Chapter 6

6

DAPHNE

I sat around the dining-room table with my parents, my stomach so full of my mom's famous lasagna that it was bulging, but I was still considering another helping.

Mom grinned at me from across the table. "Go for it, baby. You know you want to."

I groaned, holding my stomach as I eyed the dish and glanced at the door. "We really should leave some for Eric."

Dad chuckled, sliding an arm around Mom's shoulders. "We don't even know if he's still coming. He must've gotten caught up somewhere. Help yourself, young lady. We can always make him a sandwich if he shows up."

As he said it, my brother burst into the dining room, his face slightly flushed. He shook his head and raced to his seat. "No one is making me a sandwich on lasagna night. I'm sorry I'm late. I got caught up with Sterling and Jake at Maverick's after I closed up shop."

"Sterling's in town?" Dad blinked rapidly in surprise before he grinned at my brother. "You must be happy to have him home. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that he showed up for the reunion."

A fond, soft smile spread on Mom's lips. "How is he doing? It's been too long since I've seen that boy. You should've dragged him here for dinner with you."

"I offered," Eric said as he picked up his plate and scooped a huge helping of lasagna onto it. "He said he'd join us some other time. He's pretty beat. Only got in this afternoon."

"It would be so great to see him," Mom said, her eyes getting misty as she leaned her head on Dad's shoulder. "Andrea would be happy to know you two boys are back in touch. I know how worried she was when you stopped talking after he left."

Eric waved her off. "It's natural, Mom. We all started working and he was too busy to talk to us every day."

"Sure, but still. She and I had more than a few conversations about it." Mom fell silent then and Dad turned his head to press a kiss to her forehead.

My heart ached for our mother. Sterling's Mom, Andrea, had been her best friend and I knew she still missed her. Five years ago, she'd died suddenly and unexpectedly in an accident and Mom had struggled for a long time to come to terms with it.

Eric gave her an understanding smile, letting the moment of silence linger for a beat before he finally answered her first question. "You'll be happy to know that he seems good. A little less talkative than he used to be, but it might just have been because he was tired."

"It's the first time he's been home since his mom's funeral," my mom reminded us all, wiping her eyes before she sat up straighter again. "That's got to be incredibly hard."

Instantly, I felt guilty about my brief burst of unkind thoughts toward him this afternoon. Sure, Jake and Rachel had their own reasons—very valid reasons—for being pissed at him, but my mom was right too.

I hadn't thought about it from Sterling's point of view at all until now. I'd just thought he'd come home tired, grumpy, and serious, but the last time any of us had seen him had been when he'd come to bury his mother.

Being back in Allisburg without her here to welcome him home after so long had to suck. I looked around our homely, warm dining room and shivered as I even tried to imagine this house without my mom here.

Eric wolfed down his food and dished up another helping, chatting to our parents between bites. "You're probably right. It could be that too. It doesn't sound like John is too excited about him being back, but Andrea was the best. It's got to be tough in that house without her. Do you remember all those pastries she used to bring to our tee-ball practices?"

Mom chuckled wistfully. "I certainly remember you scarfing them all until one day, you decided as a team that you weren't eating carbs anymore."

"We were getting serious." Eric laughed.

Dad grinned around a sip of his soda. "Serious about football at the time, sure. Certainly not serious about your schoolwork."

Mom sighed. "A truer word has never been spoken. I practically had to glue their butts to the chairs in my classroom."

"Yeah, well, you're a math teacher. Nobody likes math?—"

"Hey," I objected jokingly. " I liked math and Mom is an amazing teacher."

"An amazing teacher who never cut us any breaks," Eric said, winking at her. "Fat lot of good algebra is doing me right now, Momster."

"Sterling got into Stanford Business, didn't he?" Mom batted her lashes at my brother. "I'm sure he's grateful for my dedication to his mathematical education."

"Grades before games." Dad thumped a fist against his chest and laughed. "That's our family motto, remember?"

Eric groaned, swiping a palm over his face as he grimaced. "Of course, I remember. It's still my motto for my team now. Everyone knows how important it is to keep your grades up, but you need to have a little fun too."

"We taught you how to keep your priorities straight," Mom said. "Speaking of which, I hope now that Sterling is here you guys will be ready to get down to business planning the reunion. So far, your committee has done a wonderful job coordinating with all your old classmates and getting the invitation out there, but Bill and I are both starting to get worried about the actual event."

Bill Riley had been the principal at Allisburg High since before I'd been born, and Mom had been working there just as long. As stalwarts on the faculty, they helped with the reunion ever year and I knew how much they both enjoyed seeing all their former students when the annual event rolled around.

This year was simply the first time that one of Mom's own kids was involved with it, and I knew that was making her feel extra pressure. Eric groaned again but nodded as he finally finished his meal.

"I haven't really gotten around to talking to Sterling about it much, but I know he came out earlier so he could help. We'll be fine."

"Excellent." Mom smiled at him before turning to me. "You'll help too, right? You were part of the student government back in the day and we'd sure appreciate if you'd jump in too."

"Wow. The teachers are really worried, huh?" I asked curiously. "What happened to Sterling North being the be all and end all?"

Mom chuckled. "He was never the be all and end all. He was simply a good student, but he hasn't been all that active when it's come to helping plan it all. I'm sure he'd appreciate a hand now that he's here. There's not much time left to pull it all together."

"It sounds like you've got it all under control, though," Eric joked. "You and Bill having fun with this?"

Mom shook her head and gave him a stern look. "We haven't minded having to help out to get to this point, but we've also got our hands full with homecoming. There's more than just your reunion to think about. We've got the parade and the dance, and the fall festival coming up. I know you're all grown up and busy, but so are we, so get it together."

"There's the teacher we all know and love," I teased before I reached out and gave her forearm a quick squeeze. "Don't worry about it, Mom. I'm happy to help. Just let me know what you need and I'll drag them all out of bed by their toenails if I have to."

Mom winked. "I'm going to hold you to that."

We chatted a while longer before Mom and Dad retired to their bedroom. Eric and I washed up, like we did every week after our family dinner, and then we went out on the back porch together to have a last drink and unwind.

"What's really going on with Sterling?" I asked now that we were finally alone. "I heard what Mom said in there and everything, and it makes sense, but jeez. He was such a grump when I picked him up."

My brother shrugged, leaning back on his chair and looking out at the moon beyond the awning covering the porch. "To be honest with you, I don't really know what's going on with him. I agree with Mom that it must be difficult, but when I asked, he just said he was tired. He wasn't really a grump, though."

"You're lucky, then," I muttered. "He hardly said two words to me. He wouldn't even tell me what he really does for a living. All he grunted at me was that he worked in finance. Then he asked me to drop him at your shop and that was it."

"He's an investment banker," Eric said mildly. "A tired one, at that. I don't think he's taken a vacation since he left here."

"Really?" I frowned. "I guess that would explain it."

"He's always been a hard worker," he said. "I used to think it was because his family struggled so much financially and that was why he was so determined to lift himself out of those circumstances, but now, I don't know. He's got to be making a killing and yet it looks like he's still a workaholic."

"I always knew he was determined, but I suppose I didn't realize how much or why," I said, still not really understanding it. Northfield Farms had always seemed like heaven to me, but I'd also known that it didn't rake in the big bucks.

Food for thought.

Even more curious than before, I studied my brother's contemplative features, bathed in shadow and silver as he kept his gaze on the moon. "What else do you know about his life now? He seems so different."

"And you seem so curious." He turned to arch a dark eyebrow at me. "What's going on, Daph? Why all the questions about him?"

I shrugged. "No reason."

"An old crush rising to the surface, perhaps?" he teased.

I scoffed. "Absolutely not."

I'd been hiding said crush from him since I'd been fourteen years old. After eleven years, I was hardly going to admit it now. Even as I said it though, I couldn't help but think back to that night Sterling had walked me home from the party.

To this day, whenever I thought about the way he'd smiled at me that night, I felt a little flutter in my stomach. I knew it was silly, but it just never went away.

It was definitely back in full force now that I'd seen him again. Sterling North just had that effect on me, and it seemed that even eleven years later, there was absolutely nothing I could do to stop it.