Page 14 of Make it Real
Eden moved aside the wrapping tissue and gasped. Probably a good sign?
“You made this?”
“What is it?” Booker leaned in closer to see.
“It’s a freaking masterpiece, is what it is,” Eliza said.
Eden held up the embroidery, turning it around to show the others. An orange hoop framed a multi-colored honeycomb I’d stitched withBeespelled out in negative space, and a fat, three-dimensional bumblebee I’d added at the top. Modern and colorful, but with a vintage nursery vibe. Or so I thought.
They’d named their daughter Brielle Beverly, but only ever called her Bee. The bright colors matched the sorts of outfits they dressed her in, and I’d thought the bee theme a natural fit. But the way everyone stared at me right now, maybe I’d really missed the mark.
I did that sometimes with gifts, especially things I’d made. What I thought of as fun and thoughtful could come across as overstepping and strange. Giving something I’d worked so hard on only to have it viewed as a sign of weirdness instead of affection? The worst. I’d cut back for a long time, but I hadn’t had a friend group like this to give presents to since college. I’d thought their baby’s birth warranted a present, but maybe I’d thought wrong.
An uncomfortable itch wormed through my stomach, my skin suddenly clammy as if my clothes were too tight. I really liked these women, and now I’d gone overboard and they probably thought I was doing too much and maybe—
“Callie, this is gorgeous!”
Eden stepped forward to wrap me in a hug. The rush of relief made my legs wobbly, but I managed to hug her back.
“How did you do this?” She turned the embroidery to Harper. “Look at how beautiful!”
“I told you,” Eliza said. “You should really sell these, if not at the farmers’ market then online orsomewhere. They’re so well done, you would rake it in.”
Eden moved back to Booker’s side, showing off the piece. He smiled and nodded while the others all complimented it at the same time. Meanwhile, Jed went on staring at me like he wasn’t sure what he was seeing.
“The timing’s all wrong, because I’m giving you a gift at June’s engagement party, and I didn’t want to be rude to her, but I had it ready and wasn’t sure when I’d get another chance, so—” I took a breath, mentally checking the urge to keep talking. “I just like to make things.”
“Well, it’s perfect,” Eden said. “I’m going to put it right over her crib. Thank you.”
They finished saying their goodbyes a few minutes later and headed out. I figured I’d take the opportunity to leave, too—I never knew when to leave a party. Too early made me look eager to be rid of them, and too late, everyone would be eager to be rid ofme. I didn’t want to be in that particular boat.
I said my own goodbyes to Eliza and Harper and found June to let her know again how happy I was for her. Mentally saying goodbye to the rest of their family and friends, I slipped outside, letting the fresh scent of Ty’s farm fill my lungs. I crunched across the gravel to my car, the only other sound out here the occasional neigh from horses in the pastures.
The little hiccups of awkwardness with Jed aside, it’d been a great night with my friends. I needed evenings like this to remind me life existed between the ages of five and seventy-five. I loved my kindergarten students, and I adored my gran and her friends. But so much of my day to day centered on one of those two extremes, I could forget a world of middle ground thrived out there.
I started the car’s engine and glanced around in a totally unnecessary safety check. Something caught my eye, and I startled at the sight of a man standing on the porch, leaning both hands against the railing. For half a second, I thought maybe I’d forgotten something inside and Jed had brought it out for me, but no—purse, keys, me. All here.
He lifted one hand in a casual goodbye. He probably made the same gesture to a hundred people a day, but my chest warmed up like he’d invented it just for me. I waved back and reversed away from the house, heading home across Magnolia Ridge.
Smiling to myself, I had fresh hope Jed and I could be friends.
And maybe one day, he’d forget I ever asked him to pretend to date me.
FIVE
jed
I relishedthe sound of the billiard balls clacking together one by one as I nailed a combo shot to finish out the game. Relished Wade’s groans over losing twice in a row even more.
“Tell me you did something besides play pool when you were overseas,” he said, replacing his cue on the wall rack.
The Broken Hammer had a two-game limit per group on the weekends, or I would have gone on mopping the floor with him all night. He’d never been that great at pool. Darts were pretty much the same, but I only beat him at one game per outing. I tried to have a little mercy on the guy.
“I had one or two responsibilities.” I snapped my cue into place and gestured to the couple waiting to play that the table was theirs.
Wade and I grabbed our drinks and looked for seats on the other side of the bar. A bit of a dive, The Broken Hammer had become our go-to bar in the same way most places in Magnolia Ridge became a favorite—we didn’t have a lot of other options. We stopped in every couple of weeks to decompress over a drink or two.
Crossing the bar, I caught him checking his phone. Sometime soon, Annie would call to let him know his turn had come to take over Maisie duties, so he’d stuck with soda for the evening. I’d been nursing a beer more for the sake of something to do than any true desire to drink. I’d burned a lot of that out of me in the Army, and now with harvest, I couldn’t afford the hangover. We found a free table and sat down with the half-full beer and a soft drink.
