“Homemade. I’ve come a long way in the last fifteen years.” She sounded angry at me.

I walked around the island and stood beside her. “You really have.” My voice was low so that only she could hear me. When she looked at me, I saw how vulnerable she was. Her happy-go-lucky attitude over the last few months was a front. We stared at each other for a long time. I wanted to reach out and pull her to me, but it wasn’t my place now. I wasn’t her safety anymore. She had a different life and as much as I wanted things to be different, she was untouchable.

“Things are different now, Sutton.” She was always good at reading my mind.

“Are they? Because they look the same as they did when we were kids.” I took a step back. Whatever was happening in this kitchen was something that we put behind us a long time ago and needed to stay there.

She took a step forward. “Things aren’t as black and white as you think. I would love to grab dinner with you one night, just the two of us, and tell you things that should’ve been said a long time ago.”

My heart steeled itself against her words. No wonder Lexi said I was emotionally unavailable. The moment I started feeling things, I shut down. “I think we should just leave things the way they are. I don’t need to know whatever is going on in your marriage. We should keep things simple. It’s the smart thing to do.” I smiled ruefully and headed back to the dining room where Hayley and Grayson were talking about NFTs. “It’s like I recognize the words but they mean nothing to me,” I said, jumping into the conversation as if the last minute didn’t happen.

Grayson laughed. “My agent wants to do something with them, so maybe I’ll actually start paying attention.”

“Okay, enough of that.” Parker walked in with the pie.

“I never understood why it’s called pie when clearly it’s a cake,” Hayley said. The knee bump under the table let me know that she was aware that Parker made my favorite dessert, too.

“It looks delicious,” I said and gave her a soft smile. Even if it was horrible, I was going to eat every last bite. It tasted as yummy as it looked and as much as I wanted more, I refrained.

We spent the rest of the night laughing and having a good time. I tried to put the conversation with Parker to the back of my mind, but I kept catching her looking at me. She wasn’t looking at me like a friend. Thankfully, Hayley and Grayson were strong reminders of why Parker was off-limits. So I just focused on good company and good conversation. As much as I’d dreaded the evening, it turned out to be fun.