I watched as Keane introduced her to Tori, watched them share a laugh. Things were so easy when Tori was around, so why couldn’t I get over what bugged me and be carefree and fun, too? Like I had been, before life got really complicated.
I got out of the car and grabbed the remaining bags from the backseat. Taking in deep, calming breaths, I carried the bags toward the cabin.
“Hey, Navy,” Tori said from where she sat on the brand-new decking.
A large shadow filled the doorway and Keane jumped from the door clear down to the grass. “There you are,” he said to me, like he’d been waiting for me for a lifetime. He took long strides toward me before scooping me up in a big, Keane-sized hug. He literally and figuratively took my breath away.
He swung me in a circle, and I lost the bags as I laughed, sending them scattering across the grass. In his arms, I was weightless; free of worry, free of fear. I could easily stay like this forever.
As he lowered me back to the ground, his hold only loosened slightly as he grinned down at me. The corner of his eyes creased, and his smile was so incredibly illuminating—lighting up his whole face.
I realized then that there was very little I wouldn’t do to have him smile at me like that again and again. “Missed you,” he said, his voice deep and warm.
Oh, why hadn’t I reached out to him sooner? I didn’t realize how badly I needed him until I had him again, like the weight of the world was not so heavy just being in his presence. I cradled his jaw, just needing to look up him a moment longer.
Tori whistled from behind Keane, breaking our attention. “Geez. How come I didn’t get a welcome like that?”
“Because you’re not Navy.” He smiled down at me. “Hope there was nothing breakable in those bags,” he said, a little too late.
“I don’t think so. Just some chips, dip. Violet had the good stuff in hers.”
“Good.” He let go of me and moved to pick up the bags, leaving me facing Tori alone.
“Is this deck new?” I asked partly because I was curious and partly because I didn’t even know how to have a normal conversation with Tori. Had she been jealous when she made that remark about Keane’s welcome to me?
“He built it Friday and Saturday. Looks good, right?” Violet asked, exiting the cabin and walking across the planks.
“It looks beautiful.” I ran my hand over a smooth plank, admiring how he’d made such even cuts.
“Asa helped,” Keane said, his arms laden with the bags I’d lost. “One small project done, only a million more to go. Come on in.”
I gave Tori what I hoped translated as a smile as I passed her into the cabin.
“What’s this?” I asked, gesturing toward the mess of chocolate on the counter and the bakery box beside it.
“Cake. Tori brought me it as a housewarming of sorts, I think.”
“No,” Tori said from behind me. “It was a congrats on growing up cake.”
I was suddenly very insecure about the cupcakes I’d brought that stared out sullenly from the plastic container Violet had carried them in with. They were homemade, not nearly as pretty as something from a bakery.
“Navy made lemon ricotta cupcakes,” Violet said, tapping on the top of the cupcake container. “Auntie’s recipe.”
“Ricotta in the batter?” Tori asked. “Isn’t ricotta like cottage cheese?”
“Yes, it’s similar. But you mix the ricotta with the cake ingredients and as it bakes, it becomes like half-cake, half-cheesecake texture.”
“It’s…” Violet did a chef’s kiss in the air, “amazing.”
“I’ll bet.” Tori eyed me from across the table where Keane was unloading bags. Why did it feel like I was a big fish and she was a shark, circling me in the water? “How have ya been, Navy?”
“Good,” I said, busying myself with collecting the plastic bags. “You?”
“Oh, I’m fantastic.” She popped a chocolate cake laden spoon into her mouth as she looked through all the things we’d brought. “What movie are we watching?”
I pulled the three DVDs out of my purse. “I brought three choices. About Time, 10 Things I Hate About You, and How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days.”
“The only one I haven’t seen of these three is the first one.” Tori tapped it with one long black fingernail. “I love the other two, but I vote this one.”
“You brought only chick flicks?” Keane asked as he stared at the back of each DVD.
“I had to make up for last weekend,” I explained. “You missed out on your rom-com fix.”
“I wouldn’t say I was missing out… but okay.”
“Better than exactly all of your movie choices, Keane,” Tori said, gently hitting him with the DVD case. “Unlike those, none of these will make me wish I had a sedative.”
“You say that like it’s a bad thing. I wouldn’t mind a break from you running your mouth.”
Tori hit him a bit harder with the DVD case and then he dodged another attempt. “You’re a dick, you know that?”
“I’ve been reminded a time or two.” He straightened from where he’d been bent over, unloading things from the fridge. “I’m grilling dogs on the fire pit now, sound good?”
I nodded and started to grab things he’d set out, but Violet had already grabbed everything and followed him out the door before I could help, leaving me alone with Tori.
The weird thing about Tori was that I never felt this uncomfortable around Keane’s girlfriends. Tori was different because she and I had known Keane since we were kids, and while I’d been the girl Keane had picked first during middle school dodgeball, Tori was the girl he picked first to kiss. It shouldn’t have made me feel inadequate, but it did.
“So,” I said, absentmindedly braiding the ends of my hair.
“Got a boyfriend?” she blurted out.
“Wha—no.” She’d caught me off guard.
“Me neither. Guys are gross at this age. It’s like elementary school all over again, but they’re not as nice. I’m currently talking to this guy I sort of dated years ago, but it didn’t last then so I am not holding my breath this time.”
“Oh?” I curled up the sweater I’d brought and laid it over the back of a chair.
“Yeah. He’s the kind of guy who acts like the gym is a real-life dating app. You know what I mean? Goes there for the purpose of picking up chicks, flexes his pecs in the mirror even though it’s leg day. Chugs his protein in the most obnoxious, caveman-esque way possible so it dribbles down his chin like he’d a toddler figuring out how to eat applesauce for the first time.”
“Uh…” I said, not having experienced that type of guy myself.
“The first time we had sex, he got distracted by his own biceps when he was on top. Starting panting, ‘Yeah’ while flexing them. Fucking weirdo. I mean, I literally put his hands on all the places that really get me hot and he still just mashes his fist against my clit like it’s a pile of pizza dough. Dude has no bedroom skills.”
I didn’t know how to respond to that, so I chose the easiest thing to say. It was better hearing her talk about her life than her prying into mine. “But you’re talking to him again?”