Chapter 29
PARKER
Hanging up with Beck, I called Delaney next. It rang twice before she answered just as I pulled onto the highway.
“Hey.” Delaney’s voice was like the first warm day of spring.
“Hey, yourself. I didn’t expect to hear from you until later.” I’d been planning to head straight to her house from Rochester.
“Slight change of plans. Have you talked to Mason yet?”
“Not yet. We’re just leaving The Coffee Cabin now. Apparently he’s going to be our chauffeur today.”
“He’ll tell you more but… do you mind if we meet at the inn instead of your house later?”
“Not at all. Is everything okay?”
“That depends on your definition of okay. I just got a call from Beck. He’s… distraught.”
She was clearly confused, but it was a long story. “Beck is distraught so we’re meeting at the inn?”
“Basically. If you don’t mind. He didn’t say it outright, but I know him pretty well. I think he could use some company tonight. I already talked to Mason, and he said they’ll be around later too, after your girls’ day.”
“Of course, that’s not a problem at all. I’m glad the workshop went well. I’m excited to hear all about it.”
We’d been texting all weekend, though this was the first we’d talked.
“I’m not sure how excited you’ll be if I actually ran you through the details of log cabin building and marketing.”
“I want to hear them either way. I’m jumping in Mason’s truck now and will ask him what’s going on.”
“Sounds good. Later, cupcake.”
“Bye, Parker.”
The drive back seemed somehow longer than the drive to Rochester. If I thought before this weekend things were going well between us and that she was different than my past relationships, not seeing her for two and a half days solidified that fact.
Finally, after what felt like ten hours, I pulled into the inn and all but ran inside. As usual, everyone was gathered in the kitchen.
Not intending to be subtle about it, seeing Delaney casually standing there with a glass of wine in her hands, I walked straight up to her and kissed her like I’d imagined doing the whole way home.
Ignoring taunts like “get a room” and “enough already” from Beck and Mason, I stopped only when getting hard and being unable to walk to the fridge became a real possibility.
“Taste,” she said, handing me the glass. “It’s a new one from Golden Grove.”
I took a sip. “Not bad,” I said, whispering, “but I’d much rather taste you.” Heading toward the fridge, I asked the group, “Where are we at?”
“Despite the fact that I don’t need babysitters?” Beck said, his body language as he sat, slumped, on a kitchen island stool indicating otherwise. “We’re all just really hungry. We waited for you to order Chinese.”
“How’s he doing?” I asked Mason, who handed me a bottle opener for my beer.
“Not good.”
“Talk to me,” I said to Beck, heading back toward Delaney. This might not be the reunion we’d hoped for, but I still got to be close to her. Leaning against the counter, like she was, I waited for my friend to open up.
The exact opposite of Mason, Beck had no problem sharing his feelings. Problem was, he had a lot of them. Sure, he was the life of the party, but the guy felt big. And I knew today was a bad day for him.
“I knew she was finished in April and maybe coming back. But I wasn’t expecting it to be with some French asshole. Engaged. Fuck.” He took a long swig of beer. Judging by the empties in front of him, it was one of many.
“Delaney, want to help me order?” Pia asked.
I was pretty sure two of them weren’t needed to order Chinese food, but Delaney said, “Sure,” as they headed out of the kitchen, presumably to leave the three of us to talk. I watched Delaney until she was gone and got caught by Mason staring at her ass.
Not caring, I focused back on Beck.
“You guys talk all the time. You’re telling me this was a surprise?”
“I knew she was dating someone. But… engaged? Are you fucking kidding me?”
Beck had been in love with Mae O’Malley for as long as I’d known him.
The two of them grew up next door from each other, and it still amazed me Beck—of all people—had never once made a move on her.
Sure, she was a few years younger and by the time she was in high school Beck had been a freshman in college.
But she hadn’t left to attend a pastry school in France until a few years later.
Like Pia, Mae apparently saw through the show Beck put on for the rest of the world.
He said once in college, drunk off his ass, that “Mae is the only person who really knows me.” The next day, Cole had something to say about that since we were seniors by then, the four of us considering ourselves best friends who knew each other well.
But it was Mae we were talking about. The woman who required us to come up with the “never date your neighbor” rule when devising the bachelor pact.
Because, in some alternate universe, if the very sweet Mae O’Malley ever realized her friend had a lifelong crush on her and, more remarkably, she decided to date Beck, it would be game over.
“You’re telling me”—I tried to wrap my brain around it—“neither of her parents mentioned it? That they were so serious?”
Since Beck worked for her dad—O’Malley’s was established by Mae’s grandfather when Cedar Falls began to get developed—that seemed hard to believe. The mom worked there too, as the bookkeeper, though she’d been talking about retiring lately. Beck had a good relationship with the O’Malleys.
“I mean, I heard the guy’s name before. What the hell kind of name is Mathieu, anyway?”
Mason was trying, and failing, to keep a straight face.
“It’s the French version of Matthew,” he said dryly.
Beck’s phone buzzed. Looking at it like a lost puppy, he clicked a few buttons. Cole’s voice came through.
“Hey, buddy. I’m sorry to hear about Mae.”
“Sup, Cole?” I said.
“Hey, Cole,” Mason greeted him.
“Thanks,” Beck said. Apparently Cole just got the group text Beck had sent to us earlier.
“I guess we didn’t need that rule after all.” Beck hung his head. The guy had it bad. But that wasn’t any surprise.
“Look at it this way,” Cole said. “We took a pact for a reason. And yeah, Mason ended up being an exception. But how many of our parents ended up happily ever after?”
No one needed to answer that.
Zero.
As Beck and Cole talked, I thought of my own dad. On the outside, things appeared fine to everyone else. But as our family eroded from within thanks to his cheating and lies, not one of us got away unscathed. My brothers pretended it didn’t affect them, but I knew better.
“Would it have been amazing to get together with Mae? Sure. At first. But they call it the honeymoon period for a reason. It doesn’t last.”
Mason and I looked at each other as Cole’s “pep talk” seemed to be cheering up Beck.
Not surprisingly, we couldn’t give the same advice, given our positions.
Mason was engaged. Delaney and I weren’t there yet, but honestly, after this weekend, we seemed one step closer.
It was true we hadn’t been together long, but when you knew, you knew.
And I knew my feelings for Delaney were something different.
“Can you get a few days off? Come down to the city.”
“I’m off next Friday,” Beck said. “Maybe I can see about coming Thursday night. With the ski trip, it’s probably all I can swing.”
“I’ll make sure it’s worth the trip.”
This had the makings of a shit show written all over it.
“Anyone else feeling an overnighter?” Cole asked through the phone.
“Pia and I are heading to Oregon next weekend to see her family. They’re having some kind of engagement party or something.”
“Oh, that’s right,” Cole said.
I was about to decline as well, but Beck’s expression stopped me. He was like a ten-year-old boy who had just learned big eyes and a frown could make his mom say yes when the answer should be no.
“We’ll see,” I said instead, not intending to leave Delaney again so soon until Beck smiled so big, I had no choice but to reconsider.
“Come on, Park. Three of us. Like old times. Minus one.”
“Look at you, doing math,” I said, trying to avoid giving him an answer.
“Gotta run,” Cole said through the phone. “Let me know either way.”
“Will do.” Beck clicked the phone to hang up after Mason and I said goodbye as if we wouldn’t be texting him, probably later that night. Cole was the most bothered by group texts which, of course, meant we used any excuse to do it.
As if they’d timed it perfectly, Pia and Delaney came back just as Beck hung up with Mason.
“Did I hear Cole’s voice?” Pia asked.
“Yep,” Mason said. “Did you get me General Tso’s chicken?”
“I did,” she verified. “Beck, I think that’s the first time you’ve smiled all night.”
“Thank you, guys,” he said. Beck didn’t need to offer an explanation. We all knew what he was thanking us for.
“It’s what friends do.” I pulled Delaney toward me, and whispered just for her, “Later, I’ll show you what boyfriends who miss their girlfriends do. Pretty sure you’ll like it.”
“Pretty sure I will,” she said, settling into my side.
I would make sure of it.