Page 23 of It Should Have Been Us

“Twoweeks,” Emmett corrects, letting out an exaggerated sigh. “Two weeks too long if you ask me, but I guess it’ll have to do.”

“C’mon, you waited this long. What is two more weeks?” Lifting my cup, I take a sip of my coffee.

Fucking shit.

I’m about to spit the coffee back into the cup when Mrs. Letty appears, our food in tow. One of her sharp brows lifts as she watches me.

“Is everything okay?”

I force myself to swallow down the coffee. There isn’t a chance I’ll let that woman see me squirm.

“Perfect.”

Those watchful eyes stay on me for a moment longer before she places the food in front of us. “You boys enjoy.”

Highly unlikely.

The muscle in my cheek twitches from the forced smile, but I don’t let it fall until she turns her back and returns to her other customers, making sure they’re all set and refilling the coffees.

With a different pot.

Motherfucker.

“What was that about?” Emmett asks me as he digs into his food.

“Is your coffee okay?”

“Yeah.” Emmett’s brows pull together. “Why?”

“Because mine is like somebody dropped a whole-ass bag of sugar in it, that’s why.”

Fucking small-town noisy Nellies.

“Oh, shit,” Emmett bursts into laughter, the sound drawing a few curious glances our way. “This is just too good. Way to go, Mrs. Letty.”

I kick him under the table. “Whose side are you on?”

“When it comes to this particular topic? Mrs. Letty’s.”

“Of-fucking-course.” I jab my fork into the sausage and lift it so I can give it a tentative sniff, which only makes Emmett laugh harder. “You just keep laughing at my expense, Santiago.”

“You can’t deny it’s funny.”

“Oh,sure. Nothing screams funny like getting diabetes because an old lady has a vendetta against you. Why do I have a feeling that she might have spit in my food?” I ask, looking distrustfully after the woman who stops by another table, all smiles. “Letty loves me.”

“If I were you, I’d be worried if she put some kind of laxative inside the food.” Emmett grabs ketchup and puts some over his fries.

I place my fork back on the plate. My appetite is suddenly gone. “Thanks, man.”

“Hey, she might have loved you once, but things change, dude.” Putting the bottle away, his eyes meet mine, and any amusement that was there is now gone. “It might not seem that way at first, but things have changed, even around here.”

A shiver of unease runs down my spine.

For some reason, I don’t think he’s only talking about Letty’s weird behavior.

“Then why invite me to come back?”

Emmett simply watches me from across the table for a moment, not saying a word. Just when I think he’ll ignore my question, he says, “Because no matter what happened over the last few years, you’re my best friend, and I want you by my side on the happiest day of my life. I might not know what happened because both of you are too stubborn to say anything, so I’m not even going to try, and after this conversation, I’m going to stop pestering you about this whole topic altogether, but tell me one thing.”

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