It hadn’t happened, though. That was the point. It had almost happened, but she’d come to her senses and realized what she would be losing if she went down that path.

She remembered when she and Kyle had first started dating. It wasn’t until their senior year in high school, but they’d already known each other forever. He’d sat behind her in second grade, and she could still recall the way he would kick the back of her chair when he was bored, swinging his legs until she turned around and told him to knock it off. In junior high, they’d run with entirely different crowds (not that boys and girls intermingled much at that stage anyway). Her lunchtimes had been taken up with nearly every club imaginable, while he could usually be found hanging out with his weird friend Roger in the library. But in high school, they’d been thrown together in AP English and History, and she’d discovered that she…kind of…liked him.

She’d been the one to make the first move. If it had been left up to him, it never would have happened. They’d been spending a lot of time together preparing for a debate in history, since they were the only two reliable members of their team, and one afternoon as they were preparing to leave school, she’d asked him if he wanted to stop by Lottaburger with her on the way home and get something to drink. A Coke, maybe. At that point, she’d sort of been dating Dennis Whittaker, but there was nothing really serious between them yet and all they’d done was kiss, so she didn’t feel guilty about asking out Kyle, and she was more excited than she had ever been in her life when he acquiesced and said yes.

By the next week they were dating, and they had remained together ever since.

So how had it come to the point where she was flirting with the guy who owned the nursery?

They’d gotten off track somehow. Maybe it was because they’d been together for so long, and neither of them had ever seriously gone with anyone else. Who knew? But she’d almost made a huge mistake, had caught herself just in time, and was now committed to making sure their marriage stayed strong, if not for their own sakes then for Nick.

“Lunch is served!” Anita announced as she walked into the store, the bell above the door jingling.

Kyle, caught by surprise, looked up from the book he’d been reading. “Hey!” he said. His face brightened when he saw her, which made her feel guilty.

She handed him the white Juan Wang’s sack. “I got you an eggroll burrito. You said you wanted to try one.”

“Thanks,” he said, genuinely grateful. He opened the sack and looked in. “You want to trade for the leftover chicken sandwich I was going to eat?”

Smiling, she shook her head. “You can have that, too. By the way, what’s all the commotion next door?”