Chapter 17
17
CLAIRE
“ I honestly don’t know how we could have pulled this off without you. You are a godsend.” Holland wrapped her arm around my shoulder and squeezed, only I ducked my head.
“You guys know exactly what you’re doing. You would’ve figured it out.”
“We would’ve made it work because in the end it doesn’t matter what fairy lights or food or entertainment we have. We just need each other at these events. However, it’s also nice to make them special.”
My chest warmed and I wasn’t sure if it was the praise itself, or the fact that it was Kingston’s mother who gave it. “You were the one who helped us set up the extra lighting, and the catering since we had to move to a different suburb and our old catering couldn’t accommodate us.”
She shook her head and squeezed my shoulders again. “We used to do a potluck, where everyone brought something, and the spreadsheets were insane. And sometimes for reunions or other parties we do. But other times we want to feel a little pampered. And that’s what today’s all about. Thank you for helping my family feel special.”
“It honestly wasn’t that hard.” And I wasn’t lying. They had most everything set up. I was only there to handle a little of the loose ends that slipped through the cracks because of the change in venue. And it was because I happen to have contacts, thanks to my job. And in the end, I had made more contacts for different vendors and services. And a few of Kingston’s aunts and uncles had taken my information for help with their own get togethers. And not just with personal events, but with their businesses.
And when I explained that to Holland, she grinned.
“We like taking care of our own.”
“Honestly, I feel like I’m gaining the most out of this.” I smiled, my heart warming at the thought of being their own. Even as it kicked just a little bit. Because I hadn’t seen Kingston yet.
He had called me to say goodnight, and I had answered. Because not answering would’ve made our odd little disagreement a spectacle. And maybe it wasn’t even a disagreement. Maybe it was just the two of us realizing we were in two different places. It wasn’t as if I could force him into loving me. Or force him into speeding up that realization. It hadn’t been the correct time, and I don’t even know why I freaked out the way that I had.
We had arrived separately since he had had to deal with a few work things beforehand so he could have the weekend off to help me at my event the next morning. And I had come in early to do my part of the job. I had a huge weekend in front of me, with not only this event, but the biggest one to date tomorrow evening that I would have to start in the morning. Trix couldn’t handle it herself, and that was fine. It was my business after all. And as I had slid this party in the middle of my work schedule, I was a little overwhelmed, and not just personally.
“Usually we just throw some cheese on the table and call it a day. This is much better,” Ethan Montgomery said as he winked at me.
“I heard about your family and cheese.”
Ethan rolled his eyes. “It’s oddly a little weird that people do know our love of cheese. It could be the shirts and branding we wear.”
“I love a good baked brie, perhaps in a pastry shell with either a spicy chili jam or even a fig jam on it. Well, and a little Havarti. And a good Asiago. And of course parm. Parmesan is on everything.” I was rambling now, and Ethan put his hand over his heart.
“You’re literally a woman after my own heart. I mean, I’m already married to two people and you’re my son’s girlfriend, but I still love you.”
“So smooth,” Holland said, shoving at her husband playfully.
“What? I wanted to say that I loved her without being weird about it. And of course it got weird.”
It was like a kick in the shin to hear Kingston’s father being so open with his feelings. But then again, finding love and friendship and admiration was a different kind of emotion. And it had a different weight to it. I knew that. I had never been in love.
I put on a brave face and pushed back those thoughts. No need to bring Kingston and the weirdness into this conversation. “If all it takes is for you to love cheese to be adopted into the Montgomery family, it’s a little telling. And explains so much.”
Holland smiled, everyone else laughing as she studied my face. “Are you okay, Claire? I know you’ve been working double time for all of your events. Did we ask too much? We’re forever grateful. But if you need to go home and get some sleep, or just sit down and relax, please do. In fact, I’m going to make it mandatory that you go relax. ”
She hugged me tightly, as Aria skipped over to me, literally skipped. “You are remarkable. I’m so happy you were available to help out. Mostly because your help meant I didn’t have to. I suck at this.” She turned to Holland and Ethan. “Do you mind if I steal her?”
“Go. Make sure she has fun and relaxes. Where is Kingston?” Holland asked, and my heart raced.
“Oh, he just got here.” Aria squeezed my hand, and now I had to wonder if she knew. Did everyone know?
No, people were just arriving, and the event was just beginning. It wasn’t out of the ordinary for us to arrive separately because I was helping set up. But why did I feel like everybody knew that something was awkward between us?
“I’ll talk to you soon,” I said to the others, and let Aria drag me over to where Livvy and a couple of Aria’s other cousins were.
They said their names, and I knew I was never going to remember everybody. As it was a family event, no one wore name tags, and really, they should by now. Or maybe they should literally just get their names tattooed on them so that way we would always know who was who.
“You look wonderful,” Livvy said with a soft smile.
I looked down at my sparkly gray dress and blushed. “It had to be something I could move around in, and this is one of my normal wedding outfits actually. ”
“It looks great, and I saw the cheese table,” Aria put in, wiggling her eyebrows. “You do know us.”
I waved her off. “That was all Kingston’s mom. You guys already had that set up.”
Livvy laughed. “That’s pretty much on standby.”
“Did you know a few of us are actually lactose intolerant?” Aria asked, and I blinked.
“Is that even allowed?”
Aria snorted. “It is. And a couple of us don’t particularly love cheese, but we don’t say that out loud.”
“Because you get bullied? That doesn’t sound like you guys.”
“No, because you get teased, and then we buy you your favorite thing. It’s what we do.” Livvy sipped her drink and looked over my head. “And it looks like we’re about to lose you.”
I turned quickly, my stomach doing somersaults as Kingston came forward. He had on black suit pants and a gray button-up shirt. He had rolled the sleeves up to show his forearms, as well as his ink, and I nearly groaned. There was just something about that man.
“I think she was lost to us long before this,” Aria muttered under her breath, but I ignored her.
“Hey,” I whispered.
“Hey.” He reached out and slid a strand of my hair behind my ear, as both Aria and Livvy sighed behind me. “You did a great job. Sorry I couldn’t help. ”
“You’ve been a little preoccupied. I can’t believe you went back to work today.”
“Just for a little thing. And I was sitting down for most of it. I’m feeling better. Hardly a twinge.”
My teeth bit into my lip as I reached out and slid one finger in his belt loop, ignoring everyone around us. “Well, if you need to sit down, you should.”
“You’re the one in high heels after running around all day trying to help my family. You amaze me.”
I swallowed hard, my pulse racing. “Any news?” I asked, my mind going a thousand different directions and landing on Buckley.
Kingston shook his head, but his small smile didn’t falter. That was something at least. “We won’t have news for a while. But I’ll let you know as soon as I do.” He lowered his head and brushed his lips against mine. “Are we good?” he asked, his voice low.
And he was still touching me, still wanting to be with me. I needed to get over myself. “We are.” And when I smiled, it was truthful. This wasn’t even a bump, just us trying to breathe.
“Hello. We’re here too,” Aria said with a laugh, and I let go of Kingston to turn to face them.
Kingston in turn put his hand on my hip, and I blushed. “Hello there. All of you. Where’s Amelia?”
Livvy just smiled and shook her head. “She’s with Mom and Dad. They kidnapped her. ”
“Got to love grandparents.”
“I know, right? In fact, all of the kids are with their grandparents. That means we parents are allowed to have a little fun.”
I gestured toward her sparkling water. “Do you want me to go get you a drink?”
“First off, you’ve done so much, you don’t get to wait on me. And no, I’m in the mood for mocktails tonight. And now I’m going to go see my brother. I haven’t seen him in a couple of weeks, and I promised him I would annoy him today.” Livvy walked off, and then another one of Kingston’s cousins joined us, and then another.
Aria left at some point, and I realized that Travis had shown up. He had a drink in his hand and was swaying a bit in her arms as they danced. He smiled down at her and I saw stars in Aria’s eyes. Maybe something good was coming from that situation after all?
“I love everything that you’ve done,” Daisy said as she came forward and gave me a tight hug. “I realize that we Montgomerys are a little insane, and a little overwhelming, but thank you for making this party happen.”
“You should stop thanking me. Kingston’s family did most of it.”
“And my mom would credit you,” Kingston countered .
“I’m just glad I was able to help with what I could.”
“We’ve all been through so much, and with everything happening around us, it’s nice just to get together,” Raven said, her hand on the small swell of her belly. Sebastian had his arm around her, his attention finally pulled off Aria.
“I have noticed that things tend to happen around you guys.”
Noah came forward then, with his spouses, Greer and Ford on either side of him. “You too, Claire. But it’s fine, in the end we get cheese and cake. But not together. We do have some standards.”
I shuddered at that thought. “Although there is a cheesecake.”
“Did someone say cheesecake?” Hugh asked as he came forward and wrapped his arms around Daisy.
Kingston squeezed my hip and I held back a happy sigh. “Hey there. Is Lucy with the others?”
“She found Nora, and now they’re running around with Sebastian’s mom.”
Sebastian laughed. “Those two are thick as thieves, and they’re already coming up with baby names.” Sebastian swallowed hard as he said it though, and I frowned, before remembering that Sebastian’s first love, Nora’s mother, had died in childbirth. And now Raven was pregnant. I could only imagine the stress he was under. However, this wasn’t the time to bring it up, especially because I didn’t know them well. With so many of Kingston’s family members in one room, including family members who had married in, so cousins of Kingston’s that didn’t happen to be cousins of Kane, were all together. It was like a giant block party, complete with champagne, mocktails, and cheese. It also meant that I didn’t know everybody here. And while the family members knew each other, people who brought dates or other parts of the family tree didn’t know each other. It was just a nice event where people could just relax.
Crew caught my eye, as he scowled, growling on the phone, before stomping out of the building.
Lexington ran after him, and I looked at Kingston who shook his head. “No idea.”
“I hope everything’s okay,” I whispered.
Kingston squeezed my hand, and then we were on the dance floor, everyone else breaking up into groups to dance as well. It was a fast song, and laughter bubbled up, nothing felt too awkward anymore. Instead, it just felt right. After so many things going wrong in the past weeks, the past year, things felt good again.
When the song ended, we were pulled off the dance floor, and Kingston brushed his lips against mine.
“Hey,” he breathed, a nervous energy rattling him.
“Hey there. Are you okay? ”
He opened his mouth to say something, before Kane came over and tapped him on the shoulder.
“Hey, we need to get Travis in the car, he’s passed out drunk, and Aria needs to drive him home. But she can’t lift him.”
Kingston cursed under his breath, before kissing my temple. “I’ll be right back. I promise.”
“I’ll go with you.”
He shook his head, his jaw tense. “No, you don’t need to see this.”
“Don’t kill him,” I warned.
“We won’t. Promise.”
“I’m not going to promise anything about what Crew and Sebastian are going to do,” Kane mumbled under his breath, leaving me standing with Phoebe.
“That sucks,” Phoebe said after a moment.
“That’s succinct. I feel like we should talk with Aria.”
“What will we say?” It wasn’t as if we had a right to do so or knew what was going on.
“Tell her that we love her, and we don’t know what to do for her. Because we’re worried,” Livvy said as she came up to us, and I hadn’t realized she’d overheard.
I shook my head. “Maybe she’s just trying to help Travis.”
“I don’t know. But it hurts to see. And that’s why it’s hard to trust most people.” Livvy sipped her drink again, before being called over by her parents.
My phone buzzed at that moment, and I looked down at the readout, cursing when I needed to answer it. “I’ll be right back.”
“Everything okay?” Phoebe asked, worry in her tone.
“I don’t know,” I answered, a little worried. “Trix? What’s going on?”
“The entire liquor distributor just canceled. They had a roof collapse, and they lost it all. I don’t know what to do. I can’t handle this myself. And there’s that huge event tomorrow, and they need us, and now we don’t have anything for them.” Trix went on and on, her voice going high-pitched, and while my heart raced, panic settling over me, I pushed it aside because this was my job. I had to handle it.
“Where are you?”
“I’m at the event space, setting up.”
I frowned, confused. “You’re supposed to be home right now. You don’t have to work this late, Trix.”
“I was running behind. Now I’m glad that I’m here. I have things to do.”
I held back a curse because she was correct. I just hated that she was alone in this for the time being. “Okay. I’ll head out to you.”
“Don’t. You’re supposed to be celebrating with your boyfriend tonight. ”
“And you need my help. This is my business. I’m going to help. I’m going to be there.”
“I want to say no, but I need your help. I can’t handle this on my own.”
“We’ll handle it together. I’ll be there in twenty minutes.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“It’s not your fault.”
We said our goodbyes and ended the call, as Phoebe raised her brows at me. “I heard most of that. A roof collapse? Is everyone okay?”
“Trix said no one was in the building at the time so there are no injuries. Just a mess and broken inventory. I have no idea what I’m going to do, but I need to go handle it.” I looked across the dance floor, and around the room, but I couldn’t see Kingston. “Can you tell Kingston what happened? I’ll call him when I get to the place, but I need to go now.”
“Okay. I’ll do that. Do you want one of us to go with you?”
“No, I’ll be fine. Just let Kingston know? I hate leaving him like this.” We needed to talk about so many things, but right now I needed to help Trix and my business.
“He’ll understand. Knowing him, he’ll probably just show up to help out. In fact, if you need any of the Montgomerys, we’ll be there. ”
My heart swelled, because I knew she was right. She would be there. I gave her a quick hug, then went to grab my bag, before running to my car. I had parked on the other side of the building from where Aria’s car was, so I didn’t even see the others, and I didn’t get to say goodbye to anyone else. I made my way down the road, surprised to see that the closer I got to town, the icier the roads were getting. Apparently, the storm was hitting faster than I thought. Once I got to a safe place, I texted Phoebe to let her know so everyone was aware of everything that was going on. Though I was sure that somebody was watching the weather. I put on my windshield wipers as it began to rain, annoyed about mostly everything at this moment. I wanted to be relaxing, I wanted to just be with Kingston. But instead, I was dealing with this.
But this was fine. I was professional, and I would be fine.
Lights came around the bend, blinding me since they had their brights on. I squinted, trying to see the road, as they swerved into my lane, most likely catching on ice. Heart racing, I gripped the steering wheel and pumped the brakes like I was taught, my father’s voice echoing in my ears, but it didn’t work. There was nothing for my tires to latch on to, the ice underneath spinning me in circles. We were on a large stretch of road, the mountains behind us, fields and a lake nearby, but without streetlights, I couldn’t tell, and then everything happened at once.
The sound of metal against metal, my own scream, and then it was as if time stood still, my car careening off of the road down the grass and fields, and at the last moment, my headlights shone on water, and I slammed on the brakes, trying to stop.
But it was too late.
And it was all I could do not to scream louder, as my car slammed right into the icy lake, and the front wheels began to sink.
“You’re okay, you’re okay,” I kept saying to myself, knowing that I wasn’t okay. Words came to me in short bursts as everything happened at once.
I was still conscious. I would be fine. I just needed to get out of this car. I went for the door handle, but it wouldn’t open. The driver had barely grazed my side of the car, but it was enough to have screwed up the door.
Hands shaking, water beginning to fill the bottom of my car, I kept working on the door latch, but it didn’t budge. I was sinking in an icy lake, and nobody knew where I was.
I pushed and I shoved, and I finally let the tears fall.