Page 24 of If You Loved Me

I shook my head. “Thankfully, dinner had wrapped up before then.”

“Well, that’s good at least.”

It had been a while since my mother brought up my dating life because the last conversation we had about it in the early summer months had turned into a drag-out fight. She didn’t have to tell me that it was abnormal for a woman to be without a partner at my age. Or that I should be focusing on finding someone suitable. My loneliness was something I was very much acquainted with and her pointing it out had been too much. I didn’t like the fact that I yelled at her and stormed out of her house, but I couldn’t take it anymore—all the judgment and disappointment I felt anytime she looked my way.

“What’s wrong?” Willow asked.

“I asked someone on a date,” I said quietly, picking at a loose string on the edge of the sofa cushion.

Willow scooted closer. “Um, tell me more.”

I sighed heavily, setting my glass of wine on the tray. “Do you remember Ranger Adams?”

“The guy who was released from prison?”

“Yeah.”

“Mmhmm. I remember him. You asked him out?”

“Yeah.”

A smile spread across her lips. “And…?”

“And he rejected me.”

Willow leaned back like my statement had felt like a slap in the face. “He rejected you?” she repeated.

“Yeah. He came into the bakery yesterday and I don’t know…I thought I felt something between us. It felt like he was interested, but when I chased him down the street and asked him on a date he said no.”

“Was that all he said?”

“He said something about him being no good for a girl like me. I mean what the hell does that even mean?”

Willow draped her arm over the sofa cushion, settling her chin in her palm as she thought about it. “I don’t think it was a personal attack against you. If anything, it sounds like he was ragging more on himself than you, which I kind of understand. He’s the town’s badboy and you come from a notoriously blue blood family. He probably thinks there’s no way you’d actually be into him.”

“That’s a good point. I didn’t think of it that way.”

“But he’s still lame for not accepting your date offer.” She leaned toward me, grabbing both my hands. “I know you’ll meet your match soon. I can feel it.”

I didn’t have the heart to say out loud that I thought I might have met my match with Ranger. Not that I knew a lot about the man, but I’d always felt intrigued by him. Almost like there was some intangible pull toward him and I thought for sure that he felt it too.

But maybe Willow was right. It wouldn’t be the first time someone assumed things about me because of my last name.

“Thank you for saying that.” I smiled at her. “But enough about me. Let’s talk about your freakingwedding!”

“Eek!” we both squealed in unison before we grabbed the piles of magazines and started flipping through the pages where she showed me the color palette she was thinking of and some different cake ideas.

“Do you have any idea what kind of flavors you and Johnny are thinking about?”

“He said he wants something with strawberries in it and you know how I feel about strawberries.” She opened her mouth and stuck her finger in while making a gagging noise.

I couldn’t help the snort-laugh that came out of me. “To be fair, it’s his wedding too. You have to give the man something.”

“Yeah. I know.” She rolled her eyes dramatically. “But I’m obsessed with your cookies and cream icing.”

“I can do different cake and icing flavors for the different tiers you know.”

Her eyes lit up. “I hadn’t thought of that! So we can do alternating tiers?”

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