Page 6 of Just Add Friendship
Brandy laughed. “Let’s just hope that’s all this is … two friends overreacting.”
Steph smiled at her, hoping her friend would think it was genuine. Because seeing Lydia hug that man had bothered Steph more than she wanted to admit to Brandy. And she didn’t know why. She really needed to stop reading mysteries.
“Can you do me a couple of favors?” Brandy asked.
“Sure, anything.”
“First, you owe me twenty bucks. Second, text Mom in about an hour—ask how the date went. See what she says.”
“I can do that.” Steph opened up her phone to set a reminder and check the texts that had started to chime in. At the restaurant, she’d had her phone off. Now, she realized she’d missed a huge committee discussion.
“What’s up?” Brandy asked.
“Oh, it’s about the reunion tomorrow. Looks like the balloon vendor has a supply issue. We’ll only get about half the balloons we ordered. Marci’s panicking.”
“Oh darn.” Brandy smirked. “We’ll only have one balloon arch?”
“You know how Marci loves her balloon arches.” Marci had been the student body president their senior year, and she was all about balloon arches at every school dance and event.
“Text Everly to see if they have balloons in stock at the craft store,” Brandy said.
“Good idea.” Steph sent out a quick text.
“Oh, and let me know if you want to be set up with one of Ian’s new friends,” Brandy added, trying to sound casual again.
“No thanks.” Steph straightened in her seat. They’d just reached the outer limits of Everly Falls. “I’m going solo. It might be fun.”
“Ah, I was waiting for you to say that.”
Steph shot her a glance. “What? Why?”
“Because, you know …hemight be there. The man who must not be named.”
Steph laughed, even though her stomach had started doing somersaults. “That’s a chance in a million. We don’t have any current contact information on him.”
“Just his former home address?”
“Yep—so maybe it was forwarded, or maybe not.”
“You’re hoping though …”
Steph brushed off the comment. “I’m curious to know what happened to him, sure, but for no reason other than curiosity.”
“Hmm.” Brandy slowed in front of the small house with a patchy lawn where Steph lived with her grandpa.
“Just admit it,” Brandy said as Steph opened her door.
She paused. “Admit what?”
“That you’re dying to see Cal Conner because he was your best kiss ever.”
Heat rushed to Steph’s neck, but she kept her voice as cool as a melting snow cone. “That might be true, but I’ve moved on from high school crushes and guys who disappear overnight.”
“IF YOU KEEP LOOKING AT the door all night, you’re going to have a kinked neck,” Brandy teased Steph.
She snapped her gaze to Brandy’s as they sat together at a decorated table in their old high school gym. “I’m not—”
“Don’t even bother denying it,” she said in her too-loud whisper. “You look stunning, by the way. Blue is really your color, and those stilettos are to die for.”