Chapter 3
Wade
I kiss my mom on the cheek when I walk in the house. “Something smells good.”
“It’s homemade cheddar mac and cheese.”
“Mm, mm.” I reach into the pot, grab one hot noodle, and bring it to my mouth.
“Wade Stevenson, get your hand out of my dinner!” My mom hits my wrist with her wooden spoon. “You weren’t raised in a barn.”
I smile at her as I back away from the stove.
“Your mother said you hired that Langford girl.” My father sits at the kitchen table with the local newspaper spread out in front of him.
“That Langford girl?” My brows lower. “She has a name, you know.”
Dad’s lips press into a frown. “I recall Miss Langford being a little wild, a bit of a troublemaker. She was in and out of my office all throughout high school. Are we sure she’s cut out for the job?”
Defensiveness carries my tone. “That was ten years ago. Don’t people have a chance to grow up and change?”
We’re talking about Ari, but we’re also talking about me.
My dad sees me as the screw-up child, no matter what I do.
The teenager who found a bike on the side of the road, tied it to the back of his truck, and dragged it around town just for the fun of it.
Or the menace who let off fireworks at The Ridge and lit the entire hill on fire.
He has years’ worth of material to choose from, which he won’t let me forget.
Heck, I wouldn’t be surprised if my dad was the one who started the petition to keep me from being hired as the principal at Autumn Ridge High. He doesn’t think I’m good enough for the job. I feel his judgment and pressure every day I enter that office.
Sometimes it’s easier to just keep letting him believe that I haven’t changed than to convince him I have. But I won’t let him do the same thing to Ari. She doesn’t deserve that.
He harrumphs, flipping to the next page of the paper. “Well, I just hope she takes her responsibility as a role model for these students seriously.”
“You know, I saw Ari today,” my mom says over her shoulder. “I was at the Langfords’ house, fitting Landrie for her wedding dress. She looks beautiful.”
I kick out a chair and sit down. “Not surprising. Landrie was always going to be a beautiful bride.”
“No.” My mom shakes her head. “I meant Ari. Ari looks beautiful. She’s all grown up.”
She does look beautiful.
Took my breath away when she stood up in my office today.
The same girl I remember, but better.
So, so much better.
She’s more filled out as a woman, no longer the teenager I grew up with.
Everything about this more mature version of her just works.
Longer brown hair. Tanned skin and more prominent freckles from years of living by the beach.
But my favorite part of seeing her again was seeing that she’s still the same old Ari—gets herself into a mess without even trying.
She had me hooked the second she raised her hand out from under the desk.
My smile appears just thinking about it.
“In fact,” my mom cuts into my thoughts, “Barb Langford is trying to find Ari a husband.”
This piques my interest. “I thought she was already engaged. What happened to that guy?”
It’s not like I stalked Ari on the internet for the last nine years. But I kept tabs on her, and I definitely heard at one point she was engaged. That’s the type of information you don’t forget, especially when it’s about the girl who’s always been in the back of your mind.
“She was engaged,” my mom says. “I don’t know what happened. Barb’s pretty hush-hush about the whole thing. All I know is that things went south with her fiancé, and Ari moved home.”
His loss is my gain.
But then I wonder: Did he break her heart? Does she still love him? Is she ready to move on? Strange thoughts coming from a guy like me.
“Barb’s looking to set her up with eligible men in town.” My mom throws me the look. “Why don’t you beat her mom to it and ask Ari out?”
I did.
And she completely shut me down. I was half-joking when I asked, but still. She seemed pretty adamant that she wasn’t interested in dating me.
“Mom, Ari and I are just friends.”
Not that I haven’t thought about being more than friends a time or two.
Because I have.
But somehow, teenage me was smart enough to know Ari’s the type of woman you have to be cautious around. You flirt too hard, and you’ll end up fallin’...for good.
It’s as true today as it was back then. Ari Langford is wife material, and for a guy like me, who’s always loved his freedom too much to settle down, crossing that line between friends and something more is dangerous when you don’t like commitment.
I’d better be certain I’m ready for that step before I ask her out for real, because if she ever says yes, there’s no going back.