Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 84982 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 425(@200wpm)___ 340(@250wpm)___ 283(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84982 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 425(@200wpm)___ 340(@250wpm)___ 283(@300wpm)
This was odd. Stepping back inside, I closed the door and locked it. I wished I’d answered the knock now.
Could it have been JB? Maybe? But if so, why hadn’t he called? I hadn’t told him about these cookies though. I didn’t think. Had I rambled and mentioned them once?
I set the cookies down beside the sofa and studied them. I wasn’t sure if I should eat them. There was one other option as to who could have left them, but I just had a hard time believing that was who had done it. Nine years was a long time, and why would he even remember something like that? And if he did, I couldn’t imagine he would bring me some. He barely acknowledged my existence.
Lifting my gaze, I stared out the back window again.
• Two •
“You keep that up, and you might end up a heathen like me.”
Capri
Nine Years Ago
Sitting on the park bench with half a dozen lemon crinkle cookies alone was just pathetic. But it was either stay here for the next two hours or go home and answer a million questions from my mom. Why was I home so early? Wasn’t I going to the movies with Esther? Which had been a lie to begin with. Well, half of it at least. I was supposed to go to the movies, but not with Esther.
Nathan Mills had asked me out. He’d come to church last weekend with his aunt. When he found me outside afterward, we talked. He was charming and funny. Then, he asked for my number. I did not have my own cell phone, and I wasn’t sure he should call the house phone. So, I gave him Esther’s cell number. Being the awesome friend she was, she came over when he texted and set up a time for us to talk on the phone. He asked me out to a movie for tonight.
When I mentioned him to my mother, she told me to steer clear of him. His aunt was trying her best to help, but he had been causing his parents problems. Curious as to what he was doing that was so bad, I asked. Mom said that they’d caught him smoking and drinking. They’d also found filthy songs on his phone. He was apparently going to turn into a criminal because of these things. At least according to my mother.
I, however, wasn’t so harsh. He sounded like every other teenager I knew, except for me. Because I had no breathing room to do any of those things.
Knowing she’d never let me date him, Esther helped me with the plan to tell my parents I was meeting her at the bakery and then taking her car to the movies.
Nathan was going to meet me at the bakery at six.
By the time seven rolled around, Bess had been closed for almost an hour and was locking up to leave. She handed me the bag with my favorite cookies in it and told me she hoped my ride showed up soon.
Unable to sit outside and continue to look pathetic, I took my cookies and walked down to the park to find a fairly hidden bench in case my mother were to drive by. I’d kept expecting Esther to show up and explain. Maybe Nathan had called her to relay a message to me. But after an hour with no word, it was safe to say I had been stood up.
It was all for nothing. The work I had put into planning to even be here. Not to mention the two hours I had spent rolling my hair and putting on a little makeup.
Opening the bag, I took out a cookie and frowned at it. Normally, these were my go-to treat when I was happy or sad. But at the moment, they just reminded me of the hour I’d stood outside the bakery, waiting on Nathan, who never showed. I mean, it wasn’t like I knew him that well. Perhaps he had changed his mind about me and not known how to tell me.
I was so lost in my thoughts that I didn’t realize I wasn’t alone until a body sat down next to me, which was startling and caused me to drop my cookie. However, when my gaze locked on Thatcher Shephard, my stomach got all fluttery. Which was bad. The first time I’d met him, I hadn’t known who he was, so the butterflies had been understandable. I was sure all females thought that when they looked at him.
Now that I was aware who he was—because I’d done some asking around and digging of my own—I should be scared. Not giddy.
“Damn,” he said, leaning back and stretching his legs out in front of him, then crossing his ankles. “Shame to waste a perfectly good cookie. Hope you got more.”