Page 28

RIVER

I did something today I haven’t done in the entire five years I’ve owned Making Waves.

I called in sick.

Caroline was understanding, and I despised the pity in her voice. I almost got dressed and went in to work just to spite her because of it.

Instead, I’ve been planted on the couch all day watching crap TV shows I don’t give a shit about.

It’s been almost one week since Dean left and since I’ve seen him, even though he still lives next door.

I was a complete coward on the morning of his move. I ran off to work early to avoid the inevitable awkwardness and made sure to get home extra late when I knew he’d be long gone.

Now, after a week without a glimpse of him, the regret is sinking in like a stone. Has my stomach all twisted up in knots.

Knuckles rap against my door, and my heart flutters with anticipation.

Dean.

“River.” Maya’s voice floats through the door.

Not Dean.

Great. Caroline must have told her I didn’t come in.

I know I need to answer, or she’ll stand out there all day, and I don’t need to risk her running into Dean.

With reluctance, I peel myself off the couch, trying to ignore the missing terrarium as I pass the console, and pull open the front door.

Her eyes rake over me as she assesses my state with a frown.

I’m aware I’m wearing my standard “breakup outfit”—my joggers and my t-shirt with a bunch of holes in it—even though we didn’t technically break up.

We were never together, so how could we?

“I told you.”

I sigh, walking away from the door as she follows me inside.

“I don’t want to hear your I told you so stuff, Maya. I love you like a sister, but I will slap you.”

“Eh, I could take you. I have before.”

“It was one fight, and you were pregnant. I couldn’t hit you!”

“A win is a win.” She laughs. “I brought pie. It’s not cherry, but it is Dutch apple.”

“Just set it on the counter. I’m not hungry.”

She disappears into the kitchen, then comes back and takes a seat on the edge of the couch where I’ve curled back up.

“You look awful.”

“Gee, thanks. I really needed a kick when I’m already down.” She tries to push my hair out of my face, and I swat her hand away. “Stop it. I’m fine.”

“You don’t look fine. You look heartbroken.”

“That’ll happen when you get your heart broken.”

She purses her lips. “How can you be heartbroken if you weren’t dating?”

I don’t say anything.

A sly smile slides across her face.

“You love him. You’re in love with him.”

“Me in love with Dean? Please. I—OUCH!”

She whacks me hard on the ass .

“What the hell, Maya?” I cry out, rubbing my already aching butt cheek.

“Does that hurt?” I nod. “Good. Now get off it and go tell your idiotic neighbor you’re in love with him.”

Her words sound crazy.

But in my heart, no matter how much I try to deny it, I know they’re true.

As much as I don’t want to be, I’m in love with Dean Evans.

For all the reasons I shouldn’t be in love with him, I have ten more why I should.

He annoys me, but he makes me laugh just as much. We argue too much, but he challenges me. We hardly have anything in common, but I always have fun with him. I want to be around him as much as I don’t. He’s kind, he’s smart. Driven and funny.

And he’s somehow managed to completely capture my heart.

I rub at where she hit me. “You just smacked my ass—likely left a damn welt—all for a joke?”

“No. Your ass just happened to be there, and it’s pretty damn smackable.”

She winks, and a smile slips through my anger.

I shake my head. “You bitch.”

“You’ll live…but only if you get up and talk to him.”

“Maya, I love you—I really do—but I can’t just waltz over there and be like, Hey, I love you. ”

“And why the hell not?”

“Because he doesn’t feel the same way,” I mutter, looking anywhere but at her.

“What makes you say that?”

I wave a hand around my sad, lonely apartment. “He didn’t stay. That’s my first indication.”

“Did you ask him to stay?”

Well…no.

But I knew he wouldn’t. He had no reason to. We agreed. Once his apartment was done, we were done.

Him staying would mean we got attached.

We weren’t supposed to get attached.

Tell that to my heart.

“You didn’t, so you don’t actually know if he would have.” She laughs sardonically. “You two… I swear…” She pinches the bridge of her nose. “Dean loves you. I’d bet you an entire year’s worth of cherry pie from The Gravy Train that man is head over heels for you.”

In what world does she think Dean is in love with me?

We’ve been at each other’s throat since the day he moved in. Morris snuck out and into his apartment. He was such a dick when he brought him home.

We haven’t gotten along for a single day after that. There is absolutely no way he’s secretly in love with me.

I move my head in the negative. “No way.”

“Yes way. Everyone sees it but you two for some reason. Me, Caroline, Lucy…we all do. Everyone but you.”

“Tell me, what do you see that I don’t?”

“For starters, there are your asinine reasons for loathing him. They’re obvious cover-ups for lust.”

“They—”

She holds her hand up. “Then there’s the way that no matter what, no matter how many insults you throw at him or how many times you scowl at him, you still have his sole focus in a room.

” She grins. “I remember one time it was pouring rain outside. You were getting soaked, trying to walk as fast as your little legs would carry you to the diner, but it just wasn’t fast enough. ”

“Sam came out with an umbrella for me.”

She smiles. “That was all Dean. He saw you coming and knew you’d refuse any help from him, so he shoved an umbrella in Sam’s hands and sent him out to rescue you.”

That was…Dean?

I remember that day. I was so thankful I bought Sam ice cream every day for a week straight. The little twerp.

“And let’s not forget all the times he’s bought you pie.”

“Stolen my pie, you mean.”

“And bought it too. I picked up early on that he was paying for it and just let it happen. I wanted to smack him every time he got you all worked up over stealing your pie and you’d yell at him, but he’d never confess what he’d been doing.

” She rolls her eyes. “Then there are all the times he’s come to the shop for gifts for his mom and sister. ”

“Dean shops at the boutique?”

“Oh yeah.” She chuckles. “Often, actually. Christmas, birthdays, anniversary gifts. He’s dropped a good amount of cash in there.”

“I haven’t once seen him in there.”

“Because he knows you’d kick him out. He always makes sure to shop when you’re not there.”

I…I can’t believe all this.

What else is Dean behind? And what does it all mean?

Nothing. Because he’s not here now.

“I’m telling you, River, he’s in love with you…though I’m not even sure he realizes it either.”

She’s wrong.

Just because he does things for me, that doesn’t mean he loves me. It just means he’s nice, and maybe a bit of a masochist.

“Look,” Maya says, pushing up to her feet. “I just wanted to come check on you and bring you pie. I need to get back to work. My boss is kind of a hard-ass, and I don’t want to get in trouble.”

She frowns when I don’t even smile at her joke.

With a sigh, she pats me on the shoulder and makes her way to the door.

When I hear the knob twist, I peek over at her.

“Tell him, River.”

Then, she’s gone.

I lie here for another half hour before surging to my feet and hitting the shower.

I need a distraction.

Something to keep my mind off this feeling. Need to bury myself in work, right back to the hilt, just like before when I didn’t have the chance to sit around worrying about my love life.

Anything to keep me from thinking about Dean.