Page 56 of Long Road Home

“Oh.” She grinned back at Destiny, but this time both of their smiles were fake. “Great, then. Maybe we can catch up some more. I’d really love to talk to you, Destiny.” Her voice went soft, almost apologetic which confused me more. But then she clapped her hands together before pressing her palms onto the tabletop for a moment. “I have to get back to the kitchen, but I wanted to say hi. If you need anything, yell for Sammie and she’ll help you, okay?”

“Got it. Thanks, Christa.”

“Thank you,” Destiny mumbled. Even from me, I could tell the politeness was killing her.

Christa walked away with a frown furrowing her brows and looked back once at us. I waited until she was gone before I asked, “What in the fuck was that about?”

Nineteen

Destiny

It’s notlike I didn’t know Christa’s parents ran the restaurant. I must have had a mental brain fart about the possibility of seeing her. When I had the idea to come here, I assumed she wouldn’t work here anymore.

“I didn’t know she’d be here,” I said, ignoring the scathing tone in Jordan’s voice.

“Well, she owns it now, so she pretty much lives here. Her parents retired a few years back and live most of the year in Scottsdale. They asked if Christa wanted to buy it from them, and she jumped at the chance. You’re also avoiding the question.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

His history lesson in the life of Christa was so fantastic I wanted to puke into what had always been my favorite meal. Chicken pot pie, absolutely nothing special, but spectacular at the same time. I tried for the last decade to re-create this meal and couldneverget it right. She had to have a magic ingredient that made it not too salty, a bit of sweet with this tiny kick of spice. My mouth watered thinking about good it would taste.

Now I wanted to dump it in the trash and go home.

Christa had had a crush on Jordan longer than I’d known he existed. She’d been scrawling his name and hers into hearts on her notebooks and even once onto the bathroom stall walls since she could write and long after he and I started dating. She and Jenni Akers, someone I despised more than the summer Houston humidity had been two peas in a pod, vicious in their attacks against me. They were done quietly, and only when Jordan was never around, but Christa’s fake smiles moments ago were exactly why I couldn’t stand this town.

We’d had art class together and one day when I was asking the teacher a question, they’d put a blob of red paint on my stool so when I stood up after class after returning to finish my project, I had red paint on the butt of my white jeans, making it look like my period had leaked. I hadn’t known for hours later until Jordan noticed it after school. I’d spent three hours that day, walking around with a splotch of what looked like blood on my jeans and not a single person told me.

It had explained the snickers and points in my direction that day, though, for sure.

When Jordan saw it, held me while I cried and pounded against his chest, he’d demanded a list of everyone in my art class so he could take care of it. But like he’d do anything to Christa, who had always been decent friends with Rebecca. Telling him would have only made things worse for me.

Jordan never understood that. He might have wanted to defend me and protect me, but every time he tried, when people saw how much he cared about me, their attacks became sneakier, but no less hurtful.

And Jenni Akers had always led the charge on that one.

“I was surprised to see her is all.” I scooped a bite of pot pie into my mouth and almost groaned from the fusion of flavors. It was as good, if not better than I remembered.

Damn Christa.

“You’re lying.”

I set down my fork and blinked a few times to hide my bubbling emotions. “I’m not lying. I’m avoiding. I was surprised to see her and anything that happened was a decade ago. Let it go.”

“Keeping things from me won’t work this time, Destiny.”

He hadn’t touched his burger. Not even a single curly fry, which he could eat by the pound back in high school. I saw him do it multiple times.

“Since I’ve been back,” I said, leaning in and making sure I was quiet enough so anyone nearby couldn’t hear me. “I walk down these streets, and I go to the stores, and I drive past the school and all the memories of how horrible life was for me hits me like a brick to the face, every single freaking day. I’mtrying, Jordan, but I don’t always want to rehash everything and sometimes the memories are harder than others. I’m not hiding anything, I’m trying to move past it and this, I do not want to talk about.”

His eyes moved from mine to the restaurant, his jaw ticking the entire time. God, I hated making him mad. I hated I knew he was fighting against demanding to know exactly what I was talking about, and I’m sure a part of him wouldn’t believe Christa could be anything like she was to me.

She was always so sweet, so kind to everyone. Until it came to me.

“Is this about her friendship with Jenni?” Jordan asked, and it was like heknew.His gaze turned inspecting and he dragged them from me to the kitchen and back to me.

“Please, drop it,” I whispered.

“They’re not friends anymore. Haven’t been since high school. Jenni went to college, Christa stayed here and since Jenni came back afterward, she’s essentially become one of the most hated women in Carlton.” He leaned forward as he caught my eyes roll. Please. Women ganging up to hate one woman in this town was nothing new. Like he did know what I was thinking, Jordan’s voice lowered further. “Jenni’s a cunt, Destiny, and I’ve never used that word to describe another woman in my entire life. I don’t know what it is you’re upset about right now, but I will one hundred percent guarantee you whatever Christa did to you in school when she was with Jenni, she most likely regrets a thousand percent. She’s not the same.”

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