, but knowing she was Ethan’s ex-fiancée had the observation curdling in Penny’s stomach. Wasn’t it a rule somewhere thatthe mean girls were supposed to get ugly and humbled after high school? Yet here Shelby stood, just as gorgeous as ever and, reluctantly, she could understand the appeal Ethan might have seen.Shelbyhad her life together.Shelbywasn’t living with her parents.Shelbywasn’t working the same job she’d had at sixteen.
Or, at least, Penny assumed that was the case.
Sure, Shelby looked good. But wasn’t it all a bit toomuch? Magnolia Springs wasn’t really a tasseled-mini-dress kind of place; even on a Friday night it was more of a jeans-and-a-nice-top kind of vibe. But Shelby drew the eye and, unless she’d grown a whole new personality in the ten years Penny had been gone, there was nothing Shelby liked more than attention.
“Not quite the full band,” Penny replied, smile a little tight as she forced it back into place. She knew it was petty to bring Ethan into the conversation, even if she hadn’t mentioned him by name, but she couldn’t help herself. “So good to see you, Shelby. And you, Coda.”
Coda barely reacted as Shelby sniffed, looking Penny up and down before turning her gaze on Tasha, her eyes becoming impossibly more frosty. Penny held back her scoff, feeling like she’d been transported back to high school. She’d only seen Shelby twice since getting back to town, but her mean-girl act was already wearing pretty thin.
“Natasha,” Shelby said, cocking one hip forward and folding her arms across her chest.
Tash raised one eyebrow. “Shelby,” she said evenly and Penny’s eyes bounced back and forth between the two of them; if there was one person who could hold their own with Shelby, it was Tasha. “You have a nice night, now.”
Her shoulders stiffening at the clear dismissal, Shelby tossed her long hair over one shoulder and strutted away on heels so high Penny had vertigo just looking at them, Coda rushing after her.
“What the hell was that all about?” she asked once Shelby was out of earshot. They’d not got on with her particularly well in high school, but that was forever ago and this tension seemed … fresh.
Tasha sighed, watching Shelby wind between tables until she settled in a pink booth in the corner. “I remind her of my brother.”
Understandable, somewhat. The siblings were actually fraternal twins, and did look somewhat alike. “I heard she and Ethan were engaged.”
Tasha grimaced, her empty glass hitting the tabletop with a clang that made Penny’s teeth ache. “It was short-lived.”
She dropped her eyes to her drink then peeked up at Tasha. “Why?”
Apparently the question had been the wrong thing to ask, because Tasha’s mouth snapped shut and her nostrils flared before she said, “I don’t want to talk about this with you.”
Penny frowned, reaching out to touch Tasha’s hand. “If Shelby’s giving you a hard time, you can tell me. Ethan and I are history, Tash.”
“Are you?”
“I nearly crawled under my car to hide from him,” she pointed out and Tasha’s lip twitched. Penny leant back and then wobbled as she remembered the bar stool’s low back. “I promised you I’d avoid him, and I swear I will.”
