The Hardest Cut by Jamie Bennett (book club recommendations .TXT) 📕

gardenia-scented bodywash that I loved so much.  It had been a splurge buy even in the best of financial times, and now was really not one of those best times.  I used the cheap stuff to really scrub the grossness off.

After I got out, I sat on my bright blue couch and looked at my phone, at the one minute and forty-nine second message that I still hadn’t heard.  I looked again at his name and told myself to be strong and to delete it without listening, because I didn’t need to know what Shephard wanted to tell me.  Whatever he needed from me, whatever was wrong in his life—that didn’t matter anymore, because we were totally done.  Over.  And I certainly, absolutely didn’t care at all.

One minute and forty-nine seconds.  I swallowed.  It could have been about those earrings I was missing, though, the Hawaiian ones from my dad, and I really did want those back…

I hit play and gripped the phone, almost afraid to hear his voice but with my stomach flipping in anticipation at the same time.  Then, at the end of the message, I went into my bedroom and dumped out my jewelry box onto the magenta dresser.  I dug through the pile of bracelets and necklaces, the gum wrapper that my seventh-grade crush had dropped near my desk after math class, the twist-tie that my boyfriend sophomore year in college had given me, sliding it onto my finger like a ring so that I thought it meant something.

There was a lot of stuff like the wrapper and the twist-tie, memories of crushes past, but it didn’t take too long before I found the pink, hibiscus flower earrings from my dad.  They had been there all along, just hidden among the other stuff, so I hadn’t actually needed to listen to the one minute and forty-nine second message.  One minute and forty-nine seconds of silence with intermissions of Shep singing along to the radio.

It had been a butt dial.  I put the earrings carefully on top of the empty jewelry box, crawled into my bed, and pulled the covers over my head.

∞

Marley bent over and tilted upside-down to look me in the face.  “Seriously?  You know we’re in a place of business, right?”

I put my palms on the floor and slid my legs apart more.  I absolutely was getting myself into this split, no matter how much it felt like it might be ripping my tendons apart.  “I have to be limber,” I told her.  “When you get old like me, you’ll find out how important it is.  And it feels great!”  I grunted in discomfort.  Marley was only sixteen, but when she hit my age, maybe she’d learn about the achiness that accompanied keeping up with a twenty-one-year-old, like I was going to have to do at the Woodsmen cheerleader second-round auditions.  “It will feel great, once I get down to the floor,” I amended as she looked very doubtful.  I had been practicing in every spare moment when I wasn’t volunteering or with her.  I was doing online dance classes, working out, stretching, and…gravy, that hurt.  I groaned.

She stared at me.  “Seriously?” she repeated.  “Why are you doing this to yourself, Gaby?”

I still hadn’t told anyone about trying out for the cheer squad, so I just shrugged.  “It’s important to me to keep up my fitness.”

“I heard you in Gunnar’s gym last night, clanking weights around.”  Marley frowned as I lowered myself closer to the floor and couldn’t prevent another small cry of pain.  “Is this going to turn into another one of those times where you’re supposed to be taking care of me for the week, but actually I end up taking care of you because you dislocate your hips?”

“No, I’m not going to dislocate anything.  And when have you ever taken care of me because I injured myself?”  I had stayed at their house for a few weekends while her parents went to Minnesota, but I’d certainly always been the one in charge.  And dislocation was not an option, because I wouldn’t have time to heal before the second round of tryouts.  I slid my feet but managed to keep smiling at her, like I was going to have to do as a Woodsmen cheerleader even if everything hurt just as much as this did.  “What a great stretch!” I assured her, and didn’t moan at all.

The bell rang as the front door opened and someone came into the bookstore with us.  It had been dead all afternoon, and the moment I almost got into a split, now we had a customer?  I waved frantically at Marley.  “Help me up!  Help me up!”

It was difficult for her to do that, since she was laughing so hard, but I did make it to a stand, and I quickly tossed my yoga mat behind the counter and turned to smile and greet the customer.  “Welcome to Holliday Book—oh!” I broke off, when I saw who it was.

“It’s Holliday Booksellers,” Marley reminded me.  “It’s a little longer, but you can say it.”

“Go do your homework,” I hissed at her, and she mentioned something about all the pencils breaking, which I had seen her do herself, on purpose.

The dark-haired man who had just come in stopped and looked at me, a little recognition dawning on his handsome face.  “I know you,” he said.  “You hit my truck the other night, at the stadium.”

“You did?” Marley asked from behind me.  “Why were you at the stadium?  Why did you hit him?”

“It was an accident,” I told her, and nodded at Coach Benjamin Matthews.  “Yes, sorry, that was me,” I confessed, but my attention was distracted by the tiny face that suddenly peered out from behind his jean-covered thigh.  “Hi,” I said to the little girl, and smiled.  She disappeared again.  I smiled at Coach Ben instead, totally charmed by her.  “Is that your daughter?  She’s so cute!”

“This is Tessa,” he said briefly, and tried to move his