CHAPTER TWO #2
His name, I found out, was actually Montgomery, Libby’s maiden name, but everyone called him Monty.
I thought it was a fucking terrible name, and I was grateful, for once, to have a stuffy, formal-sounding name like Edward.
At least my name was normal. Monty sounded like a game show host, a used car salesman, or a butler.
He had his mother’s looks, which I privately thought was good for him.
He was a handsome guy, even though there was a strangeness about him that took away from his looks.
I couldn’t place it; he just didn’t seem at home in his own skin.
Awkward, maybe. And everything about him seemed…
a little too pale or something. His hair was so blond it was almost white.
His eyes were blue, but they bordered on silver they were so light.
And his skin was almost pasty, like he never went out in the sun.
The total effect was odd, and I could see why he needed his parents to fix him up with a date.
I wondered what his sister’s best friend looked like. I couldn’t picture him with a beautiful dancer. Or anyone, actually.
Even though Monty looked like a faded image of his mother, for their sake I hoped all the Hart children had taken after her. Not that Garrison was ugly. He was just rough around the edges with features that all seemed slightly too large for his face. Even though his face was kind of big.
The music started and everything got quiet.
Libby leaned over to whisper to me as some ballet dancers came on stage.
“That’s our daughter there, the second from the right.
” I looked and was surprised to see that while she was beautiful, she looked much more like Garrison than Libby, with strong features, dark hair, and dark eyes.
I nodded. “She’s lovely,” I said, unsure of myself. I didn’t want to over compliment her after what Libby had said about marrying me off to her. But I didn’t want to offend her, either.
Libby beamed. I’d said the right thing.
“I’m glad you think so; Garrison has talked often about how he thought you two would hit it off.”
Dammit. Maybe I hadn’t said the right thing. An uneasy feeling, one I’d been fighting all day, came back with a vengeance. I wondered if I was in over my head with the Hart family. The vibe I was getting from them was… odd.
I took a deep breath and told myself to imagine the looks on my employees’ faces when they got a raise after I signed the Hart Family Farmers Market contract. That’s what I needed to concentrate on. Nothing else.
Suddenly, there was a shift in the music and another dancer appeared, seemingly one of the stars of the show judging by the audience’s reaction. My stomach flipped over as soon as I saw her. The world stopped around me, and all I could see was the woman in the spotlight onstage.
It was her. Cara Hargrave. I looked down at my program, flipping it to the names of the dancers, even though I didn’t need to verify it. I’d know her anywhere.
Libby squeezed my arm, and I wondered if she’d been trying to talk to me. She followed my gaze and frowned a little.
“That’s Nora’s good friend, Cara. She’s a beautiful girl and very sweet. Half the young men in attendance are here just to see her dance.”
I looked around, surprised. I hadn’t noticed how many men were in the audience until she pointed it out. Many of them appeared to be without dates and seemed to be staring at Cara.
“Garrison and I think she and Monty are just perfect for each other.” She said this loud enough for Monty to hear, as if alerting him to my interest, but she didn’t need to. I had caught the warning tone in her voice. She was letting me know nicely that Cara was off limits.
I looked at Monty quickly, but he wasn’t listening to his mother. He was staring at Cara, enraptured. There was no doubting the look on his face. He was completely smitten with her.
I broke out in a light sweat. I leaned over to Libby. “I actually know Cara,” I whispered.
Libby looked at me, startled. “You do?”
“Yes, ma’am. We grew up near each other in Wixby, Georgia.”
“Oh, how nice,” she said, but her face looked more concerned than anything else as she stared at me. It felt like she could read my mind and see how I felt, or had felt, about Cara. She glanced at Monty to see if he’d heard what I said. He was too busy staring at Cara to notice anything else.
Not that I blamed him.
I watched her every move for the rest of the ballet, even though I could feel Libby’s eyes on me from time to time. I wondered if she could tell how I was feeling.
Amazed. That’s how I felt. Cara’s talent blew me away.
I had known, of course, that she was an excellent dancer.
I hadn’t seen her dance since I’d been in high school, though.
Now? I was astonished. She looked like she was born to do this.
Every twirl, every leap, every smile at the audience was polished, perfect.
I was so distracted by how good she was, it took a while for the old ‘what if’ thoughts to take over my mind.
But during intermission, they came crashing in on me.
I’d be lying if I didn’t acknowledge to myself how often I thought of Cara.
I’d compared every woman I’d gone out with to her.
I’d yet to find anyone I’d felt even close to what I had for Cara.
Every time I thought I was over her, something would happen to make reality slap me in the face.
Whether I caught a glimpse of her sister Olivia, who could be her twin, and briefly lost my mind thinking she was Cara, or someone asked me when I was going to settle down, the result was the same; Cara’s was always the face that crossed my mind.
I couldn’t help but wonder sometimes what would have happened if my father hadn’t died.
Would Cara and I have gotten married? That’s what I’d been hoping for when I’d stood up to him and said I was moving to Charleston all those years ago.
Or would we have burned bright and fast, crashing before we could make it through the tumultuous college years?
I’d heard lots of stories of couples who’d gone off to school together completely infatuated with each other only to cave under the pressures of school, the availability of tons of beautiful, single people, or the inevitable changes that college helps bring about.
Would we have been one of the couples that made it?
I read her bio in the program. It was next to a stunning picture of her.
If I’d thought she was beautiful at eighteen, that was no comparison to how she looked now.
She was a gorgeous, fully grown woman. The bio stated that she’d graduated from the College of Charleston, where she’d studied dance.
She’d been a principal dancer for the Moonlight Ballet Company for the past two years.
Before that, she’d been a soloist, and had started in the corps de ballet with them while still in college.
The bio also listed lots of accomplishments and awards in dance that I knew nothing about, but it all sounded very impressive.
It didn’t mention her hometown or her family, but none of the other dancers’ bios did, either.
I smiled. Even though I had no right, I felt proud of her. She’d achieved everything she’d ever dreamed of.
She still went by Hargrave, and the Harts wanted her to marry Monty. That could only mean she was single. As I stared at the picture of her, I couldn’t help but think about what she’d probably say to me if she got the chance.
Though I couldn’t imagine Cara being mean. She was too good, too sweet.
Would she be at this party at the Hart estate?
My guess was yes. Was she about to get engaged to Monty Hart?
I looked at him again. His eyes followed her every move.
I wondered if they were already dating. He didn’t look like her type.
But then I realized the only person I’d ever known her to be with was me.
Was I comparing Monty to myself and finding him lacking?
That seemed conceited of me. Still, I couldn’t help but look at him and think Cara could do way better than this quiet, strange man sitting next to me.
Then a sick feeling washed over me at the thought of her with anyone. Of course, that was ridiculous considering I hadn’t even seen her since the start of that awful summer when we were both nineteen.
God—that was six years ago. How could I still feel jealous?
It didn’t make sense, but I definitely did.
Tonight was going to be interesting. I was getting so nervous just thinking about talking to her again.
What would she say to me? Would she still be mad at me?
Would she hate me? Would she pretend not to know me?
Would she actually have no idea who I was? Would she not even recognize me? Had I meant that little to her?
I tried slowing my breathing and distracting myself. These internal questions were making me anxious. The last thing I wanted was to be a ball of sweat and nerves when I finally talked to Cara.
If I got the chance to talk to her at all.
I’d find out the answers to my questions soon enough if she was at the Harts’ party.
I leaned back in my chair as the lights faded, signaling the end of intermission.
It wasn’t too hard to pass the time; I just watched Cara dance.
Somehow seeing the only woman I’d ever truly loved perform ballet in a revealing costume wasn’t too much of a hardship.
There was a point during the second half of the show where, for just a moment, I thought I’d made eye contact with Cara.
She’d even appeared to bobble a bit on her toe shoes before quickly regaining her balance.
But then it had been as if it hadn’t happened at all.
She’d beamed and twirled her way through the rest of the performance, earning a standing ovation at the end.
I must have been mistaken.
After the curtain dropped at the end of the show, I turned to find Libby Hart staring at me. “Do you know Cara well?”
I opened my mouth to deny it, but there was something about her open, honest face that made me spill the truth. “Yes. Or I did once upon a time,” I quickly amended.
She nodded and looked perplexed. Then she patted me on the arm as the rest of the theatergoers moved towards the exits. “Tell me all about it.”
“But… won’t Garrison be ready to leave?”
She huffed out a sigh but smiled. “He’ll talk to people half the night. I’ll have to remind him we’re entertaining at the house to get him to leave. So,” she settled in her seat, “how did you first meet Cara?”
I stared at the closed curtain for a moment before replying.
Then I turned to Libby. “I dropped a frog down the front of her dress at dance lessons one summer.”