Throwing his house keys on the counter, he opened the fridge, grabbed a beer, and popped the top, taking a long drink.
“You can’t control everything. You wanted a life here, start building it,” he told himself.
He’d had a few of his boxes brought over from the storage unit he rented. He needed to order a bed, some linens, unpack the stuff for his kitchen. He needed to focus on something other than the past.
Telling himself that, he nearly laughed at the irony when the first box he opened had his high school yearbooks.
Taking two of them and his beer, he went over to the surprisingly comfortable couch that was too long for the space and sat down. He set his beer on the floor and flipped through, seeing old signatures, photographs of him, classmates he remembered and couldn’t recall for the life of him.
His fingers traced over a picture of him and Beckett smiling like idiots for the camera. Despite how small Smile was, there were two schools. One went from kindergarten to eighth grade, and the other, on the far end of the island, went from ninth to twelfth. Which meant running across pictures of Jilly, too. He found one of her sitting with her back to a tree, a book in hand, smiling up at something Beckett was saying. Beckett was doing something—probably showing off for some girl he’d had a crush on—and Jillian was waving him away with a grin on her pretty face.
She’d been part of his life for so long, he’d taken it for granted. Or just hadn’t thought about it. She’d been at every one of their basketball and volleyball games, making signs when they’d made the finals. She baked cookies and left them for Beckett and his friends so when they all rolled into the Kellers’ kitchen after practices, they had something to eat.
Levi continued to flip through the pages, nostalgia and a bit of regret twisting his stomach into knots. There was nothing wrong with going away. But he shouldn’t have stayed away. He shouldn’t have avoided coming home—which he had to admit, he’d done a fair bit—just to sidestep conflict. Conflict was part of life. He shouldn’t have let so much time go in between, because the people he cared for, all of them, had carried on with their lives. It was his own fault he had to find a way to fit into who they were now. He was the outsider.
But he didn’t want to be.
Setting the yearbooks on a cushion, he pulled his phone from his pocket and dialed the number before he could change his mind.
“Hello?” Jillian’s voice was hushed and, whether she meant it to be or not, sexy.
“Hi. Were you asleep?” Guilt cramped his gut.
She laughed. “No. But I came into my room to grab my book, and Ollie is.”
Right. She had a kid. He hadn’t thought about wanting a family. In truth, he compartmentalized his life, focused on work most of the time. Now that he was home, he realized how many of those compartments were empty. Ollie was a cool kid and Levi could see little pieces of Jillian in her actions and the way she spoke. Instead of making him wary that he wanted a woman with a kid, it only made him more certain.
“You didn’t answer me tonight,” Levi said quietly.
“I guess I thought the answer was obvious,” she said, her voice still low.
He wished she were right beside him. “I don’t want to take anything for granted.” No more assumptions. They hurt.
“Yes, Levi. I’ll go on a date with you.”
Levi smiled, the rest of his stress and uncertainty slipping away. He’d focus on what he could control and that would include showing Jillian how very good they could be together. If he were still a naïve teenager or a hopeful romantic, he’d even say they were meant to be.
Nineteen
Jilly’s nerves popped like champagne bubbles.
She forced a deep inhale, held it, and let it out. Glancing in the mirror to check her outfit, she told herself she was ready. It was just a date.With a man you’ve known and cared for forever. In a town that knows you both.Her phone buzzed and this time she recognized the “unknown caller” and pressed Dismiss immediately.
She deserved tonight. This chance with Levi. They’d be seen as a couple. This was the Smile version of a relationship hard launch, as Presley would say. Nobody would wonder after tonight.
She’d had a fairly busy day getting everything organized for Eva Hale’s team to visit the lodge this week, emailing a few other potential clients, setting up emails for returning lodge guests, and getting in touch with a student needing graduation volunteer credits to arrange having her work the front desk so Jillian could deal with paperwork and have a break from it when needed.
Tonight, she’d forget about work and everything else and just enjoy going out with Levi.
She hadn’t been on a date that she was truly excited about since Andrew at the very start of their relationship. And that was way too many years ago.
Her mom knocked on her bedroom door. Her parents had gone for a two-day trip to the mainland to look at a couple of newer RVs. Before leaving, they’d said they needed to have a family meeting, something they hadn’t done in years. It hadn’t happened yet. Jillian had a strong feeling they were going to talk about selling the house, so she didn’t mind putting the conversation off.
“You look beautiful, honey.” Her mom leaned on the doorframe.
Her own whitish-blond hair was loose around her shoulders. Between yoga and walking, her mom was fairly fit and looked younger than almost sixty. According to Edie Keller, laughter was the secret to staying young.
“Thanks, Mom.”
