Chapter 19
Nineteen
Reegan
When Josh walked out of his house the next morning carrying not just coffee but a tray with food on it, I smiled. It was new and different, and I assumed it was because we missed sharing breakfast the day before when Evie returned home early.
I was wrong.
“Evie wants to meet you,” Josh said once he’d set the tray down and kissed me.
“We’ve already met.” I inhaled the bold scent of his coffee and took my first sip.
“She saw us kissing yesterday morning.”
I choked on my coffee. “What?”
He winced. “She came out of her room while we were outside, and she saw us. She knows you spent the night, and she wants to meet you again. As my girl… As someone I’m dating.”
“I thought you said you never had a woman at your house.” My tone was sharper than I intended. More accusatory, too.
To his credit, he didn’t react to that. “That’s the truth. She’s never met anyone I’ve been seeing. Ever.”
“Then why does she want to meet me?” Was I screeching? I felt like I was screeching. Panic did that to a person.
“You don’t have to,” he said quietly, a thread of disappointment in his tone.
I drew a breath. We were sleeping together. We were having fun. And if I was going to uproot my entire life and move to Amethyst Bay, the chances were really good I’d see him around town, even if we didn’t keep seeing each other.
Meeting his daughter was not that big of a problem. Just because it made me more nervous than meeting a guy’s parents ever did, it didn’t mean I wouldn’t do it.
“When?” I asked.
His gaze snapped to mine, distrust and banked hope fighting for dominance. “You’ll meet her?”
I drew a breath and released it slowly. “I already met her, and she’s really sweet. But I’m… nervous? Is there a stronger word than that?”
“Why would you be nervous?”
I scoffed. “The most important person in your life wants to meet me. Why would I not be nervous? Terrified? Panicked?”
The smile that settled on his face was more than pleased. It was more than joyful. It was positively sinful with delight. “Be careful. You’re making it sound like you want her to like you.”
“I do!” I slowed my breathing. I was not going to admit how far I’d fallen for him, or that I was hoping to make Amethyst Bay my permanent home. Or that I was really hoping to make his bed a more regular place for me to wake up. He didn’t need to know all of that.
“I want her to like you, too, Reegan. She is the most important person in my life, but that doesn’t mean you don’t matter to me.” He leaned across the arms of the chair separating us and pressed his lips to mine.
He tasted like coffee and cinnamon rolls. I inhaled the scent of his skin and the honeysuckle-scented fresh air circling around us and knew I’d do anything he asked of me.
Anything.
“Set it up, and I’ll be there,” I whispered against his lips.
“Thank you.” He teased and tempted me with a hand on my cheek. He withdrew from our kiss, encouraging me to climb onto his lap. His hard length pressed against my hip.
We kissed like we had all the time in the world, but far too soon, he had to get ready for work. With a promise to be in touch about meeting Evie, he carried his tray home and left me to my thoughts and worries.
Josh showed up the following morning with a cup of coffee and a quick kiss, but disappeared almost as quickly.
He told me Christy’s dad’s funeral was the next morning, and he wouldn’t be able to meet me for coffee.
I already knew about the funeral, but I didn’t count on him being involved.
It made sense, though. Christy was on her own, and Josh was her closest friend. He and Oscar, whom I still hadn’t met.
The morning of the funeral, Ashlyn led me to her closet to find something to wear.
A funeral was another occasion I hadn’t packed for, and I needed to borrow something from Ashlyn.
She had plenty of options, and I ended up choosing a lightweight charcoal dress with purple flowers trailing down the right hip.
I added a pair of sandals in the same purple and simple silver jewelry to complete the outfit.
I tied my hair up since we would be outside.
Coach was so well-known and loved that the funeral was at the local high school.
The entire town was shut down for the day.
“Are you ready to go?” Ashlyn asked an hour before the wake was supposed to start. Christy elected to do everything in one day with the wake at eleven, the funeral at noon, the burial right after, then a reception at an event space called Elle’s Place.
“I thought we didn’t have to be there for another hour.”
Ashlyn shook her head. “We don’t, but it’s going to be crowded. And I was planning to walk.”
“Walk?”
She nodded. “It’s about a mile, but parking is going to be a nightmare.”
“Okay. Let’s go.”
“I was thinking of stopping for a coffee, too. Maybe grab something for Christy.”
I smiled. “That sounds like a great idea. I’m sure she would appreciate it.”
“I didn’t eat much the day of my dad’s funeral. My mom ate even less.”
“I still can’t believe you and Christy never really talked before last weekend.”
“She’s a local, and I’m still a camper. It’s different. As much as I want to believe I’m a local now, I still feel like an outsider most of the time.”
“I didn’t know that. You always said how much you love it here.”
She nodded and led the way outside. “I do. It’s home. And I have no plans to leave. But you know how small towns can be. Sometimes it’s hard to break into the inner circle.”
“And you think Christy is in the inner circle.”
Ashlyn scoffed. “The entire town is shut down because of her dad’s funeral. You don’t get closer to the inner circle than Christy Ross.”
I couldn’t argue with that. “I don’t think she has any idea you ever thought she was hard to get to know. It seemed like you didn’t cross paths.”
“We didn’t. We don’t have a lot of opportunities to cross paths. I saw her dad in town sometimes, especially at Daily Ritual. He was usually holding court and talking to everyone who came in. When he got sicker, he stopped going. It was almost jarring to not see him.”
“I wish I’d met him. He sounds like he was a pretty great man.”
“He was,” Ashlyn said sadly.
We walked in silence for a bit. The town was quiet, but thankfully, Daily Ritual was still open. I smiled at Kannon when we walked in.
He smiled at me, then slid a look that looked like desire to Ashlyn before she noticed. He quickly schooled his features into a neutral expression before we moved to the counter to order.
“Roxy for me,” Ashlyn said. She looked at the glass case, nibbling her lip. “Can we get a few croissants, some muffins, and maybe those two danishes?” She turned to me. “What do you think?”
I shrugged. “If you’re right and Christy hasn’t eaten anything, it’ll be good to have options for her.” I looked up at Kannon. “Do you know what Christy Ross likes? We wanted to bring something for her to eat.”
Kannon’s face softened. “That’s really thoughtful of you, Reegan.”
“It was Ashlyn’s idea,” I told him.
He slid his gaze to her and offered a tight nod. “Christy is a fan of the croissants. I’ll give you the last of them. We’re closing up soon so we can go to the funeral. We wanted to make sure people could grab something on the way if they needed to.”
“That’s why Ashlyn wanted to stop here. She figured Christy hasn’t eaten and wanted to make sure she had something in her stomach on a day like this.” I smiled at him as he moved to collect items from the case.
“It’s a tough day. I don’t remember my dad, but my mom said his funeral was the hardest day of her life.” Kannon’s tone bordered on breaking.
“I’m sorry,” I said, knowing the platitude wasn’t enough.
“Thanks.” Kannon finished boxing up the easily transportable options and slid the box across the counter to us. “Did you want a drink, Reegan?”
“I’ll do a Roxy, too, please.” I’d been wanting to try the iced capp with cookie bits. As warm as it was outside, I was looking forward to it.
“You got it,” Kannon turned to make our drinks, not ringing anything up.
We waited at the counter for a total. Kannon set our drinks in front of us and shook his head.
“On the house.”
“You don’t have to do that,” I argued.
He smiled. “And you didn’t have to take things to Christy. She’s a friend, and I was going to bring those to her anyway.”
“Thank you, Kannon.”
I nudged Ashlyn. “Thanks,” she grumbled.
I gave Kannon a sympathetic smile and followed Ashlyn back outside into the sunshine.
“You were a little rude,” I told my bestie.
“He’s rude to me all the time. I stopped trying to be nice to the man.”
“I think there’s more to it than you realize.”
“What does that mean?”
I shook my head, knowing still she wasn’t ready to accept it. One day, she’d see that the man who served her coffee was lusting after her. Big time.
Christy was surrounded by people when we arrived, even though we were twenty minutes early for the start of the service. It seemed as though time didn’t matter when people wanted to show their love and support.
Ashlyn and I hung back, understanding that Christy was not going to be able to take a minute away from the crowd to eat but keeping the box of food safe from others who wanted to help themselves.
I saw Josh a few times, but he was rushing around and didn’t notice us. I could see the exhaustion on his face and knew losing Coach Ross was almost as hard on him as it was on Christy. Another man was following the same patterns as Josh. I asked Ashlyn if she knew him.
“That’s Oscar. He’s the third in their trio.
His two sons are the dark-haired boys next to Christy.
Their mom died a while ago. I never met her, but Oscar has been single since, from what I’ve heard.
The three of them are town royalty,” Ashlyn said in hushed tones.
“Not the type that lord their position over others, but well-known and respected and adored.”