10. Sarah
Chapter 10
Sarah
After the most humiliating rejection from Ranger, I spent the rest of the week licking my wounds. Fatigue had gripped me and I was barely keeping my eyes open from throwing myself into my work. Most of my nights involved countless hours in my bakery’s kitchen making way too many cupcakes. I was pretty sure I got a contact high from all the powdered sugar in the air tonight when I started talking to myself about how stupid I was for asking Ranger on a date.
“You don’t want anything to do with me, Sarah. I’m no good. Especially for a woman like you.”
I was embarrassed to admit how many times his words had run through my mind. Especially for a woman like you . What the hell did that even mean? Was he suggesting that I was a rich bitch because of my family? But then he said he wasn’t any good…so, maybe he was worried that I would judge him for his time in prison.
Honestly, I wasn’t sure which one was worse. Him making assumptions about me because of my parents’ money or assuming I would make assumptions about him for his time behind bars.
I made a mental note to call Deacon later and make sure he knew just how dumb his idea was. Asking a man out on a date had gotten me nowhere and it was his fault for talking me into it. I went after what I wanted and was now sitting on the floor in my living room with a half-empty bottle of wine waiting for Willow to get here so we could start working on wedding details.
Yeah. There was no way I would take Deacon’s advice ever again.
The turn of a key sounded at my front door. I slowly rose to my feet, careful not to tip over the wine on my white rug as I made my way to the door.
“Sarah!” Willow bellowed as she swung the door open. Her arms were full of glossy magazines and a wooden box sat at the very top of the pile.
“Oh my God! How’d you make it in here with all that?”
She peeked at me over the top of the box and said, “Very, very carefully.”
We both giggled and it felt good to have my friend here. She was always the best distraction and I was sorely in need of one tonight.
I took the top half of the pile from her and we set them down in the living room before I snagged her a wine glass from the kitchen. When I walked back into the living room she held up the bottle of wine and arched a brow. “Looks like you already got started without me. ”
“Sorry. It was a rough week and the wine was calling my name.” I handed her the empty glass and she poured herself some.
We sat cross-legged across from one another with the magazines between us. She handed me the bottle and I topped my glass off before settling in.
“Okay, before we get into the magazines, I need to give you something.”
“Okay,” I drew out the word.
She grabbed the wooden box from the top of the magazines and handed it to me. On top of the lid in hand-painted letters was: I can’t say “I do” without you .
Tears pricked at my eyes as I realized what this box meant. “Go on. Open it,” she whispered and I could hear the emotion in her voice too.
I slid the top off and nestled in a bed of crinkle paper was a beautiful wine glass and matching champagne flute that had deep reds, yellows, and greens blown into the surface with a gold rim on the top. Beside them was a burgundy jewelry box and a stationary envelope lay just below it. I opened the card, blinking away the tears so I could see better.
Sarah,
It’s hard to believe just how far we’ve come in life together. I will never forget the first day I met you and how I was sitting all alone in the lunch room and you decided to take a chance on me. I will never be able to repay you for the kindness you showed me as a little girl, knowing just how different I was from you. But I promise to love you as my best friend every single day. It would be my honor to have you stand next to me as I marry Johnny. You believed in our love, even when I didn’t and there’s no one else I’d rather have by my side.
Love,
Willow
I was full-on ugly crying as I looked up at Willow. She had the same tears running down her face as I set the box aside and tackle-hugged her. “Of course I’ll be there with you!”
We both laughed, rocking back and forth as we hugged each other fiercely. I wiped the tears from her face and squished her cheeks between my palms. “I’m so freaking excited, Willow! You’re getting married! And I get to be the sexy bridesmaid standing next to you.” My hands fell from her face. She caught them, cradling them with her own in the space between our crossed legs.
“Bridesmaid? No.” She shook her head. “You’re my maid of honor, Sarah.”
“Well, shit. I like the sound of that. Maid of honor . Yup. Definitely has a ring to it.” We both laughed again before settling next to each other, our backs leaning against the edge of the sofa.
I grabbed our glasses of wine from the small serving tray on the floor and handed hers to her. She took a long sip, eyeing me over the rim of the glass. “Alright. We need to catch up before we do any wedding stuff. I feel like I’ve barely seen you lately.”
“I know,” I groaned. “The bakery is doing great. Even during the weekdays, there seems to be a never-ending flow of people. It’s awesome.”
“That makes me so happy! I remember how bummed you were when you lost Tommy’s birthday account. I still can’t believe your mom called his mother and told her she should get his cake done by someone else.”
Heat crept up my neck. “I haven’t even told you about Sunday night’s dinner last week.”
Willow’s nose scrunched. “Sunday night dinner? I didn’t think y’all still did that.”
“We don’t. But the moment Theo came back to town, my mother decided it was going to be a thing again.”
Her eyes widened. “How is Theo by the way?”
“If you disregard his three broken ribs, I’d say he’s doing great.”
“Holy shit. Three?”
I nodded as I took a sip of wine. “I don’t love that my brother is doing something so dangerous, but he looks happier than I’ve ever seen him and I know he would have been miserable if he completed law school.”
“Yeah, he’s never really been the intense type. I’m surprised your parents pushed him to pursue that when it’s so obvious he doesn’t have the personality for it.”
“I don’t think they’ve ever taken us into consideration when they started planning our lives. But at least he’s doing what he wants now instead of pursuing something that would never make him happy.”
“I think you showed him that path, Sarah. When you went against everything you knew and followed your heart, it showed everyone in your life that nothing was impossible. I think Theo saw your success despite having no support from your parents and decided he wanted that for himself too. What you’ve done is inspiring.” She gripped my hand.
“It still makes me so angry that they can’t accept it. We basically spent the entire dinner fighting about how they think I’m leading Stephanie down the wrong path because she decided to stay here and pursue baking instead of going off to college.” I rolled my eyes, feeling the frustration from that night simmering in my chest.
“It’s not right that they’re blaming you for that. Especially when it’s Stephanie’s decision to make, not yours. The only thing you’ve done is provide her support.”
“Yup.” My lips popped at the word. I stretched my legs out in a V shape as I rubbed my open palm along the top of my thighs.
“Did your mom bring up the dating thing again?” Willow asked.
I shook my head. “Thankfully, dinner had wrapped up before then.”
“Well, that’s good at least. ”
It had been a while since my mother brought up my dating life because the last conversation we had about it in the early summer months had turned into a drag-out fight. She didn’t have to tell me that it was abnormal for a woman to be without a partner at my age. Or that I should be focusing on finding someone suitable. My loneliness was something I was very much acquainted with and her pointing it out had been too much. I didn’t like the fact that I yelled at her and stormed out of her house, but I couldn’t take it anymore—all the judgment and disappointment I felt anytime she looked my way.
“What’s wrong?” Willow asked.
“I asked someone on a date,” I said quietly, picking at a loose string on the edge of the sofa cushion.
Willow scooted closer. “Um, tell me more.”
I sighed heavily, setting my glass of wine on the tray. “Do you remember Ranger Adams?”
“The guy who was released from prison?”
“Yeah.”
“Mmhmm. I remember him. You asked him out?”
“Yeah.”
A smile spread across her lips. “And…?”
“And he rejected me.”
Willow leaned back like my statement had felt like a slap in the face. “He rejected you?” she repeated.
“Yeah. He came into the bakery yesterday and I don’t know…I thought I felt something between us. It felt like he was interested, but when I chased him down the street and asked him on a date he said no. ”
“Was that all he said?”
“He said something about him being no good for a girl like me. I mean what the hell does that even mean?”
Willow draped her arm over the sofa cushion, settling her chin in her palm as she thought about it. “I don’t think it was a personal attack against you. If anything, it sounds like he was ragging more on himself than you, which I kind of understand. He’s the town’s badboy and you come from a notoriously blue blood family. He probably thinks there’s no way you’d actually be into him.”
“That’s a good point. I didn’t think of it that way.”
“But he’s still lame for not accepting your date offer.” She leaned toward me, grabbing both my hands. “I know you’ll meet your match soon. I can feel it.”
I didn’t have the heart to say out loud that I thought I might have met my match with Ranger. Not that I knew a lot about the man, but I’d always felt intrigued by him. Almost like there was some intangible pull toward him and I thought for sure that he felt it too.
But maybe Willow was right. It wouldn’t be the first time someone assumed things about me because of my last name.
“Thank you for saying that.” I smiled at her. “But enough about me. Let’s talk about your freaking wedding !”
“Eek!” we both squealed in unison before we grabbed the piles of magazines and started flipping through the pages where she showed me the color palette she was thinking of and some different cake ideas.
“Do you have any idea what kind of flavors you and Johnny are thinking about? ”
“He said he wants something with strawberries in it and you know how I feel about strawberries.” She opened her mouth and stuck her finger in while making a gagging noise.
I couldn’t help the snort-laugh that came out of me. “To be fair, it’s his wedding too. You have to give the man something.”
“Yeah. I know.” She rolled her eyes dramatically. “But I’m obsessed with your cookies and cream icing.”
“I can do different cake and icing flavors for the different tiers you know.”
Her eyes lit up. “I hadn’t thought of that! So we can do alternating tiers?”
“Yeah,” I laughed.
“See. This is why you’re my maid of honor. There’s no way I would have thought of that.”
“I still think you should both do a tasting. I’ve been working on some different flavors that I haven’t released with my cupcakes yet.”
“Okay!” she beamed. “That’s going to be Johnny’s favorite part of the entire planning process.”
“The food usually is.”
We spent the rest of the night giggling over wedding details and where they might go for their honeymoon. And for the rest of the night, I didn’t think about what I was lacking or how I didn’t have a love like hers and Johnny’s because I had my best friend and that was enough.
…for now.