Page 31 of The Broken Heart Playlist
“Bye, Uno!” Lisset calls out, already heading toward the door. “Bye, Gideon!”
“Bye, Lissy.”
They’re so casual and at ease with one another. I don’t know how to feel about that.
As I exit the coffee shop, I catch Gideon’s reflection in the glass window. He’s staring at me, a soft smile on his lips and a look on his face so heated it soaks into my skin, settling in all the cold places. He doesn’t seem embarrassed to be caught staring, and I’m the first to look away, confused and unsettled, my heart pounding.
CHAPTER TWELVE
After dropping Lisset off at school on Friday, I’m browsing the Farmer’s Market on Main Street, looking for fresh produce to accent the dishes we’re featuring for a client shoot today, when my phone starts to ring, loud and demanding. My gut says this is a call from Tess. Sure enough, there’s my sister’s name lighting up the screen. I’m like one of those farmers who can predict an approaching storm.
“I can’t talk for long,” I say the moment I answer. “My phone’s about to die.”
There’s a brief pause before Tess scoffs, “Nice try. You forget you told me your trick.”
I curse under my breath. Not my wisest move, telling my sister my hack for how to get off the phone quickly.
“I’m phoning to confirm dinner Saturday night at our place.”
I start coughing. “I think I’m coming down with something.”
“Fortunately, you’re a better food stylist than an actor.”
I give up on the coughing. “What’s the point of this dinner?”
“I want to spend time with my sister and my niece over a delicious meal,” she says.
“Then why is Gideon invited?”
Tess is silent.
“Stop trying to set me up.”
“He seems nice.”
“I’m not interested.”
“Give him a chance.”
“Stop.” I need an offramp to this insane conversation.
“Kate, I know you don’t want to hear this, but I think it’s time you moved on,” Tess tells me, recalibrating to her default personality of Nurturing and Bossy. “Why not start with Gideon?”
I move to a quiet spot in the market. “I fell in love with a man who hurt me,” I say in a low voice. “I won’t make that same mistake again.”
“How do you know Gideon will be a repeat of what you had with Oliver?”
“How do you know he won’t?”
“I don’t,” she replies, “but why not take a chance and find out?”
Because, my happily married sister, I became so small in my marriage. I became small so I’d be less of a target. That’s what you’re supposed to do when you feel threatened. Head down, chin tucked in, legs pulled to your chest, arms wrapped around yourself. Make yourself smaller and smaller. Until one day you realize you’ve made yourself so small you’ve nearly disappeared.
I never want to be small again.
And I don’t know how to explain that to my sister whose husband makes her feel like his universe.
“You can talk to me, you know,” Tess says, a thin thread of what sounds like pleading in her voice. “Why do you believe you have to carry hard things alone?”
