Page 16 of The Great Maple Mistake

Dad hugs me. “Have a great time tonight.” He holds out his hand again to Cody. “It was nice to meet you. I’m sure I’ll be seeing you again.” Then he pats his belly. “Excuse me, gentlemen, but there’s a dessert calling my name.”

Dad disappears into the kitchen, and Cody points in the general direction of outside. “Ready to go?”

I nod, and he steps back, letting me go first. “I figured I’d leave my car at home and we can walk the few blocks to Red’s. Then maybe we can take a stroll through the park on our way to the tavern. I think that’s what you had in mind. Right?”

Why does it sound incredibly romantic when Cody says it, but when anyone else proposes walking to town, it sounds exhausting and time consuming? “That sounds perfect.”

It’s still sunny, which is one of my favorite things about summer. Even at 7:00 p.m. there’s plenty of daylight left. And it’s a beautiful evening. The humidity is low, and there’s a light breeze. We stroll side by side, and I’d love to take his hand, but we’re not there yet, and I don’t want to rush things. “So, have you eaten at Red’s or Sparky’s yet?”

Cody nods. “I had a burger at Sparky’s Pride festival booth the first day I was in town.”

“The day we first met.”

His smile is instantaneous, and it makes my insides swoop. “Yeah. It was. That was a great day.” I’m too busy trying to control the butterflies in my stomach to do anything more than grin back and nod. “Anyway, the guys at the firehouse said something about needing to go to Red’s before I ate at Sparky’s again. And I have to alternate so I don’t show a preference.” His expression becomes incredibly earnest. “Were they pulling my leg? Or is that really a thing?”

I snort. “Oh, it’s a thing. Trust me. Most of the town has taken sides and are either Team Red’s or Team Sparky’s.”

Cody nods like I’m imparting vital information. “And which are you?”

I snort. “Neither. Both? Both. I support each diner because I cover town events and run the town’s web page, so I have to be neutral. There are a few instances where that’s the case, like with the firefighters and the police. If there’s an emergency, there can’t be any question of favoritism, so the neutral people alternate where we eat.”

“So do we still go to Red’s? I don’t want to get you into trouble. I ate at Sparky’s last, but I’m still relatively new to town so I think I can claim ignorance if you’d rather go there.” Cody sounds very concerned for me, and it’s sweet. But I don’t want him stressing about it.

“It just so happens that I also ate at Sparky’s last, so let’s go to Red’s. Maybe I can introduce you to my friend Mickey too. Unless you’ve already met him. His dad owns Red’s.”

“I haven’t met Mickey yet.” A small smile pulls at the corner of Cody’s mouth, like the idea makes him happy. “I’d like to meet one of your friends.”

I gently bump his arm with mine. “You already have. You met my best friend Finn at Frozen Fest.”

“He was the one in the cartoon animal print scrubs. Right?”

“Yeah. Finn’s been my best friend since elementary school. We bonded over Lord of the Rings.”

Cody’s sexy brows draw down, but he’s smiling. That probably means he doesn’t hate LOTR. “Didn’t those movies come out like twenty years ago? I mean, I know they were based on the books, but you’d have been too young to read those in kindergarten.”

“Well—” I grin at him, happy to share how Finn and I discovered our mutual love of Aragorn. “Finn’s dad rented the animated movie from Blockbuster, and my dad read the books to Luke and me. Every night, we’d lie in bed, and he’d read us a chapter. He’d do the voices and everything. Anyway, on the first day of kindergarten, we’re on the playground, and I see Finn playing with an action figure and making it slash and hack at invisible bad guys. Well, I was wholly on board with that, so I asked if I could play too. He told me he got to be Aragorn since he had the action figure. He started to tell me all about the story, but when I got excited and filled in parts he glossed over, Finn got excited too. I’d never met any other kid who knew the story, other than Luke. He let me be Aragorn for the rest of recess, and we’ve been best friends ever since.” In kindergarten, we both wanted tobeAragorn. By fourth grade, I knew I wanted todateAragorn. Or Eomer. It depended on the day of the week, really. But yeah, people who say kids don’t know who they are at a young age are full of shit.

I bump Cody’s arm again. “So what about you?”

Cody laughs. “What’s my childhood best friend story?”

I shrug. “Sure. Or who’s your best friend now? Or both.” I don’t really care which story he tells, as long as I can learn more about him.

“It just so happens that, like you, my current bestie is also my childhood bestie. And we also met on the playground. Only we didn’t bond over a book. Our story is much cooler.” The exaggeration in his tone has me grinning already. “Josh and I became best friends over our fascination with worms.”

Laughing, I grab his wrist. “Worms?”

“Hey, they were gross and wiggly.” He shrugs. “I thought they were cool. And so did Josh.”

“And you’re still friends? Where does he live?”

Cody slowly twists his wrist, and I realize I’m still grasping onto him. I let go, but before I can apologize or pull back, he grabs my hand and holds it, letting them drop between us. “This okay?”

I realize he wasn’t trying to get out of my grasp; he was trying to turn his hand over to hold mine. “Yeah.” Excitement bubbles up in my chest, along with a heavy dose of disbelief because oh my god, Cody is freaking gorgeous, and I’m on a date with him, and he’s holding my hand. “It’s definitely alright.” I give his hand a small squeeze, and he ducks his head before looking back at me, grin huge. And is that a bit of pink on his cheeks? Oh my god, he’s so freaking adorable. “So anyway, you were going to tell me about Josh.”

“Well, he’s been my best friend since kindergarten, and he’s married to a very lovely lady named Alicia. They have a beautiful one-year-old baby girl named Mia, and they currently live in Frederick, Maryland. That’s where Alicia’s parents live, but Josh and I grew up in Baltimore.”

Lost in Cody’s company, I barely pay attention to the actual walk, so it’s a bit of a shock when we’re standing in front of Red’s as if we magically appeared. I make a sweeping gesture to the building. “Ta-daaaa.” Red’s is one of those old railcar-style diners with a long, narrow body. It’s painted white with red trim, has a barrel roof, and is totally charming.

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