Page 26 of Hello Handsome
My phone rang again, and I fumbled with the button all over again, cursing along the way. Jack had a clip that attached to his belt for his phone that made things easier, but it looked so damn dorky. I’d made enough fun of him that I could never get one myself.
I barely got it out in time to answer a call from Deidre. She hardly ever called me, so that worried feeling came back. Ranching and farming weren’t exactly safe occupations. “D? Everything okay?” I asked.
“Yes,” she replied over background music. “We’re testing out a DJ for Rhett and Maggie’s wedding, and I remembered I haven’t gotten your RSVP yet.”
I raised my eyebrows. “I have to do that? You know I’ll come.”
Diedre muttered something about old cowboys and then said, a little too hopefully, “Do you have a plus-one?”
I was about to pop her hopes like a pen to a balloon, but then an idea crossed my mind. Aggie and I could go to a wedding together as friends, right? “I’ll get back to you on that,” I said.
“Wonderful,” Deidre said and hung up the phone.
The little over a week later,when Enzo had flown to his first station in Hawaii, Aggie came out for a ride through the country. And instead of worrying about a romantic relationship or anything like that, we just talked. In fact, we talked aboutmorethan we ever had.
She told me about meeting her ex, Porter, for the first time and how she’d been so charmed by him in the beginning. He was in his twenties while she was still a junior in high school. My heart ached for her teenage self, not seeing this man’s red flags and how he preyed on a teenager. I was angry at him, too, for letting Agatha and their children down.
Then I told Aggie about my wild younger years and how settling down with Maya felt like settling into a warm bath. How we loved having and raising babies together before she got sick.
She told me what Isabella was like as a baby, and I told her about Fletcher. How nervous I was to change that first diaper and how small he seemed when I could hold him in a single hand.
And then, when we got back to the ranch to unsaddle the horses, I realized I had a question to ask.
“You heard Rhett and Magnolia are getting married, right?” I asked her as I undid the cinch for Blister’s saddle.
“Yeah, already RSVP’d,” she said as she gave a wide berth on her path around the horses’ backsides to join me. “It’s exciting. Them tying the knot after all these years.” There was something wistful in her gaze.
“Well, I was wondering if you might want to ride together? As friends?” I felt all of fifteen again, getting some girl to head to the dance with me. But I wanted to spend the evening with Aggieand be with her outside of the diner and the ranch. We’d never been anywhere in public together when she wasn’t on the clock.
Aggie tipped her head to the side, sending her ponytail cascading over her shoulder. The way the strands caught the evening sun was entirely distracting. “As friends?”
I swallowed. Nodded. Took a breath to ease that knot in my chest.
“That sounds fun,” she said. “You’ll be my first wedding date I didn’t give birth to.”
A surprised laugh fell from my lips. “I’ll pick you up half an hour before it starts. It’s a date. Kind of.”
She laughed at my awkwardness. “Kind of,” she agreed.
17
AGGIE
For the second time,I was getting ready for a date with Gray. But this time, we were going out “as friends.”
The little caveat he added had been a sweet way to honor my request while still showing he wanted to spend time with me.
People always say, “If he wanted to, he would,” and I felt like Gray was the definition of that phrase.
He wanted to respect my wishes.
He wanted to be my friend.
He wanted to support my role as a mom first.
He wanted to spend time with me.
I smiled to myself before leveling my expression to add a strip of lip liner around my upper lip. YouTube had taught me so many things, and I loved this little hack to balance out my lips without the need for expensive injections.
