One True Thing (4 page)

made Alice squeal and clap her sticky hands

together in delight.

In spite of the mess, she looked so much like

Rue at that moment, I had to laugh.

“You’re going to be trouble just like your

papa,” I told her as I bent down to start wiping up

the worst of the damage. No Bounty one-sheet job

this time around. I’d probably have to break out the

mop. Good thing the salon was only a ten-minute

walk from the house.

“Oh, n-no.” Erik had appeared in the

doorway to the kitchen, looking disheveled and

adorable as usual, and was staring wide-eyed at

the mess. I was pretty sure he’d been setting up one

of the
Star Wars
DVDs for him and Alice to watch

before being drawn over by the noise. It had

become an everyday thing since the move. As

much as I loved me some Han Solo, the idea of

sitting through those movies again made me

shudder a little. I understood Erik’s rituals, though,

probably even better than Rue did. My sister’s

were different, but she’d had them too.

The thought of her came with its usual stab of

pain, low in my belly. So many years had passed

since I’d seen her last. So many years. Of all the

things I’d left behind in Delaware, she was the

only one I missed.

I pushed the memories of her away. I had a

kitchen to clean and a job to get to. I didn’t have

any time to spare for wallowing.

Alice gave another squeal, smearing her

hands around in the fruit and yogurt that was still

on her tray, blue eyes huge and excited. “Da-da!”

Erik ruffled her hair, and she smiled up at

him, showing off a smattering of drooly baby teeth.

“Sh-should I get the mop?” he asked.

“Yeah, that’d be great, hon.” I stood and

tossed the soiled paper towels into the garbage can

under the sink while Erik went to get what we

needed from the utility room.

A few minutes later, the floor was back to its

normal, pristine condition. Alice was another

matter entirely, but I still had to finish my lunch

cleanup and get my skinny butt out the door if I

wanted to make it to work on time. I’d leave her in

the care of her former manny, soon-to-be adoptive

father. Erik and Rue had already started the

process, figuring it was something they should do

sooner rather than later. I knew they were

discussing wills too. Serious stuff, but it wasn’t as

if any of us knew what might happen one day to the

next. Alice’s future was something we all wanted

to protect.

Being there, watching as Rue built his life

with Erik and Alice, really was amazing. It made

me proud. I never thought I’d see Rue as a family

man, in an actual, honest-to-goodness relationship,

totally and completely smitten by this beautiful

baby girl who’d changed all our lives. Family,

love, children—those were
my
dreams, never his.

But it was wonderful to see how much he’d grown

since Alice was born.

I loved them all. I did. So much of my

happiness was tied to them, to our new lives in

California and our cute little ranch-style house

with its neatly kept lawn and charming white

picket fence. The house that had come up for rent

at the perfect time and at just the right price, as if

finally the stars had aligned, or destiny had

stepped up to get us where we needed to be. I

never doubted I was meant to be a part of Alice’s

life, of their family, to share this place with Rue

and Erik. But I had to admit, sometimes it hurt to

be around them.

I did a quick wipe down of the counters,

making sure I’d gotten all the crumbs from the

crusty Italian bread I’d used for our tomato and

mozzarella sandwiches, rinsed the dishrag in the

sink, and hung it over the faucet to dry. “Hey, Erik,

I’ll see you later tonight, okay?”

Erik paused in the middle of scrubbing

Alice’s tray. His eyes met mine, and he smiled,

that same sweet, unassuming smile that at one time

made my stomach warm and quake with

possibility. Now it made it clench instead. He had

another smile too, but that one had never been for

me. I’d only ever seen him use it for Rue.

“Okay,” he said. “Have a good day at work.”

I nodded and brushed by him on the way to

my room to collect my bag, stopping long enough

to drop a kiss on Alice’s dark head. I didn’t love

Erik anymore, not like that. I’d never told him or

Rue that I had. I’d downplayed my feelings,

pretended they weren’t anything more than a casual

crush, no big deal, and I’d stood aside because I’d

never been the type to get in the way, especially if

it would’ve meant hurting Rue. But there were

moments—teeny, tiny, awful, guilty moments—

when no matter how hard I tried not to, I’d look at

Erik and imagine the what-ifs and might-have-

beens. They made my chest ache.

I didn’t want Erik. That wasn’t it. He was

Rue’s, and Rue was his. What I wanted was what

they had. I wanted it so badly sometimes it woke

me in the dead of night, and I could feel it there,

hovering right above me, the sense that I was

missing something, and if I reached out, if I

reached out just far enough, maybe I could touch it.

Work was long that day. I flirted and joked,

pasted on my sunniest smile, made my clients look

fabulous, and tried to forget the awkwardness from

earlier. By the time my dinner break came around,

I was exhausted. I hated being depressed. It took

so much out of me and went against my nature in

every way. Whatever happened in life, there was

always a bright side, and usually I focused on that

and left the dark stuff behind. Misery and I had

never been friends. I wanted to go back to the

cheerful Dusty, the one whose smile came readily

and never felt forced. Somewhere in the last few

weeks, I’d lost my grip on him. I had only one

guess as to why.

Back in Wilmington, I’d practically been a

permanent fixture at Rue’s and Erik’s apartments.

I’d liked being there better than my own place, it

was true. But at least I’d had my own place to go

back
to
, even if it was just a threadbare studio

above an old barbershop, and nowhere near as

nice as what we had now. It had been my own

private, isolated space, and different from just

having a bedroom in a house we all shared. I

didn’t have to deal with the knowledge that Rue

and Erik were on the other side of a thin wall,

together, while I lay in bed alone. I didn’t have to

hear them every night and feel the bitter ache of my

own loneliness pressing down on me.

So, yeah, it was hard. Harder than I thought it

would be. I could only hope that time would make

it easier.

“Hey, Dusty, got any plans for dinner?”

I looked up from sweeping my station to see

my coworker, Lane, watching me. I could tell from

the expression on his face that he was wondering

why I bothered. There was a girl on staff

responsible for those things, but sweeping up after

my clients was a force of habit for me. I didn’t feel

comfortable standing there watching while Tasha

did what I felt I should be doing myself. The other

stylists didn’t see it that way and happily left their

messes behind, but the only time she got to clean

mine was if she snuck in while my back was

turned.

“Not really,” I answered as I swept the pile

of hair into a long-handled dustpan and took it over

to the garbage bin. “Why? What did you have in

mind?”

“How ’bout we walk over to The Banana

Leaf and grab some salads?” Lane asked, giving

me a little smile.

He was cute in a punk-rock kind of way—a

couple of inches taller than me with bright-red hair

he styled in rows of jagged spikes, a stud in his left

nostril and another in his tongue, and eyes I didn’t

know the color of because he came in wearing

different contacts every day. He’d been flirting

with me on and off for weeks, but I never

encouraged him at all. I felt a little bad even

admitting it in my head, but he wasn’t my type. Not

that I’d ever really had one until recently, but if

someone had asked me right then, I would have

said my type was brown-eyed and brown-haired

with pretty olive skin and lips that made my knees

go weak. Too bad I hadn’t seen that guy since he’d

saved me from falling on my face and making a

spectacle of myself last month.

Stop being crazy. You didn’t even speak to

him. Why the hell are you still thinking about it?

I fought back a sigh. Because I was a moron,

apparently. And maybe only a few steps shy of

pathetic.

“Dusty?” Lane prompted when I’d been silent

too long.

I propped the broom and dustpan next to the

garbage can and quickly undid my apron. “Sure.

Let me grab my bag.”

Lane and I walked the five minutes to the café

everyone at the salon loved. It was close,

reasonably priced, and the salads and sandwiches

were delicious. As a bonus, they had a great

selection of dishes for veggie heads like myself.

Occasionally, I stopped in to pick something up for

me and Rue after work so Erik could order a pizza

or a burger or whatever it was he needed to get his

meat fix. We were still working on getting him to

eat healthier, one lonely fruit and vegetable at a

time.

On the way to The Banana Leaf, we passed

Cobra Fitness. I glanced inside, eyeing the people

I could see through the windows—lifting weights,

running on treadmills, pedaling madly on

stationary bikes. I remembered Michelle’s offer to

give me a tour and thought I should probably take

her up on it soon. I hadn’t spent more than five

minutes in her company, but I’d liked her, and

lately I’d been feeling the need for a new friend. I

didn’t think Lane and I could ever really be that, at

least not until he got the hint I wasn’t interested in

anything more.

“Want to just eat here?” Lane asked as we

walked in.

I nodded and inhaled. God, I loved the scent

of baking bread. The Banana Leaf made everything

fresh on-site, one of the many things I liked about

the place. “Yeah, sounds good.”

I followed him to the back of the line, already

knowing what I wanted. It was a casual place, the

kind where you ordered, seated yourself, and had

to clean up your own mess, but that was okay by

me. All I cared about was that their food was

good.

I’d just finished paying and had turned to look

around for an empty table when I saw him.
Him.

The gorgeous guy I hadn’t been able to get out of

my head for more than a month. He was sitting at a

table alone, his eyes fixated on his phone, fingers

moving quickly, as if he might be typing a text

message.

Oh, my God.

A flutter of excitement burst to life in my

belly. I’d thought I might never see him again. I

mean, even in a city as small as Wilmington it was

possible to live without ever running into the same

person twice. In a place like California, who knew

what the odds were?

The sight of him filled me with nerves, made

my body flash hot. I rubbed sweaty palms on the

thighs of my tight black jeans and adjusted my T-

shirt with trembling fingers. Nervous or not, there

was no way,
no way
, I could let such a prime

opportunity slip by.

Go over there. Just do it. Talk to him.

“Hey, Dusty,” Lane said from beside me.

“I’m gonna go grab that table.”

“Sure, thanks, hon.” I didn’t even bother to

look where he was pointing. I couldn’t tear my

eyes away from my dream man. And that’s what he

was. I’d been dreaming about him almost

constantly since that one intense, speech-robbing

moment all those weeks ago. This was my chance

to make a move, and I’d be a moron to waste it,

even if it meant risking a rejection. At least I