6. Kylie
Chapter 6
Kylie
“A re you done flirting with your ex-boyfriend?” My sister’s sarcastic tone doesn’t go unnoticed as I take the seat next to her. Another week passed where Patrick was home for two days before flying back out to take care of ‘work stuff’ with his dad. Another weekend is upon us where he said he’d be home for dinner on Friday, and now he's saying he won’t be back till Monday. And don’t even get me started about the fact that I had to cancel our second, well, technically his first, wedding planning meeting.
“Are you done staring at the guy you pretend to hate?” She purses her lips and turns away from me. “I can see right through you even if you’re not looking at me, ya know. You need to get over it and give Danny another chance.”
She turns to me, wide-eyed. “What! Are you crazy? Another chance to play jokes on me? Pick fights with me? He made me insane.”
I grab the drink the bartender puts down in front of me and twirl the glass. “Crazy in love.”
“Whatever.”
“Also, I was not flirting, I was making sure he found my notes about the event. Have you done your part?”
She scoffs. “Of course I’ve done my part. The town loves this winery and they just want an excuse to get together. There isn’t much to do when the love is already there.”
“I’d like to do something to honor his uncle. Any ideas?”
She side-eyes me with a smirk. “You're doing a lot to make sure this wine event is great for him.”
I shrug, sipping from my drink, refusing to look at her. “I know being back here is hard for him.”
“Hard for him, or hard for you seeing him here?”
I wave my hand. “I know Matt. Once he got a taste of life outside of this town, I knew he wouldn't come back again.” No matter what we had said . “So after all this time of being away, I can only imagine he’s going through a rough transition right now.”
She smiles at me. “Do you know why I love you?”
“You’re my sister and it’s in the rule book.”
She laughs, “That too. But it’s because you're always thinking of others first. Even with all the turmoil in your own head right now, you still have the biggest heart for everyone else.”
I love my sister. She always makes me feel okay with whatever I’m doing. If pulling her in to plan this wine event ends up with her getting a full-time job at the winery, that’d be amazing. She deserves to do what she loves. And having her there would help alleviate some of the stress for Matt. Everyone is in a win-win situation.
Except me.
“I overheard Patrick talking to his father about starting up a secondary office out west. He wants to move there eventually. I thought he just wanted to go back to the city, which is bad enough, but no way could I move across the country.”
She turns to me with concern in her eyes. “I can tell by your tone of voice you're not happy.”
I let out a frustrated breath. “How can I go through with this wedding?”
“You don't have to. If you’re not happy, stop this now.”
“And what's that look like? If I end things?”
“It looks like you’re standing up for yourself and not going to settle.”
I shake my head. I don’t want to hurt Patrick, but even he has to know it hasn’t been good for some time. “We haven't had sex in over five months.”
“What?” My sister turns to me with wide eyes.
“It's actually probably longer than that but..” My words trail off.
“Why not?” she asks quietly.
I shrug. “He's away a lot. We’ve been bickering a lot. I’m not one to push that aside just to get into bed with him.”
“And he’s okay with this? You're hot. How could he be near you and not want to have sex?”
I laugh at her. “Thank you for that. You’re the first person to tell me in quite some time.”
She looks at me with pity in her eyes, and I realize just how ridiculous this whole thing has been. “Oh, Kylie. I had no idea it was this bad.”
“Honestly, I didn’t either until I started saying it out loud.”
We sit quietly while the bar is rowdy and happy around us. “I feel like I just need to say these feelings are not because Matt is back. You know I’ve been feeling this way for some time and considered calling things off before.”
“I do know that. And Kylie, I would never think that.”
“But the town might.”
“Screw the town!” I laugh at her boisterous outburst which turns some heads. “I’m going to tell you something and you can’t get upset.”
I furrow my brows. “Probably can’t get worse than it is.”
“The town doesn’t exactly like Patrick. I mean, they’re nice to him because you’re dating him, but if it wasn’t for you, he wouldn’t be here and they wouldn’t be upset.”
I let out a long slow breath. “I’ve made a big mess.”
“Kylie, you’re my sister and I love you, but there is no mess here. Be the woman I know you to be. Where’s the one who loves abrupt changes? Being stuck isn’t you!”
I twirl my glass on the bar. “I don't know where she is anymore.”
She turns on her stool to face me, placing her hands on my knees. “Well I do. She’s sitting right in front of me. You’re the woman who decided she wanted to learn to play guitar after watching Walk the Line .”
“I’m not half bad either.”
“You’re the woman who bought tickets to the playoff game for our hometown football team.”
I wave my hand in a dismissive manner. “I love football, that’s not a crazy thing to do.”
“They were playing in Arizona,” she drawls. “You hopped a plane and called me from the game.”
“That's being spontaneous. It’s not uprooting my life and someone else’s.”
She takes my hand and says, “Some things need to be uprooted so new things can bloom.” She turns from me and I follow her gaze to Matt.
My body stiffens. “No. Stop it right now. I cannot end an engagement and jump into a new relationship the same weekend.”
“So you wait a week.”
“Sadie.”
“Ky, I'm kidding with you. Buuuut it’s not new when you've known him all your life.”
“I haven’t seen him in years.”
“So, it seems to me like you could pick right up where you left off.”
I watch him from across the bar, smiling and laughing with Danny. It’s been so long since I saw his face light up, and it’s then I realize I’m wrong about that. This is the same look he had when he saw me walking into the winery last week. He catches my eye and gives me a wink before continuing his conversation with Danny again.
And I’m in big trouble.