It Was Always You by Johnston Andrea

Author:Johnston, Andrea
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Andrea Johnston
Published: 2019-09-16T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

Ally

While Drew works in the bathroom, I help Granny get settled in the recliner with her leg elevated. I’m not three steps out of the living room before she’s shouting her answers, not in the form of a question I might add, at the television. The past week with her has been enlightening to say the least. I see so much of myself in her and have wondered more than once if I’ll be like her when I’m her age. I sure hope so. She’s full of life and truly lives her life with heart and sarcasm. There are worse things.

As I rinse and load dishes in the dishwasher, my phone vibrates in my pocket. I quickly dry my hands before pulling it out. Didi. I should have known. She was the one to encourage me to text Drew. My efforts to convince her it was weird and would cause a ripple effect of gossip in town went ignored. Pushing my buttons and teasing me, she was relentless. And, I folded like a house of cards.

Didi: Well is sexy Drew over there? Are you having your way with him? Playing out a fantasy?

Me: My FRIEND Drew is here, I’m about to have my way with a piece of pie, and it’s not my fantasy, it’s yours.

Didi: 1. YOU are the one who told me he was sexy. 2. Now I need pie. 3. A hot handyman is everyone’s fantasy.

Before I can type out a response, my phone rings. “Not everyone’s.”

Her giggles tug at my heart. I miss my friend. “Girl, ask any living, breathing woman if a sexy handyman sweaty and shirtless is a fantasy and she’ll agree wholeheartedly. And there you are with the real thing.”

“You don’t even know what he looks like,” I remind her as I add soap to the dishwasher and start the machine. Knowing the direction this conversation is going, I step out onto the small back deck and close the screen behind me.

“Doesn’t matter. If you refer to him as sexy then he’s sexy. I’m impressed, Ally. You’re talking to one guy online and spending time with another. That small-town life seems to be working for you.”

She’s teasing but it does remind me how unlike me both of these circumstances are. “Both are friends, Didi. I can have guy friends.”

“Of course you can, silly, but why stop at friends? What if Drew is your one true love? Like Sweet Home Alabama. Maybe he’s your Jake. Does he have a plane? Maybe a fondness for calling people honey? Dear Jesus, does he have an accent?”

Her voice rises with each word, the possibility of fiction turning to real life exciting her squishy romantic heart. Barking out a very unladylike laugh, I cover my mouth, trying to stifle the loud cackle escaping. I fail, and soon the tears are falling and I’m gasping for breath. After what feels like minutes, I finally manage a deep calming breath.

“Geez, it wasn’t that funny. I’m serious.”

“I know but it’s so ridiculous.

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