Nash Brothers Box Set - Carrie Aarons Page 0,263

my thirties now, and things I’d convinced myself I never wanted … they’ve started to look appealing. Settling down, marriage, children …

Why is it that I can practically hear the biological clock ticking in my ears, now?

“Hey, you!” Presley bounces out from the booth she’s secured for us in the back.

The diner smells heavenly, like fresh peaches and sizzling, buttery pie crust. I’m in dire need of a thick, juicy burger, and my mouth starts watering for it.

“Hi.” I hug her, kissing her on the cheek as we both pull away. “How were the morning classes?”

Presley hasn’t even grabbed us menus. Probably because she knows I’ll order a burger, and I know that she’ll order a BLT. These were the little intricacies of knowing someone for as long as we’d known each other. In New York, we’d been family. I’d been the only one there for her, and while she knew a bit about my past, I wasn’t sure she fully grasped that she was my only family.

She giggles. “Mr. Abrams farted again in the senior class. I had to try so hard not to laugh.”

“Something about that downward dog really gets him barking.” I wiggle my eyebrows, cracking the pun.

Presley rolls her eyes. “That one was too easy.”

We order as the waitress comes by, who then asks how Presley is and if she and Keaton plan on attending the town hall dance in three weeks.

“Wouldn’t miss it. Don’t you know I’m married to the self-appointed mayor? I think Keaton is secretly hoping we win Mr. and Mrs. Fawn Hill.” My best friend shakes her head as if her husband is incorrigible, but deep down, I know she thinks his childlike splendor about these things is adorable.

“This place really is something right out of Gilmore Girls,” I tell her, sipping my lemonade the minute it’s set down on the table.

“That’s why I stay. Oh, and the fact that I belong here more than I ever have anywhere. Isn’t it strange? Me, here?”

Honestly, when she first moved here, I thought she was nuts. I’d pegged it as just another Presley running away from her problems situation, and bet she’d be back in the city in two months’ time. But now that I’ve met the Nashes and have stayed in Fawn Hill for extended periods of time … I understood why she fit so well here.

My head cocks to the side. “No … it suits you.”

“The small-town vet’s wife. I guess it does.” Her smile widens, and I know she’s mooning over Keaton.

“And the kick-ass yogi business owner who has transformed a town’s fitness regimen. Give yourself the proper credit you deserve.”

She nods. “I learned from the best, after all. Remember when you made me demand a raise at the restaurant I was hostessing at?”

The place had been a brown-nosing eatery close to the major news network buildings, used for schmoozing anchors and guests alike.

“Yeah, because they were giving you like two bucks an hour and made you close every night. I woulda socked that manager right in the nose.”

Presley laughs. “And I did it, you got me so fired up. Then he canned me right on the spot. Said I was a cocky little bitch not worth my weight in martini olives.”

“Well, at least he had a good comeback, that’s one I’d never heard. Besides, you asserted your value. A woman should never underestimate it in business.”

My friend reaches across the table. “And you never have. You’re one of the savviest women I know. But honestly, I like that you’re teaching at the middle school. It might be the best job I could have thought of for you.”

I’d gone to the school yesterday, for the second time, and given a lesson on creating GIFs that the class was especially thrilled about. By the end, we’d made some hilarious video memes of their favorite cartoons or TV shows.

“It’s not a job … you get paid to do those. And don’t lie, you never thought I’d be a good teacher. I’m not a kid person.”

Presley rolls her eyes. “I hate when people say that. You’re not not a kid person, you just haven’t been around them much as an adult.”

“I was around them enough as a kid,” I tell her, an edge to my voice.

Her eyes soften a bit. “That was a different situation, and you know it. You’re a cool woman, like one of the neatest people I’ve ever met. You’re quirky and sarcastic, and you can talk to anyone in a