She downed half her glass of wine. Becca raised her eyebrows.
Joey shook her head vehemently. “It’s not who I want to be. Simone crashed her grocery cart into mine and kinda yelled at me about all I’m giving up, and even though I crashed mine back because who does that? I agree with her. I’m blowing it for myself because I’m a coward.” She took another big gulp, the glass almost finished. “So if I’m going to do this, I’m going to do this right. The correct way, without guards up, or feet out the door, or holding on to the idea that you’re going to desert me at any moment.”
Becca seemed to be trying to decode the rambling confession, which even Joey could hear made little sense. “Simone crashed her cart into yours?”
Joey nodded. “Right? And there was nary a Biddy to report on it.”
A pause. Becca lifted her glass and sat back against the leather booth. “Are you saying that you regret ending things with me?”
She finished her glass, set it down, and nodded. “Listen, Becca, I don’t even know if you’d give me a second chance or even the time of day next week. What I do know is that I’d do so much differently this time. I’d commit to the idea and work through the issues and problems that would arise.”
“Because they definitely would,” Becca noted. “That’s part of life. Of relationships, marriage. People have problems and disagreements all the time.”
She nodded. “Right, I know that innately, I just…”
“Self-protect.”
Joey nodded. “Marriage?” She met Becca’s gaze. “You could see yourself getting married one day?”
“It’s what I’ve always wanted, imagined for myself.” She stared at the table for a moment and seemed to make a decision to say more. “You’re the only person who I’ve actually imagined it happening with.”
Joey blinked and could have been knocked over by a feather. “Me?”
“You.”
She heard Simone’s words loud and clear in her mind. You’re very easy to love.
She swallowed and gathered her courage. “Do you think one day you could fall in love with me?”
“Oh, Joey.” She shook her head slowly. “I already am.”
“Really?” She couldn’t quite believe it, but then, that had been her exact problem all along.
Becca nodded. “I’ve been trying not to be for months now. It’s not really a choice.” She raised a hand. “It’s just the state of the world, you know?”
“What do you want to do about that?”
“I don’t know,” Becca said and rolled her lips in.
Joey hadn’t said the words back, and Becca had to have noticed. She felt it, though. With everything in her, Joey knew she’d fallen in love with Becca somewhere between that shoulder bump in town and reading romance novels on the couch. It had snuck up on her, but it was there all the same. She opened her mouth, but the important words wouldn’t come. They were stuck. She pivoted. “I do. I know what we do about it, I mean.”
“And what’s that?”
“We take a walk. You tell me about everything I’ve missed since that day in my kitchen. We put one foot in front of the other.”
Becca held on to her skepticism, that much Joey could tell, but she agreed to take that walk. Becca told her about New Orleans and about Skywalker’s new habit of stealing her socks and stuffing them, still in a ball, under the couch. She heard about The Jade’s fantastic word of mouth and killer reviews on Tripadvisor. She felt like she’d missed so much. Too much.
They strolled in silence a bit, and Joey turned to Becca, feeling nostalgic for simpler times. “This reminds me a little bit of that night we got the ice cream floats.”
“The night you had me scootin’ across the dance floor in the name of getting to know the town better? Yes, I remember it well.”
Joey laughed. “That was a really good night for me. I feel like we started to get to know each other.”
Becca took Joey’s hand in hers. “We did.” It felt so natural that Joey didn’t even register the feeling at first. When she did, warmth spread from the center of her chest outward, and she smiled.
“Do you know what I’m looking forward to?” Joey asked.
“Tell me.”
“The first signs of spring. The new growth you see happening all over this place. It’s like the turning of a page, a fresh start, just like the growing season. It makes me wonder if that’s possible for us.”
“Maybe,” Becca said with a noncommittal gaze, but she was