Chapter 6
Ella
The first stop of theday was Hey Gorgeous Formal Wear for rentals, because both Charlie and Gage in no uncertain terms declared they would never wear the dove-gray morning suits Mom had picked out again, that the very fact they were wearing them for one day was a clear demonstration of their love for our family, and they would receive great joy in dropping the suits off at the rental place the following Monday, never to darken either of their closets again.
“Are you sure?” I wrinkled my nose. The idea of wearing someone else’s pants to get married seemed a bit gross to me, if I was being honest. Plus, I was buying my dress and, by the way Mom talked, was fully expected to hold on to it until I had a daughter of my own.
“Not planning on being an extra on Downtown Abbey anytime soon,” Gabe muttered.
“Downton,” Mom corrected. Every version of Pride and Prejudice ever got a frequent rewatch at our house, and Mom had some scathing opinions on the best Darcy. The morning suits were her choice.
“Charlie?” I asked.
“Look, if the groom chose the outfits, we’d all be in khaki pants and button-downs,” Charlie said, and it was easy to believe because at that very moment, he was wearing khaki pants with a light-blue button-down shirt.
“I’d make everyone get a mohawk,” Gabe mumbled from the back seat.
Mom and I shared an eye roll.
“Good thing neither of you is in charge,” she said as she pulled into the Reserved for Customers Only spot right in front of the swanky downtown shop.
Ninety minutes later, Gabe and Charlie stood in the main dressing area. Both appeared to have slight cases of static cling as Mother had made them change shirts several times to determine what looked best underneath the suits.
“Shouldn’t Ella choose?” Gabe asked after I’d long spaced out and was surfing my phone on the rental shop’s Wi-Fi.
“Ella gets to choose what she wants when she has a daughter,” Mom announced. “I’m paying. This is my wedding.”
“I chose the groom.” I grinned at Charlie. Mom was saving me from having to make all these tedious decisions, and I’d learned long ago to pick my battles. Actually, if I was honest, I’d learned to give up quickly and save myself the pain. Mom was going to have her G-rated Bridgerton dream wedding, and nobody would stop her.
“Can we take a quick break, maybe get a bite to eat?” Charlie was pink in the face, clearly not used to marathon wardrobe changes. “I think I’m dehydrated.”
“Yeah, I said I’d meet friends downtown this afternoon.” Gabe slouched as if the suit weighed fifty pounds.
I went back to stealth-surfing Charlie’s social media. I told myself this is what people in love did: they obsessively studied their fiancé’s lives because soon his life would be mine, legally and for all time. But more honestly, I still had one antenna out looking for Bob From Work.
OK, complete honesty? That’s all I was doing: looking for my fiancé’s mystery texter.
If Bob was a girl...maybe I still had some fantasy that I could do with Charlie what I’d done with Jack. Or maybe I just wanted to know everything about the life I was signing up to live. Or maybe it was because, for the first time in a long time, it felt as though Charlie and I had something in common: a secret love.
“Could you hold out a little longer?” Mom was also scrolling her phone, and it did not sound like a request. “I thought we’d have lunch at the club, and oh! The bakery that’s doing the cake has sent their deluxe sampler over, free of charge. We can all have a taste for dessert.”
“Wait, what?” Hailey at Rolling Green? The thought of seeing her again sent my pulse hammering. The notion I’d miss her left me light-headed.
I hadn’t had that kind of adrenaline rush in a long time...or the disappointment that followed. Hailey had been pretty clear about how she felt yesterday. No way would she volunteer to deliver the cake samples personally. Even if she did, what were the chances we’d happen to catch her in the fifteen minutes it took to walk a box into the clubhouse kitchen?
Still, my whole body hummed with hope, my face flushing. What was wrong with me? Was I... Omigod. I still had a crush on Hailey Tomlin. I felt like a teenager again. I laughed, hiding my mouth with my hand, guilty.
“Yes, God. Let there be cake,” Charlie said with an exhausted smile.
“Let’s goooooo,” Gabe added with deadpan mock enthusiasm.
Mom rolled her eyes, suppressing a smile. “Fine. You’ve both been very good. Let’s get you some cake. Ella, get off that phone and pay attention. We are all here for your wedding. The least you can do is tell me which you like better, the narrow fitting or the relaxed.”
“Relaxed,” I said, knowing that would mean...
Mom made a face. “Hmm...let’s go with narrow.”
* * *
An hour later, Mompulled up the circular drive of Rolling Green. Next to me, Charlie’s stomach gave a loud growl, and I smiled apologetically his way. Mom got out of the car and tossed the keys to a young man working valet. She swayed her hips a little more than usual as she passed, and I wondered if she liked MILFing it up to cause a stir or if she was actually having a fling with the valet. Even when I’d worked at Rolling Green as a teenager, it had been an open secret that a bunch of hot young guys worked the Snack Shack or as lifeguards and that a lot of wives showed up at the pool while their husbands were at work. It was kind of the Rolling Green vibe.
The season was definitely changing from late spring to the first hints of summer. The sun tingled along my skin, warming it. Fluffy white clouds dotted an otherwise perfectly blue sky. We followed Mom into Rolling Green, passing the immaculate landscaping now fragrant with blossoms. With summer around the corner, tee times would be completely booked as our town’s upper-middle class took advantage of the pleasant weather to take clients out on the greens. By four, the clubhouse would be filled with businesspeople making deals over drinks before dinner. Being back here, I felt myself slipping through time, becoming that bright-eyed teenager I’d been during the best summer of my life.
Of course, I might really see Hailey. The odds were against it, but it gave me that same high school crush feeling, eyes darting everywhere, all at once, heart on a roller coaster.
Inside, we made a sharp left, away from the hallway where, in the dark of after-hours, Jack had once caught me going down on Hailey. I’d had her pressed against a wall, determined to make her come but also desperate to make her mine. The three of us had been a mess back then, frantic to get into each other’s pants. When Jack had found us—
“Ella!” Mom called sharply.
Pulse pounding, I hurried down to meet them at the entrance to the club’s dining area. I wove through the patrons until I spotted my party standing around the Stewart family table, which was always reserved for us. On it, a huge pink box waited. My heart sank. Whoever had made the delivery was already gone.
Mom opened the box with a flourish, adding a little, “Ta-da!” as she pushed the top back to reveal the petite squares of cake and dabs of frosting, the names of each written on their individual paper doilies.
“Wow!” Charlie said, impressed.
“Gabe has fulfilled his brother-of-honor requirements for the day.” Mom forked the fingers of one hand at Charlie and me, her pearly pink nails catching the light. “I am leaving you two here for lunch while I drop him off downtown so he can meet up with his friends.”
“Mom, I’m starving,” Gabe broke in.
“Honey, relax. I had them make you a sandwich for the road.” Mom gestured at a waiter. “Bring Gabe’s to-go, would you?”
Gabe reached into the box, grabbed the entire chunk of German Chocolate, and stuffed it in his mouth.
“Gabe!” I gasped, horrified. “What if that was the best one?”
Gabe grinned and grabbed another. Mom slapped the back of his hand hard, and he pulled back fast.
“Mom!” Gabe whined. “I was just gonna let her know if that one was the best or not.”
“These are for the lovebirds. Ella, save a piece of each sample so your father can have a taste of what he’s paying for. Charlie, would you be a dear and choose a flavor for your bachelor’s cake?”
Mom took a knife from the table setting and cut a piece off Pistachio, delicately nibbled it, and declared, “The bottom layer should be this. You two can choose the other two. Ah!”
Her eyes glowed as Gabe’s doggie bag showed up. My little brother took it with a little reluctance; he wasn’t a teen anymore, but Mom sure treated him like he was. Maybe that was just mothers, though. I mean, I wasn’t exactly a paragon of standing up for myself either.
“I’ll be back to pick you up in two hours.”
“We can take an Uber,” I offered.
“And then we can go look at gifts for the bridal party,” Mom finished as though I hadn’t spoken.
On her way out, like normal, she stopped and said hello to just about everyone. The faces were familiar even though they had aged. Mom spoke to a four-top of the best trial lawyers in town, then said hello to a retired cardiac surgeon who golfed three times a week here, then greeted a table of businesspeople, drawing a waiter in to comp them drinks. I knew every time she said our names because the guests would look over with mild interest. I couldn’t lie; it felt good to be at Rolling Green and have people smile at me again.
But I couldn’t help noticing that the dining hall didn’t seem as busy as it used to.
* * *
Once we were aloneagain, lunch fell into a comfortable silence. Poor Charlie was too busy wolfing down his order to make much conversation, and honestly, it was nice to be quiet for a while. The dining area had expansive tinted windows, keeping the eating area soothingly dark while still showing off the cozy patio and a lush, impeccably manicured lawn that led to the pool and volleyball area. In the distance, you could see the tee for the ninth hole of the eighteen-hole course. Once, before we’d fallen in love with Hailey, Jack and I had gotten drunk with some of his basketball team and hijacked the golf carts, racing across the greens, cackling wildly in the moonlight.
“Penny for your thoughts,” Charlie said as he put the last forkful of lunch into his mouth, his plate completely clean. He must’ve been starving.
Suddenly, I wanted to tell him about all that—what it was like to grow up here, to fall in love, to be exiled. I mean, if we were going to spend our lives together, we should at least have an honest foundation. Of course, I didn’t have a great track record when it came to people seeing the real me, but if Charlie was going to be part of the rest of my life...
I thought again of Bob From Work. If Charlie could see I wasn’t mad about that, then maybe we could forge some kind of relationship where he accepted my secrets too. Except that meant trusting him...and also figuring out how I could bring it up without putting him on the defensive. “You ready to try some of this cake?”
“Yes.” He studied all the options. “How do we...?”
“Go for it. I chose Peaches and Cream for our top layer. You tell me what’s good for the rest.”
He took a mouthful of sponge. His eyes rolled back in his head. “Oh, my God. I mean, wedding cake is a thing, but this is really good.”
As he tasted, I ordered us a bottle of champagne. When it arrived, the waiter popped the cork, making a big to-do about it. The old duffers still in attendance looked over and smiled warmly. I beamed back. I was Ella Stewart again.
Then one of the older men tilted toward his buddy and whispered something. They both stared at me and then one of them laughed. My heart went cold. Did they remember me—what I had done here?
Shifting focus, I lifted my glass. “To us. To a long and happy marriage.”
Charlie earnestly raised his glass. “To us.”
After we’d clinked and sipped, I leaned in. “Charlie, I think the best way our marriage will work is if we’re honest with each other.”
“Absolutely,” he agreed, taking a second, slightly more dramatic swig of champagne.
“I don’t want any skeletons in our closets to come out and bite us later.”
“Couldn’t agree more.”
I took a deep breath. “So I need to tell you some stuff. In case...my past might be a deal-breaker.”
“Uh-oh.” He grinned nervously, wiping a bit of cake from his upper lip. “Do you hate Pistachio? Because I don’t think we’ll get your mother to come off of it. She seemed quite determined.”
I kicked him gently under the table. He smiled at me, face warm and welcoming. I bit my lip. “My skeleton is that I got disowned by my parents when I was nineteen.”
His face wrinkled with concern. The hand not wrapped around the champagne flute crossed the table to touch mine. “Yeah, I got the sense something had happened there.”
His face pinched as though bracing for something horrible. Was what I’d done horrible?
“I was...I was a stupid kid. And I was in love.” I took a deep breath. Time to put up or shut up, I guessed. “I was in love with two people at the same time.”
“You...cheated? Your parents disowned you for—”
“No, they knew about each other. Not my parents. My parents didn’t know. The two people I fell for...ugh.” Well great. In my head this had been a lot smoother.
I took a sip of champagne to give myself a moment. “I was dating a guy I was completely in love with, and both of us, well me at first, but then I told... It doesn’t matter. I had a boyfriend, and then the two of us had a girlfriend. We were a...” I cringed, “what I guess the internet calls a throuple.”
“Wait, what?” He rounded out his eyes and guffawed, cake forgotten.
This was a huge mistake. I felt like a cross between a Penthouse Forum letter to the editor and the punch line to a dirty joke.
“Wow.” He laughed nervously. “I thought you were going to tell me you’d killed someone in a DUI or gotten busted as a drug mule.”
“No!” I tried not to think about what Charlie must’ve thought of my character for those to have been his first guesses.
He squeezed my hand. “That’s incredibly sexy. And brave. Most people I know wouldn’t risk their reputations to try something like that.”
I warmed at his first line. Prickled with pleasure at his second. And OK, the part about trying something like that did kind of make the romance of my life seem like a science project, but at least Charlie was trying to be supportive. That was way better than how some people in my life had taken the news.
He let go of me to grab another sample and pop it in his mouth. “So what happened?”
I told my wildly beating heart that if Charlie was still hung up on the cake, he wasn’t going to call off the wedding.
“Uh...” I took a deep breath, straightening in the seat. “My dad, well both my parents really, didn’t understand. And I did this stupid thing where I thought if I just told everyone how I felt, love would win the day.”
He snorted bitter amusement that rankled me, but I got it. Love did not win the day in the real world, and only kids who still believed in fairy tales thought it would.
“So you still...like girls?” he asked, pretending disinterest so hard it was obvious this idea turned him on.
Embarrassed, I shrugged. “I don’t know. But that’s part of Mom’s fanaticism about getting married at Rolling Green. See, I uh...I announced I was in love with Jack and the girl, Hailey, at the club’s biggest event of the summer. And uh, Dad...” My face went cold as I remembered. I tried to laugh it off. “We thought he was dying, but it turned out he was having a panic attack.”
“So obviously, he took it well,” Charlie said between bites.
I bristled again, not liking anyone to take a potshot at any Stewart. But after that emotion passed came tingly relief. Charlie wasn’t treating me like I had a catchable disease. It gave me the courage to continue. “He, or I guess they—Mom too—they sent me to same-sex-attraction rehab camp. I guess my marrying one person, and a guy at that, is a big relief to them.”
“Well, later I definitely want to hear more about sex camp.” Charlie wiggled his eyebrows at me, and again I laughed, unsure if I was more pleased with his acceptance or annoyed with the fact he was kind of making fun of something that had ruined my life.
Maybe Charlie only knows you as an adult, and adults have a lot more options than teenagers. Like telling their parents to fuck off with their homophobia.
I drained my glass, cleared my throat, and as Charlie ate the entire square of carrot cake, I leaned in and said, “That’s my big skeleton. Now...let’s talk about Bob From Work.”
The cake went down wrong. So wrong Charlie choked, coughing out chunks of cake with bits of orange all over the tabletop. Other diners stopped their conversations and turned to stare. I stood and thumped him on the back until he gasped, wheezing, and waved me off. As I sat, Charlie drained his champagne flute, coughed more, poured himself another glass, and drank half of that.
“You have, um...” I gestured at his upper lip, where crumbs had gotten stuck in the bristles of his five o’clock shadow.
He wide-eyed me like I was crazy to care about such things at a time like this. “How did you know?”
I smiled for real this time. I loved that Charlie was not skilled enough at being a cheat or a liar to do anything other than immediately confess when caught. I didn’t love the cheating, but I appreciated that we weren’t going to waste time circling around the truth.
“What’s she like?” I asked, because there was no way I was going to educate Charlie on how to cover his tracks next time. “Or...he?”
Charlie’s mouth sagged open, dragging down in the corners until he reminded me of one of those videos of a dog getting caught doing something naughty. It was really hard not to laugh. I could probably go TikTok viral if only I’d thought to capture this moment on my phone.
I hid the smile with a quick sip from the champagne flute, because my amusement would be hard to explain. Right now, I had the upper hand. I wanted to use it to cement the rules of our relationship. If we were ever going to have a good partnership, I needed two things: (1) honesty and (2) for Charlie to know I was always going to be the boss.
“I don’t know what you mean.” Charlie belatedly put on his horrified, accused-of-something-he-absolutely-didn’t-do face.
I sighed, disappointed. “Come on, Charlie. I just want to know if Bob’s a fling or a threat or what the story is. Why are you marrying me when—”
He stood abruptly. Having tried to make a dramatic exit from the family table plenty of times as a teen, I could’ve told him there was no leaving a booth with flair. He was learning on the fly, though. The table shook as his thighs bumped against it and he rebounded back into the seat. Wincing, he scooched out. “I won’t sit here and be accused of—”
“Shhh! Charlie!” Now I was alarmed. The whole point of being at Rolling Green was to smooth over the Stewart family image.
I thought if he had to be polite long enough, he’d have a chance to hear what I was saying. If marrying Charlie got me back into my parents’ good graces, I could have grace for him and his sexual secrets. It might even strengthen our marriage. Stranger things had happened. But maybe I only believed that because Jack had accepted me when I’d admitted to my deepest and most painful desires.
Charlie managed to stand and now looked about nervously. He, too, came from a family in resort management and knew the rules: never be bad press in front of the guests. He smiled, pained, and said in a clear voice, “Darling, everything has been perfect, but I’ll be late for tennis if I don’t go now.”
I suppressed an eye roll, bound by the same rules of bad press. It was true that since we’d announced our engagement, Dad had comped Charlie a locker in the men’s room for a change of clothes. And judging by the lack of members here today, Charlie could probably get some practice in without a reservation. Or more likely, go somewhere private and hiss into his phone to Bob From Work, telling his secret lover the jig was up. Oh well. I wasn’t going to tell Charlie I didn’t care if Charlie would not do me the solid of being honest.
I gave him some duck face when he bent to kiss my cheek, and as soon as he was gone, I tipped the rest of the champagne into my flute and took it with me as I deposited the bakery box in the kitchen for safe keeping.
Despite the fight with Charlie and putting up with my mother, being at Rolling Green still filled my heart with joy. It was too nice a day to stay inside.
When I pushed open the doors to the back, a warm breeze blew over me, washing me in the perfume of roses from the nearby hedges. In the near distance, carts buzzed along the course, but again, I noticed markedly fewer golfers, even for a Saturday.
Maybe there was something else big going on in town, a festival or a high school event. It might even be prom...which made me realize that since Rolling Green was not decked out, we hadn’t been chosen to host that event this year. In the past, the high school circled between the hefty fee at Rolling Green (generously reduced the years I was in attendance) and the Ponds Inn Suites, which had a ballroom they rented out and cheap rooms upstairs for seniors looking to party after.
I made my way down the walk, skin warming in the sun. When I got to the sparkling blue pool, I saw Ron in the Snack Shack, probably doing prep before the official Memorial Day pool opening.
“Hey, stranger!” A man called from behind me.
I turned to see Jack’s old best friend, Theo Benedict, crossing the grass. My heart stopped. Tall, square-jawed, perfect body, foot-perpetually-in-his-mouth, high school basketball bro Theo. He grinned, throwing his arms wide, a white golfing glove in one hand.
“Theo Benedict! What are you doing here?” I smiled until it felt like my face would crack, skipping a few steps to meet him.
“Golfing!” That was Theo to a T, always so literal you weren’t sure if he was being an asshole. “What are you doing here?”
“Getting married!” I laughed, raising the champagne flute in the air as if I were toasting myself. The bubbles had gone to my head a little.
“Wow. You look great,” Theo said as soon as he was close enough to speak in quieter tones. His eyes roved all down my front in a wolfish way. “Who’s the lucky guy...or girl?”
I knew coming home would include a side dish of eating crow. I put on my bravest smile and said, “Charles Sticht III, no less.” To Theo’s blank face, I bragged, “as in Sticht Resorts, if you’ve ever spent time in Florida.”
Theo made a face. “Elastic?”
“What?”
“Ella. Sticht,” Theo said like he was explaining a dad joke to a small child. Then he said my married name all as one word: “Elastic.”
Oh, my God. He was totally right. In a few weeks, I was going to become Mrs. Ella Sticht, and while I had fantasized about this mostly within the larger fantasy of employees calling me Ms. Sticht, or even Ms. Stewart-Sticht as I ran our growing resort empire, I’d never thought to say it out loud. Theo, as always, was exactly right in the worst way possible.
“That’s pretty funny.” He guffawed.
I hit him in the shoulder, a quick, painful jab I’d mastered while growing up with Gabe.
“Ouch.” He rubbed his arm. “That’s not nice.”
“It’s NOT funny.” Now it was me with the parent voice.
“Whatever. I didn’t choose your name. Hey, did Jack tell you about my dad?”
Theo’s question left me so lonesome I could hardly bear it. I hadn’t spoken to Jack since the day I’d left. I was also out of touch with my old friends from high school, which was definitely a negative when you were raised to be social. “What happened?”
“He had a stroke a couple years back. He can’t walk far, but man, he loves this course, and the carts really help.”
“Oh, I’m sorry to hear about his health. Is he here?” I peered over Theo’s shoulder.
“Didn’t you hear? My folks moved out to Vegas. Dad’s flying out next week. I snuck in a week ahead for the practice. Dad loves to bet, and I’m gonna take him to the cleaners.” Theo rubbed his hands together in anticipation.
I was at a loss as to how I should respond to Theo’s claims he was premeditatedly working to both beat his physically disabled father at golf AND take his betting money. We fell into an awkward silence, after which Theo said, “So...you’re getting married?”
“Yeah. Hey Theo, is it usually this...empty around the club these days?”
Theo shrugged. “I’m only back here when Lucas comes to see his family, but I’d say...yeah. This place is kind of in the crapper since we were in high school.” A light went off behind his eyes. “You getting married here?”
“Uh...yeah. Third week in June.”
“No shit. Jack coming?”
I laughed nervously, swigging the remnants of my champagne. “I haven’t seen him in years. You two keep up?”
“Yeah, he’s been out to Vegas a few times.”
“What’s he up to?” I pretended not to be interested. Theo wasn’t that great at picking up social cues, so maybe it worked.
“Frick. I dunno. He made a shit ton of money. Did you hear about that?” He squinted into the distance like a supermodel smizing.
“What?”
“Fricking legend. Twenty-first birthday. He showed up looking like warmed-over crap, with like...a thousand bucks to his name or something. I figured he would lose it all, go live in the storm drains under the strip. You know there’s like an entire population down there?”
I shook my head, stunned.
“Yeah,” Theo bragged. “Your boy was real messed up. Dropped out. Said he was gonna blow the last of his cash and sign up for a stint in the military, but I was worried maybe...” Theo made a finger gun and cocked it to his temple. I gasped. I had no idea. I couldn’t bear the idea Jack had been in such an awful place. Why hadn’t he reached out? I mean, I would’ve left everything if I’d known.
“Instead, that lucky bastard won a shit ton of money betting it all on the number three.” Theo winked at me like this was supposed to mean something to me. “Came back to my place, gave me a bunch of cash for no good reason, and took off.”
“Theo!” I smacked him again, not playing this time. “Is he OK? Where is he?”
“Next time you hit me, I’ll hit you back,” Theo warned.
“You just let him leave? If you thought Jack might—” I swallowed back the word.
“He’s fine. Got his shit together. I talked to him a few months ago. He’s not even drinking anymore.”
Sickly sweet relief flooded through me. “Really? You’re sure he’s OK?”
“Why don’t YOU call HIM if you want to know? Leave me out of your high-energy, slap-happy drama.”
I couldn’t do that. Even now, my heart felt as though it was being wrung out with every beat. Jack had been my high school sweetheart, my first love, my first everything. And clearly, he had been through something serious and never called me.
And I had never had the guts to call him.
If I contacted him now, his reaction would be worse than Hailey’s. I could take her fuck-yous. I kind of loved her fuck-yous.
I didn’t know if I could handle Jack telling me all was forgiven, that we were just stupid kids back then. Because he was kind of like that, never wanting to hurt me. But Jack forgiving me would also mean the heated, lovestruck passion he’d once felt was gone.
“So do I get an invite?” Theo asked.
“What?” I was still trying to process the idea of Jack out there, at the end of his rope, and not reaching out to me. It stung like the blazes...which I deserved since I’d done the same thing to him.
“To the wedding?” Theo gave Rolling Green a skeptical eye, and suddenly I saw it as he must: the lawn was a little yellowed in spots like they were skimping on watering or someone hadn’t noticed a sprinkler head had malfunctioned. The Snack Shack looked ready for a new paint job; that was usually an every-five-year touch-up, but from here, it appeared a bit crackled and threatening to peel.
“No, yeah, of course. I can send you an invitation.” This was standard small-town politeness. Since he was living out of town, I figured it was like a fifty-fifty shot Theo wouldn’t come. His family would send a Cuisinart or some item off the registry so their name would be in big print as the gifts piled up at the reception.
Theo scrolled through his phone. A moment later, my phone buzzed. Guess he still had my number.
“Send me that invite,” Theo ordered. Then he bent and brushed my cheek with his lips, the kind of friendly kiss I’d seen adult men at Rolling Green give their friends’ wives since I was a toddler.
It sent a little shock wave through me—we were the grown-ups now. Theo was stepping into his role as a man about town. Which I guess made it official. It was time for me to take my place in the ranks of Rolling Green as well.
He finger gunned me as he walked off. “Stay pretty.”
As a teen, I would’ve flipped him off in response, but following his lead, I gave him twinkle fingers instead.
Fondness surged through me. Theo had been Jack’s best friend back in the day. And sure, things had fallen apart when Theo once tried to blackmail Hailey, Jack, and me over a clandestine horny grope session he’d caught on his phone. But we’d all been stupid kids back then. Or maybe it was because if I could have gentleness looking back at Theo’s faults, I could allow myself gentleness regarding my own.
Which made me think of Charlie again. Oh no, Theo was right. I was going to be Elastic.
I pushed that indignity to the side. I had more important things to do, like smooth over this fight I’d picked with my fiancé.
Uh, how does “Charlie having an affair” turn into “you picking a fight”? I imagined the question in Hailey’s voice.
“Because I want it to work with him, baby,” I muttered to her under my breath. I liked Charlie. We had similar backgrounds and values. I could’ve just tactfully ignored the whole Bob issue instead of throwing it in Charlie’s face.
Maybe you picked a fight so he’d leave you before you make the huge mistake of marrying someone other than us,Hailey countered.
“Come on. You know that can never happen.” I worried my bottom lip between my teeth, staring out at the dazzling pool where the three of us had first hooked up.
With that, she was gone from my head. I felt it immediately in the ache of loneliness. Come back. But just like always, I’d pushed her away. Even when it was just her memory in my head.
My phone buzzed.
Mom: I’ll be in the roundabout in three minutes.
Dutifully, I shook off my sadness, texted Charlie, and headed to Rolling Green’s main entrance. But each place I passed was colored with memories of Hailey, Jack, and me and all the things we had done here during our one magical summer.