Flowers on Main Read Free Page B

air-conditioning.
    “I have no idea,” Mack responded with a shrug. “Jake’s apparently developed a sudden craving for a crab cake.”
    When Jake met Will’s gaze, he saw the knowing amusement in his friend’s eyes. That was the problem with hanging out with the same bunch of guys since elementary school. None of them had one damn secret from the others. Will, withhis Ph.D. in psychology, was capable of guessing the source of Jake’s suddenly skittish mood.
    Will sighed. “I was wondering when he was going to find out that Bree’s in town.”
    Mack looked momentarily surprised, then nodded. “Just now apparently.”
    “It took longer than I expected,” Will said.
    Jake stared at them. “You knew Bree was here and didn’t warn me?”
    “I’d heard,” Will admitted.
    “Me, too,” Mack said, looking chagrined. “We figured she’d be gone before the two of you crossed paths.”
    “How’d she look?” Will asked, his gaze on Mack rather than Jake.
    Mack shrugged. “Jake was blocking my view.”
    “Well, it’s probably better that Jake finally got a glimpse of her,” Will said thoughtfully. “It was bound to happen sooner or later.”
    “Absolutely. Her family’s here,” Mack added. “It’s not like she’d stay away forever.”
    “Would you two stop talking as if I’m not here,” Jake grumbled. “This isn’t about Bree O’Brien. I just decided I’m in the mood for a crab-cake sandwich. That’s it.”
    “Last time I checked, Sally made a halfway-decent crab-cake sandwich,” Will remarked, calling him on the blatant lie.
    “Hardly anyplace around here that doesn’t,” Mack agreed.
    Jake tired of their amusement at his expense. “Oh, give it a rest,” he grumbled. “If you want to eat here, we’ll eat here. I just thought it would be good to try someplace different. We’re in a rut.”
    “And you realized that not five minutes ago?” Will inquired skeptically. “We’ve been in the same rut for five years.”
    “Six,” Jake muttered. “It’s been six years.”
    The three of them had started eating lunch together every day right after Bree had left Chesapeake Shores. It had been Will and Mack’s halfhearted attempt to boost Jake’s spirits, even though they weren’t a hundred percent certain what had happened between Jake and Bree. The couple had broken up, that much Jake’s friends knew, and also that Jake was hurting. That was all that had mattered.
    His buddies had rallied around him, being supportive in the only way guys knew how, by hanging out with him and trying to keep him distracted, and by not mentioning the source of his discontent unless he brought her up first. Which he hadn’t. Today was one of the few times in all these years that Bree’s name had even crossed his lips.
    Good friends that they were and happily single, Will and Mack had also dragged Jake out regularly for happy hour and tried to interest him in other women. More often than not, they were the ones who met someone attractive and left with her, while Jake went home alone to his empty bed and dark thoughts. He’d gotten used to the pattern and to the loneliness. It was pitiful, all right, but it was the life he had.
    And it beat the pain he’d felt when Bree had left. He wasn’t going through anything like that again, even if he wound up living like a hermit for the rest of his days, which his sister, Connie, told him regularly he was in grave danger of doing.
    “Maybe it’s a good sign,” Will speculated, his expression thoughtful. “Him wanting to shake things up finally.”
    “Could be,” Mack agreed.
    The two men exchanged a look, then turned toward Mack’s SUV, which was parked closer than Will’s fancy foreign sports car or Jake’s bright green Shores Nursery and Landscaping truck.
    “We’ll go to Brady’s,” Mack said, throwing a commiserating arm across his shoulders. “And then we’ll beat some sense into you.”
     

2
     
    B ree heard what sounded like a collective