He picked up his phone. Be right down.

As he stood and started for the stairs outside his office, he wondered what she wanted. Dena had mentioned she would be in charge of the charity project. She could be stopping by to talk about that. Or she could be using it as a pretext for them to hang out.

He hadn’t thought of Reggie in years, but in the past few days, she’d been on his mind. Memories, most of the excellent variety, had haunted him. When he’d left Wishing Tree, she’d been the person he’d missed the most—even more than his grandmother. While his plans had been vague, he’d always assumed he and Reggie would stay together forever, eventually getting married and starting a family. But she’d broken up with him, and he’d left town, and he’d never intended to see her again.

Funny how that had suddenly changed.

He walked in the back entrance to the pie shop, prepared to give Reggie a bit of a hard time before accepting whatever plan she’d come up with, but she wasn’t the one waiting for him. Mrs. Somerville, Reggie’s mother, stood by the pie case and smiled when she saw him.

“Hello, Toby.”

“Mrs. Somerville.”

She waved her hand. “Leigh, please. Thanks for taking a minute to speak with me. I’m sure you’re busy running your empire. I know what Vince is like when he has to deal with the business side of things instead of working with the guys on the cars. It’s consuming.”

She nudged several grocery bags sitting on the floor next to her. Chips and a pineapple stuck out of one of them.

“I was doing my Thanksgiving dinner shopping when it occurred to me that it would be nice to have friends around the table. Usually it’s just Vince and me and our girls, but I was wondering if this year, you’d like to join us. With Harrison and your grandmother, of course.”

Toby felt like a cartoon character. He wanted to hit the side of his head to see if anything was lodged in his ears. Reggie’s mom was inviting him and his family over for Thanksgiving? Sure, he knew them well enough to say hello, and she and her husband had been pleasant enough when he’d been dating Reggie—after the initial grilling. She was a regular customer in the store, and they lived in same town, but Thanksgiving dinner was a whole different level.

Unless the invitation hadn’t come from her. Was this Reggie’s way of spending time with him without making a big deal of things? Had she sent her mother rather than come herself?