The Road to Rose Bend, Naima Simone [jenna bush book club .TXT] 📗

called out her name. Sydney glanced to the side, her grin widening at the sight of Leo headed toward her in that clipped, no-nonsense stride of hers. Like their time apart had been mere hours instead of years, their friendship had fallen right back into place. When not working, Leo hung out at the cottage, and sometimes, Sydney had gone over to the inn and claimed her old spot in Moe’s kitchen.

God, she was grateful for Leo. This friendship helped to beat back the doubts over moving back.

“You made it here before me,” Leo greeted, tugging Sydney into her arms for a quick embrace. Another thing she’d missed about her best friend—the unconscious and unashamed displays of affection. Guess it came from being part of a loving and demonstrative family. It’d always been one of the things she’d enjoyed when going over to the inn. “See? Here is where I’m being an amazing friend and refraining from the cliché comment about pregnant women always eating anything that isn’t nailed down. Aren’t you blessed that I’m so kind and considerate?”

Sydney snickered. “Yes, kind and considerate were the exact words I was thinking of.”

Leo laughed and, still cupping Sydney’s upper arms, tilted her head to the side and smiled. “If I haven’t told you lately, I’m really glad you moved back. I’ve missed you, Syd.”

Sydney blinked. Freaking hormones. Again.

“Thanks, Leo. I’ve missed you, too. At least I know coming home and having you back in my life is definitely a mark in the pro column for returning here. But I swear...” She laughed, but it possessed too much of an edge to be considered humorous. “One minute I’m certain that I’m doing the right thing. And then the next? The next I’m second-guessing every choice I’ve made for the last six months. Was I wrong to divorce Daniel? Should I have remarried him after I found out I was pregnant? Should I have stayed in Charlotte, the place that’s been a home to me for almost a decade? Am I being impulsive? Am I placing my own needs above the baby’s? Am I being—” she paused, then pushed out the last, damning word “—selfish? God, sorry.” She pinched the bridge of her nose. “I didn’t mean to unload on you like that.”

Leo stepped back and jammed her fists on her hips, an eyebrow arched high.

“I need you to listen to me, okay? Hell no, you are not selfish. And I don’t know your ex, but just from the little you’ve told me about him, I can take an educated guess where that bullshit came from.”

“Leo.” Sydney shook her head. “Daniel’s not a bad guy. He’s just...set in his ways.”

“Sydney, you’re my girl, but he sounds like he has a stick lodged so far up his ass, he shits splinters.”

I will not laugh. I will not laugh.

“Oh, just go on and laugh. You know you want to.” Leo grinned, but a moment later sobered. “God knows I’m not an expert on men. I’m like the anti-relationship whisperer. But I have learned this. Whenever anyone—a woman, especially—makes a decision that is beneficial to her but inconvenient to another person, she’s selfish.” She snorted. “Living for yourself, making your own decisions—that doesn’t make you selfish, it makes you strong. Bold. Independent. It’s you. And don’t you forget that. Or let anyone try and convince you differently.”

“That’s just it, Leo,” Sydney protested on a whisper. “I’m not bold or strong. I’m—”

“Scared shitless,” her friend finished softly. “Yeah, I get it. I do. Returning here after so long must be terrifying. But being afraid doesn’t determine your strength or your courage. Acting in spite of that fear, persevering, pressing forward—that’s courage. It would’ve been easy, comfortable, safe for you to stay in your marriage.”

Yes, it would’ve been, Sydney silently agreed, staring over Leo’s shoulder at the gleaming storefront windows of Sunnyside Grille. And all the while, she would’ve slowly suffocated, lost her ambition, her voice—lost herself—as the years passed. That had been the wake-up call for her to walk away from her marriage of almost five years.

And now, she was returning to the place where she’d initially experienced that same sense of drowning. Returning to Rose Bend.

“It takes balls to start over, Sydney.” Leo grasped Sydney’s hand and squeezed it. “Lady balls. And you, my friend, got a brass set.”

Sydney’s bark of laughter sounded a bit waterlogged from the damn tears that refused to go away. Good Lord, she had five more months of this emotional upheaval?

“Thanks... I think.” Clearing her throat, she switched the subject before she started bawling right here on Main Street and really gave people something to gossip about. “Okay, ice cream. I definitely need ice cream now.”

“Done.” Leo stepped past her and pulled open the entrance door, still holding Sydney’s hand, tugging her inside. As the cool air rushed out to greet her, Sydney didn’t bother to hold back her groan.

Oh, thank God. Right now, air-conditioning was better than an orgasm.

“Um, either it’s really hot outside or you haven’t had sex in a while,” an amused, lilting voice observed on the tail end of a snicker.

Crap. She squeezed her eyes shut and pinched the bridge of her nose.

“Oh yes, sister.” Leo cackled. “You did indeed say that aloud.”

“It’s the heat,” Sydney muttered. “It’s attacking my brain cells as well as my sweat glands.”

“Uh-huh.” Leo jabbed Sydney in the shoulder with a fingertip. “Just so you know, the topic of your apparently questionable sex life is shelved only until I get ice cream in me. In the meantime, meet the owner of this fabulous establishment, Cecille Lapuz. Cecille, Sydney Collins.”

The lovely, petite woman grinned. With long, gorgeous light brown hair, smooth, toffee-colored skin and beautiful brown eyes that spoke of an Asian heritage, possibly Filipina, she could’ve been anywhere from her midtwenties to her late thirties. An eggshell-blue apron with the shop’s name embroidered on it partially covered the white long-sleeved T-shirt and dark blue skinny jeans that adorned her slim figure.

If not