Page 23 of The One With The Secret Crushes

"Oh wow. Oh wow! This is really happening!" Joanne bounced in her seat and clapped. "You don't need to say a word. It's written all over your face."

"It really is," Travis agreed. "And on that note, I'm going to leave before you two go all girly on me. Have fun tomorrow, Mack." He gave my shoulder a squeeze as he moved towards the ODX offices.

"I'm as red as a tomato, aren't I?"

"It's starting to fade. You're more of a pink flamingo at the moment."

"It was a really good kiss."

She nodded once. "Did you really expect anything less?"

I shrugged. "I haven't thought about kissing Scott in years. I fully admit I fantasized about it several times in high school and even college. I was so sure he didn't see me like that. It's taking me a minute to catch up to what everyone else has apparently known all along."

"I don't know why he listened to his mom. His parents weren't even around enough to parent. Their opinions on everything should be thrown out the window."

I suspected the lack of parenting was why Scott assumed the parent role with his friends. It never occurred to me that it might have affected him in other ways. "It's one of the only times she actually parented. It must have hit him hard."

"Hmph." Joanne slouched down in her seat.

"I appreciate you being mad on my behalf. Tell me something going on with you so I can return the favor." To my complete surprise Joanne blanched and slid further down in her seat. "What is going on here?" I waved my finger. "Something is going on."

She whimpered. "There is a thing." Then she glanced around at our exposed surroundings. The check was paid and the food was eaten but there were other diners two tables over. "Let's shop for books."

"Twist my arm."

The bell to the TBR Pile jingled as we stepped inside. Willow waved from the back of the shop and two customers mingled in the graphic novel section, but it was otherwise empty. We beelined for Romance. "Explain yourself," I hissed.

Joanne plucked a Kate Canterbary novel off the shelf and started flipping pages. "I have a...asituationdeveloping and Traviscannotfind out about it."

I blinked. Then I blinked some more. Joanne never kept her boyfriends away from Travis. Shelikedwatching them squirm. Her reasoning was that any man good enough for her wouldn't be intimidated by Travis.

It was sound reasoning.

If she didn't want this guy around her brother at all... "What does that mean?"

She gulped, leaned even closer, and whispered so quietly I had to strain to hear anything at all. "Noah is back."

It took a moment for those three little words to sink in and make sense. I jerked back and stared at my best friend. "Has your brain been hijacked like Peeta's inThe Hunger Games?"

"It was inCatching Fireand no."

I glared at her for nitpicking my question. Noah Harding was Joanne's high school sweetheart. They were essentially one person and everyone thought they'd be together forever. Until they weren't. Travis, Scott, Digger, and Huk drove him out of town, never to be seen or heard from again. Joanne's heart was so broken I worried about us being apart when we started college.

"What do you mean he's back?" I whispered louder than I probably should have.

She licked her lips. "He's living near Lost Lake. I ran into him at the Bigfoot Ren Faire a couple of months ago."

My eyes could have popped out of my head and rolled away. "I know you didn't just get all territorial about me not telling you about kissing Scottlast nightand you're over here sitting on this?"

She twisted the poor paperback in her hands. "I know. Iknow.But it's not like that. We're just talking. He's so sorry for breaking up with me the way he did."

"He broke up with you by getting caught with Lorna Lopez's tongue in his mouth."

"We were eighteen and stupid. I was fantasizing about our wedding and our white picket fence, for heaven's sake. I look back now and wonder what I was thinking. It's been good to get some closure."

And if Travis found out Noah was within a hundred miles of Lost Creek he would punch Noah's face in and then boot him to the moon.

Willow shot us a curious look, so I picked up a Kennedy Ryan novel and pretended to read the back cover. "I'm here, okay? Talk to me."

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