Page 11 of Bonfire and Bliss Bookstore

“Home, please,” I beg.

“Want to talk about it?”

“No,” I reply quickly. Then when I remember she’s doing me a favor, I soften my response. “Swear you won’t tell the girls?”

Billie glances my way quickly, hands still on ten and two. She may be two years younger than me, but she seems far more mature. Though I guess she doesn’t have a choice but to be responsible; Billie had Quinn, her seven-year-old, at nineteen and now raises him mostly on her own.

“Of course.” She flashes me a wink. “Your secret shame is safe with me.”

My jaw drops at her teasing, and then I let out a laugh, the tension I’ve been holding releasing in one loud guffaw.

“I just flashed Jake Montgomery.”

Billie’s eyes bulge but she keeps her face forward as we turn onto Maple Lane. “Isn’t he the author Tally always teases you about?”

I roll my eyes and sigh, leaning back into the seat.

“Yes. But he was also one of my closest friends growing up.” My best, really. Tally had Rosie and I had Monty. Until I didn’t.

There’s no sordid story behind it. He went to New York for school while I went to Boston, and because of his parents’ divorce right before our freshman year of college, he didn’t return home that first holiday like the rest of us. I guess he felt like he needed to be with his mom, who had moved to New York, where her side of the family lives, after the divorce. If he came home that year at all, I never saw him. Then he stayed in the city for summers, too. We drifted apart.

If not for my inconvenient secret crush on him all throughout high school, it might not have hurt so much.

But it did. The crush was epic and very one-sided.

“Okay,” Billie says slowly. “Is this the first time you’ve seen him since high school?”

“No.” I shake my head. “I saw him a few months ago.”

“Sounds ominous,” she teases.

“It’s not, really. It was at the Spring Fling.”

She parks in front of my store and turns to give me her full attention. “I swear I miss all the good stuff.”

“You should come out more.” I give her a warm smile. “You know my mom would be happy to watch Quinn whenever.”

Billie nods, but I get the impression she won’t take my mom up on the offer. Walker had a hard time persuading Billie to move to the farm. He had to convince her he needed her help—and he does, but I know he also wanted her to have support raising Quinn.

“So, after you saw each other at the Spring Fling, what happened?” Billie prods, changing the subject.

“Nothing.”

“What?”

“I mean, we’ve texted, but outside of that I haven’t seen him until approximately ten minutes ago, when he walked into his bedroom and I flashed him.”

“Oh, Penny, I’m so sorry.”

“And then I called Tally to tell her what happened and she put the phone on speaker. Which means that there will be a rumor flying around the entire town that I broke into Monty’s house to steal his underwear by this evening.”

“Did you?” she asks carefully.

“Billie!”

“I don’t know what you girls get into when I’m not there!”

I huff out a laugh. “I promise there was no sniffing of underwear. But God,” I whine, hiding my face in my hands. “How the hell am I ever going to face him again?”