“Just kidding! Gotcha!” Maya reached over and unbuckled Eve’s seat belt. “I don’t know where she is. She went to school at Dalhousie, so maybe she’s still out east? I haven’t really heard anything about her. Her parents got divorced and sold the store—probably about seven or eight years ago now. Her mom moved to Windsor, but her dad is still in town. But I haven’t seen or heard anything about Jeannie for years.”

Eve tried to be casual, but she was massively relieved. It wasn’t like there had actually been anything between Jeannie and Sawyer. She just didn’t love the feeling that she might run into Jeannie at any moment. “Thanks.”

“But…you know Sadie Saunders?”

“I don’t think so, why?”

“She owns the diner out on Oak Road.”

Eve’s body jerked.

Maya’s eyes narrowed. “What?”

“That diner used to be owned by a woman named Barbara.”

“Yeah,” Maya said. “Nice woman, but it was a total hole back then.”

“Toward the end of my last summer here as a teenager, I had gotten myself a full-time job there, and I was going to move here permanently.”

“What?” Maya shrieked.

“Yeah, I decided I was going to stay.” For some reason she hadn’t told Maya any of this. After her big blowout with Sawyer at the playground, she’d just reported that they’d made up.

“What happened?”

“Jeannie Wilkerson happened.”

Maya narrowed her eyes. “Oh. My. God. All the pieces fall into place. Let me guess. Sawyer was not thrilled about this plan of yours.”

“Not initially, no. He thought I should go to college as planned. But he got over it pretty quickly. Because, you know, apparently he’d hatched the whole Jeannie Wilkerson plan in order to dislodge me.”

“He does have that whole protective, noble-self-sacrifice thing going on, doesn’t he?”

“Yep.” Eve sighed. “On the one hand, it’s maddening. He just unilaterally decided what was best for me. I wasn’t a child. Well, I was a child. But you know what I mean.”

Maya chuckled. “I do. But on the other hand, he was kind of right, wasn’t he? You would not have made a great career waitress.”

Eve didn’t like to think about that. “So what about Sadie? She owns the diner now? Why do you bring her up?”

“Because if you’re going to get all territorial about Sawyer, she’s the one you have to worry about. She has a massive crush on him.”

What? As of a few minutes ago, she had never heard of this Sadie person. “First of all, I’m not territorial. Second of all, he always hated that diner. It was a total cesspool.”

“Not anymore!” Maya trilled. “Sadie’s cleaned it up, and now it’s as cute as a button. And she serves great food.”

Well, crap. “I still fail to see your point.”