Chapter 30
“Finch McAllister asked me on a date,” Nina said from her position in the swinging chair in her living area. She was eating one of the chocolate chip cookies Cill had baked.
“He’s hot and has that edge to him I like,” Cill said.
“The hard-assed edge,” Nina agreed.
Zoe Duke walked in then looking pissed off. Libby was on her second glass of wine, but if you added that to the two hot ciders she’d had earlier, it was more alcohol than she’d drunk in a long time.
“I know I shouldn’t say this, Libby, but what your father did, freezing your bank accounts, was really shitty,” Nina said as Zoe dropped down beside Phoebe.
“It was,” Libby agreed. She sat in a soft beanbag on the floor. It cocooned her in an embrace of small foam balls. She liked Nina’s house; it was an eclectic mix of styles with splashes of color, and she wanted to one day decorate her house just like it.
Nina was clearly one of those people who could make a space look good with ease, unlike Libby, who tended to overthink things. Her rooms in her father’s house were bland and colorless, which was no one’s fault but her own because she could have changed them.
“But it wasn’t my space.”
“Pardon, Libby?” Cill said.
She hadn’t realized she’d said the words out loud. “Nothing.”
“Sounded like something to me,” Zoe said.
That anyone related to Ryder would want to be near her had surprised Libby, considering she’d lied and hurt him.
“I’m sorry,” she said into her wineglass. “I never meant to hurt anyone.” She blamed the wine; it was making her chatty.
“By anyone, do you mean my brother?” Zoe asked.
“Down, girl,” Nina said. “She just said it wasn’t intentional.”
“So how about you tell us your story, Libby? It might help you through some of the turmoil you are clearly experiencing,” Birdie said.
Could she talk to these people she hadn’t known long but felt like she’d known forever? People she would never see again after she left. I don’t want to leave. The words slid into her head so fast, they made her dizzy.
Ryder was here, and she’d hurt him, and Libby doubted he was going to forgive her, which meant staying wasn’t an option.
“So talk,” Zoe said.
“You all know who my family is?” They nodded. “I was to be married to Andrew. Our families have known each other for years, and we’ve always been friends and gotten along well.”
“Well?” Nina demanded. “You don’t get along well with the man you’ve chosen to live your life with. It’s both hell and heaven, or so I’ve heard,” she said, looking at the loved up women in the room for confirmation. They nodded. “It’s never just well or comfortable, Lib.”
Libby and Andrew had been comfortable. Not too much emotion and mutual respect, which sounded boring now.
“When you see them walk into the room, you think, yes,” Birdie said, “he’s mine.”
“They frustrate you, and you want to slap them six ways to Sunday some days, but the others, they’ll look at you or see you across the room and smile, and you think, there he is,” Phoebe said.
“When you’re feeling like shit because it’s your monthly and you’ve had a fight and he walks in loaded down with supplies like chocolate and soda and puts on your favorite movie. Then he drops down beside you and says, ‘We done fighting?’” Zoe said, smiling.
“When you’re exhausted from working and one of your kids is sick and you’ve been up all night, so he gets up when they do and lets you sleep, then brings you breakfast in bed,” Cill added.
Libby felt the tears leaking out of her eyes at their words. This was love, the bad and the good. She would never have had that with Andrew. They never fought, and their lives would have been perfect. Perfectly empty.
“I walked out of my wedding because my fiancé pulled me aside at the church and told me to avoid any photos not taken by the professional photographer because he could remove any trace of this before printing.” She touched her scar.
“That bastard!” Phoebe said.
“Are you serious?” Zoe demanded. “Who does something like that?”
“I think I’d been feeling nervous and not realizing it. Feeling like I was trapped for days with no way out but didn’t know who to talk to about it. So his words were the catalyst for making me run,” Libby said.
“As you should have,” Phoebe said. “That was a lousy thing to ask of you, Libby. You know that, right?”
A knock on the door had Nina rising. It was Jonathan. He staggered in carrying a tray.
“So Caleb has gone to Ryder’s, and I’m here because we needed to know what was going on in both houses. Are you all right, darling?” he said to Libby after handing the tray to Nina. “Need a hug?”
“Y-yes,” she surprised herself by saying.
He dropped down before her and pulled Libby into his arms. She then cried loudly on his shoulder. “It’s all right, we’ll sort it, and even now Caleb will be doling out sage advice to Ryder.”
“Right, now sit, Jonathan. We’re just getting her story,” Cill said.
“Ooh, okay.” He took the wine Nina handed him and sat.
“I’ll recap. She had a shit weasel ex-fiancé who she got along well with but didn’t love,” Nina said with air quotes. Libby was never quite sure why people used those. She certainly hadn’t found a reason to. “He told her at the church to not be in any photos that weren’t taken by the professional photographer, as that scar she has on her chin was clearly offensive to him.”
Jonathan looked angry. “No offense, sweetie, but you dodged a bullet not marrying that one. Any partner who isn’t marrying you for more than your face isn’t worthy of you.”
Libby pressed the heels of her hands into her eyes to stop them from leaking more tears.
“Right, get yourself together and continue,” Nina said.
“I knew I c-couldn’t do it, and I also knew there was no one there who would understand, so I left. Found a door and slipped out. I took a cab to the hotel we were staying the night at. I grabbed the bag I’d packed to go on vacation with, and then I got a rental car and drove aimlessly.”
Libby remembered the terror mingled with relief that she’d walked away from her life.
“Okay, back it up. You’re an accountant for your daddy’s empire, right?” Zoe asked.
“Yes, but I wanted to be a chocolatier,” Libby said, deciding that she wasn’t lying anymore.
“I mean, for that name alone, I’d change careers,” Jonathan said. “Oh, you want to know what I do?” he added, placing a hand on his chest. “I’m a chocolatier.”
They all laughed at that.
“My life was good,” Libby said. “I had money for anything I wanted, but there were rules.”
“Like?” Phoebe asked.
“My father loves us but likes control, and more than that, he likes people to think he and his family are successful.”
“Well, duh, isn’t he already that?” Nina asked.
“Yes, of course, but he wants all the Caldwells to play their part in the united facade we present,” Libby said. Now that she’d started talking, she didn’t seem able to stop. “They chose accounting for me. My brother has a Bachelor of Business Administration and is the vice president of Caldwell Candies.”
Jonathan whistled.
“My eldest sister, Katie, is Caldwell’s lawyer, and my youngest sister, Savannah, is studying to become the director of project management.”
“I can’t imagine what it was like growing up with all those brains in one household,” Birdie said. “My family is a crazy mix of things, and all our careers were chosen without parental help. I mean, you know my parents, right? They would have been happy if we’d stayed home and danced naked around the house.”
“Again, though,” Jonathan said, “what does your brother Lynx do, Birdie? Oh, he’s a rock star. Seriously cool.” He popped a grape into his mouth from the loaded charcuterie tray he’d brought.
“So you Caldwells are really smart. What else you got?” Zoe asked. “Because my brother is hurting, and I usually slap first when that happens, but I’m giving you a chance to explain because I like you.”
Libby had never been angry enough on behalf of one of her siblings to want to slap someone, and that made her feel sad. Because deep down inside her, she had always felt a need to belong.
And that was what she loved about Ryder. He made her feel like she belonged in his cafe, his home, and… his life?
“Not everyone grows up like an episode of Full House ,” Libby said.
“What?” Nina frowned.
“No way, have you never seen Full House, ” Johnathan gasped. “I wanted Jessie to be my uncle for years.”
Cill saluted him with her glass. “I hear you.”
“Anyway,” Zoe said. “Carry on, I’m feeling less stabby now.”
“Stabby?” Birdie asked, and Zoe pulled a fake knife out of its sheath.
“Our life was good, but… emotionless,” Libby said. “Fake,” she added, realizing it for the truth.
“So you left your a-hole ex, who will only ever be that,” Johnathan said, giving Libby a hard look, “and then what?”
“I drove around aimlessly spending the cash I had because I knew my card transactions could be checked. I also left my phone behind and got a burner one?—”
“Oooh, like a criminal. Nice,” Phoebe said.
“You are not writing her into your next book,” Cill said.
“I’ll change her name.” Phoebe waved a hand about.
Phoebe was a well-known author, and Ally had told Libby that both she and Brody were very proud of her. Libby couldn’t remember a time when her family had told her they were proud of something she’d done.
She put her wine on the table because it was making her sentimental and pathetic.
“Besides, most of you are in books in some form or other,” Phoebe added.
“Awesome!” Jonathan punched the air. “I hope you made me really hot.”
“Really hot,” Phoebe said.
“Anyway,” Zoe said loudly. “Back to Libby and her story.”
“I drove into a town not far from here?—”
“Not that crap hole Sauce?” Nina asked. “Doesn’t hold a candle to Lyntacky.”
“All of you shut up and let Libby talk,” Zoe snapped.
“Yes, that one. But I’d run out of cash, so I thought I’d get some out of the bank and then keep moving so no one could find me. My dad has a jet, so he can fly anywhere fast.”
“I’d love my own jet.” Jonathan sighed.
“And I ended up in Lyntacky, where my car only just made it, then broke down. Ryder was the first one I met. He tapped on my window and asked if I needed help.”
“That’s my brother. He always puts everyone before himself,” Zoe said. “Now tell me if you love him, Libby.”
“Ah—”
“We’ve talked about this, Zoe,” Phoebe said. “Tact. You work up to asking questions like that.”
“You’ve met my brothers who helped raise me, right? Tact is not a word they understand.”
Birdie sighed.
“So do you?” Zoe demanded.
All eyes swung to look at Libby, who was now so low in the beanbag, she was almost horizontal.
“Give her some water and food. That girl is not used to alcohol, and we need her on her game tomorrow,” Cill said.
“Well?” Zoe demanded.
“Yes,” Libby whispered, allowing Jonathan to prop her upright again. “Yes, I think I do love Ryder, but that doesn’t mean?—”
“Yes is enough for now. We’ll work on the rest,” Nina said.
“Tell me you never loved that shit weasel ex?” Cill asked.
“I should have because he was perfect for me, but?—”
“He was perfect for your daddy, not you,” Jonathan said.
“So let’s make a plan on how you can get my brother to talk to you.”
“’Kay,” Libby said, feeling her eyes flutter shut. It all suddenly felt like too much for her to think about, and then she couldn’t.