meow at me.” Chloe closed her eyes tight, remembering the way his arms had felt around her. “I kissed Ben. And Ben kisses everybody.”
This was not good. Their friendship had relied on the fact that Chloe wasn’t everybody. She wouldn’t bang on his door at three in the morning, begging him to open up. She wouldn’t sit by the phone, praying he’d call. And she certainly wouldn’t fall in love with him, expecting to be the one who would finally make him change.
“I’m blaming it on the alcohol,” Chloe told her cat. “I had too much wine, we both did and . . .” She flushed, thinking of the way Ben pushed her up against that door. The way he’d smelled, like rosemary and garlic and the seventh grade. Her heart pounded at the memory.
Just then, there was a thump on the other side of the wall. Chloe froze, realizing that the only thing separating her from the man who had turned her body to water was a thin piece of plaster. She drew the comforter back up to her chin and pulled Whiskers in tight.
“How could I have been so stupid?” Chloe buried her face in Whiskers’ fur. The cat squirmed wildly, then escaped. She stood at the end of the bed, looking highly offended, her fluffy white hair askew.
“Great,” Chloe said, tossing up her hands. “Thanks a lot. But at least you’ve prepared me. Because that is exactly how Ben’s going to react.”
* * *
As the sun shined down through the trees, June sat on her haunches, tugging at an especially hard-to-extract weed. The oxidation crew had toned down the glare on the gazebo and she was overjoyed to spend the day in her garden once again.
“Oh, you think you’re so strong,” June told the weed. “Just you wait. I am going to tear you out of this ground faster than you can say—”
“Giving it a talking to, June?” a voice asked.
June was so startled that she let go of the weed and fell back on her bottom. “Oooph.” The grass was slightly damp and the moisture seeped through the thin fabric of her gardening shorts. Drat. She would have to go back inside and change. Assuming she could get back up. Her body had landed in a very precarious position indeed.
Charley eyed her with concern. “Are you alright?”
“I am perfectly fine.” The truth was, June had landed on a tree root in a way that could require a trip to the emergency room, but she was not about to admit that in front of this man.
“Are you sure?” Charley put up a hand, shielding his eyes from the sun. “You look like you’re stuck. Do you need a hand?”
June let out an enormous sigh. She was not stuck, but getting out of this position was going to require some grunting and groaning that she would prefer he not witness. “I am perfectly fine,” she said. “The gazebo looks good. Thank you so much. What can I help you with now?”
Charley leaned against the fence, as though settling in for a long chat. “That friend of yours, she’s quite a character. She didn’t believe me when I said I enjoyed her strudel, so she’s insisted on bringing me another one.”
June peeled off her gardening gloves. Flexing her fingers, she said, “Oh?”
“Yes.” Charley looked puzzled for a moment, as though remembering the details of that night. Then he smiled. “Since Rose is your friend, I thought you could tell me what she prefers to drink? I didn’t think to offer her anything, last time.”
“I haven’t the slightest idea,” June said. Of course, everyone who was anyone knew that Rose Weston drank Manhattans, with two maraschino cherries. “I believe she’s a teetotaler.”
“A teetotaler?” Charley looked genuinely alarmed. “Oh, boy. I probably would have served her a drink and she would have slapped my face. She seems like a feisty one.” As he said this, his blue eyes danced in a way that she did not appreciate. “Thank you, June.” He turned away from the fence, his form slightly stooped in the summer sun. Whistling, he headed back toward the house.
Gingerly, June placed her hands on the grass and gave a slight shove. Her legs splayed open like a crab just as he turned to say, “You sure you’re okay?”
June lowered herself back to the ground. “Just wonderful.”
When the man finally decided to go inside, June slid her cell phone out of her pocket and flipped it open. It was strictly