He narrowed his eyes. Now was not the time for sass. She blushed, and for some reason, it made his chest ache.
“Watch it, Chief,” she said. “I think I see a smile.”
Before he realized what he was doing, he leaned in and gave her a quick kiss on her soft, pink lips.
Which did make Nina stop talking.
“Oh!” she said. “You two are...together. I didn’t...wow.” She sat down, as did Jeremy, as if they were on a double date. “So, let me get this straight. Levi, you’re dating Faith, who was once engaged to your gay best friend.”
“Yes.”
She nodded appreciatively. “Am I the only one who thinks that’s weird?”
“Seems kind of perfect to me,” Jeremy said.
Nina grinned, her perfect smile not quite masking her sharklike intentions. “Well, this is awkward, Faith, because I’m here to try to get my husband back.”
Faith nodded sympathetically. “Wow, that is awkward. But you mean ex-husband, right?”
Score one for Faith. She smiled sweetly, then looked at him, then back at Nina. “That being said, we’ll let you guys talk. Jeremy and I were about to grab dinner.”
“Oh, my gosh, you two are still BFFs? That’s so cute!” Yep. A great white.
Faith smiled calmly. “Yes, we’re adorable. Very nice to have met you.”
“Same,” Nina answered.
Faith slid out of the booth and looked at him. “See you around.”
“Okay,” he answered, wishing she’d stay.
With that, the cavalry left, Jeremy giving his shoulder a sympathetic squeeze as he left.
“So where were we?” Nina asked.
“We were nowhere,” he answered. “You were telling me we should get back together, and I’m about to tell you that won’t happen.”
“Well, you know what, hotshot?” Nina said, nibbling a nacho with ridiculous sex appeal and a studied casualness. “Your little birdie is right. We have a lot to talk about. Give me a couple hours of your precious time. I’m here for the weekend, at least. Staying at the Black Swan.” She raised her eyebrows and smiled at him from around the chip.
The Black Swan was where they’d spent their wedding night.
“Fine,” he said. “Get it over with.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
SO HIS EX-WIFE WAS BACK.
Faith sighed. Tried not to worry. Failed. Took another bite of Peanut Brittle. Another sigh. She held out the spoon for Blue—it was his favorite flavor—and took another bite for herself. A movie flickered on the TV—one of those stupid old black-and-white movies she didn’t like—but it was better than the infomercials for those hellish workouts where the “before” body looked a helluva lot like the one she was in, and the “after” looked way too much like Nina Rodriguez’s.
Levi’s wife. He was mad at her, sure, but he’d loved her once.
Would he want another shot at that? The chance to do a better job? Maybe just to show that he hadn’t been wrong about the woman he married? She could see that, understand how Levi, who tried so hard at everything, would want a better result than a quickie divorce in which he’d had no say.
When she was first in San Francisco, Faith would occasionally dream that Jeremy was knocking on her door, confused as to why she wasn’t at their wedding. No, of course he wasn’t gay, where had she been? The wedding disaster...that was the dream. She should come with him; everyone was waiting at the church.
Waking up from those dreams had always been like a kick in the stomach.
She wondered if Levi had similar dreams after Nina left.
“She can fly a helicopter,” she told Blue, who was staring at the pint of Ben & Jerry’s. She gave him another bite.
Levi was home, she knew. She’d heard him come in after midnight, muted the TV and leaped for the door. Waited for his knock, which hadn’t come. Saw through the peephole that he was alone.
O’Rourke’s closed at eleven. So where had he been?
Faith sighed and got up from the still-muted Bogart movie. Maybe Levi had sent her an email; he never had before, but it was worth checking, even if it did qualify her for Pathetic Female status.
Nothing except a note from Sharon Wiles saying she had a permanent tenant for the apartment, so if Faith could pack up her stuff and be out by the end of the month, that’d be great.
Crap. She liked it here, across the hall from her man. Who might not be her man anymore.
No, no. No reason to think that (yet). Faith shut down the computer and went back to the couch. Fluffed the cushions. Folded the blanket.
This was where a mother would come in very handy. Pru would listen, but she wasn’t great with advice, and given her recent marital roller coaster, might well be wearing Vulcan ears and doing her husband. Jack—no. Dad, ditto. Honor’s mysterious boyfriend hadn’t materialized, and she probably wasn’t in the mood to listen to Faith’s relationship woes. Also, it was 2:32 a.m.
But a mother...
Faith stopped at the picture of her family on Pru’s wedding day, the last one taken of all of them. Next to it was the rose quartz heart. Levi hadn’t denied giving it to her, but he hadn’t admitted it, either.
Of course it was from him.
Faith picked up the photo.
The tarry guilt she’d felt all these years wasn’t easily scraped away. Faith could feel it lurking, waiting for another chance. But there’d been flashes since Levi had unveiled the facts of that day. Flashes of pure memories undimmed by the belief that she’d caused the accident. Memories of her mother’s love so pure and bright and strong, they were shocking.
2:47 a.m.
“Want to go for a ride, Blue?” she asked her dog, whose ears pricked up at the magic word. “Want to go in the car?”
* * *
FOR TWO DECADES, FAITH had not been on either Lancaster or Hummel Brook roads. It had taken some doing. Hundreds of miles of avoidance. Her heart began thumping as she approached the intersection, and she exhaled shakily as she pulled over and turned off the engine. Rolled down the windows halfway so Blue could have some cold, fresh air.
It was beautiful here, the place her mother had died. The night was clear, the fields bathed in white from the nearly full moon. Faith had been afraid that the land had been sold to a developer, who’d slapped up some McMansions and stuck in a painfully awkward street named Ciderberry Circle or Owl Hollow Lane or some such ghastly moniker.
But no. It was the same.
Blue whined, wagging his tail, eager to go out.
“You stay here, boy,” she said, her voice loud in the perfect quiet.
Pretty soon, maybe even later this week, Dad would start the ice harvest, calling up the troops at two o’clock in the morning at the very second the temperature fell to seventeen degrees. But tonight, it was only in the twenties.
Only the twenties. Spoken like a true upstater.
Their car had been broadsided right here. Right in the intersection. Maybe her mom had died on impact, maybe it had taken a few minutes. She hoped with every molecule of her heart that her mother hadn’t suffered, but the truth was, she’d never know.
Faith went to the bank that ran along the edge of the road, climbed down. This was where the car had rolled. A long way,