Page 71 of Honeyed

“Hey, Gabrielle, thanks for coming.”

She smiles warily, like I might attack her or something. “Of course, I’m excited for Cassandra.”

I glance at my sister-in-law. “She’s going to be the best mom.”

Gabrielle nods. “No doubt about it. We should all be so lucky.”

I don’t say that I am because my mom is spectacular and because it feels like there is a backstory there. “How about you? Do you have any nieces or nephews?”

She shakes her head. “Not right now.”

Dragging words out of a wall would be easier. “Got it. And you have family in town, right?”

“Used to. My grandmother owned the used book shop over on Grant Street before it closed.”

That surprises me. “No kidding? I used to go in there and get old Harlequin paperbacks from time to time.”

That earns me a small grin. “That would have made my grandmother happy.”

“Lucy, right? She was your grandmother. She was always so nice when I went in. I was sorry to hear of her passing.”

Gabrielle looks down at her shoes. “Me too. We weren’t … we weren’t all that close but she was a wonderful person.”

This woman has a backstory that I can’t seem to stop wanting to pick apart.

“You know my brother, right?” I have to say something because I’m a nosy sister, and Liam could use a little matchmaking.

Gabrielle all but chokes on her lemonade. “Uh, not really.”

“You taught him, right? Before you left the school district.” Patrick said as much, and Liam’s been acting mighty weird about her reappearance.

What my two brothers can’t do is subtleness, so it’s my chance to suss out what went on between my eldest brother and the hot teacher.

She nods but doesn’t say anything.

“He’s single. Liam, that is. And I see the way he looks at you.” Fine, I’m pushing. But I’m happily in love and want everyone else to be, too.

Her head whips up so fast, and the words fly out even faster. “He doesn’t look at me.”

Well, that wasn’t suspicious as hell or anything. “He does, and I think we both know it. But hey, I’m pushing. I get it. I just … you seem like you like it here, and I’d love to be a person for you to lean on. I guess I don’t necessarily know what it’s like to be new in this town, but I do know how loving its people can be, and if you need someone to show you that, I’m here.”

Now she genuinely smiles. “I appreciate that. Thank you.”

“Alana, can we talk?” Dad appears out of nowhere, wringing his hands together like he’s extremely nervous.

My mind blanks as I look at him, and shifting gears from my conversation with Gabrielle to the one I’m about to have takes me a minute. I look to the dining room door to see Patrick, who showed up for the end of the shower. Dad must have come with him to corner me without Warren here.

The thought has me sweating, which is strange because my father and I have always had a wonderful relationship. I’m a daddy’s girl, the only one, but recently it’s been so strained, and I don’t know how to handle this.

“Okay.” I’m nervous too.

While I’ve had the usual teenage fights with my parents, little tiffs with my siblings, and general disagreements, this fight feels bigger than any of those. It feels malicious and personal, and I’ve hated the weight it’s put in my gut. Since he first started putting up objections about the store, I haven’t been able to act normally around him. Then came my marriage and his outright refusal to accept it, and we haven’t spoken more than sentences to each other in months.

Still, I follow him outside, knowing we need to have this out.

“Thank you for talking to me,” he says, his eyes full of emotions.

My dad is a good person; I know this deep down, but he isn’t always the most emotionally self-aware. He hates admitting he’s wrong and is one of the most stubborn people I know. Hey, wonder where I developed those personality traits.

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