Page 45 of Only Ever You
After the heaviness of that conversation, my friends went out of their way to keep the conversation funny and light. There were hugs all around when we left. As I drove home, I was beyond grateful to feel like I had my people. Ever since my parents had hopped in that RV and taken me along with them, I’d felt lonely.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
LUNA
Me: it seems like you’ve been busy. I totally understand! Just letting you know I’m here if you need anything. Also, do you want me to bring Fuzzy back?
I re-read the text I’d sent Parker this morning, maybe for the hundredth time. I’d agonized over the wording. I didn’t want to seem like I’d been gossiping about him, but I also wanted him to know I was there. I also didn’t want to seem desperate, even though I was feeling completely desperate. I’d told him I loved him and now he was ignoring me.
Fuzzy’s fluffy tail swished on the floor where he sat by the kitchen table.
“Hey, buddy.” I scratched the back of his neck, and he let out this happy growly sound he made whenever I did that.
I’d sent that text a solid hour ago and had no reply yet. A sigh slipped out.
“Whatever,” I muttered, as I stared down at my phone screen that had gone dark.
Restless, I looked up from the table and glanced at my watch. “I’ll go to work,” I said to Fuzzy.
Hours ago, I’d made the morning batch of donuts. I could make more because we always ran out.
I stared at myself in the mirror a few minutes later, my curls damp around my shoulders. “This is what he’s reduced you to,” I said to my reflection in the mirror. “Talking to yourself in the mirror. In the third person. Ugh!”
I spun away from my reflection and yanked the hairdryer out of a drawer, cursing my curls because I needed to use the diffuser to keep them from going wild when I dried them. It felt like forever. After I had dried my hair, I dressed and rushed out into the crisp autumn morning.
Fuzzy was a great little car companion. While Fuzzy couldn’t go into the kitchen with me, because of kitchen cleanliness regulations, Jasmine always let him spend time with her in her pottery studio behind the cafe.
“Okay, Fuzzy,” I said, as I fished out one of his favorite rolled-up rawhide chews. He would work on these for hours if he wasn’t asleep. “You be a good boy.”
Jasmine was working and waved at me as she looked up. When I walked into the kitchen at Firehouse Café, I experienced a little spurt of happiness and a break from dwelling on Parker. The sounds of a busy morning filtered back from the front. I took a breath, savoring the scents of coffee and food. I realized this place would become mine. I almost burst into tears at the idea of it.
A little while later, I was busy at work, starting the process of shaping the donuts to bake. Just when I had talked myself into being at peace with the fact that it seemed like Parker and I might not be what I hoped, Casey came walking in the back with a worried look on her face.
“What’s up?” I asked, not even considering myself in the equation of her worry.
“Your parents are here.”
“Huh?”
“Your parents, you know the RV parents,” she explained, as if I had another set of parents.
“Are you serious?”
Casey’s ponytail bounced with her nod. “Uh-huh, and they’re filming, and there are some tourists out there who know who they are. They’re all excited. They are hoping you’re going to come out front. I wanted to lie and say you weren’t even here, but they saw your car.” Casey twisted her hands together.
“It’s fine, Casey. You aren’t in charge of lying to my parents. I can handle them.” I quickly finished shaping the donuts and slid the proofing trays into the case.
Although I had plenty of messy emotions around my parents and our years in the RV, I hadn’t ghosted them. We checked in by phone and texted, but I should’ve known they would do a surprise stop in Willow Brook. That was how they handled things when they didn’t want me to have a say in the situation.
“Do you want me to tell them they can’t film?” she asked.
I shook my head. “It’s fine, Casey. Honestly, I’d rather them film here in public, where they have to try to behave themselves, than for them to do something privately and set it all up. That’s the more obnoxious option.”
I hated how my stomach twisted with dread and my old annoying friend, anxiety, began spinning in my chest. I dusted my hands on my apron before washing them. Just before I started to walk into the front, I glanced toward Casey who was at my side. “Please interrupt if something gets weird.”
“You got it! Josie’s here too.”
I swallowed and followed her out front. My parents were standing off to the side at the register, filming and chatting with some people who appeared to know who they were.
