Page 12 of Forgotten Dreams

“You brought the donuts,” I say, walking beside her. I pull out the chair, sitting in it, and she smiles at me. “I have to say, I’ve been dreaming about them since I left. I brought six home with me and even my parents said they were amazing. I had to ration out the leftover ones, and then one night I had a nightmare they would go bad, so I ate them all for breakfast the next morning.”

The smile on her face is from ear to ear. She tosses her long black hair over her shoulder. “Tell me more,” she jokes. “I’m kidding. Maybe.” She rolls her eyes. “This is my husband, Brock.” She motions to the man sitting next to her. His black hair is pushed away from his face, his dark eyes looking at me as he nods and picks up his beer before he takes a pull of it. Not saying a word to me.

“Nice to see you again, Brock,” I tell him. “You have a little girl, right?” He nods. “Saige?”

“That would be her.” He turns to look at the server, who comes over to take our order.

“Excuse him,” Everleigh says. “He’s not fit for company.”

I give a short snort as I order myself a dirty martini. “I think it’s a common theme with the men in this area.” I pick up my hand and do a small circle of the table, making the girls laugh. Lilah sits beside me, with Emmett between her and Brock.

“What are you doing in town?” Everleigh asks me. “Are you visiting again?”

I smile as I look over at Lilah who sits down with the biggest grin on her face. “No. I just bought a house here.”

Everleigh gasps out while Lilah claps her hands soundlessly with glee. “No way. Where?”

“On Preston Street,” I tell them and I hope they know where it is, because I wouldn’t even know in what direction to tell them to go.

“Oh, that’s near Brady,” she says and I look over at Lilah.

“He owns this bar.” Lilah fills me in on who Brady is. “He’s Charlie’s brother-in-law.”

“Got it,” I say of the mention of him. I’m sure I met him the last time I was here but I can’t picture him.

“Well, that’s exciting. When do you move in?” Everleigh asks as the guys exchange about five words to each other.

“Next week,” I answer her as the server comes over and places the glass down in front of me. At the same time, my eyes move to the door, and I see him walking in with four other men. He is laughing at something one of them said, and my heart literally speeds up. Caleb is wearing dark jeans and a light-gray hooded sweater, the sleeves pulled up to his elbows, showing off his thick, tanned arms. He lifts his left hand with his silver Rolex on it and runs it through his dark brown hair. He must sense me staring at him because his eyes find mine, and the smile on his face gets even bigger. His eyes go up as he nods his chin toward me.

“Oh, Caleb is here.” Brock pushes away from the table. “I have to speak to him about the crane he was looking for.” He gets up and makes his way to the bar where Caleb and his four friends are.

“I have no idea what they are going to talk about,” Emmett says, getting up and bending to kiss Lilah, “but I’m sure it will be better than listening to you girls gab.”

I can’t help but laugh at his directness before I bring my glass to my lips and take a sip. “So you guys know Caleb?” I ask the table and see Everleigh hide her smile as she reaches for her glass of whiskey, then she looks over at Lilah.

“Oh, she knows him more than anyone else does.” She motions to Lilah, who is blushing but shakes her head and looks down at her lap. The flutter I had in my stomach from seeing him literally plummets down to my feet. “Isn’t that right?”

“Oh, good lord, it’s not as interesting as it sounds. We dated,” she shares, and the dirty martini tastes like acid in my mouth. “How do you know him?”

“He is the one who is going to renovate the house.” I try not to say anything more. I especially don’t share that he handed me his business card and wrote his personal cell number on it.

“Oh, he does fantastic work,” Everleigh praises. “He rebuilt the bakery when it burned down.” I’m trying to listen to her, but my head is spinning that Lilah and Caleb dated. “He moved to town after that I think.” She takes a sip. “And then he dated Lilah.” Pointing over to her.

“Dated is a stretch,” Lilah now says. “It was a couple of dates, and it just…” She looks over at the bar, and I make the mistake of looking over to see Brock leaning on the bar with his elbows while he talks to Caleb, who is leaning with one elbow on the bar. His body is turned toward our table. “Even kissing him felt weird.” Lilah shakes her head and takes a sip of her drink. “That should have been my first clue to stop dating him.”

“How long did you date for?” I ask, but the sound of my breathing, or better yet panting, is now the only thing I can hear.

“It was a couple of months,” she says, and I feel like the air is taken from me.

“You never mentioned him,” I reply.

She shrugs. “It really wasn’t that big of a deal.” I wait for her to ask me if I like him. Or ask me why I’m so interested in knowing more about him. But she doesn’t. She just takes a sip of her drink before looking over and pushing away from the table. “I’ll be back,” Lilah says, getting up as I grab my martini glass and bring it to my lips.

My eyes go to the bar, straight to him, as his head goes back and he lets out a laugh that feels like it warms your soul on a cold day. Like the hug you need at the end of a shitty day. I exhale as I take a sip of my drink. “You’re into him?” I blink quickly and look back over at Everleigh.

“No.” I shake my head. “No.” I try to think of the words. “I just met him. Literally today less than three hours ago.”

“Well, that’s how it usually goes,” she quips. “By the way, he’s a thousand percent single.”

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