Page 13

13

Liam

T he first bite of Lenny’s pie almost elicited a deep, throaty moan out of me, but I managed to stop myself from vocalising it. Which was a good thing because the dinner table was suspiciously quiet. The only sound was the scrape of silver on china.

I felt the weight of Mom’s glare on me while she watched every moment between me and Lenny. We weren’t acting any differently from how we used to. We were just sitting side by side, eating. There weren’t any bumped elbows or bashed knees. We both occupied our own space and didn’t encroach on one another. It was a practised routine that we had brought out of retirement.

In the end, I couldn’t take the silence anymore.

“Why don’t you just ask?”

There was a pause, and then three of them asked a question at the same time. I only caught fragments of each, and they laughed at their eagerness.

“Do you want to try one at a time?” Lenny asked, her voice a combination of annoyance and amusement .

Stassie started. “How long has this been going?”

“Six weeks,” Lenny replied.

Then it was Mom’s turn. “How did you two reconnect?”

I took this one. “I went to Sweet Nothing’s birthday party and the rest is history.”

Rob was next. “How did you two not bump into each other before then?”

“The world may be small Dad, but it is big enough that you can manage to not bump into your old neighbour when you both live in the same city,” Lenny answered easily. There was an unexpected sting from the way she referred to me as her ‘old neighbour’. We were so much more to each other than just people who happened to live next door to each other.

“Was it like no time had passed?” Mom asked, a wistful look in her eyes.

I flicked my gaze to Lenny to find her already looking at me. The panic in her eyes was minimal, but I could still see it.

“Yes, it was simple,” I answered. Today had been easy. We had fallen into a teasing routine like we had never stopped. I could still read her as easily as my favourite book. There were parts of her that had changed, but at her core, she was still the girl I grew up with.

I looked at her again and the panic in her eyes died.

“That’s so sweet. You two look so happy,” Mom said, the wistfulness now bleeding into her voice.

Lenny snorted. “Michelle, I have two weeks off from work for the first time since I opened the bakery. That might have something to do with why I look so happy right now.” She looked at me again, amusement making her eyes shine. “ But I will concede that he is very pretty to look at, so it hasn’t been terrible spending time with him.”

“I knew you were only using me for my looks,” I teased, although I could feel my skin flushing at the compliment. I didn’t think Lenny had ever called me pretty before.

“Spending time with you hasn’t been awful, either. But that might be because you stress bake brownies, and they are the greatest thing in the world.”

I had no idea if she still did that, but it seemed like a pretty good bet.

“Well, apparently my brownies were so good you had to come and thank me for them in person, so I am under no illusion as to why you have been sticking around,” she replied easily.

“So cute,” Mom’s voice cut through our conversation, and I was reminded that we were at family dinner. It was always so easy to get caught up in Lenny.

“Don’t tell anyone, Michelle, or it will ruin our reputation. No one has ever called Muller cute,” Lenny said. I snorted. She wasn’t wrong. I wasn’t a total beast on the ice, but I’d had my fair share of fights.

She then effectively ended the conversation by gathering up the empty plates and taking them back to the kitchen.