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coming over to our house for dinner, and I’m not taking no for an answer.”
    “Hello to you, too,” I laughed into the receiver. “Aubrey, seriously, I appreciate the offer, but I’m just going to make some mac and cheese and call it a night.”
    “Nonsense, I want you to meet the baby. Tommy is dying to say hello, and I know for a fact you’re alone in that big old house. Now, grab a pen and jot down my address.”

    The red brick house was easy to find, especially with Aubrey standing on the porch, waving wildly.
    “You’re here!” Aubrey greeted me with a hug. “Don’t kill me, okay?”
    I was just about to ask why I’d want her dead, but then she led me into the brightly lit kitchen, and the mystery was solved.
    “Hi,” Lucas said, smiling in my direction. He was sitting at the table, bouncing a toddler on his knee, and for the very first time in my life, my biological clock went into a ticking frenzy.
    “Hi,” I managed to whisper.
    “Sarah Bray!” Tommy shouted, grabbing me into a bone-crushing hug and lifting me in the air. In school, he’d always been the life of the party. It was nice to see that hadn’t changed, even if he was cutting off my oxygen supply.
    Tommy grinned at me and lowered me down to the floor. “Well, Lucas was right. You’re still as good lookin’ as ever. I don’t know what it is about you country girls, but all of you just seem to get prettier with age.”
    “Your wife especially,” I said with a laugh.
    “Don’t I know it!” Tommy proudly wrapped his arm around Aubrey’s shoulder. “It’s good to have you back, girl.”
    “Thanks, it’s good to be back.”
    Aubrey headed toward the stove while her husband pushed me toward the empty chair next to Lucas. He seemed to be having a very animated conversation with the child in his lap.
    “Who’s your friend?”
    The little boy grew silent, but his bright eyes watched my every move.
    “This is Daniel,” he said. “Can you show Sarah how old you are?”
    Daniel held up three fingers.
    “Wow, you’re three?”
    He nodded and shot me a toothy grin.
    “He’s a little shy around strangers,” Aubrey said as she placed another glass on the table. “Trust me, it won’t last. Lucas was a stranger an hour ago, and now look at them.”
    I couldn’t look at them. Seeing Lucas with a baby in his arms was doing crazy things to my heart.
    I was going to kill Aubrey.

    Dinner was delicious, and the four of us chatted like we’d known each other forever. Of course, three of us had, but Lucas fit right in as if he’d always been a part of our circle.
    As the conversation continued into the night, I marveled at the fact that these two people had welcomed me so easily back into their lives. We’d been the very best of friends growing up, and I’d tossed them aside. Nevertheless, here they were, looking at me with friendly eyes and forgiving smiles as they told Lucas a few of the many embarrassing stories from our childhood.
    “The river was always freezing,” Tommy said, chuckling lightly. He was trying to be quiet because Daniel was asleep in my arms. As Aubrey predicted, the little boy’s shyness had disappeared. Sharing my mashed potatoes with him probably had a little something to do with his change of heart. After the dishes had been cleared and we settled around the kitchen table, the little guy had crawled right into my arms, and with some gentle rocking, he’d promptly passed out.
    Aubrey grinned at me. “Sarah always loved the rope swing.”
    “It always scared the rest of the girls, but Sarah was fearless,” Tommy said, draping his arm across the back of his wife’s chair. “She’d just dangle from the rope and jump right in.”
    “Wasn’t it dangerous?” Lucas asked me, clearly disturbed I’d so willingly fling myself into a river.
    Tommy laughed. “Hell yeah, it was dangerous, but we were kids and thought we were invincible.”
    “But we weren’t,” I whispered, gazing down at the baby