Page 32 of Take My Name
Warren
If that was my plan, I would’ve let Lilith throw you off instead of saving your ass.
Maisie
I knew you gave me a bad horse on purpose!
Warren
She’s usually an angel. She must’ve sensed a bad vibe.
Maisie
You’re insufferable.
Warren
So I’ve been told.
5pm. Don’t be late.
Considering I don’t have anything without a heel and don’t want to borrow another pair, I get dressed and drive one of my parents’ cars into town.
I have a dozen old cowboy boots from high school, but I’m not sure that’s what he had in mind either, so I go to the only shoe shop in Willow Branch Mountain. I have countless memories growing up here, walking around the town square, and hanging out with Warren and our friends on the weekends.
“Maisie Callaway?” a voice calls, and I turn to find where it came from.
“Delia?” My spine straightens at seeing the girl who tried to steal Warren from me our junior year of high school.
Just my luck I’d run into her.
And I was so close to opening the door of the store.
She opens her arms, and I let her hug me.
“I haven’t seen you in a hotminute! How are ya?”
“I’m great. Visitin’ my parents and goin’ to Aaron and Collin’s baby shower.”
Aaron’s two years younger than me and his wife’s family is as prestigious as ours. They grew up together, but they could barely stand each other, so I was surprised when they got engaged a couple years ago. I thought for sure ours and her parents forced them together like some royal arranged marriage, but then she got pregnant only a few months after the wedding, so I guess that hate turned into passion.
“Oh, how sweet. Is it a boy or girl?”
I shift my feet, inching closer to the steps. “They’ve decided not to find out until it’s born.”
“Henry and I did that with our first, but then I couldn’t wait with the next two.”
“You have three kids now?”
She rubs a hand over her belly. “Recently found out we have one more on the way.”
Four?
If I didn’t already feel behind in life, I would now. Not because twenty-nine is old, but most of our friends from high school got married and had kids a couple years after graduation.
“That’s so great. I bet your hands are full.”
“Yes, but so is my heart. They’re so precious.”
