CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT - LIZ
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
LIZ
The phone stopped ringing. A moment later, it beeped, signaling that the caller had left a voicemail.
Liz stared at it. She hadn’t checked the last three voicemails from Melody—two on Sunday and one yesterday—and she didn’t plan to check this one either. She was still upset, disappointed, hurt.
Her phone lit up again and started ringing. This time it wasn’t Melody. Instead, it was her mother. Liz quickly picked up her phone and connected the call. “Hello?”
“Lizzie! How are you, mi corazón?”
Mi corazónmeant my heart in Spanish. Her mom had been using that term of endearment for Liz since she was a baby. “I’m good. Are you at the airport?”
“We are. We’ll be home sometime tonight. Tell Rose she can stay in her own room tonight.”
Liz would have thought she’d be jumping for joy at the thought of her little sister returning home. She’d gotten used to having Rose down the hall though, and Liz wasn’t sure she was ready to return to living alone. Her life had twisted and turned upside down this spring. Sometimes returning to normal wasn’t a good thing. “I’ll tell her.”
“I know you’ll be glad to get her out of your hair. Rose can be quite a handful. I really appreciate you allowing her to stay with you while we’ve been away. Thank you, Lizzie.”
“Of course. She’s my sister after all. It’s no big deal.” She swallowed down a thick lump that kept rising in her throat. It’d been there since Saturday night at the prom.
“Maybe you’ll come over this weekend for Sunday dinner,” her mom suggested. “Then you and Rose can tell your dad and me all about everything we missed. And we’ll tell you about our adventures in Ecuador.”
Would that be a good time to also inform her mom that she didn’t want to continue working at The Bitery full-time? “I’d like that.”
“Good. I’ll look forward to it.”
After a quick goodbye, Liz disconnected the call and put her phone back on the counter next to the register. There were a few customers in The Bitery this morning, but it was mostly quiet. Liz was thankful for that.
The bell above the store’s door jingled and Liz looked up at her incoming customer. Her stomach clenched painfully.
“Hey,” Melody said as she drew closer.
“I thought you’d left town by now.”
Melody shook her head. “Without saying goodbye? I wouldn’t do that.”
“You did one time before,” Liz pointed out, avoiding Melody’s gaze. She knew it wasn’t fair to continue throwing the past in Melody’s face. They’d moved past that, or at least, Liz had thought they had. Her hurt feelings had never fully resolved though. They’d just gone into hibernation. “Would you like a coffee or something to eat?” she asked, treating Melody like any other customer.
“Both.” Melody glanced over her shoulder as if checking to make sure there was no one behind her. Then she faced forward.
Liz felt Melody watching as she prepared her drink. “When are you leaving?”
“Tomorrow. I have a few things I need to wrap up before I go.”
Like selling Hidden Treasures.
Liz turned and slid the coffee across the counter to Melody. Then she grabbed a square of parchment paper and tongs to retrieve a cinnamon twist. She already knew what Melody wanted. Then again, she’d thought that about the sale of Hidden Treasures too. “Here you go.” She placed the wrapped twist on the counter and began to ring Melody up. When Melody handed her debit card over, Liz’s gaze dropped to her wrist. It was bare. She glanced at the other one.
“I tried to find it,” Melody said as if reading her thoughts. “After you threw it at me.”
Liz cringed slightly. Not her finest moment. “What do you mean you tried to find it? You couldn’t?”
Melody shook her head and shrugged. “I practically crawled around on my knees, in my prom dress. I don’t know what happened to it.”
Liz felt like the wind had been knocked out of her. That bracelet was special. It had survived all this time, and in some way, it had brought Liz and Melody back together. “You have to find it.”
“Even Christopher looked. We returned to the gym on Sunday and we both went through that room with a fine-tooth comb. No trace of our bracelet.”
Liz steadied herself against the counter, feeling dizzy.
“I’m sorry, Liz. I know how much it meant to you.”
“To me?” Liz blinked and looked up. “Right. It didn’t mean anything to you. You were just here for what? To ease your guilty conscience and then return to Charlotte and forget about everyone here again.”
“That’s not true.”
“The bracelet is gone. This little back and forth deal we had with sharing it is done. Just like our friendship.”
Melody’s eyes subtly widened. “So, we can’t be friends anymore just because I’m selling the store? Like I always planned to do. That makes no sense, Liz.”
Liz was typically slow to anger, but the emotion was suddenly bubbling up inside her. “You lied, Melody. You said you were going to keep the store as Hidden Treasures and I believed you. I can’t believe I honestly thought you were serious.”
“I was,” Melody insisted.
“Maybe you were lying to yourself too, then. The thing is, if you lied about this, who’s to say you aren’t lying about coming back to Trove after you leave? About maintaining our friendship.” Liz nudged the cinnamon twist in the parchment paper closer to Melody. “Have a nice life, Melody.”
“Liz? Wait,” Melody said.
Liz turned her back to her old friend. Maybe she was being irrational, but she couldn’t seem to help it. The fact that Melody was allowing the store to be sold this way was just further proof Melody couldn’t be counted on or trusted.
“Liz? I told you I would maintain our friendship this time. I meant it. We moved past all this,” Melody called after her.
Liz turned to look at her, anger and hurt swirling around in the center of her chest. “Maybe you did. I guess I didn’t.” A bell dinged from the kitchen. “The bites are ready. I need to get them out of the oven. Have a safe trip home.”
* * *
That evening, Liz rode her bike in the drizzling rain. She could drive now, but she didn’t have a car. Rose had taken their mom’s vehicle back to their parent’s house. That was fine because Liz needed the exercise to clear her head. By the time she turned into her driveway, her clothing was soaked through. She didn’t notice Matt until she pushed her bicycle toward her garage. She left it under the shelter of the open garage door and sprinted through the rain toward the cover of her front porch.
“Hey,” she finally said. “What are you doing here?”
“Waiting for you.” He was sitting on the front porch swing. “I saw your parents arrive in town earlier. I figured Rose would be back there tonight and you’d be here alone. I wanted to check on you.”
Liz stepped over to one of the rocking chairs near the swing and sat down. “That’s sweet. But I’m fine.”
“I would have given you a lift home from work if I’d had any forethought.”
“I like to ride my bike.”
“It’s raining. Next time call me, Liz.”
She looked at him for a long second. “Do you ever get tired of being so nice? So noble?”
This made Matt laugh. “No. Helping others is a selfish pleasure. It makes me feel better about myself.”
“Selfish? I don’t think so.” Liz blew out a breath. “Do you want to come inside?”
Matt looked past her toward the front door. “Do you want company?”
She shrugged. “I didn’t think I did, but now that you’re here, yeah. I can change clothes and cook dinner.”
“I don’t want you to go to any trouble.”
“Like you said, it’s selfish on my part. I want to feel better about myself too.” She rolled her lips together, barring the tears that wanted to come. “Melody and I kind of had another argument today. It was all my fault this time.”
“I’m sorry.” Matt’s gaze was steady.
She shrugged again as if it were no big deal, but it was. Losing Melody all over again was going to really hurt. She stood and jingled her keys. “These wet clothes are making me cold.”
“Can’t have that.” Matt stood as well.
Liz felt him step up behind her as she turned the key in her lock and pushed open the door. She stepped inside and turned to face him as he stepped in after her.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” he asked.
Liz wasn’t sure what she was doing. For so long, she’d been uncomfortable around Matt because he reminded her of the accident that she desperately wanted to forget. She already struggled with anxiety. Dating someone who was a reminder of the worst day of her life seemed like a bad idea.
But now she was seeing things differently. He was the calm in that storm. He had pulled her out of the accident. He was the ray of hope when there wasn’t any, and he was still that ray and so much more to her.
She didn’t want to push Matt away; she wanted to pull him closer. More than anything, she wanted Matt to hold her tonight. She stepped toward him.
“I thought you were cold and wet,” he whispered.
“I am. And if you wrap your arms around me right now, you’re going to get wet too.”
He opened his arms for her to step into. “I don’t mind.”
Liz buried her head in his chest. She could hear the steady thump of his heart, lulling her to a calm she didn’t know existed. Lifting her face, she looked at him, willing his mouth to dip to hers. He didn’t move.
Fine, she’d do it herself. Going up on her toes, she pressed her lips to his. His mouth was warm. His hands moved to the sides of her arms, bracing her.
“Wow,” he said once she had pulled away. “What was that for?”
She touched a finger to her mouth. “I’ve been wanting to do that for a long time.”
“Me too.” He smiled. “Well, am I any good at kissing?”
Liz laughed at the unexpected question. “You could use some practice. It’s the least I can do since you helped me with my driving.”
“Nice of you,” he said quietly, his lips curling up at the ends.
Liz offered a slight nod. “So, I’m going to change clothes. Then I’m going to cook dinner for you.” She rolled her lips together. “And, so we’re clear, I’m considering this a date.”
Matt looked surprised. “In that case, I’m going to the local florist while you change and cook. Call me old-fashioned, but a date deserves flowers.” Concern swept over his expression. “Will you answer the door when I come back?”
Liz planted another kiss to his lips. “Yes. See you soon.”
Matt stepped back toward the door. “I won’t be gone long.”
“Okay.” She watched him step back out into the rain. Then she closed the door behind him and pressed her hands to her face. Who was she and what had she done with Liz? She was a different person these days, and she liked the new and improved version of herself. Melody was partly to thank. Rose too. She should call Melody back. She wasn’t ready to let go of her anger just yet though. It wasn’t exactly focused on Melody. Liz had been angry over a lot of things. Lost time and what-ifs. She wasn’t going to lose any more time pushing Matt away. What if tonight changed things between them? What if they became more to each other than neighbors and friends?
She hurried down the hall toward her bedroom, eager to peel off her damp shirt and pants. After pulling on dry clothes, she stepped into the bathroom and turned to look in the mirror. She took a breath and stared herself in the eye. “You better answer that door when he comes back,” she said. Then she blinked. Rose was barely gone a day, and now she was talking to herself. All the reason to answer the door to Matt when he returned. Plus, she really wanted to kiss him again. He’d asked if he was any good and she’d kept that answer to herself. The truth was, she’d never quite been kissed like that, in a good way—the best way.
To: Liz Dawson
From: Bri Johnson
Subject: On the bright side
Liz,
I’d like to say it’s probably not as bad as you think, but it’s not really helpful when people say that, is it? What I do know is that things will get better. Eventually. Hopefully, Melody won’t stay away forever, but if she does, just know that you’re stuck with me no matter what.
B