Page 40

“Are you trying to pay for me again?” I asked.

“Yes, don’t argue,” she said, nearly shoving me aside as she passed over her card.

“Has anyone ever told you that you’re stubborn?” I asked as we moved over to wait for our food at the pickup window.

“Yup. Many times,” she said. “You’re not telling me anything I don’t already know.”

There was a group of three teenage girls standing near us and from what I could tell, one of them was trying to decide what to write in a text message and her two friends were workshopping it with her.

“But does that sound too desperate? I don’t want to scare him off,” the message girl said to her friends.

“No, it sounds good. Casual. Like you don’t care,” one said, reading the message off her phone.

“Totally,” the other one said.

“Okay, I’m sending it,” message girl said and then squealed as she waited to see what the boy would say.

“He’s typing!” she said, and I saw that Lacey was also invested in eavesdropping on this saga.

“What did he say?” one of the friends asked.

“He said ‘no cap.’” She frowned at her phone and waited.

“That’s it?” a friend asked.

“For now,” message girl said. Her order was called, so she went up to the window and the three of them went to a table to figure out their next move.

Lacey laughed next to me. “That poor girl is going to be so disappointed.”

I sighed. “Eh, she’s young. We all go through it. If I had to relive some of my cringe teen moments, they’d look like that.”

Sterling and I had done the same thing as those girls. Conversation by committee.

Our number was called, so Lacey grabbed our tray and I stocked up on napkins and cups of ketchup for my fries.

Lacey set the tray down on an empty picnic table and I couldn’t help but pull a wipe out of my wallet and wipe down the bench and top, just to be safe.

I pulled out a handful of fries and put them on napkins, pushing them toward her.

“Fries for onion rings?” I asked.

She did the same and I dumped the onion rings into my french fry box.

Since the ice cream was in danger of melting before I got to it, I had that first.

“Gross,” I said when Lacey dipped some of her fries in the ice cream dish.

“Don’t knock it until you try it,” she said.

“Pass,” I said, wrinkling my nose and using my spoon instead.

“I can’t remember the last time I came to the beach,” she said. “I remember telling myself that I was going to take advantage being so close while I’m here, but I get so focused on work and that damn house and other bullshit and before I know it, it’s time to go to bed again. What I’m trying to say is, thank you. Thank you for making me stop and take a moment to breathe.”

Our eyes met and I felt a rush of emotion so strong that I almost wanted to cry.

“Well. You’re welcome,” I said, putting a smile on my face.

Lacey jabbed another fry in her ice cream and shoved it into her mouth.