Lucy Loves Him Not (Sweet River Series Book 2)

Chapter 1

“Iwill not allow you to wallow at home alone watching reruns tonight. Gracie is only in town a short while and it’s both yours and mine last day of the school year, so tonight we shall drink margaritas and celebrate. You can watch reruns in a burrito blanket at home afterward, okay?” my older sister, Olivia, urged me through a voice message while I stacked things into my tote bag.

It was the last day of school for me as a kindergarten teacher, but it was also margarita night with my sisters. Olivia knew me well enough to know my out-of-character lack of chattiness in our sister text group meant I might be considering backing out of tonight’s festivities.

I let out a big sigh of relief as I turned off the classroom lights. My tiny, energetic students enjoyed their last day of school days ago. But after sending them off I had only a couple of days to finish taking down my classroom, print out hard copies of my grade books, submit them, and then there were end-of-year meetings. My real last day had finally arrived and all I wanted was to crawl into bed watching New Girl reruns until I fell into a deep, dreamless sleep. Instead, I put on eyeliner and pulled my curly, red hair into an updo in my yellow VW Bug before I met my sisters for what the text message called a sisterly celebratory dinner and drinks.

Olivia said this dinner was required for all three of us Rhodes sisters. Olivia was the oldest at 29, so she has a habit of bossing us around. I was aware that part of this urgency was that we only had our youngest sister, Gracie, with us for a short window in the midst of her busy college and dance schedule.

I slipped into the booth at our favorite Mexican restaurant, the eager-to-please middle kid, because while Olivia might be bossing us around, she usually had good ideas. And as a big salt-rimmed margarita was set before me, I knew she was right about this one, too.

“To the end of school, for all of us,” she said, holding up her own margarita to mine and Gracie’s glass. Olivia, with her glossy, straight auburn hair and her freckled, button nose was a determined, serious woman in such an adorable package.

We Rhodes sisters are all under five foot three and had been teased about it as a little (quite literally) trio growing up, but Olivia was the shortest clocking in at five feet.

“Well, for you two it’s the end. I have a summer semester starting in a week,” Gracie groans, still an undergrad at 22. She had the same untamed curls as me, but in a light, wheat blond instead of my fiery, copper red.

“You’re almost done, Gracie.” I reached across to her and gave her shoulder a comforting little squeeze. “You graduate in the fall. It’s so close.”

Olivia and I were both in education except on opposite ends of the spectrum. I taught the early years while Olivia was an ancient history professor at a small college outside of Austin.

“Do you think we could squeeze in a girl’s trip before your summer classes start?” Olivia turned to Gracie hopefully. “Maybe we could go to the beach for a few days?”

“Maybe?” Gracie scrunched her nose. “It’d be tight, but I might be able to make it work. I have eight days left.”

“I can’t make it work.” I slumped against the back of my chair. “I haven’t started working on the summer festival at all and I need to start right away. Like, that’s what I’m doing all day tomorrow.”

“Oh man, how could I forget about the all-consuming Annual Sweet River Summer Festival,” Olivia said dryly. “I think since no one pays you and it’s purely volunteer work, you could delay a couple more days for your sisters.”

“I have to start working on it as soon as possible. I haven’t gotten anything in order and the festival is the weekend after the Fourth of July,” I said, taking a long swig of my limey, sweet drink.

“Didn’t we decide we were going to have an intervention last year?” Olivia raised an eyebrow at Gracie.

“That we did. Especially after how out of control it was last summer,” Gracie grimaced.

“Out of control?” I protested. “Last year was not out of control.” My sisters cared about the festival, sure, but not in the way I did.

“It was unhealthy, is what it was, Luce. It was unhealthy that all you did was organize this little summer fest and nothing else.” Olivia waved a chip around as she drove the point home. It dawned on me that I didn’t remember anything from last summer except for planning the festival.

“It is not just a little summer fest,” I argued. “It’s a big festival for the whole town. It’s been happening for over a dec?—”

“Yes, okay. I get that. The festival has been around for a decade. It’s been our family equally as long. I get why you care about it. But it shouldn’t take over your entire life and you’ve let it do just that in the past couple of years,” Olivia said earnestly before stuffing another chip into her mouth.

“I don’t think I let the festival take over my entire life.” I crossed my arms.

“You literally turned down a date with one of the hottest guys in town because you said you needed to ‘focus on the festival,’” Gracie said in horror. “Focus. On. The. Festival.”

“Nick? Nick is not one of the hottest guys in town.” I shook my head. “I stand by my choice.”

“He is definitely in the top five,” Gracie countered passionately.

“Not in my top five,” I said. Although, I wasn’t sure I even had a top five. Or a top two, for that matter.

“Okay, we’re getting off topic.” Olivia patted the table to get our attention.

“Listen, this festival is important to me. Maybe too important sometimes,” I said, looking down at my drink. I swished the icy liquid back and forth. “It was Grandma’s baby. She poured her heart into it every year and I was always right by her side for all of it. Then she left it to me. I feel like everything I do for the festival is in her honor. Because of that, it doesn’t feel like it could ever be too important.”

Gracie scoots closer to me and wraps her arm around me. “I know it was always your thing with her. Grandma and I watched our ballets and she always took me to dance class. She and Olivia were obsessed with their history documentaries. And you two ran the summer festival together every year. We all love the festival and the work you do with it. Just maybe…get some help with it? Since Grandma left, you’re completely on your own.”

“But—”

“I think this festival is supposed to be a fun thing you do to help the city. That was how Grandma did it, wasn’t it? She had fun with it, but still had time for mom and her granddaughters,” Olivia said. “She still got her butt to church on the regular, quilted, and basically ran the Sweet River Historical Society. The festival wasn’t everything to her. She had a life, Lucy.”

“And she had help with the festival every single year. Tons of it,” Gracie added, her eyes squinted earnestly. I tried not to laugh at the cuteness of my little sister and focus on the seriousness of this intervention. “It should be a joint effort.”

“I do get some help. But it’s not that simple for me. Grandma was this important figure in the community. There were people she’d known for years she called on to help her out. I’m just, you know, me.” I shrugged. I had so many memories of watching Grandma dial people’s numbers from her worn address book, calling people to ask them to lend a hand. The door to her life, her heart, always seemed so wide open.

The idea of asking for help, calling them out of the blue the way she did, felt like a skillset I’d never learned. Like someone was telling me I needed to figure out how to build the engine of a car.

I had handled it on my own with the usual volunteers the past couple of years and I was doing fine, anyway. I took a big gulp of my margarita, totally fine.

“I think it’s more than that. I’m your big sister. I see how you’re doing. I see that you go from two-thirds of the year with teaching consuming everything, to the other third of the year with the festival consuming everything. You need some time to live, to let life be about you,” Olivia said, her tone nearly maternal.

“Time to date,” Gracie almost shouted, making me jump. My drink splashed a little on my top.

“Why are you so concerned with my dating life?” I asked Gracie. It felt like my sisters had my whole life under inspection right now.

“Because when was the last time you went on a date?” Gracie muttered judgmentally.

“What does that matter?” I countered, trying to do the math in my mind. Had it really been, what, three years?

“Because you’re 26. You’re hot, adorable, and fun. A total catch. And I think you’re ready for more in life than story time circles and dinner at Mom’s,” Gracie said, matter-of-fact.

There I sat, my messy, red hair in a tangled ponytail and makeup wearing off, with Gracie telling me I was a catch. I wanted to hug her, but also tell her to get off my case because it was hard to find a man in a small-town, no matter what the romance novels said.

“But do you think I’m in the Sweet River top five?” I clicked my fingers playfully along the table.

“You know, I don’t remember the last time I was on a date, either,” Olivia mused, her voice light. But her words carried weight because we all remembered Olivia’s last date was with her ex-boyfriend, Ryan. Her very serious, years-long relationship. They had been broken up for nearly a year now.

“I went on a date last week,” Gracie said softly. “It was a flop.”

“Are you feeling ready to date?” I looked at Olivia, my head cocked to the side in curiosity.

She is quiet for a beat. “Maybe.” Then, to me, “Do you want to fall in love?”

I laugh a little at her question. At the directness. The tenderness. The specificness. Classic Olivia, always cutting to the chase.

Do I want to fall in love?

I wasn’t super interested in dating. It had always intimidated me, not to mention that I was exhausted at the end of a workday. As my grandma used to call me her fiery little redhead, I felt like most men veered in the opposite direction of us.

But…love? My heart felt like a nervous, wide-eyed little bird at the prospect of it. Open, but tentative. Wondering, Is this a safe place to land? Because romantic love hadn’t always felt like a safe place to me. Not in my history or the history of those I hold closest.

“Luce?” Olivia pushed.

“Doesn’t everyone want to fall in love?” I asked as syrupy sweet as the drinks on the table.

“I’m not asking everyone,” Olivia said, pointing her finger at me. “I’m asking you.”

“How would I go about falling in love, anyway? It’s not something I can simply decide to do.” I fidget with my cup. “Even if I wanted it.”

“You’re right. You can’t plan for it. But are you going to open the door if it comes knocking?” Olivia asked with a raised brow.

“I think I’m not home to answer the door,” I deadpanned.

We all giggled. The server came by to freshen our drinks.

“What about you guys?” I asked after the server walked away.

“I think love gave up on me,” Olivia said a little bitterly. “I let it down last time.”

“I think you both should get on a dating app,” Gracie interjected, slamming her hands down on the table again.

Olivia and I both stared at our little sister blankly.

“There’s an app I have that’s all about helping local people find love. The point is to give mutual friends you want to connect with a green light if you’re interested. Like meeting a friend of a friend without needing the mutual to set you up. If someone has given you a green light, they show up in your feed. If you also give them a green light, then you two are a match.”

“What’s the app called?” Olivia pulled out her phone gamely.

“It’s called Love Local,” Gracie said. “A guy I know who recently graduated is the founder.”

“You’re doing it, Liv?” I swallowed, trying to conceal the fear in my voice.

“Why not?” Olivia was already searching for Love Local in her app store.

I chewed my lip. “Okay, me, too.” I took another big gulp of my drink.

The next hour was a haze of salty-sweet margaritas, giggling, setting up our profiles, and buzzing over who we recognized on the app.

Then a very handsome man named Adam showed up in my green light’s section with wavy, black hair and dark glasses. I had never seen him before. I scrolled through his profile and realized he was new in town, but seemed to be connected to a few old friends of mine.

“Oh, look at those big blue eyes.” Gracie leaned across the table to see my phone. “Oh, and curly hair, you know we love a curly boy in this house.”

I felt my cheeks go pink as I swiped through his photos. His blue eyes were piercing even through the photos and he had a sharp jawline—with a perfect amount of stubble.

“Let’s see about this guy that’s got you grinning.” Olivia scooted in beside me, grabbing my phone. “He’s 28. It says he likes to run. And he’s a reader—oh, that’s like you! I can see you with a nerdy bookworm.”

I was reading over her shoulder as she scrolled through my phone. “It says here he’s more of a dog person. Yikes, is Stevie going to come between you and Alex?”

“It’s Adam,” I corrected her. “And Stevie will make him a cat person for sure.”

“Oh, so you’re thinking this guy is going to meet Stevie?” Gracie squealed, dropping salsa from our recently ordered nachos onto the table.

I didn’t answer. I got the phone back in my hands and kept perusing his profile. He wore glasses sometimes and it made my stomach buzz. If a guy could pull off glasses, he could probably pull me.

“Are you blushing over this guy?” Gracie was all snickers and energy. She kept swaying to the music playing in the restaurant.

“No, no, probably nothing will come of it. I just like his glasses.” I really liked his glasses. And his adorable answers to the profile questions. I sighed dreamily as I reread his answer to ‘my favorite book’: I don’t play favorites with my children.

“You and the glasses thing,” Olivia said.

But still, the idea that maybe some hot bookworm who wore glasses and, look at that, loved watching Friends (just like me), and could run into me at my favorite coffee shop gave me a bubbly feeling that made me want to float on home. It blossomed some persistent little hope I had been in the habit of watering down.

My phone buzzed. We all squealed.

“Look, you got another green light!” Gracie clapped. “Open it!” she ordered me as I caught my breath after laughing.

I looked at the request…and then my jaw dropped. “Oh yikes, no,” I groaned.

“What?” Olivia’s eyes were wide as she leaned over my shoulder.

“Is it Nick?” Gracie squealed.

“Nick? No? Do you like Nick, Gracie?” I shook with laughter. “It’s Jed Boone, one of my students’ dads! What a creeper.”

“Is he a creeper, or is he, like, cute?” Olivia stole my phone. “Oh, no, not your type. He’s no Adam.”

“I always had a weird vibe from him. Now, he saw me, his son’s teacher, and sent me a green light.” I shook my head no.

“Red light!” Olivia said, sending him a red light. “Oh, you forgot to send Amazing Adam a green light.” I watched in horror as she so casually clicked a green light for Adam and the phone lit up announcing a match had been made.

“No!” I squeaked.

My safe, little bubble where Amazing Adam only lived in my fantasies was popped. Meanwhile, my sisters just laughed delightedly and finished their drinks.