Chapter Eight #3
“Yes. Yes, I was. I felt like a fool. But Miles didn’t seem to care.
” She pressed her hands to her red cheeks.
“I babbled out that I’d changed my mind and that I was wrong, that I was tired of never getting out, never enjoying the company of the right sort of man.
That if he ever might consider spending an evening with me, I would like to take him to Arlington’s for dinner—Friday night, if that worked for him. ”
“Wow. You asked him out. Bold move.”
Annette gave a regal nod. “I thought so, too.”
“And then Miles said yes?”
“No, he did not.”
Riley sputtered, “B-but… What? He said no?” About then, Riley noticed that Annette was still beaming. “Okay. Stop messing with me. Tell me what really happened.”
“It’s true. He said no. He said no, he would not let me take him to dinner—”
“Oh! I get it. He’s taking you.”
“Yes! He’s picking me up at seven. Oh, Riley…
” She grabbed both of Riley’s hands. “You are a treasure. Thank you. If you hadn’t kept after me, insisting that I think about what I really wanted, urging me to go ahead and take a chance, to make that call…
Riley, if not for you, I would be sitting at home all alone right now wondering how life had so completely passed me by. ”
“Well, thank you—but you’re wrong. This is all you, Annette. You figured out what you wanted, and you made it happen.”
Annette shook a finger. “You helped. You helped a lot. You know that you did—now, come here.” Annette grabbed her, and they hugged it out.
“Grammy!” Dillon stood on the bottom stair, his hair a wild tangle of red curls on one side, smashed flat on the other.
He’d brought his favorite stuffie, an ancient Jurassic World T.
rex, downstairs with him. “You came to see me!” He dropped the T.rex and made a beeline for Annette.
“Come on.” He grabbed her hand. “Let’s go up to my room… ”
“Yes,” agreed Annette. “Let’s do that.” She rose and followed him up the stairs, pausing to grab the forgotten toy on the way.
Eventually Annette came down alone. She gave Riley another hug and left for home.
Once she was alone again, Riley wandered over to the sofa and picked up the remote. But then she set it down without turning on the big screen above the fireplace.
She wanted to call Josh, share the news that Annette was going on her first date in decades. She wanted to ask him how Roger was doing, find out if anything new had gone on with Lenore.
But she hesitated to reach out. They’d patched up their differences last Thursday. That night, he’d promised not to be a stranger. And yet four days had passed without a word from him.
No, four days without a word from him didn’t make him a stranger.
It did kind of bother her, though. Until all this drama over her pregnancy, they used to talk several times a week.
But that was before she’d turned down his marriage proposal and ended their longtime fling—which was a lot, now she actually thought it over. Plus, this week he had Shane with him, so he was busy being a dad.
She’d just grabbed the remote to check out her streaming options when her phone buzzed.
It was Josh.
Grinning, she answered. “What’s going on?”
“Just checking in. Shane’s in bed.”
“Dillon, too.”
“Roger and I are sitting around doing nothing.”
“It’s the same here. A thrill a minute…”
They made plans. He would be picking her up for her eighteen-week ultrasound, which was scheduled for next Monday.
“I can’t wait,” he said. “We’re going to find out if it’s a girl or a boy, right?”
“Yep,” she replied. “Got a preference?”
He said either was great. She agreed that she felt the same.
“I want you to come to my place for my birthday,” he said.
“Wouldn’t miss it.” she replied. He was hitting the big 3-0. “It’s two weeks from Friday, right?”
“That’s it. I’ll be manning grill. Come at five—or whenever you can take off from the hotel. No presents. Bring Dillon. And you know the boys will be after us to let Dillon stay over.”
“No doubt about that,” she agreed.
“So maybe just bring his pajamas and toothbrush. He can spend the night, and I’ll drop him at your house when I take Shane to Lenore’s Saturday morning.”
“That’ll work.”
“And invite Annette,” he said. “I’m inviting my mom, my dad, my brother and Sadie and the kids. Joe and Macy and their kids, too.”
“What can I bring to eat?”
“Not a thing. I’m grilling steaks and chicken. My mom and Sadie are handling everything else.”
“You sure?”
“Positive.”
“Josh. No way I’m showing up empty-handed.”
“Okay, okay. Bring whatever you want to bring.”
“Thank you, I will—and I have big news. On Friday, Annette is going on a date with Miles Crowne.”
“Annette on a date. Has that ever happened before?”
“As far as I know, not since Trevor Senior was alive.”
“Listen, tell her to invite Miles for my birthday, too—or is the thing with Miles too new for that?”
“How about we see how it goes this Friday night and take it from there?”
Before they hung up, he reminded her to call him if she needed anything. “I mean it, Riley. Anything.”
Too soon, he was gone. She picked up the remote again and then set it back down.
For a few minutes there, it had felt like it used to be—the two of them always making plans, always in touch, constantly together. But now she had a feeling she wouldn’t hear from him again until the ultrasound next week. She missed him already.
Things just weren’t like they used to be. And she couldn’t help wishing she had the power to turn back time.