“How about you, Ana?” Willow asked. “Are you extra busy at this time of year?”
“Yes,” Ana said. “Thank goodness I have my mom and she has me. We like to work together, but days like today I can still get away to help out with other things.”
“I’ve got a couple of college kids who help me out atthe bakery,” Mal said. “But it’s not the same as being there myself, so I try not to step away unless it’s important.”
“I don’t know,” Valerie said. “The Williams girl seems good. She’s got my lunch order memorized.”
“She’s the best one I’ve got, and she graduates next year,” Mal said. “I don’t know what I’ll do without her.”
“Here you are, girls,” Mei said, coming over with a tray of drinks and a steaming bowl of dumplings they hadn’t ordered. “Dumplings are on the house.”
“Oh, amazing,” Willow said, inhaling the fragrant aroma. “Thank you so much.”
“I hope you enjoy your night out,” Mei said with a smile before hurrying off.
“So how has everyone been?” Willow asked.
“Nope,” Valerie said with a wicked smile. “No way.”
“What?” Willow asked, genuinely confused.
“We gave you a couple of minutes for small talk,” Valerie said. “Now we want to know what’s going on with Jensen Webb.”
“Nothing,” Willow said reflexively.
It was only when everyone’s eyes snapped to hers that she realized she had said it too quickly, and maybe also a little too loudly.
“I… haven’t seen him since I was home on break from college,” she said, tracing her finger along the path of a drop of condensation on her water glass.
“Come on,” Mal said with a teasing smile. “We all saw him hanging on your every word today.”
“He was Ransom’s best friend,” Willow explained, trying hard not to smile at the suggestion that Jensen was into her. “We were just catching up, that’s all.”
“I don’t know about that,” Valerie said.
“He’s so handsome,” Ana whispered.
“For sure,” Mal agreed with her. “Even if you were just catching up, it looked to me like he wanted it to be more than that.”
“Really?” Willow couldn’t help asking.
“I’ve never seen a man happier to be moving a wrought-iron bench,” Valerie said definitively.
“How would your brother feel about you and his best friend falling for each other?” Mal asked, her brow furrowing as if it had just occurred to her that maybe this was why Willow wasn’t happy.
“They’re um, not as close as they used to be,” Willow admitted in the understatement of the year.
“What happened?” Valerie asked. “I thought those two were joined at the hip?”
But Mei arrived with a waiter and two enormous trays of food, and Willow was saved from having to talk about the rift between her two favorite men.
They all bowed their heads for a moment of silence before serving themselves, and Willow found herself praying for restraint.
I need to make things right with Ransom,she reminded herself when the moment passed and they were all spooning out the delicious food.So does Jensen. And I don’t need to fall back into mooning over him. How can I prove to my brother that I’ve grown up if I haven’t even outgrown my schoolgirl crush?
The subject mercifully changed to Christmas plans, and Willow found herself grateful to have a group ofwomen to talk and dream with. They were so positive, even Valerie, for all her sniffing and straight talk.
Willow knew her transition home would be challenging in so many different ways. But with friends by her side, and a community to serve and to lean on, she was sure she could come out on the other side of all of this a stronger, better person.
