Chapter 10
It had been almost a week since the photoshoot, and I was still trying to figure out what the hell I had been doing.
I brushed my lips against Rose’s ear, made flirty comments, acted like I would if we were still together.
But we weren’t. She made that abundantly clear in the way she kept pulling away from me.
I parked in front of Espresso Yourself on Main Street and thrust my hands through my hair.
Six days. It had been six days since Rose took her duffel bag and left me.
Six days that we have continuously lied to the people we loved most. The men were oblivious, but Chardonnay was getting suspicious.
If she confronted me, I would squeal like a damn pig.
I loved the woman like a sister, but she scared the hell out of me.
I made my way toward the coffee shop, and just as I was about to pull the door and step in, Odette appeared in front of me.
“Wyatt,” she said, her blue eyeshadow reaching new heights.
Her hot pink matching set with an embroidered cat on the sleeves and ankles was bright enough to stop traffic.
“You are just the person I wanted to see.”
“Now Odette, what could you possibly need me for?” That was a loaded question, and God only knew what was going to come out of her mouth.
She slipped a notepad from her bag and tapped a matching hot pink nail against the paper. “The Summer Splash for Seniors is this Saturday, and I need you and Rose to man the dunk tank.”
I blinked. “The dunk tank? Didn’t you have Dale Rogers do it last year?”
“Yes, and the old geezer nearly dislocated his shoulder. We need someone young and spry and people who are fun and welcoming to lure in the donations. That has you and Rose written all over it. Besides you two are adorable—the town’s favorites.
They would pay good money to dunk you into a tank of cold water. ”
“That’s somehow both flattering and insulting.”
“So I can count on you two to be there at ten am?”
“Well—”
“I already told everyone you’ll do it.” She reached into the bag and pulled out a stack of flyers. Rose and my names were already printed on them.
“Are you Mary Poppins? What else do you have in that bag?”
She waved me off. “I’m counting on you, Wyatt.”
I opened my mouth to protest, but she hit my arm with her notepad. “It’s for the seniors. You wouldn’t let the seniors down now, would you?”
My lips parted, but nothing came out. She knew I was a sucker. I volunteered every year for this particular event, but with work and all the weddings and engagement parties, I forgot.
“Unless there are problems in paradise?” Odette’s overly drawn eyebrow rose toward her forehead. “Maggie Dwyer said Rose’s car hasn’t been at the house all week.”
“Maggie Dwyer needs to mind her own business.”
“So there is trouble in paradise. Oh no. What happened?” Her hand latched onto my wrist, and her eyes met mine, filled with concern.
I forced a laugh that hurt more than it should have. “Not at all. Rose has just been… busy. Work stuff, and she’s been helping Meadow come up with new cocktails for the distillery. You know how they get talking and time just flies by.”
She grabbed her chest. “Oh, thank heavens. I don’t know what I would do if the town's most adored couple broke up. We would have to choose sides, but how? You’re both so lovable.
And you know, I just love you to pieces, but I couldn’t turn my back on another woman.
We stick together, you know. We got a code, us ladies. We have each other’s backs.”
“No need to choose sides. We’re not broken up.” The lie tasted sour on my tongue.
Odette exhaled as if she had been free-diving to the depths of Lake Wallenpaupack. “I’m so relieved. I’ll see you and your better half on Saturday.” She spun on her pink tennis shoe, nearly taking out a passing cyclist, and strutted off.
I stood staring after her.
Six days since Rose left me, and now I had to explain that we had to spend an entire day together while half the town paid to dunk me.
Awesome.
***
“I don’t understand why you couldn’t just say no,” Rose said as we got into the car for the first time together in over a week.
As soon as she closed the door, I was surrounded by her coconut-vanilla scent.
It had long faded from her pillow, and I may have gone into the bathroom, popped the top of her shampoo and sniffed it a few times. I was pathetic, but I was aware.
“I don’t understand why you’re still sleeping at Meadow’s. People are starting to notice. Maggie Dwyer made a comment to Odette about your car not being here.”
“Maggie Dwyer needs to mind her own business.”
A faint smile tugged at my mouth. Great minds… “We both know that hell will freeze over—”
“—and the devil will give free sleigh rides before that happens,” she chimed in the way she always did.
I backed out of the driveway and turned onto the road toward River Birch Park.
“I don’t know what else to do,” she said, her voice barely audible. “It’s not like you want me home.”
My hands tightened on the steering wheel. It’s all I wanted. I would move heaven and earth to make it happen. “It’s your home too, Rose. Always will be. You can come home whenever you want.”
She didn’t respond, just stared out the window as if she couldn’t bear to look at me.
I exhaled, taking a moment to push my emotions down. “Do you know how many times I’ve wanted to drive to Meadow’s place and bang on the door until you came out? You think I haven’t spent every night sitting on the edge of our bed, wondering how the hell we got here?”
Her chin trembled, pink lips pressed tightly together, but she still didn’t speak.
“I would never say no to you, Rose.”
Her head snapped toward me, her eyes glassy. “You did say no. Every time I tried to talk about our future, every time you deflected with a joke or changed the subject or shut down, it was a no. You didn’t have to say the word.”
“I said no to the one thing I never wanted. The one thing you knew I didn’t want. There’s a difference.”
Uncomfortable silence spread between us. Had I been that oblivious? The road stretched ahead, long and empty, and I had no idea where we were going, or if we were even going there together.
I swallowed. “So what happens now?”
She glanced out her window, her fingers curled in her lap, voice soft. “We pretend we’re still perfect for a few hours.”
I wanted to argue. We were stronger than this. Eleven years didn’t just disappear because we’d hit something hard.
But I could smile. Deflect. Hope the hard conversations would just… pass.
Pretending was my specialty.