Page 76 of The Ex-Best Thing
“You shouldn’t let them bully you,” Sierra says, sidling up beside me with a Diet Coke. Her blonde hair is pulled back in a low ponytail and threaded through the back of a Giants baseball cap. She smiles at me. “I think it would be fantastic if you played during the concert, but I understand why you don’t want to.”
“Oh yeah? Do you have a secret past you’re trying to keep hidden, too?”
She laughs, but the sound is empty. Her gaze tracks the sound of her son’s laughter until she finds Jack running along the sand, then swigs her soda. “Just stick to your guns if you want, okay?”
“I plan to.”
“Good.”
“How’s the flower business?”
“Booming, actually. Or should I say blooming?”
“I expect better from you,” I say.
She gives me a real laugh this time, but it dies out quickly. It doesn’t take long to see why. Colby is sitting on a long driftwood log, chatting with Peter’s sister, Amber, who came down from Tahoe for the weekend. I know he’d never date her, because we have an unspoken rule where we stay away from each other’s exes. Even though I have no residual feelings for Amber, Colby won’t touch that situation with a ten-foot pole.
Sierra wantshim,but I’m not getting in the middle of that. She doesn’t need to hear about our unspoken rules.
Bree had been sitting with Rose, eating dinner, but she threw her trash in one of the large black bags we’d brought down and made her way toward us.
“Hey, Anne,” Sierra says, smiling. “How’s your vacation going?”
If I didn’t know Bree so well, I wouldn’t have caught the strain that flashed over her face. It was so brief, I would have missed it if I’d blinked, anyway. “I haven’t slowed down this long in ages.”
“That sounds heavenly.” Sierra looks for her son again, then returns her attention to us after spotting him. “Do you have anything fun planned? There are some great hikes south of us. Point Reyes is amazing if you’re willing to drive a bit.”
“Uh…that’s good to know.”
“You’re not much of a hiker, are you?” Sierra asks, laughing.
“I’m not anti-hiking, but I don’t have the shoes for it. I don’t know if I have the legs for it, either.” She laughs.
I can’t help but look at her legs. She definitely has the legs for it.
“You can borrow some of mine if you want. We’re probably around the same size.”
“Thanks,” Bree says. “Maybe we could exchange numbers?—”
“Who wants cake?” Amber calls, pointing to a white bakery box I happen to know is full of cupcakes. Easy to eat, disperse, and clean up. Besides, if we leave a cake out on a table for more than ten minutes out here, it’ll be full of sand.
Colby raises his hands like a conductor and gets us started on singing “Happy Birthday.” A few other people drag Peter toward his sister so he can blow out the one candle she keeps relighting behind her cupped hand. We sing the entire song, Peter blows out his candle, and people move forward for cupcakes.
Jack is one of the first in line, of course.
By the time we get cupcakes, Bree has spoken to more people than I have. She’s made friends here, and seeing the mark she’s leaving on my town is bittersweet. When she leaves for good, will she tell them who she really is?
“You’ve got a case of the stares, Benny,” she says, licking some of the frosting off her cupcake as she looks at me.
I swallow. “And you’re eating that wrong.”
“Don’t shame me.”
“I’m not, but you might get to the cake and regret eating all your frosting.”
She holds my gaze. “Just because you said that, I want to eat all my frosting in one big bite.”
I laugh, the sound jolting straight from my stomach.
