26. Stella
Chapter 26
Stella
I went to a hotel last night after everything happened and did everything I could to think about anything other than Miles. It didn’t work…but at least I tried. Now I'm in Nashville and it's the night before we open. I should be happy. I should be over the moon that my dream is finally coming true, yet I'm having the hardest time not breaking down into tears because I'm doing this all alone—even if that’s what I wanted to do all along.
Well, not all alone. Kenzie will be running the bakery as my manager, so she's actually been the one making sure everything has been running smoothly and that we are ready to open. Before that, I still wasn't doing it alone since Miles had been helping me.
But now that he's not, it's depressing being here. I miss giggling with him in bed. I still miss the first night we were here, how incredible it felt finally being together. I think it was in that moment that I knew he wasn't just a hook-up. That’s the moment I knew this was going to be something difficult to walk away from.
I just wish he'd felt the same.
When I opened the door yesterday and Rex was standing there, I damn near slammed it in his face, and I would have had he not caught it with his foot.
But I wanted to pretend it wasn't happening, that it was all just a bad dream, and the next time I woke up, it would have never happened.
Instead, I watched my brother make the man I love choose between us before I could ever tell him how I really felt. The reality of everything—including the intensity of my emotions—hit me all at once, and I felt like the only thing I could do was run. I mean, at least that way it felt like I was making the choice, not like he was choosing my brother over me…again. So, I ran.
But now, I’m in Nashville all alone. Opening day is tomorrow and dammit…I wish I had Miles and my family here to celebrate. I’m so excited about this new location, but if I can’t share it with the people I love, share the memories and the experience, it takes away a lot of the happiness. I know I wanted to do this on my own, but I feel… sad .
Picking up my phone, I call my mom, who thankfully answers on the second ring.
“Sweetie, how are you? How’s Kenzie?” she says, and I can hear my dad in the background as they play some sort of card game, and just hearing both of their voices makes everything I’ve been holding in rise to the surface.
I told my parents that I was going back down to visit Kenzie for the weekend, I just didn’t explain that it was for the bakery and now I feel guilty.
Tears start to gather in my eyes, and I can’t swallow past the lump in my throat. “I need you,” I cry into the phone.
“What’s going on?” my mom says, and I can tell she’s standing up, probably pacing.
“I’m in Nashville but not just to visit Kenzie. Everything is a mess.”
“What do you mean? What’s going on? Can you start from the beginning?”
And I do. I tell her all a little about the Nashville bakery and how that’s been a nightmare, and I mentioned there was more—a lot more—but, most importantly, that I needed her here. I tell her how I wanted to prove that I could do something on my own, without the help of the Lockwood name but it was too messy to handle by myself. I fill her in on how Miles immediately jumped in to help with anything that I needed, but it became so much more.
Hindsight is twenty-twenty though.
Thankfully my parents are actual angels and promised to get on the first flight to be here by morning. The bakery wasn’t opening until noon for the first day, sort of a soft launch, and they wanted to make sure they had plenty of time to spend the morning with me first.
Later that night, I grab a cup of water and move over to the bed and lie down, putting some show on TV just for background noise. Rex has been texting me, trying to get me to talk to him, but I haven’t been able to bring myself to respond.
I don’t want to talk to him—at least not yet.
I hate that he felt like he has any say in who I date, and to make someone choose? That’s fucked up. I love my brother but dammit, right now I want to throat punch him.
I’ll get over it; I know I will. I just want to get through tomorrow, and then I’ll sort everything out.
Until then, I’m going to pout, wishing they were all here celebrating with me. But I guess this is the bed I made, and it’s time to sleep in it.
Opening day is wild.
My parents were able to get on a private jet so they landed around eight in the morning and came straight to me. My dad made me the biggest breakfast possible while my mom sat there and let me tell her the story, start to finish. It was emotional and I cried, especially when my mom told me she has always seen the way Miles has looked at me, but it wasn’t until recently that she started to notice I was looking at him the same way.
She told me to give it time, and that while my brother is wonderful, he’s also a hot head who sometimes just needs a minute to calm down.
I just wish my brother could see what my mom sees. Then maybe I wouldn’t be so sad, wishing Miles could be here to see everything he helped me create. I know he would be so happy for me; I can only imagine him standing there with my parents, looking just as proud. I’ve never seen my parents like this, especially after we walked into the bakery this morning. I couldn’t believe they remembered how much I loved this place from all those years back. They were even a little emotional when they heard all we had accomplished.
Now that we’re here, though, and everything is all set up and ready for opening day, it’s the exciting part.
Customers.
I just hope they love the signature cupcakes as much as I do.
Strawberry Champagne Cupcakes.
They are delicious, sweet, and full of illicit memories, but I still thought they’d be the perfect addition to the menu. Now I just hope I was right.
After Kenzie unlocks the door, I’m surprised to see people immediately start to come in, starting with…
“Sawyer?” I say, turning back to look at my parents who shrug, just as confused as I am while she walks over to give me a hug.
“Not us,” my dad says, hands in the air. “You made us promise to not tell anyone else and we didn’t.”
“Nope. Rex dragged us all here after he found out about the opening,” Sawyer says, pointing to where the rest of our friends come walking through the door—well, everyone except for Rex and Miles, although I'm not expecting the latter to show up, especially after I basically told him not to.
Everyone else comes in smiling, giving me hugs and telling me how beautiful the place is—obviously after yelling at me for keeping everything a secret. I bet this isn’t the last time I’m going to be hearing about this; I just hope they understand why.
Would I do it the same way again? No.
But I also had someone show me that it’s okay to let people help you. That it’s okay to let people do things for you.
Now I would probably call my family and tell them before I’ve even looked at a location, but I guess we will see if I ever get another opportunity.
When Rex finally comes in, I can tell he's nervous. Walking in slowly, he takes his time looking at everything, really admiring the work, the decorations, the wooden shelves we hung, before finally coming over to me.
“Hey, sis,” he says quietly, and I hate this nervous, unsure version of him. I hate him questioning being here when all I could think about yesterday was how much I wish my people could be next to me for this.
All of my people.
My family. My friends.
My Miles.
But I guess I'm going to be happy with two out of three.
“Hey,” I tell him, passing him a cupcake. “Thanks for coming.”
“I'd say thanks for telling me, but I had to do my own investigating to find out where you were. I was a little shocked to find out I'd be traveling to Nashville, but I guess I understand why you kept it to yourself.”
“Wait, you do?”
“Yeah. It was explained to me in a way I could understand on the flight over here. That…and why I'm such an idiot for the way I reacted to you and Miles.”
“Where's my brother and what have you done with him?” I deadpan, not used to my brother accepting fault so easily.
“Look, I know this sounds crazy, but I wasn't actually upset about you and Miles. I was tired of the secrets, and I just felt like they were becoming more and more frequent. When I realized you both kept a secret from me, I guess I sort of snapped.”
“Sort of?”
“Baby steps, Stella,” Rex grumbles. “Look, I don't want details, obviously, but Miles told me about the bakery and your apartment and everything you've been going through and well—how the fuck can I be mad at the man for being there for you when no one else was.”
“You guys didn't know.”
“No, we didn't. And you also could have told us. But you chose to tell him, and that tells me everything I need to know about the way you feel about him, and that's why I feel like such an asshole for the way I responded. You are both incredible people and would be lucky to have each other.”
I smile at him, but it’s hard to hear his words and spend today with my family and friends and not have him here. It almost makes me not want to be here either. I wish I was back home, in his arms, instead of here celebrating the grand opening with all these people.
I start to spin, looking for my phone, but when I turn around, my eyes land on the door as it opens, and Miles walks through.
My heart stops, yet it feels like it’s going a mile a minute as he stands there in the doorway, frozen, staring at me like he’s unsure what to do.
I can’t stop my lips from curving up as the biggest smile spreads across my face before running at him and launching myself into his arms.
“You came!” I giggle as he catches me, repeatedly kissing my face as he holds me tight, the feeling of comfort spreading through my body as every worry runs away now that he’s here.
“Truthfully, Rex didn’t exactly give me a choice. But that was mainly because I told him I wasn’t coming because I thought you wouldn’t want me to. He said that was nonsense and demanded I come.”
“He was right,” I tell Miles, before looking back at Rex and mouthing a quick thank you , which earns me a thumbs up from him and Sawyer before they go back to talking to my parents. “I hated that you weren’t here.”
Still gripping me tightly, he lowers me to the ground before his hands move to frame my face. “I hated not being here, baby. I thought I was doing what you wanted by giving you time, but I hated it.”
“I didn’t want time. I wanted to be the first choice, and it felt like everything that happened all those years ago was happening again,” I explain.
“I only paused because I couldn’t believe he was asking me to choose between you two. I didn’t want to just tell him to fuck off. I was trying to figure out how to tell him that, from now on, I will always choose you.”
“Well, I’m so glad you’re here. I really did hate you not being with me for this.”
“It was torture. I wanted to be here to help you, to celebrate with you. I love you, Stella, and I have for longer than I think I’ve even been aware of.”
Hearing him say those three little words makes all the pain of these last few days disappear.
“I love you, too, Mil—” His lips are on mine before I even finish saying his name.
Now this is perfect.
I know I didn’t mention my brother…or Miles…but I just couldn’t bring myself to do that over the phone . Besides, I almost feel guilty it happened this way, wondering if I had done things differently if it would’ve gone over more smoothly. Should we have told him earlier? It felt too scary, like there was no way it would turn out well, so it felt easier to keep it a secret.
My family. My friends. My love.
They're all here in this beautiful new bakery, a home away from home, and I think I'd be happy anywhere in the world as long as we were together.
“Let's go finish celebrating,” Miles says with a smile, grabbing my hand and tugging me back toward our friends. “Because after that, I'm taking you home.”
“Home? Kenzie lives upstairs now,” I laugh.
“No baby. Our home.”
I smile at his words, because as long as I'm with him, I'm already home.