Page 45 of Almost Always

“It’s a good thing you’re so pretty. Because that’s silly,” she said, patting his chest as a grumble echoed between them.

“Rafferty, it’s so good to see you again!”

She jumped at the voice, hissing softly as her hip hit the table hard.That’s going to leave a bruise. Looking towards the entrance, she saw Ginny walking into the shop with Gavin Rhodes. While she didn’t know all the details of their relationship, seeing her friend glowing made her happy. Rafferty shook Gavin’s hand and she took those few seconds to get her feet under her.

“How are Cal and Boots holding up?”

“Inseparable.” Rafferty laughed. “It’s impossible to get him to school every day and I’m holding you responsible.”

Gavin laughed, holding his hands up. “It’s the power of a loving dog, man. Neither of us had any hope when those two met.”

“Ahem.” Ginny stepped forward, hand out. “These two usually have better manners, I’m Ginny. I’m with him,” she said, gesturing to her boyfriend.

Gavin flashed a sheepish smile and said, “Fuck, sorry, babe. Remember I told you about the father and son that adopted Boots? This is Rafferty. Hi, Daisy, this is an incredible place.”

“Thank you.” She couldn’t stop the blush that spread across her cheeks as she said, “Uh, Rafferty is an old…friend. He just moved to town, so we were…your flowers…big bouquets, right? They should be ready for you.”

She wasn’t one to get flustered, but the memories of their twenty-year old kiss and his proximity was short-circuiting her brain. She could see the amused look on Ginny’s face, which meant that her friend was going to be digging deeper into this later.

“Yeah. You two catch up,” Ginny said, wiggling her eyebrows. “We’ll handle this. Nice to meet you, Rafferty and welcome to Wildes.”

“Thanks and good to meet you too. Cal misses hanging with Bronte, so we’ll probably swing by one of these days,” he told Gavin who chuckled and agreed. They exchanged another complicated handshake-hug routine and the couple walked to the back.

Once they were out of sight, Rafferty leaned in, his warm breath against her neck making her shiver. “Haven’t seen youflusteredlike that before, Hero.” She nudged him back with a scoff, but he didn’t go too far. “So we’re old friends, huh?”

“We are.”

“Old friends who kiss.”

“Raff,” she muttered, arms crossed over her chest. “What’s going on with you?”

He chuckled. “Missed you these last few days and I’m gonna miss you this weekend, so getting all my flirting in now.”

“Is that what you’re doing?”

“Obviously not,” he said with a scoff.

She laughed and stepped out of his space, a sigh of relief escaping her.

“That last summer we had together was the best, right?”

She nodded. “Yeah. Why?”

“Wish we could go back to that time in our lives.”

“Why?” she asked again.

There were parts of that time she liked and all of that had to do with him and the Ames family. But it had also been some of the hardest years of her life. She thought that after all the trauma with her mother, dealing with her bulimia and bullying at school, she’d be able to handle divorce and heartbreak. Nothing prepared her for that. She was one of those people whoneverwanted to go back to the past. She kept her eyes ahead and focused on how she was going to make the most of the future.

“Because we had each other.”

“That was the best part of the past, but l like who we are now more.” He nodded slowly, the distance feeling a lot bigger with the slump of his shoulders. She tilted her head and added, “What’s going on?”

“Thinking about how different our lives would have been had we not lost touch. Who we might be to each other if we’d actually followed through on all those promises. You know?”

“I used to think about that too. But not for a long time.”

“I guess lots has happened since then, huh?”

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