Chapter 16
CHAPTER 16
C lara
“Hey, love!” I greeted as I hopped up on the sidewalk. “Are you ready to shop?”
Laura smiled warmly and wrapped me in a hug. “Of course! The farmer's market always has my favorites.”
“And it's fresh.”
“Yes, ma'am.”
I released her and we hooked our arms together, walking leisurely up to the long rows of vendors selling fresh produce. We strolled past the apples and sailed with determination toward the tomatoes.
“Ah, this would be so good with some olive oil and parmesan cheese,” Laura remarked while lifting a plump red tomato. “Could we get a few?”
“Of course. Let me grab a basket.”
I went to the end of the aisle and grabbed two wicker baskets. When I returned, she already had her hands full of tomatoes. She carefully placed them into the basket I handed her and hung it from her arm, stepping up on her toes to pay the vendor.
I giggled. “You always loved tomatoes.”
“They're one of my favorites. I could eat a tomato with every meal.”
“Should we get more than five?”
She hummed thoughtfully before shaking her head. “No, I should leave room for other things.”
“Very well.”
We strolled down the first aisle, stopping every so often to examine the produce on display.
As she reached for a red pepper, she sighed. She held it up to look it over. “This one looks good.”
“You don't seem happy about it.”
“It's not the vegetable bugging me.”
I raised a curious brow. “So, what is bugging you?”
“I need to come clean with you, Clara.”
“About what?”
“Levon.”
I stiffened. “He's been a pretty popular topic recently.”
“Well, he is back in town. Of course, he's a hot topic.”
“So, dish it out.”
She shrugged while grabbing a green pepper. “I had lunch with him earlier last week. I wasn't going to tell you because you always do that weird thing.”
“What weird thing?”
“That face—it's like disappointment but worse.”
I tried not to frown. It was hard not being disappointed in my sister. I mean, she saw my ex behind my back. I was mildly irritated. “I'm curious,” I whispered. “Why would you go see Levon?”
“Well, he kept insisting on having lunch to catch up. We ended up talking about you a whole bunch.”
I sighed. “I guess I'm a hot topic, too.”
“Why would you say that?”
“Because Levon and Gabe argued about me at Ryan's bachelor party.”
She gasped. “No way!”
“Yeah, it was something. What did you two talk about?”
“He wanted to get caught up on everything happening in your life lately.”
A warm sensation trickled into my chest. I rested my hand over my heart, pretending to stifle a sneeze instead of a sweet reaction. “That's interesting.”
“He's clearly still interested in you. I don't think he would want to do all that if he wasn't.”
“Everyone seems to think he's still interested in me.”
“I think he's doing a poor job of hiding it if you ask me.”
I smirked. “I didn't ask you.”
“But you wanted to.”
“And how would you know?”
She tapped her right temple and whispered, “Mind reader.”
I giggled. “Laura, you're ridiculous. There's no way Levon would still be interested in me. After all, our goals are totally different. They haven't changed at all.”
“His goals might have changed.”
“Oh?”
“He was asking me if he still had a chance. I mean, nobody would ask that if they didn't want to try again, right?”
I frowned at the watermelons piled high on the next stand. I tried to occupy myself by inspecting them, but their green exterior wasn't enough to command my attention. We were talking about Levon—that was more than commanding.
I shrugged. “I guess.”
“You guess,” she said with a laugh. “I think it's cute how much you hide your feelings.”
“I hate when you say that.”
“Hey, I'm your sister. I know everything about you, especially when you're hiding something.”
I rolled my eyes. “Sure, of course.”
“You can't hide from me. I'm a mind reader.”
“So, what else did he say about me?”
She cocked her head to the side. “He seemed to regret everything that happened. I told him that Gabe appeared married to his job just like he is.”
“That's true.”
“And that's why things got cut off with you and Gabe. He wasn't willing to commit.”
I sighed. “That's a common theme between those two relationships.”
“But it sounds like he might do what he needs to do to commit this time.”
I eyed her carefully. “Did he say that?”
“In so many words.”
“I don't know if I believe all that. Levon is a lot like me. He's not exactly willing to change his routines for someone else.”
“I'm sure he learned a lot from his travels. You never know.”
I shrugged. “I guess. So, how did he react to Gabe and me?”
“He wasn't happy about it, but he wasn't sad either.”
“What does that mean?”
“Exactly how I said it.”
I chuckled lightly. “I mean, how did he look?”
“He looked interested in knowing everything about you from the past few years.”
“He could have easily checked my Facebook or something.”
She laughed. “I think I'm a more reliable source.”
“And why would you be a more reliable source?”
“Because you tell me everything.”
I wrinkled up my nose. “But you didn't tell him everything , right?”
“Of course not, Clara. I wouldn't tell him your super private stuff, just what was relevant to the conversation. He wants you to be happy.”
I smiled warmly. “That's so sweet.”
“Wait, are you interested in Levon Milford?”
“What?”
“You heard me. It isn't that loud out here.”
I blushed. “I don't know what you're talking about.”
She smiled knowingly. “I think you are interested in him. I mean, you're not tied to Gabe anymore. Levon is back in town. He seems willing to start things over. Why not?”
“I'm just curious to know what he thought about me and my life. And I want to know what he's been up to lately. Is that a crime?”
“No, but it's suspicious as heck.”
“You're ridiculous.”
She laughed while wandering up to the squash stand. “And who do you think I get it from?”
“Probably our mother.”
“That's the truth.”
“So, what has he been up to? Anything fun? Has he been seeing anyone?”
She looked me over curiously before turning back to the squash. “Well, he's been traveling as he usually does. But I don't think he's been seeing anyone.”
“I mean, he's pretty handsome. I figured he would meet someone while in Europe.”
“I don't think that interested him. I think he's still hung up on you.”
“You can't know that for sure.”
She laughed. “You dated him for so long that he became a lot like a brother to me. That means I have that same bond with him that I do you. So, I can read him.”
“You say that about everybody.”
“Hey, I'm good at reading people. You can't deny that.”
I shrugged. “I guess so.”
“He better not be seeing someone if he's interested in you.”
“Laura, come on. Just tell me.”
“He might be seeing someone soon.” She winked and nudged me playfully. “There is that wedding coming up.”
I turned away from her while turning about fifty different shades of red. I grabbed a few squash from the stand, not bothering to inspect them as I had the other produce we had collected. I paid the vendor and briskly walked the end of the aisle where we turned right to head down a new aisle.
Laura caught up to me. “You can't run away from your feelings forever.”
“I'm not running away. I'm just considering what this might mean objectively.”
“This isn't an interior design project, Clara. You can't plan your way around it.”
I laughed. “I mean, I could if I wanted.”
“But that wouldn't make it any fun. It would just make it work.”
“There are plenty of drawbacks to seeing Levon again. Namely, the entire reason why we initially broke up.”
“But what if he stayed in town? Would you consider him then?”
I stopped in front of a cherry stand. “You think he would do that?”
“I mean, anything can happen. It's a wedding, right?”
“He's not going to make that decision overnight. It'll take him forever to think about it and he'll still follow his job at the end of the day.”
“Sure, he might do that,” she posited. “But what if he didn't?”
I fanned myself. “It's hot out here. Are you almost done collecting?”
“We can walk down this aisle and then head out if you want.”
“Yeah, that would be good. I'm getting dehydrated.”
“We did say Levon as a hot topic.”
I swatted her arm playfully. “Your puns are the worst, Laura!”
She laughed. “Aw, come on! That was a good one. It's not every day I get to make that sort of joke. I had to take the opportunity.”
“I swear, you could to comedy if you applied yourself to it.”
“I'm too scared of crowds.”
I chuckled. “We're in a crowd now.”
“Yeah, but I'm not in front of the crowd. There's a huge difference. I have stage fright.”
“Oh, I remember that from when you were in elementary school.”
“That was the worst play of my life!”
I tried to stifle a laugh. “But you were the cutest princess! You ran off the stage and right to us sitting in the audience.”
“That was so embarrassing!”
“But you looked so adorable running with your princess dress.”
“And I got so much heat from my classmates. It was the worst memory ever.”
I let out my laughter, holding my belly as I did. She took my arm and tugged me to the end of the aisle while laughing herself.
“Clara!” she said through giggles. “Stop it.”
“What? I like that memory. It makes me laugh.”
“At my expense, sure.”
I shook my head. “Alright, tell me one you remember of me.”
“There was that time you couldn't say the word 'library' correctly.”
“Ugh, don't even remind me.”
She chuckled. “You kept saying 'lie-berry' even when Mom corrected you.”
“Shh, don't say that too loud. There could be eligible bachelors around.”
“You mean like Levon?”
I pushed her playfully as we skipped and laughed our way to my car. I leaned against the door, allowing the rest of my giggles to leave my body.
I shook my head. “Alright, we should get this haul home.”
“I'll see you in ten minutes, okay?”
“Do you want me to grab food on the way?”
“I was going to make a salad with our finds when we got home.”
I hummed hungrily. “That's a good idea.”
“Drive safe, okay?”
“Of course. You, too!”
I hopped into my car as Laura walked away. I set the basket into the passenger seat and smiled to myself in the rear view mirror, feeling light and content. My sister always made me feel better. Even though we had talked about Levon, I didn't feel too awful.
In fact, I wasn't sure what I was feeling. As I made my way carefully out of the farmer's market parking lot, I tapped the steering wheel pensively. I pulled out onto the main road and started heading back to my sister's house with my head full of possibilities.
And Levon.