Chapter 17 #2
Sydney was enchanted. That was the only way to describe it, as she watched the rise and fall of Reese’s chest. How her hair was a little disheveled from her shower last night, when she’d gone to bed without drying it.
The way she’d do anything for her mom, even though that one had really ended up a boon for everyone involved.
Which was why it was so easy for her to say, even if Reese needed to get up soon to work, “I don’t want to get rid of you at all.”
Sydney had fallen back asleep after Reese left. When she finally emerged from her bedroom hours later, she wasn’t expecting to see Hallie sitting on the sofa, staring absently at her phone.
“Surprised you’re not out living your best life with your morning off.” She picked up the coffee pot and poured an overly full cup of the steaming liquid, taking a few extra seconds to infuse her senses.
A jolt of caffeine and a few orgasms had her feeling better than she had in months—at least until she looked at Hallie again and clocked her vacant stare for the second time.
“You okay?” she asked, sitting down next to Hallie on the sofa. She tapped her foot against Hallie’s leg when she didn’t get an answer. “I’m going to get progressively more annoying, so please just know that.”
Hallie shot her an annoyed look, which wasn’t like her. At all. “Can’t a woman lament in peace?”
“Not on my watch.” If Hallie was struggling, Sydney wasn’t going to leave her flapping in the wind.
“My parents closed on their house in Colorado.”
“And you’re having feelings about this?”
Hallie sighed and shifted her body so that she was sitting cross-legged. “It’s all real now, you know? I think before I was deluding myself into thinking they were just on vacation or something.”
“I’m sorry, Hal. I didn’t know you were struggling with this.” Sydney had dropped back into Stoneport and quickly picked up with her own dramas, leaving Hallie to completely fend for herself. The guilt hit her like a brick to the stomach, and she leaned back against the sofa with the weight of it.
“It’s just, like, how much more settled can a family be than owning an inn in a charming coastal town? I never really planned for the possibility that they’d sell it or that my entire family would pick up and move to Colorado.”
“Do you want to go to Colorado with them?”
“Not really. You know I’m not exactly an outdoor enthusiast,” Hallie said with a self-deprecating smile.
Sydney ran her fingers along the back of the sofa to soothe herself. She’d hate it if Hallie moved to Colorado, but her best friend had never given Sydney an ounce of guilt over following her own dreams. “I’m sure there are other things to do there if you want to be close to your family.”
“I think the problem is that I don’t know what I want.
I’m twenty-eight years old, and I feel like I have no idea where my life is going.
My family moved away. I’ve never had a serious relationship.
I’m staying on at this job, but what happens after that?
You’re going to leave Stoneport at some point, which means my social circle that’s not confined to coworkers will be back to zero. ”
Those were all fair points, and the guilt made her stomach clench again. But still… “I really have no idea what I’m doing or where Stoneport fits into it. Not that me saying that is really helpful right now.”
“I know, and it’s okay that you don’t know what you’re doing.
The point is that you’re trying to figure it out.
Trying new things. Putting yourself back out there.
I feel like I don’t know how to do that.
What I feel like…” Hallie stilled, working to find the right words.
“I feel like I’m just a side character in other people’s lives. You know what I mean?”
Sydney nodded. “That’s how I felt in Grant’s life, when I found out about Brynn.
But Hallie”—she grabbed her best friend’s hand—“you are so much more than that. Smart and funny and lovable and truly, the best friend in the world. If you want to put yourself out there, I want to help you do that. If you want to take a few weeks and go visit Colorado, I’ll be happy to pick up the slack with Reese. ”
Hallie lifted her eyebrow.
Sydney laughed. “Yeah, I can’t say Reese would want to agree to that, given it would really be the blind leading the blind, but we’d manage. For you, I’d make it work. Because your happiness and life are just as important as anyone else’s.”
“She must think you’re phenomenal in bed if you think she’d consider something like that,” Hallie teased.
Sydney could feel a faint blush spread across her cheeks. “It’s not like that. ”
“These walls are most definitely not as thick as they should be—you should really have Reese look into that—and judging by this morning, it most definitely sounded like that.” Hallie, in a very Hallie fashion, aggressively waggled her eyebrows.
“I really like her, Hal.” There was no point in lying about it to herself or her best friend.
“Well, if she adds another plus in the ‘spend more time in Stoneport’ column, then I am all for it!” Hallie said at the same time she slapped Sydney’s leg.
“Yeah? You don’t think it’s weird that she’s Grant’s sister?” Sydney had mostly gotten over that little inconvenience, but with every step forward they took, it cropped up in her mind.
“It seems like you’re the one who thinks it’s weird,” Hallie challenged.
“I try not to think about it, but this whole thing literally started because of him.”
“He only gets the power you give him,” Hallie said sagely. “Does she make you happy?”
Sydney nodded, a smile blooming across her face when she thought about how much she looked forward to seeing Reese. Talking to her. Getting lost in her touch. “Ecstatic.”
“And does she treat you right?”
“Yeah, she does,” Sydney said wistfully, thinking about how attentive and supportive Reese had been since they’d met. “Even from the start, when she agreed to go along with the fake dating to make Grant mad.”
Hallie held her hands under her chin and batted her eyes at Sydney. “And look how far you’ve come. Is it serious?”
“I—” Sydney knew she was falling for Reese. Knew it in her bones, could hear it in her own voice when she said, “I want it to be.”
“Man. Your mom’s going to lose her mind.”
Sydney groaned. “I know. She saw me at my worst, when I threw myself into tennis to get over what Grant had done. Getting over Grant himself didn’t take much effort.”
“Yeah, because he’s a doofus. You were always too good for that nepo baby,” Hallie said with conviction.
Now, it was Sydney’s turn to lift her brows.
“They are not the same! Reese is hardworking and built her own life. Yeah, she’s had the advantage of privilege, but she didn’t spend her life riding her father’s coattails.”
“Wow, Hallie. Tell me how you really feel,” Sydney said sardonically.
“It wasn’t my place to tell you that I thought that you could do better than Grant. You seemed happy, and if you were happy, then I was going to be happy for you.” Hallie flashed her a cheesy smile.
Sydney knew, in retrospect, how she’d gotten into this situation. “I liked that he didn’t put pressure on me when my career needed to come first but also that I had a plan already lined up for what came after it.”
Hallie fake-swooned. “How romantic.”
Sydney pointedly ignored her comment, which Hallie had to see coming.
“But this thing with Reese, it’s like a live wire.
I want her and I’m drawn to her and she makes me feel like a better version of myself.
And it’s still so new, but I want to talk to her about the decisions I’m making and to have her be on board with them.
Is that crazy?” Sydney asked, genuinely wanting an answer.
Because she’d started feeling a little crazy the past few weeks.
“No crazier than your last month,” Hallie batted back before her stare softened, probably because she saw the genuinely stricken look on Sydney’s face. “Look, you were so focused on your career for so long, and that’s okay. Now, if you want to focus on other things, that’s okay, too.”
“She encouraged me to accept the interview for the commentator position.”
Sydney had told Hallie about it when she’d gotten the offer, though they hadn’t gotten into what she’d been planning to do. Hell, when Sydney had told her, she hadn’t known what she was going to do .
“Seems like she doesn’t want you to have any regrets either.”
Sydney cocked her head to the side. “Explain.”
“I’m sure she doesn’t want Stoneport to be the place you stay—even if it’s with her—because you’re too afraid to put yourself back out there.”
Hallie stood up then and walked over to the coffeepot to pour another cup. “It seems like she has your best interests at heart, and I think that, whether she and Grant are related or not, –is what sets them apart. At least from where I stand.”
“You know what, Hallie? I need to run an errand,” Sydney said, popping into a standing position and bouncing in place.
Reese had been looking out for her every step of the way since they’d met, and now, she needed to do the same.
“I didn’t know you were coming by today.” Rachel King looked up from her newspaper, the reading glasses she’d only started wearing in the last few years perched low on the bridge of her nose.
It was a startling reminder to Sydney that her mom wouldn’t always be around. That while Sydney was getting older, so were her parents.
Still, it didn’t change why she was here. She wanted to make sure that she could share with them the best parts of the new life she was building.
The side door, which everyone used at Aunt Nancy’s, opened directly into the kitchen, her older Cape Cod house filled with thirty years of memories.
Sydney sat down at the round kitchen table across from her mom. “Where’s Aunt Nancy?”