Cornbread & Crossroads

gazed at her small plate with envy. “Pixie poop. I should have gotten some of your grandmother’s banana pudding. I’ll bet it’s all gone by now.”
“I’ll go see.” Mason hurried off before I could add a request for a red velvet cupcake, too.
I caught Lavender staring at my boyfriend as he walked away. She blushed when she saw me notice. “Sorry,” she apologized, lowering her head with a slight grin on her face.
“You wanna tell me what you were looking at? Because you’re not one to covet someone else’s guy,” I joked.
Lily nudged her cousin with her elbow. “I don’t think she was checking out the detective in the way you think. You saw something in his aura, didn’t you, Lav?”
Lavender avoided the question by scooping up a full bite of banana pudding and whipped cream and stuffing it in her mouth. Her avoidance stoked the fires of my interest.
“Hurry up and tell us before he returns,” Lily insisted. “What’s so fascinating about his aura that has you flustered?”
Her cousin pointed her fork at me. “I’m pretty sure Charli doesn’t want to know.”
Nothing made me want to know what she saw in Mason’s aura more than denying me the information. “Just spit it out. Whatever it is, it can’t be that bad.” I clutched my stomach in the hopes I was right.
“Okay,” Lavender acquiesced. “But just remember, you begged me to tell you. If I’m right, the detective has something big he wants to say to you. Like, big big. Like, the last time I saw an aura that looked like that, it was before Lee asked Alison Kate to marry him.”
I dropped my plate with the rest of my first round of desserts on it. “No!” I protested in a loud whisper. “There’s no way his aura is giving off any kind of hint of getting…proposing…no way. We’re nowhere near that in our relationship. Are we?” I fumbled with my words while the three of them took way too much delight in my reaction.
“I said you wouldn’t want to know,” Lavender defended.
I pointed at Ben and Lily. “But if anybody’s supposed to be the next ones to get engaged, it would be them.”
Ben held up his hands. “Don’t try to flip this on us. It’ll be a while before we’re prepared for that. Since I’ve got everything invested in taking over the advocate’s office in town full time, I want to make sure my finances are more stable before taking the next step.”
Lily kept her mouth shut, but her strained icy smile told a different story of her expectations. Not wanting to kick a hornet’s nest, I ignored her reaction and focused on my own. “I mean, we’ve only been on solid ground as a couple for a few months.”
“But you’ve really been together longer if you count the time before he lost his memory,” Lavender added. “And you’ve told us girls that things are stronger than ever these days.”
I gazed at the fourth finger on my left hand and tried to imagine a ring on it. While the idea didn’t disgust me, the nervous buzzing of the butterflies in my stomach let me know it was too quick. Too soon.
“By your aura’s reaction, Mason would be really disappointed right now,” Lavender said, pointing at the space above my head.
“Disappointed in what?” the detective asked as he rejoined us. “Here, I managed to beat Henry to the last scrapes of banana pudding. He told me that it’ll cost you two pieces of Sassy’s pie next week.” Handing me the plate of pudding, Mason looked around at our small group. “I missed something.”
“No, you didn’t,” I replied a little too rapidly. Suddenly, the yellow pudding with whipped cream and wafer cookies didn’t look as appetizing, but I forced myself to eat it to escape anymore awkwardness.
He narrowed his eyes at all of us with a slight smirk. “You guys know it’s my job to figure out when people are lying, right?”
Nervous giggles burst out of Lavender. “It’s no big deal, Detective. I was just telling them about reading someone’s aura and what it meant.”
“Whose aura?” Mason inquired. “Mine?”
Her eyes widened. “Yes. No. I mean, why would I be reading your aura? Is there something about to happen in your life that would make it interesting? Some big question you’ve been meaning to ask?”
My sheer panic turned my knees into jelly, and I snatched the edge of Mason’s sleeve to hold myself upright. With every ounce of my being, I attempted to shoot Lavender the biggest shut up vibes I could muster. If she kept talking, I might have to hex her hiney into oblivion.
Mason fidgeted beside me and rubbed the back of his neck. “Well, Charli, not that I wanted to say this in front of an audience, but since you barely have any free time these days, I better take my chance now and ask you something I’ve been planning for a while.”
The bottom dropped out of my world, and stars burst in front of my eyes. I took one step back and held up a hand as if to stop the detective from going any further. Misunderstanding my gesture, he grasped it and gave me his full attention.
“Charli, I was wondering if—”
“There y’all are,” Lee cried out from behind me.
Lily and Lavender groaned while Ben tried to stifle a snicker and failed. Mason huffed out a breath and gave my hand a light squeeze. His grip tightened after he turned to watch our nerdy friend approach.
“I’ve been looking for you guys because I’ve got a surprise for you,” Lee continued. “Guess who decided to come to the potluck after all?”
“Hey,” uttered a low voice with a slight rasp to it from right behind me.
My entire body tensed, but I did my best to cover up my reaction. All eyes, including Mason’s, watched me. Lacing my fingers through the detective’s and plastering a smile on my face, I turned around to face Dash.

Chapter Four
“Wow, I didn’t think we’d