Page 85 of One Last Time

Inside, June and Linda were chatting and laughing over something, moving about the kitchen together organizing bowls and platters, many of which I didn’t recognize, and I could only assume—

“Oh, Elle! Thank your friends again from us. They’ve all brought so much food. Although”—June held up a tub of potato salad, sniffing and squinting at it—“if Matthew asks, their potato salad isn’t as good as his.”

I mimed zipping my lips shut.

Linda was wearing a gray linen sundress with a brown woven belt tied around her waist and matching flat brown sandals. She gave me a smile that was borderline wary and said a hopeful, “Hi, Elle. It’s great to see you again.”

I remembered how nervous my dad had been to tell me about Linda, and how nervous he’d looked again outside. She’d apparently heard so much about me; I imagined that she hadn’t been overly honest about our first meeting, since my dad hadn’t said too much about it to me and what a disaster it had been. Maybe I owed her one for that. Brad liked her. June and Matthew seemed to like her. Dadobviouslyliked her a lot.

Okay, take two. Let’s try this again.

Drawing a deep breath, I decided in that instant to give her a second chance at a first impression.

I mean, she sure looked like a nice person.

“You too,” I told her, giving her the broadest, sincerest smile I could manage. “And June said you brought pie! That’s really nice of you.”

I didn’t miss the relief on her face over the fact I didn’t snipe at her.

“Oh, it’s nothing. My pleasure.”

“Did you, um…” I glanced at June, who gave me an encouraging little nod. “Did you not, uh…want to spend the day with your family?”

“My parents have their own plans for this evening,” she told me with a laugh, not explaining any further, and I decided that as willing as I was to give her a second chance, I didn’t carethatmuch to ask. “I saw them this morning. And my ex and I aren’t exactly on ‘spend the holiday together’ terms.”

“Oh. Uh, right. Well…”

June gave me another look, and I didn’t have to be a genius to figure out what it meant.

“Well,” I tried again, “we’re happy to have you here.”

There was a knock at the door, and a familiar voice yelled, “Hey, anybody home? Sorry we’re late!”

Grateful for the distraction, I excused myself, running out to greet Cam.

“Sorry,” he sighed. “I had some car trouble.” He grinned at me, giving me a quick hug before stepping aside to reveal Levi, laden down with Tupperware.

“What he means,” Levi said, “is he got lost.”

Cam rolled his eyes. “Dude. Come on.”

Levi laughed, then held the Tupperware up. “I come bearing baked goods. Brownies and snickerdoodles and cake pops.”

“We,”Cam corrected him. “We come bearing baked goods. I helped.”

“You put the cake pops in a container.”

“That counts as helping in my book,” I decided, and told Cam gravely, “Thank you for the cake pops, Cameron. We’re very grateful for them. So, uh, everyone’s down on the beach. Food’s not gonna be long. Tell everyone I’ll come grab them when it’s ready?”

“Gotcha.” Cam bounded off, calling, “Hey, Mrs.Flynn!” as he went.

I closed the door behind Levi, then led him to the kitchen, aware he hadn’t been here before like Cam had. I announced him and all his baked goods, and snuck a cake pop before June could tell me not to.

“I thought you were coming up to check on the food.”

I turned around to spy Noah hanging in the doorway from outside. But he wasn’t looking at me.

“I am. I sent Cam ahead. I’ll come grab everyone when it’s ready. Hey, you want a cake pop?”