Chapter 40 #2
She and Juliet were solid, now. In a way that almost defied logic, Juliet was the most stable place in her heart. And when they went back to L.A., they weren’t going to have to live a lie. They’d live discreetly, but not making up some sort of pretense.
They were going to figure it out. She felt sure about that.
She could feel the way Juliet’s fingers shook slightly with nerves, before she quickly leaned in and brushed her lips over Darcy’s. Just for a second, but it was everything, and Darcy felt herself smiling like a fucking idiot.
Juliet’s cheeks were dark and she was breathing heavily, like she’d run a marathon. But it was the first time she’d ever done anything like that, and Darcy was… she was honored.
With that, Juliet sharply nodded, and turned to walk toward the garage.
Darcy stared after her for a few seconds. Wow. Just, wow.
Blythe gutturally cleared her throat, making Darcy jump, turning to see her standing on the porch. Her sister was leaning against the railing, watching them.
It looked as though Blythe wanted to smile and tease her, but wasn’t sure if she should. If Darcy would be open to receiving it.
She slid her gaze from her sister’s, looking up at the house for several moments, before she trekked toward the stairs.
“You know,” she started, reaching the top step, and immediately turning to lean against the rail next to her sister, looking out at the land. “It really is something. Now that I can step back and think about it.”
Now that she had to mentally put up the divide between her and Blythe, now that she had to really face their different paths for the first time.
“What is?” Blythe asked.
“This.” She reached her hand out in front of them, waving it to encompass the farm.
How it looked with the sun starting to set in the distance over the trees.
“I mean… all the times we’d ride our bikes out here when we were little, and look at this place from the end of the driveway?
” Not just this house, but many of the other farms and sprawling residences out on the edges of town.
Houses. Not apartments or mobile homes. On their own land, where you couldn’t hear your neighbors fighting or hear their television over your own.
They’d ride their bikes around all day while their mom was either working or with one of her boyfriends or when she’d disappear for a couple of days doing god only knew what. And they’d talk to one another about what it must be like to live in a place like this.
She let herself settle into that feeling, in a way she hadn’t been able to before.
Even though she’d been happy for Blythe, she’d been unable to turn off the apprehension about what it would mean for them. For the group. For the future.
And now, she knew.
The thing she’d been worried about, how this was Blythe’s real future and that it wasn’t one with Darcy in We, The Romantics, was correct. Deep down, just like with Emerson, she’d known Blythe’s vision for her next steps were different than hers, and she just hadn’t known how to handle that.
But the future was now. And she was handling it.
“Darce, I just need to talk, and I need you to let me,” Blythe asserted, turning away from the land, focusing on her.
Darcy much preferred this kind of demeanor from Blythe to how she’d been the other night. Nervous to tell Darcy what was going on, unsure of how to talk to her.
“I know that you’ve had my not going to the University of Tennessee weighing on you for a long time.”
“Yeah, because you should have been able to. You got in on a full cheerleading scholarship. And–”
Blythe cut her off, exasperated, but grinning with it. “I said I’m going to talk right now.”
“Right.” Darcy closed her mouth, but couldn’t help that she did feel impassioned about that.
Yes, it weighed her down knowing that Blythe’s life could have looked very different, if she hadn’t chosen to stay behind for Darcy. It had added fuel to her fire to try to really make something of herself for a long time.
“No, I didn’t go to college. But who knows how my life would have been, anyway? I wasn’t going to break up with Colton; I’d have probably come right back to Pineford, anyway.”
Darcy stared, nonplussed, right back at her sister. But she didn’t interrupt.
“But, Darcy, you have always been meant for bigger things. Bigger than I ever was.”
Now, she couldn’t help but scoff. “Give me a break.” She wasn’t being derisive or negative; she was just stating the truth. “I’ve been trying to keep up with you from the day I was born.”
“Because I am your older, cooler sister, yes,” Blythe smirked.
Darcy leaned into her shoulder. “There it is.”
Something that felt normal.
Blythe’s smirk faded into an expression far more serious.
“Look, I’m not downplaying my own skills.
Attributes. Whatever we want to call it.
But what you have is – it’s different. I don’t know anyone who has what you have.
Not only your talent, not only the drive, but… you have never left me behind.”
That was not normal. The strain in her voice, thick with emotion.
Blythe’s eyes shined with tears that she reached up and quickly swiped away.
“I’m nowhere near capable of what you can do, and I never have been.
But you still always made sure we were a team.
You could have looked at Pineford – and me – and said fuck it a long time ago.
You could have left us in the rearview and tried to make it on your own; it might have been easier.
But you didn’t. I might have stood by you, but you gave it back to me, tenfold. ”
Darcy sniffed, feeling her own throat grow tight. She shrugged. “It’s not… I mean… I wanted you by my side.”
Especially once their mom had left, cementing herself even closer to Blythe and Emerson had felt like the most comforting, safest decision. They could all be in something together.
“And I had the time of my life being there. I really have. Emerson loves the music the way you do, but hates everything else. I don’t have that same passion for the music, but…
the kind of experiences we’ve had? That’s once in a lifetime.
Once in a very rare lifetime. And I’d never have had it without you.
” Blythe’s inhale caught audible in her throat, before she gestured out at the land the way Darcy had.
“This house that we dreamed about when we were kids? The dream wedding I never thought I’d be able to have?
The security neither of us ever had? The only reason I have any of it is because of you.
And I will always,” Blythe stressed, turning to grasp tightly at Darcy’s hands, making sure she stayed locked on her.
“Be grateful for you, for everything. You’ve made my life possible.
When I have kids, they’re not going to live the way we did, and it’s because of you. ”
Darcy’s breath shuddered out of her, tears dripping from her eyes as she somewhat fell forward, right into her sister.
No, they didn’t often get emotional in front of one another. They didn’t often become so vulnerable like this, as they both cried.
But they hadn’t had the luxury of that in their lives. And now… now, maybe they did.
“I love you,” she murmured, in a way they so often verbalized to one another.
Blythe tightened her hold around Darcy for another few seconds, before she pulled back.
“I don’t have the talent and drive that you do.
And – that’s okay. Because I want to be here.
I want to be with Colton, I want to have kids soon after we get married.
” She smiled softly at Darcy. “Your dreams are bigger than mine, and… Darce, I really hope you know that I would never leave you if I thought you weren’t going to have your dreams, even without me and Emerson.
I know that everything is only just beginning when it comes to your music.
In the last year, you met Shelby Linwood.
You’re on a soundtrack for a movie starring Kerrington Kosta.
You’re in a… dare I say, serious relationship?
With Juliet Jacobs. Who knows what else is next?
All I do know is that it’s not here for you. ”
Blythe’s words struck a chord through her, settling the frayed nerves she’d still had. Because she knew, without a doubt, that Blythe was right.
She’d reach out to Copper Canyon and discuss the situation. It didn’t have to end here.
“You’re right,” she verbalized, taking in a deep breath as she realized that she actually hadn’t told Blythe, “I’m going to L.A.”
“Yeah, you are. But I will, obviously, expect you back here for my wedding. Who else is going to walk me down the aisle?”
“I’d knock someone on their ass if they tried to take my place,” she half-joked, before sobering. “I will always be back here when you need me. Or just to visit.”
Hell, maybe she – they? – could eventually buy something in Nashville. That… that could really be something.
Darcy took a deep breath, aiming a serious stare at Blythe. “You have to promise me one thing.”
Blythe was already nodding. “Okay.”
“Wow.” She studied her sister, letting out a soft whistle. “You must still feel guilty as hell, because you never agree to a promise without knowing what it is first.”
Blythe knocked their shoulders together. “Just tell me.”
“You have to be the one to tell Eliana about what’s happening. I can’t face her with a bombshell like this.”
Blythe snorted in laughter, her body shaking with it. “I can handle that.”