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hand before pulling away to pull her ponytail loose. She
scraped her nails over her scalp. “Sometimes it’s much easier for
outsiders to see the obvious. I’ve seen you and Jamie together
since y’all were kids. I knew the day you fell in love with
her.”
    “You did?” Eli
closed his eyes and remembered the night everything changed. He and
Jamie had snuck out to go to a drive-in movie. They were lying in
the cab of his buddy’s truck on a blanket, staring up at the stars.
They weren’t paying attention to the movie; talking was more fun.
He’d had a moment of clarity that night. He didn’t care about the
big-busted cheerleaders willing to put out in the backseat of his
old car or the popular girls who asked him to be their date to
Homecoming because he was a star athlete. He cared about spending
time with his best friend, because there was nowhere else he’d
rather be and no one else he’d rather be with.
    “I was at the
kitchen table when you snuck in, remember?” Casey laughed. “Daddy
had taken away the keys to your car because you’d failed that
algebra test and the coach was threatening to bench you because
you’d skipped school to hang out with Jamie.”
    “I
remember.”
    Jamie’s brother
had been in a car accident. It wasn’t too serious, but he’d spent
the night in the hospital. When she heard what happened, Jamie
didn’t want to wait until the end of the school day to go to the
hospital, so Eli did what any good friend would do: he ditched
class to drive her to the hospital.
    “Your sophomore
year was all about Jamie. You guys spent all your time together,
but that was the night you realized how you felt about her. Am I
right?”
    “Yeah, that was
the first time we kissed.” After that, they became a couple and
were inseparable for two years until he left to play hockey. She
told him he needed to focus on his career and she needed to focus
on college. When he came back at the end of his first season, she’d
been dating someone else. It had nearly killed him, but he
convinced himself they could still be friends. And they had been,
until she came to him looking for comfort because her relationship
with Brent was falling apart. That night, he couldn’t deny how he
felt any longer.
    He’d told her
he loved her, that he’d always be there for her. He made love to
her the way he had so many times before, and his world was finally
back in focus. Until she left in tears the next morning because
she’d betrayed the man she’d promised to marry.
    “You guys have
so much history,” Casey said.
    “Yeah, most of
it as friends. She claims that’s all she wants, and I can’t waste
my life loving a woman who’ll never love me back the way I need her
to.”
    “You’re right,”
Casey said, kissing his cheek. “I would never want you to. Just
don’t make the mistake of cutting and running when it’s really time
to dig in your heels and fight for what you want.”
    “What if I’m
tired of fighting for Jamie?”
    “When you get
tired of fighting… it really is time to move on.”

 
     
     
     
     

Chapter
Four
     
    Jasmine tried to put
on a happy face for her parents, but it wasn’t easy. She was
distracted by thoughts of Eli’s family entertaining his new
lady.
    As if her
mother could read her mind, she said, “I saw Jill at church today.
Course, you’d know that if you’d come with me like I asked you
to.”
    Apparently her
mother wasn’t finished making her feel guilty, but she didn’t want
to talk about Eli or his family. “That’s nice.”
    “Jill said he
was bringing some girl to dinner tonight. You wouldn’t know
anything about that, would you?”
    Jasmine folded
the paper napkins her mother passed her, grateful to have something
to do. “I just know she’s a lawyer and she’s divorced. I guess
they’ve been seeing each other for a while.”
    “She got any
kids?” Rita asked, pulling the roast pan out of the oven.
    “Not that I
know of.”
    “Hmm.”
    “What