Chapter 32
Strangely, Libby was not hungover, which was likely due to the vile drink Nina had forced down her this morning. She’d followed it up with waffles and bacon. After that, Libby had felt almost human. Except her chest. That still burned when she thought about Ryder.
“So, Libby, you going to keep hurting my brother?”
“I never wanted to hurt him, Sawyer.”
Lined up to run the third leg of the relay, Libby would much rather be huddled somewhere warm, inhaling coffee and thinking. Especially as Ryder’s eldest brother was running this leg for his family.
“Well then, make it right.” Sawyer wore a beanie pulled to his eyebrows, black sweatpants, and a thick black hooded sweatshirt. The T-shirt stretched over his sweatshirt had “Duke #1” on the front. He looked large and menacing, but she knew that was mostly a facade now. He was butter around his family, and especially Birdie.
“It’s not that easy, Sawyer.”
“Do you love my brother, Libby?” He leaned in close so no one could overhear them.
“I’m not talking about that with you.” He studied her closely, and whatever he saw on her face apparently pleased him. Sawyer nodded and then turned to talk to someone else.
“Car’s all done, Libby!” Bob called from the sidewalk.
“Thanks, Bob, I’ll collect it later,” she said, and then she would be driving straight to the thrift store to drop off her wedding dress. Libby wasn’t going to use it, and even if she did marry one day, it wouldn’t be in that dress.
“Have you seen your brother?” Red called to her from the sidewalk.
She shook her head, moving closer. “I thought he and my father would have left by now.”
“Nope. Sammy stayed and spent the night at ours.”
Libby stared at him for several seconds, working through what he’d just said. Samuel was Sammy, and he’d stayed the night at the Hecklers’ house. How was that even possible? she thought, thinking about her conservative, rule-following brother.
“He enjoyed a few more ciders and then helped in the bar until closing…. Okay, maybe ‘helped’ is a strong word, as he spent the night alternating between dancing with SJ and playing pool with the Hyland brothers. But he was there when we closed, so Dee and I took him home with us. He slept, and then this morning I had a long talk with him about family and how important they are.”
“I can see your mouth moving, but I can’t seem to comprehend what you’re saying,” Libby said. “My brother never drinks to excess, plays pool, or would dance with someone like SJ, and that’s not to say he shouldn’t,” she added, “just that he usually wouldn’t.”
“Your father left. Sammy stayed because your dad wanted him to talk some sense into you. Instead, I’m hoping we did that to him, Libby,” Red said.
The people in this town, she thought. They hadn’t known her long, but they still stood up for her, even if she’d lied to Ryder.
“Thank you for looking after my brother, Red, and I’m sorry again for not telling you who my family was.”
“It’s all right, Libby, we understand.” He smiled at her, the corners of his eyes crinkling. “Ryder will understand too. Just give him time. He’s a good man, don’t forget that.”
She made a sound between a sob and a hiccup, which had Red looking panicky.
“Get over there. The race has started,” he said. “You got this, Libster.”
She nodded, then hugged him and went back to her position between LouJean and Bradford, the lab tech and odd-jobs man in town.
“They’re coming!” someone called.
Libby focused on Cill, who was just behind Brody.
“What are they carrying?” she asked, squinting to get a better look.
“Shelly had a lot of square dance shoes, so we’re running with those as batons,” Bradford said. “Only in Lyntacky, am I right?”
Libby laughed, because how could she not? Her life was a hot mess right now, but watching Cill’s long legs head toward her while she clutched a shoe wasn’t something you saw every day.
“Right, focus now, Libster!” Red called.
I have a nickname in this town.
Brody winked at her as he sprinted up first and handed the black shoe with a red heel to Sawyer. Why isn’t he angry with me for hurting his brother?
“Libby, focus!” Cill said, arriving next. She carried a blue shoe with pink silk laces. She thrust it at Libby, and then she was off and running.
“Go, Libby!” Klaus and Lea Becker yelled. She waved to them.
At least the street didn’t appear icy.
“Faster, Libby!” Delores called out to her.
She started pumping her arms harder just as Sawyer elbowed someone, and the man stumbled sideways and fell to his knees in front of her. Libby hurdled him and kept moving. Someone drew level and tried to pass her, and she saw it was Jett Hyland.
“Hey, Libby.”
“Jett,” she gritted out as her lungs protested. The man wasn’t even breathless.
She saw Ryder then, standing tall beside Zoe. Beau Keller was there, too, and others. But it was Ryder she was focused on. She had to make him forgive her. Had to make him understand why she’d lied to him.
“Run, Libby!” Zoe yelled.
The distance wasn’t great but felt like a marathon to someone who hadn’t run faster than a jog in a long while. Ryder took the shoe his brother handed him, and his eyes met hers briefly before he turned and ran.
“Here.” Libby handed hers to Zoe, and she followed her brother.
Libby then tried to fill her lungs with air while she watched the tall body of the man she cared about run away from her. She really hoped that wasn’t a sign of her future and Ryder would at least talk to her again.
“Libby.”
She spun too fast and stumbled into Sawyer, who was breathing as hard as her.
“A-Andrew. What are you doing here?”
“Is he that asshole you were engaged to?” Sawyer whispered into her ear.
She nodded, her eyes on the tall, elegant man walking toward her.
They’d known each other for years, and their relationship and subsequent engagement had seemed a natural progression once, but not now. Now she knew what else there was to experience in life. Now she’d lived in Lyntacky with all its wonderful, warm wackiness and Ryder. Now she knew how to love.
“What are you doing, Libby?”
Andrew was a gentleman who, she realized now, did exactly what his parents and hers told him to. Like Libby, he had allowed himself to be controlled and manipulated.
“I-I just ran in a relay,” she got out of her still-heaving lungs. Libby could feel Sawyer’s large body beside her and wondered why he hadn’t gone to the finish line.
“We need to talk now, Libby.” Andrew was eyeing the eldest Duke nervously.
“I don’t think she’s got anything to say to you,” Sawyer said. “She said it all when she walked out on your wedding.”
Libby felt someone else move to her side then and saw it was Sydney Jane.
“Hurry, Andrew, I don’t want to stay here longer than I need to.”
“You brought your mother with you?” Libby asked, watching Dianne Lucas walk to her son’s side, looking immaculate as always in a head-to-toe rust-colored wool suit and matching overcoat. The woman was beautiful, and she had always made Libby nervous. With her was Simone, her driver and bodyguard. Large and intimidating, he stood at her back, as he always did. Andrew’s family had as much wealth as Libby’s, if not more.
“After your father gave me your location, Mother decided to come and help work out the logistics of our next move. We must ensure going forward there is no further scandal that will affect our families,” Andrew said, like this entire thing was a business deal, and she hadn’t run out on their wedding.
“There are no logistics to work out. I’m not marrying you, and I’m definitely not going back with you,” Libby said.
“Of course you are,” his mother scoffed. “Come along, we can’t talk here. You’ve made enough of an exhibition of yourself, Elizabeth. We may just be able to salvage things and have already spread the word you were having some kind of breakdown,” Dianne said.
She saw Samuel then. He was walking toward them clutching a to-go cup of coffee and wearing someone else’s clothes, because no way would they have ever been in his wardrobe. Red’s clothes, she thought, as they hung off him.
“Did you just say you told people Libby had a breakdown, and that’s why she walked out on her wedding?” Sawyer demanded. “When in fact the truth was that pathetic excuse of a man you call a son told her not to be in any photos that weren’t taken by the official photographer?”
“Who are you?” Dianne demanded. “And how dare you speak about my son like that!”
“Someone who doesn’t have to stand for your bullshit,” Sawyer said.
Dianne’s eyes narrowed, which was never a good sign for anyone. “I have no wish to speak with you. I’ve come to talk some sense into Elizabeth.”
“Yeah, well I have a few things to say,” Sawyer added. “Like how is it your weak-kneed excuse for a son is more worried about a scandal than why the woman he was going to spend his life with ran out of her wedding to him.”
Guilty color slid into Andrew’s cheeks at Sawyers words.
“Libby, do you want to go back with these people?” SJ asked her. She wore Libby’s old coat that she’d exchanged in the thrift store for a new one. She had to admit it looked far better on Sydney Jane’s figure than it had on hers.
Libby shook her head. “But I’ll handle this. Thank you,” she added. “You and Sawyer go on and see who won the relay.”
“I owe you, and I hate owing people, so I’m staying,” SJ said. “Hello, Samuel,” she then purred in a sultry voice.
“You don’t owe me anything, SJ,” Libby added, trying to imagine her brother dancing with this woman. She was so far away from his type, she could be an alien.
“Samuel?” Dianne Lucas said. “What happened to you?” She stepped back a few paces, as if Libby’s brother’s odd clothing choices could be catching.
“Let’s find somewhere to talk,” Libby said. They were drawing attention from plenty of people because if there was one thing Lyntacks loved, it was gossip. “Thank you,” she said to Sawyer and SJ, “but I’ve got this now.”
She walked away and knew Andrew and his mom would follow.
“Libby—”
“I’m not going back yet, Samuel, so if you’re going to side with the Lucases, then don’t,” she said as her brother moved to her side.
“You’re my sister. I’ll side with you even if I don’t agree with you.”
“That’s a first,” she muttered, walking until they’d left the people behind and had reached the side of Ryder’s cafe, which offered them some privacy.
“It’s freezing,” Dianne Lucas protested when Libby stopped.
“That’s okay, you won’t be here long and will be back on your private plane heading home soon,” Libby said.
“You look a disgrace, Elizabeth,” the woman said, ignoring her words. “It’s time to come home and stop this little tantrum you’ve been throwing.”
“I’m not coming back to Piedmont now, if ever,” Libby said before she ran out of courage. “I don’t want to marry you, Andrew, and that business in the church only confirmed what I’d begun to believe but wasn’t brave enough to acknowledge,” Libby added.
“I should punch you for that,” Samuel said, glaring at Andrew.
The shock on her ex-fiancé’s face mirrored her own. Her brother had never stood up for her like that before.
“Don’t speak like a heathen, Sameul, and of course Libby is coming home with us,” Dianne snapped.
“If Libby says no, she means no, so there will be no future wedding or union of the Caldwells and Lucases,” Samuel said.
His beanie was covering his eyebrows and pulled low over his ears, and she could honestly say she had never seen her brother look a little mean, but he was that right then.
“Don’t be ridiculous. It is what your father and I both want,” Dianne said dismissively. “You’ve had your little rebellion, Elizabeth, now enough is enough. You have embarrassed your father, but that will be forgiven in a few months once you and Andrew are married.”
“I know this is a hard thing to grasp, Dianne,” Libby said, finally plucking up the courage to speak to her ex–future mother-in-law like she’d always wanted to. “But this is not about you and my father. So leave Lyntacky now, and I’m being honest when I say this, I hope I never have to see you again.”
The woman’s mouth fell open.
“I’m sorry, Andrew, for leaving you at our wedding, but you should not have said what you did to me that day because it made me realize you would always put your mother before me.”
Which is something Ryder would never do. He would always love his family, but the woman he loved would be the person he gave his whole heart to.
“Libby, I’m sorry,” Andrew said softly.
“Do not apologize to her!” Dianne shrieked. “She humiliated us.”
“Be quiet, Mother,” Andrew said, delivering the second shock to her in as many minutes. “Because Libby is right. I have always allowed you to manipulate and control me. But we will discuss that another time. Right now, we are leaving, and will respect Libby’s wishes, which I’m not entirely sure anyone has done before.”
Andrew then leaned in and kissed Libby’s cheek. “I’m sorry,” he said, taking both her hands in his. “But I am glad you were strong enough to stand up for us. To walk away from what would have been a marriage where we liked and respected each other but there was no great love,” he added.
She smiled up at him. “Exactly. Be happy, Andrew, and find your great love. I want that for us both.”
“And you, Libby. Call me one day, because I would like us to still be friends.”
“I will. Take care, Andrew. I need to go now.” She had a sudden urge to find Ryder.
Libby walked away from her past, and she hoped into her future. She found JD and Zoe watching her a few feet away.
“All good there, Libby?” JD asked. “Need us to have a chat with any of those three down there locked in a heated debate?”
“Everything is okay. Thank you for caring.”
“Staying or going?” Zoe asked.
Libby felt a real smile for the first time in a long while. “Staying… I hope.”