“Better?” she asks, releasing me.

  “Yeah, thanks.” I check my watch. Five more minutes until Leland arrives. I got a text from him last night before bed, saying he was in Barrie and had found a spare charger he’d forgotten about in his glove compartment. We arranged a time for him to pick me up for the reunion, and I told him I’d wait outside Evie’s building. “I should get going.”

  Evie steps out of the way so I can move past her to put on my shoes. When I straighten, she’s standing behind me, her hands clenched together in front of her. She reminds me of our moms on prom night; they were practically buzzing with excited energy and pride. After helping me get ready this afternoon, Evie snapped a dozen or so photos of me, telling me over and over how radiant I looked. I half expect her to follow me outside now, phone in hand, ready to snap pictures of Leland and me before we head off to the reunion.

  I’m about to make a joke about that very thing when there’s a knock on the door. Expecting it to be Wesley, I open it without bothering to look through the peephole.

  Leland’s eyes go wide when they land on me. “Wow. I mean hi. But also wow. You look beautiful, Stella.”

  The girlish giggle that spills from my mouth would be embarrassing if I wasn’t filled to the brim with giddy glee at his stumbled words and the appreciative glint in his eyes. “Hi. And thank you. You look beautiful too. I mean handsome.”

  And he does; his tousled hair falls forward slightly in the way I love, and he’s wearing dark slacks and a burgundy dress shirt. When I told him the color suited him a few weeks ago and he said he’d remember, he was true to his word. I take him in the way he did with me, my gaze lingering on the bakery box in his hands before meeting his smiling eyes again.

  “Oh god, you two are so cute,” Evie murmurs from behind me.

  I jump at her voice. I was so caught up in the moment, I nearly forgot she was there. Leland peers around me, his smile growing as he says hello to Evie.

  “This is for you.” Leland hands me the bakery box, which I now see is stamped with the Cravings logo. I lift the lid and peek inside at the array of cookies. “I asked Willow to make them for you. I was going to bring you a slushy too, but thought you might not want to arrive at the reunion with a blue tongue.”

  I sputter out a laugh. This man never ceases to surprise me with his thoughtfulness. “Maybe we can stop somewhere afterward,” I say. “Thank you for these.”

  We stare at each other for another long minute. I’m sure my goofy grin matches Leland’s. I hear Evie chuckle a second before she swoops in and reminds us we should get going. She exchanges the box of cookies for my coat, telling me she’ll leave the cookies on the counter.

  When Leland and I reach the sidewalk in front of Evie’s condo building, he catches my hand, holding my fingers loosely. At his car, he opens the passenger door, but stops me before I can get in. “There’s something I’d like to talk to you about later. After the reunion.”

  My stomach clenches. His easy, playful grin is gone now, replaced by an earnestness I haven’t seen from him before. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say he looks…nervous?

  “Okay.” My mind spins with possibilities. Is he ready for this charade to be over after tonight? Our fake dating scheme will have served its purpose, after all: his mom is content and working on getting more of a life of her own, and we’ll present a united front tonight at the reunion.

  I’m not ready for this to be over. The ruse part, yes, but I feel like we’ve begun building a foundation for something real. Something amazing. Now isn’t the time to bring that up, though; if things don’t go the way I hope they do—if Leland tells me he just wants us to be friends—it would make the reunion awkward. His serious expression nearly makes me lose my nerve, but I gather my courage and manage to say, “I have something I want to talk to you about too.”

  His face softens into a smile. “Okay. How about this: we stick around the reunion just long enough to put in an appearance, catch up with a few people, and then we get out of there.”

  I can’t help the sigh of relief that escapes me. “Deal.”

  *****

  The events room at Connelly’s Pub is spacious and low-lit, with high round tables and stools, padded couch-like benches against one entire wall, and a small bar on the opposite wall. Music plays from hidden speakers, loud enough to be heard, but not so loud as to drown out conversations or make people have to yell.

  “This is actually really nice,” I say, unable to keep the surprise from my voice. A waiter swings past with a tray of finger food, and Leland and I both scoop up stuffed mushrooms.

  “What were you picturing?” Leland asks. “I want to see if your mental image matches mine.”

  “Hmm, well…not exactly beer and loud music because that doesn’t seem like Nelle’s style. I guess I didn’t think she’d put this much effort into it, especially since it’s an informal reunion.”

  “She hired a party planner,” a voice says from behind us.

  I spin around to face Sylvie Bell. Her gaze flicks between Leland and me before settling on me, her smile growing into a full-blown grin as she holds out her arms. Just as I’m surprised by this venue, I’m also surprised by how genuinely glad I am to see Sylvie. She holds onto me for a long minute, and then gives Leland a quick hug.

  “So, a party planner?” Leland shifts closer to me, his arm sliding around my waist, hand settling lightly on my hip.

  “Yep. She started to plan the whole thing herself, but decided it was too much work. She wanted a bunch of us to pitch in, but I told her this reunion was her idea, so she was on her own. I did make the playlist for tonight, though.”

  The song changes to “Drops of Jupiter” by Train, and Leland makes a small hum of pleasure. “Man, this song takes me back.”

  “The whole playlist is made of songs that were popular when we were in high school,” Sylvie says.

  As other people join us, I’m transported back in time nearly twenty years, and not only from seeing so many familiar faces. Just like in high school, Leland seems to have a magnetic force field around him that draws people in. Our trio grows to five, then eight, then a dozen people. Leland keeps his arm around me the whole time, his body inching closer to mine as more and more people join us. We get a few questions and comments about our relationship, but people are kind and curious, and move on quickly to other topics, which is a relief.

  Leland excuses us after a while, saying we haven’t had a chance to get a drink or speak to the hostess yet. We make our way to the bar, where I order a fruity cocktail and Leland asks for a beer.

  When the bartender hands over our drinks, Leland clinks his beer bottle against my glass. “This isn’t so bad, right?”

  “So far, so good. It’s actually been nice seeing some of these people again. I could handle avoiding the hostess for a bit longer, though.”

  “Now, now, Stella McGrath.” Leland makes a tsking sound and shakes his head, although he can’t hide his smile. “Just think, if it weren’t for Nelle, we might not be here together. Wouldn’t that be a shame?”

  “A crying shame.” I say it lightly, playing along, but I mean it. Leland and I would still have met up again if not for Nelle, and we might have seen each other around town, but we wouldn’t have had a reason to hang out like we have been. We wouldn’t have had a chance to get to know each other the way we have. I wouldn’t have had a chance to start the wonderful and terrifying process of falling for him, even in such a short amount of time.

  “A crying shame indeed,” Leland says softly. He inches closer to me, taking my fingers lightly in his like he did earlier on our way to his car. He looks like he’s about to say something when a flash of red catches in my peripheral vision, and I turn to see Nelle barrelling toward us.

  “There are the lovebirds,” she says, one hand landing on Leland’s shoulder and the other on mine. “What do you think? Pretty impressive setup, huh?”

  “Very impressive,” Leland agrees, saluting her with his beer bottle.

  “Everything looks great,” I say. “Thanks for inviting us, Nelle.”

  “Of course! Eric and I were saying we should make this a yearly thing. Oh, look, there’s Jan! You two mingle and we’ll catch up later, okay?” And with that, she scurries toward a woman I vaguely recognize. They greet each other with high-pitched chatter, cackling as they embrace.

  “I am not doing this every year,” I tell Leland.

  He chuckles, taking a sip of beer and then glancing at his watch. “We’re not even staying for this whole thing, let alone coming back next year.”

  A few of the people we were talking to earlier join us at the bar, and we fall into easy conversation. Leland tells them about his new business venture with his sister and how I’ll be working with them. I love how he says ‘with’ and not ‘for’. Someone makes a joke about mixing business and pleasure being a bad idea. Leland shakes his head, looking right at me as he says, “I can’t imagine anything better than getting to spend every day with Stella.”

  Oh, he’s good. Maybe a little too good because I believe every word.

  Our little group breaks up and drifts apart, and Leland and I decide to wander the room and mingle. Leland asks if he can get me another drink, but I say no. He stopped at one beer since he’s driving and, as much as I’d like another cocktail, I want to keep my wits about me for the conversation we need to have after the reunion. We do snag something to eat from every passing waiter, though.

  As we make our way around the room, I notice a series of poster boards with photographs on them. I pull Leland in that direction and we spend a few minutes laughing at how he’s in nearly half the pictures. I’m in the background of a few—looking miserable in most of them—and there’s a cute shot of Sylvie and me taken during the last week of grade eleven.

  “Stella.” Leland is a few feet away, looking at the last board of pictures. I join him, following his line of sight to a picture of…us. It was taken in the cafeteria; we’re sitting across from each other, heads bent close over a plate of cookies. My mouth is open mid-laugh and Leland is grinning. He taps the writing underneath: Leland Levesque and Stella McGrath. Taken by Sylvie Bell.

  “I had no idea she took this,” I say, my voice barely above a whisper.

  “Me either. We sure do look happy, though.”

  We do. I do. I spent so much of that year being miserable, but you’d never know it from looking at this photograph. For some inexplicable reason, my eyes fill with tears. I blink them away, practicing a subtle version of the deep breathing exercise Evie guided me through earlier.

  “You okay?” Leland asks.

  “Yeah, fine. I just…really like this picture.”

  “Me too.” He studies my face, then glances around, his eyes settling on something across the room. “I’ll be right back. Are you good here for a minute?”

  I laugh lightly, shooing him away. “Of course. I’ll be here.”

  I continue perusing the photos, smiling to myself when I find a shot of Leland and Wesley in their basketball uniforms. The smile slips and I swallow a groan when Nelle sidles up beside me.

  “I never would have thought you had it in you to snag a guy like Leland,” she says.

  I let out a disbelieving laugh. “Why, Nelle? Because he’s so out of my league?”

  “No, it’s not that. That came out wrong.” She falls silent for a moment, as if she’s picking her next words carefully. That would certainly be a first. “It’s just that as popular as Leland was in high school, he didn’t date much. At least not that I saw. He moved from group to group, was friends with everyone, or at least friendly with everyone. I always had this feeling he was a big fish in a little pond, you know? Like Bellevue was too small to contain him.

  “And I guess I was right because he went on to this jet-setting, international businessman lifestyle, right? But then he returned to this little pond, and somehow it seems like a right fit. I always thought part of the reason he didn’t date in high school was because it would take someone extraordinary to catch his interest.”

  Several beats of silence pass as I take in what Nelle said. “Are you saying…?”

  “I’m saying…” She cuts me off, but then the words hang there, and I wonder if she realizes she just paid me a huge compliment and wants to course correct. “I’m saying you’ve changed a lot since high school. You’re not the person I thought you were.”

  “The person you knew back then wasn’t really who I was. Who I am.” I consider going into detail, but I can see Nelle’s interest fading already as she tries unsuccessfully to keep her attention on me. I laugh under my breath, and her gaze shoots back to me.

  “What?”

  “Nothing.” I got more from Nelle tonight than I ever expected, and I’ll take that as a win.

  A warm hand settles on the small of my back a second before Leland steps up beside me. “You two…catching up?” He asks this carefully, and I know he’s really asking if everything is okay. I give a small nod. “Good. You ready to go, Stels?”

  “Yes.” I don’t mean to say it so emphatically, but a quick glance at Nelle shows her looking at Leland rather than me. When her eyes go wide, I follow her gaze to see Leland gently prying the photo of us in the cafeteria from the poster board.

  “What are you doing?” Nelle’s scandalized tone has me holding back a laugh. “You’re going to wreck the aesthetic of the board.”

  Leland hands the picture to me, then takes one from a pile I didn’t notice before and sticks it on the board, covering ours and Sylvie’s names. “There, problem solved. I talked to Sylvie and she said we could have the picture now since we’re leaving.” He slips his hand into mine once more and turns back to Nelle with a winning smile. “Nelle, thanks for a fun evening. It’s been a pleasure.”

  She blinks rapidly a few times, then collects herself. “You two should stick around. I have a few things planned for later. I wanted to gather everyone and go around the group and share memories.”

  My hand tightens involuntarily on Leland’s. That sounds like my idea of hell.

  “Wow, well, we’re sorry to miss that,” Leland says. I have to stifle another laugh; somehow he managed to keep the sarcasm out of his tone. “Stella’s birthday is this weekend, and I promised I’d take her out after the reunion since she looks so phenomenal.”

  Nelle’s gaze flicks to me, running briefly over my outfit before returning to Leland. “Fine, but I expect to see you both here next year. I meant it when I said I wanted to make this a yearly thing.”

  Sylvie appears beside me, laying a hand on my shoulder. “I thought you two were leaving?”

  I nearly sag with relief at the timely interruption. With one hand still in Leland’s grip, I give Sylvie a one-armed hug, part thank-you and part goodbye. “We’re on our way out now.” When I release her, I notice Nelle has left to join another group. “Other than a few people and events, I’d pretty much like to forget about eleventh grade, so I have no intention of coming to another of these things. I do want to see you again, though, if you’re up for it.”

  “I’d love that.”

  “I mean it. I don’t want this to be a case of ‘we should get together sometime’ and then we never see each other again.”

  Sylvie laughs lightly. “I promise that won’t happen.” Her gaze darts briefly to Leland, and her expression changes. Before I can think too much about it, she says, “I’ll call you next week, how’s that? We’ll make plans to get coffee or something. And I’ll be one of your first customers at FandomTown when it opens.”

  We hug again, and then Leland and I make our way through the room, pausing to speak to a few people, and saying our goodbyes to others. We get held up when some guy I vaguely recognize as one of Leland’s former basketball teammates starts telling a story about something wild they did at an away game. His loud voice and the laughter of others draws more people to our group.

  Leland smiles and nods along, his hand tightening incrementally on mine until he’s practically squeezing all the blood out of it. He ducks down with his face close to mine and says, “It was nice knowing you, Stella, but you should go. Save yourself. This room is my home now and I’ll never be able to leave.”

  I drop my forehead to his shoulder, the sound of my giggles drowned out by the noise around us. The crowd roars with laughter and I jerk my head up, realizing all eyes are on the former jock. From what I can tell, not a single person is currently looking at us.

  “How bad would you feel about sneaking out while everyone else is preoccupied?” I whisper directly in Leland’s ear.

  With his face still close to mine, he tilts his head slightly and scans the crowd. “I’d have no remorse. You’re the only person here I cared about seeing, and I get to leave with you, so…”

  His words cause a little thrill to zip through me. “Ready to make a break for it then?”

  At his nod, we turn in unison and stride purposefully out of the events room. When we make it through the doors with no one stopping us, we break into a half-walk-half-run through the corridor to the side entrance. I’m laughing breathlessly by the time we spill out the door and into the frosty November evening.

  “Don’t stop now.” Leland tugs on my hand, leading me across the parking lot to his car. Halfway there, he releases my hand to wrap his arm around me, pulling me tight against the side of his body. “Do you think some part of us knew we’d have to make a quick getaway when we decided to leave our coats in the car?”

  “Kudos to Past Leland and Stella for that one.”

  His breath is warm against my face as he chuckles. When we reach his car, he opens the passenger door and waits for me to get in, then zips around to his side and jumps in. He starts the car immediately, blasting the heater before reaching for our coats in the back.

  “Can’t lie, I’m glad that’s over with,” he says as he pulls out of the lot. I have no idea where we’re going, but I trust Leland to get us there. “It wasn’t so bad, though, was it?”