Chapter 13 #2
“So you’re the one marrying Liam Darcy?” Emma sounded impressed.
“I am.” Lettie blushed with pleasure. “Lucky me, right?”
“Yes! I had the biggest crush on him,” Emma said. “I mean, can you blame me?”
“Nope, not at all,” said Lettie, glowing. “I’d say I’m sorry I’m taking him, but I’m not.”
“Oh yeah, you should definitely rub it in all of our faces.” Emma was such a good sport. I wondered if Wyatt compared her to my immature crying fits. My eyes flicked to him, but he wasn’t paying attention to his date; he was watching me.
“Is that the bag?” he asked, pointing to the Birkin sitting beside me. “Did you decide to keep it?” I whisked the napkin off the bag.
“Yes.”
“I’m glad,” he said with a friendly smile. “You deserve it.”
“Nobody deserves a Birkin,” I answered. “And I’m still on the fence... I might sell it.”
“I always wanted a pink Birkin,” said Emma. “Would you sell it to me?”
“Um... no, I couldn’t,” I said. My words surprised me. I had been leaning toward selling it. But when Wyatt said he was glad I kept it, I made up my mind. I couldn’t bear the thought of Emma carrying it while walking arm in arm with him.
“I thought you said you were thinking of selling,” she said, rightfully confused.
“I was. And you just helped me make up my mind.”
Wyatt smiled at me with that amused twinkle in his eye. I felt certain we both were thinking of me finding the bag and then spontaneously hugging him and... almost kissing. Or at least that’s what went through my mind.
“Still on for tomorrow?” he asked.
“Yes, are you going to dress appropriately, like today? Or will it be another fashion disaster?”
“You’ll find out tomorrow.” He winked before following Emma to their seat on the other side of the restaurant. I watched him go. Even in his new, much looser jeans, the view of him walking away was a good one.
Lettie turned to me. “Poor, poor Ed,” she said making a sad puppy face.
“Is it that obvious?” I asked.
“You’re so lit up, they can probably see you from the space station,” she said laughing.
“Shut up!”
“Hey, he’s totally into you.”
“You think?” My voice came out too high-pitched. I purposefully lowered it. “I mean, it hardly matters.”
“He seems nice.”
“Oh, he is.”
“I don’t get it. This is the same guy who told Greg to dump you?” she asked.
“Yeah, well, he had a good reason.”
“So, what’s the deal? You’ve dated many a worse guy.” She fake coughed. “Ahem, Colin.”
“Well, there’s Ed. He’s really nice and rich. And it seems foolish to end things with him because I want a fling with Wyatt.”
“And why would it be a fling?”
“I don’t think he wants to date seriously.”
“The way he looked at you—it seemed kind of serious.”
“How does he look at me?” I asked, very curious.
“Like I’m looking at these cheesy potatoes.”
I cackled.
“We’ve already established that attraction is not the problem here.” I shrugged.
“And how exactly did we establish that?” Lettie asked, searching my face. My cheeks flamed. I took a long sip of my Diet Coke, trying my best not to think about kissing Wyatt.
Apparently I failed because Lettie exclaimed, “You kissed him! Didn’t you?” I could have lied, but there was no way she would have believed me. I closed my eyes and nodded.
“When? Tell me! Every. Single. Detail!”
“The first time . . .”
“Ah! The first time? So you’ve kissed more than once. Anything else I should know?” Lettie raised a brow.
“No, I’ve never told anyone any of this. Greg has no idea.”
“Wait a minute! This was while you were dating Greg? This gets better and better.”
“No, worse and worse. It was just a big mistake.”
“I’m listening.”
“Greg and I had had our first big fight.” He’d been out of town all summer and wanted me to drive up to meet him at his family reunion in Tahoe.
I was mad because I hadn’t heard much from him for three months.
He was slow to return my texts and rarely took my calls.
I suspected he was seeing other women. So I didn’t bother asking for work off to go to his stupid reunion.
When I told him I wasn’t coming via text, he called me and begged me to come.
He said all this nonsense about missing me and loving me.
And I said a lot of angry things back. I hung up on him.
But the more I thought about it, the softer I felt toward him.
I wasn’t over him. And he sounded so sorry on the phone.
“I really did love Greg back then,” I told Lettie.
“And I missed him so much. I decided to drive up to surprise him at his cabin.”
“And you met Wyatt?” she asked with a knowing smile. She was loving this story. She was probably already planning to put it in one of her books.
“Yes, but I thought he was Greg. Wyatt had a beard then, and Greg had told me he was growing one. And it was dark, and I was emotional. I gave him my whole apology, thinking Wyatt was Greg. And then I kissed him.”
“And how was it?”
I closed my eyes. “I will remember that kiss until the day I die.”
“I CANNOT believe I’m just hearing this. So he had to know who you were, right?”
“He said he thought he was dreaming. And to be fair, he was a little drunk.”
“When was this?”
“Six years ago.”
“Well, that explains his hungry look. The guy’s probably been pining for you ever since. I bet that’s why he told Greg not to marry you.” I wanted that to be true so badly that I didn’t dare believe it.
“If that were the case, we’d be dating. But instead, I’m going out with Ed, and Wyatt’s getting phone numbers from women he meets at bars.
” Or restaurants, or while shopping or just walking down the street.
In the month we’d been working together, I’d seen at least three women give him their number.
“Okay, but there’s more to the story,” said Lettie. “That was the first kiss. When was the second?”
I shrugged. “A few weeks ago; I don’t want to talk about it.”
“You like him, don’t you?”
“Maybe... but it will pass since there’s no way it could ever work out.”
“I think it might. The way he looks at you... ”
“You write romance—you see budding romances everywhere.”
“What has changed, Caroline? You once told me if a guy had money in the bank and a heartbeat, you’d give him a chance. Why not give the guy a chance?”
“I don’t know.” But I knew. Every minute I spent with Wyatt, my dilemma became more evident. I thought Greg destroyed me. But I was wrong; I was bouncing back from that breakup just fine. But Wyatt... if we were to date and it didn’t last, I couldn’t bear the thought.