Page 27 of Heartbreaker
“Everyone else inside?” Savannah asks.
“Mamá is probably making them empanadas.”
“Then what are we still doing out here?” Brody looks around like we’re crazy, and he’s not wrong. A home-cooked meal sounds amazing after a long day of traveling.
Crew pats Brody on the back, taking one of the bags from him and guiding him toward the house, but not before he gives his sister a subtle glance.
Savannah rocks back on her heels, folding her arms over her chest, and waits until they’re far enough away. “I hope they weren’t too obnoxious. I didn’t tell them you were coming because…Well, because I didn’t know you were coming.”
“Wolf said it was okay.” In fact, he all but begged me to come, promising that it had been okayed with the woman standing before me. He said he didn’t want to spend the weekend as the only man in the house, failing to mention that all four of the Williams boys would also be here.
“No, yeah. It’s fine. I told him he could invite whoever he wanted. He just failed to tell me who that was.”
“So, you didn’t invite us?”
“I didn’tnotinvite you.” She smiles. “Truthfully, I didn’t think you’d want to come. Why would you want to hang around a bunch of newbies?”
“Why wouldn’t I want to hang out with you?” The question draws her eyes back up from the gravel beneath our feet, and I feel a tug of an invisible string between us. It draws me closer, just like it did the first night we met. The feeling is strange, hard to explain, but every time I look in her eyes, there’s a deep sense of familiarity and comfort. I can’t remember a time when I’ve felt so connected to someone, let alone someone I’ve technically only met a handful of times.
A blush creeps into her cheeks, or maybe it’s just from being in the chilly December air for too long, but I’m almost certain they weren’t that red before. “We, uh…we better get inside before Mamá sends a search party.”
I motion for her to lead the way, restraining my hand from reaching for her lower back when she walks ahead of me. Something tells me this weekend is going to be more than either one of us bargained for.
“I swear she’d lose her damn head if it weren’t attached,” Brody says beside me in the back seat. Savannah slouches in the driver’s seat, picking at her nails, but she glances back with a small snicker. Raelynn disappeared through the automatic double doors of the drugstore about three minutes ago because she had forgotten to pack something. Actually, she forgot a lot of somethings. Thirty minutes ago, she walked into the living room, rattling off the list—toothpaste, hairbrush, contact solution, and a razor—and Savannah said she could help with the toothpaste, but would need to go into town for the rest. Brody jumped at the opportunity to tag along, offering my presence as well, but Wolf and Harper declined. They feigned exhaustion, too tired from travel, but I think we all know what that really means.
“I’m surprised she made it to the airport on time,” Savannah says, and I share a pointed look with my best friend. “She said she was on time!”
“If you call running down the hallway yelling to hold the door ‘on time,’ sure.”
Almost ten minutes later, Raelynn jumps into the passenger seat with three bags full of stuff, clearly not just the things she had forgotten. Savannah eyes the bags, asking, “Did you buy the whole damn store?”
“You know we’re not going home before Monday, right?” I add.
“I’m sure she has enough room in the three bags she packed,” Brody says, and the three of us break out into a fit of laughter, but Raelynn doesn’t find us comical.
Savannah shakes her head, pulling out of the parking lot and driving the opposite way we came. “You guys mind if I run by the coffee shop?”
Raelynn points at the clock on the dashboard. “Savannah, it’s like seven o’clock. You’ll never go to sleep.”
“Says the girl who downs three energy drinks a day.”
“Three?!” I can’t stop my outburst. How is she downing three energy drinksa dayand hasn’t keeled over yet?
“Not every day!” she defends. “Just some days.”
“That’s terrible, Rae,” Brody says, igniting a conversation between them about making good choices. The whole thing reminds me of a worried boyfriend and a nonchalant girlfriend. I catch Savannah’s eyes in the rearview mirror, and she rolls her eyes playfully.
Savannah drives in silence through the small town of Celestia, Texas, a charming farm town with a population of 5,001, according to the sign I saw on the drive in. Driving down Main Street reminds me of Mayberry—the idyllic small town. Everything is clean and tidy, the landscape is perfectly manicured, the storefronts are stocked full, and everyone waves hello as they pass by. I get the sense that life moves at a different pace here, and the people like it that way.
At the end of Main Street, Savannah pulls into the parking lot of a small white house. There’s a pep in her step when she jumps out of the front seat, bounding up the unvarnished wood steps and straight through the front door. A bell jingles above her head, signaling our arrival atCelestia Coffee.
Brody and Raelynn place their order before they walk arm-in-arm down to the end of the counter. It’s too late for me to want caffeine, but I step forward when Savannah beckons me to place my order. Instead, I hand over a one-hundred-dollar bill to the cashier, and his eyes light up even more than they did when he recognized Brody. Savannah’s heated stare warms my cheeks, but I ignore her, telling him to keep the change.
“You didn’t have to do that,” she says when I drape my arm around her shoulders, pulling her away. “I’m the one that’s supposed to be picking up the tab and showing you around town, not the other way around.”
I chuckle. “Can’t a guy do something nice?”
“When a guy is ‘nice,’ it usually comes with some kind of expectation.” Her tone isn’t snarky, but it’s got a small bite nonetheless.
