Chapter 35
35
DAISY
Twin: Do you not love me anymore? Am I nothing to you?
Twin: I knew I shouldn’t have let you out of my house. Now that you’re free, you’ve forgotten about me.
Twin: You’ve given me no choice. I’ll be showing up sometime when you’re not expecting a visit.
Johnny’s texts flood my phone a few minutes after Delaney and I order our lunch. I read them between sips of iced tea and roll my eyes before replying.
Me: I love you too, J.
“Do you have any siblings, Della?”
My friend uses her straw to mix the whipped cream piled on top of her milkshake deeper into the glass.
“I have a younger brother.”
“How old is he? And is he as needy as my brother, or is that just a twin thing?”
Her lips twitch. “Is that who was making your phone light up? Grayson is twenty-five.”
“Wait, how old are you? I can’t believe I haven’t asked you that before!”
“I turned thirty a couple of months ago.”
“Oh, so a few years older than me. It feels like we could be the same age.”
“I’ll take the compliment,” she says, taking a sip of her milkshake.
The milkshakes from the Rustic Ridge diner are really good. I remember getting one every weekend until I turned fifteen and realized how badly that much dairy upset my stomach. That’s when I found an uncurable addiction to iced tea.
“To answer your question, yes, it’s Johnny that’s blowing up my phone. He’s feeling a bit unloved because of how busy I’ve been the past couple of weeks. Honestly, I’m not used to being home so much anymore. It’s more difficult to balance life and work and relationships than I remember from before I left for school. I used to come home for the summer, but I was staying at my parents’ house, and having a girlfriend wasn’t really anything I had to work my life around,” I admit, dumping my entire life story on my poor friend.
Delaney doesn’t seem to mind, at least. She offers me a soft, understanding smile and pushes her drink away with her knuckles.
“I get it. And I don’t think it ever gets easier. At least not while you’re surrounded by so many people. I haven’t had that issue in quite a while now.”
“Why? You’ve just been keeping to yourself?”
“You could say that. It’s been a long time since I’ve had to share my life with anyone.”
I tongue my cheek, debating whether or not to say the words that have formed on my tongue. It could be how much time I’ve spent around Bryce that’s encouraged me to be more honest, or maybe it’s just the type of person I’m growing into. Either way, I decide to go with my gut.
“When was the last time? Was it . . . with Darren?”
Hesitation flashes in her gaze as she looks up. I keep my expression open and honest, hoping she can tell that I don’t mean any harm with the question. I’m just unbearably curious recently. Especially after speaking with Bryce and learning little bits and pieces.
Della inhales a long, heavy breath before snatching her cup back and taking two long drags of the milkshake. Once she’s done, she drags the tip of her finger through a piece of icy snow on the table that’s fallen from the side of her frozen cup.
“Bryce has told you about me and him, hasn’t she?”
“Only because I asked. She didn’t tell me too much. Nothing specific. I wanted to hear it from you, whenever you were comfortable sharing,” I rush out, my cheeks so hot they have their own heartbeat.
“It’s okay. I know Bryce isn’t the type to gossip. She never was.” Delaney tucks her hair behind her ears and then spreads the melting ice along the edge of the table. “Darren is my past. I’ve tried not to let that time of my life dictate my present and future, so no, the last time I shared my life with someone was not Darren.”
“Is it too early in our friendship to ask what happened?”
She tries to smile, but it looks more like a wince. “I’m too embarrassed to tell you the entire story. But the short version? I was young and in love with a boy who wasn’t meant to be my forever.
“It was naive love, the kind where you thought the world started and ended with them before you had barely even stepped one foot into it. One day, I was sure I was going to marry my childhood sweetheart, and the next, I was coming home after my final year of university to learn the reason he’d cut me off months before was because he got someone else pregnant. We agreed to take a break while I was gone, but I should have known better than to hope we’d be able to pick things back up afterward. Like I said, I was naive.”
My stomach sinks, the pain in her voice so evident it’s like I can feel it carving a hole into my chest.
“I’m sorry, Della. That’s . . .” I shake my head, unsure what to say.
She offers a weak smile. “It’s okay. It was a long time ago. I’ve made peace with it.”
But has she? Because the haunted look in her eyes tells a completely different story. And who can blame her? I don’t know the whole story, and it’s not my place to search for more of it, but come on? From what Bryce told me, in addition to Della, my heart hurts for the young girl who was broken by the knowledge that the boy she loved had moved on with someone else and, worst of all, gotten her pregnant.
From the handful of times I’ve met Abbie in passing and spoken to her at school, it’s obvious she’s a sweet, kind girl. But how does seeing her every day at school make Delaney feel when it was a life with Darren that she had pictured for so many years?
I take a long, long drink of iced tea to clear the ball of emotion in my throat.
She laughs weakly, waving a hand through the air. “Please don’t pity me. I’m fine, truly. It all happened a long time ago.”
“I don’t pity you, Della. But I am sad for you. I can’t begin to imagine what that was like. How could you stay here? Cherry Peak is so small.”
“My life is here. My job and family. I wasn’t going to be run out of town because I made a mistake,” she says, tone growing sharper with every word.
I nod, letting it drop before I touch too raw of a spot.
“Well, on a bit of a happier note, I wanted to invite you to a pole class with me and Bryce this weekend. Obviously, you don’t have to come, considering Poppy will be instructing, and, well, she’s obviously Darren’s sister. But I thought it could be fun to get out of town and have a bit of a girls’ day if you were up to joining us? You don’t have to worry about being new to it or anything. So am I!”
“What day?”
“Sunday? We can pick you up on our way out of town?”
A contemplative pause. “They don’t mind if I come along?”
“Nope! When Bryce brought it up to Poppy, she seemed really excited.”
After I convinced Bryce that it was a good idea in the first place. It’s not that she didn’t want Della to come, but she didn’t see the appeal of losing time that was supposed to be just for us. Not to mention her worry about my tattoo. It’s been healing up well over the past couple of days, but she’s such a mother hen.
She was putty in my hands once I straddled her lap on the couch and kept her there for another hour, lips locked?—
“Alright. If you’re sure I won’t be third wheeling or anything,” Delaney says.
My grin is instant as I clap loudly. A few of the people around the diner turn to look at me, and I ignore them. If they wanted to dine in complete silence, Rustic Ridge wasn’t the place to choose.
The diner belongs to Kiki’s family, and they never meant for it to be a quiet place but one for families and happy chit-chat.
Speaking of Kiki, she comes rushing to our table with a plate in each hand. We move our drinks and napkin-wrapped cutlery out of the way for our food.
“A grilled cheese with a garden salad,” Kiki announces, sliding the first plate in front of me. The second is set in front of Della. “And a veggie burger with onion rings.”
“Thank you,” Della says.
I look up at my best friend. “Sit for a minute?”
“If you insist.” Kristen slides into the booth beside me and lets out an exhausted sigh. “How much of your lunch break do you have left? ”
I check the time on my phone, a new text from Johnny flashing. “Twenty minutes.”
It only took three minutes to get here and another fifteen to get our food. Quick service is a bonus when it comes to living in a small town.
As long as we’re anywhere other than Peakside on a Saturday night. Then it’s like every person in town and two hours outside of it has come in for a drink.
Delaney squirts extra ketchup onto her burger before taking a bite of it. I opt out of ketchup and eat my grilled cheese dry.
“Classes are going good?” Kiki asks, the question not directed specifically at either one of us.
Della finishes her bite first. “It’s hard to not enjoy your days when the kids are so cute. Even if they can be total assholes sometimes.”
“I don’t think we’re supposed to call kids assholes, Della,” I tease between bites.
Kiki reaches for my iced tea and drinks from the side of the glass before saying, “Why not? I’ve known some real asshole kids. Two of them are my nephews.”
Della laughs, unrolling the napkin around her cutlery and using it to dab at the ketchup that’s streaked over her mouth.
“We can think it, at least.”
“Fair enough,” Kiki agrees.
An older woman around Eliza Steele’s age lifts her hand and waves at us, and Kristen pats the table. I give her a quick side hug before she slips from the booth.
“I’ll text you later, Didi. And I’ll see you around, Delaney.”
Delaney nods, and I watch Kiki leave before tearing my teeth into my grilled cheese.
“She’s a nice girl,” Della notes.
I hum past the food in my mouth, and she snorts a laugh.
“Is she coming this weekend too?”
With a forceful swallow, I shake my head. “No. She works here pretty much every day. ”
“I haven’t seen Poppy in a long time.”
“Not even at Peakside?”
“I don’t go there,” she says quietly.
I shrug and focus on appearing nonchalant, even as a weight boulders my chest. “It’s crowded and loud, anyway. And they upcharge for drinks.”
“Thank you, Daisy. You don’t have to try and downplay the place for my benefit, though,” she says, seeing straight through me.
“I’m sorry.”
“How about you tell me a bit about Bryce and Poppy? I’ve missed a lot, I’m sure.”
“Okay, well, first, Poppy’s dating someone, and it’s pretty serious.”
“I heard about that. Cherry Peak grapevine and all that. He’s not from here, right?”
“Not in the slightest. He’s from Toronto. A city boy through and through.”
Our conversation goes on until both of our plates are scraped clean and we’re paying the bills. We avoid any and everything to do with Darren, and by the time we’re heading back to the school, I think she’s feeling a bit more confident in her decision to join us this weekend.
I just can’t wait to finish the day.
Seeing Bryce once the final bell rings is the only thing on my priority list, and I think I love that.
I’m falling in love with her more every day. And I don’t think I’ve ever felt such excitement for the future than I have with her by my side. A future that she’s now a focal point of.
I just hope that once I finish making the fall, she’ll be there waiting to catch me.