Chapter 4
four
H ad she made a mistake?
Kneeling on the hard floor of Lettie’s studio, Rosalyn watched the evening shadows cross the familiar space. Maybe she’d been too hasty in agreeing to do the circus.
Or maybe she’d been too hasty in coming home.
If this even was home anymore.
Drawing a deep breath, Rosalyn ran her hands over the red silks that had taken up a large portion of her suitcase, trying to conjure the peace the fabric usually brought. A dozen memories flitted through her mind. Once upon a time, she’d been at home in the air, her happy place. A shooting star.
But ever since she woke up in that hospital bed in Saudi Arabia, she felt more like a caged bird.
“Knock, knock.” A female voice sounded from behind.
Rosalyn glanced back. Elisa Bergeron. “Hey. Wow, it’s been a while.”
“I heard you were in town.” Elisa slipped in, catching the door so it shut softly behind her. She tucked her blonde hair behind her ears, her grin contagious. She hadn’t changed much from senior year, her trim figure clad in a tank and jeans boasting some sort of sauce-looking stain on the legs. “Haven’t seen you since graduation—in person, anyway.” She hunched her shoulders, sheepish. “I follow you on social media.”
“So I have at least one fan, then.” Rosalyn grinned back as she stood. “Madame Paulette isn’t here. She’s just letting me rig my silks to train.” Weird she brought them, honestly. Wasn’t she supposed to be resting? Healing?
Hiding?
“You’re doing the circus, then?” Elisa raised her eyebrows.
“That’s the rumor.”
“It’ll mean a lot to Cade.”
Now it was Rosalyn’s turn to raise her eyebrows.
Elisa shook her head. “I mean, for Magnolia Days in general. He’s been working hard to make this year profitable. Help out the town,”
Was that all it was? Cade had seemed almost flirty in the golf cart. Which was ridiculous, because he was Cade. Her old rival.
Even if he did look really good all grown up and responsible. Driving a golf cart and planning fundraisers and wearing a button-down.
“Anyway, I was going to talk to Madame about a catering order, but I’ll catch her later. I’m glad you’re here—I’ve always found this stuff so fascinating.” Elisa gestured with her chin toward the silks. “I can’t even turn a cartwheel without getting dizzy.”
“Me neither,” Rosalyn joked. “I could use a second pair of hands, if you have a minute.” She stooped to pull her fabric away from the ladder propped in the middle of the room, taking a moment for a deep breath. No more distracting thoughts of Cade, or the fundraiser. Rigging demanded her full concentration, or she could get hurt.
Again.
Elisa set her purse on the floor under the barre. “Tell me what to do.”
“Grab that carabiner, please.” She gestured to the black clip lying next to the hook on the floor. “I’ve already tied the fabric to the figure eight. Just need to get this in the air, and the silks are heavier than you’d think.”
She started up the ladder, fabric bundled under her arm, and gingerly tested her knee while Elisa hovered near the bottom. Usually she could do this exact rigging process in her sleep. But usually, she wasn’t in a bandage.
Elisa cleared her throat from below. “I heard Cade gave you a tour this afternoon.”
So much for no distractions. Rosalyn focused on the fabric in her arms, hoping her expression didn’t give her away. Sometimes she forgot how small this town really was. All the more reason to keep her secrets close.
Elisa didn’t seem the nosy type though, and it was obvious she and Cade were friends. Rosalyn smoothed the silks draped over her arm, filtering her words. “Yeah, it was sad seeing so many businesses not fully restored. But thankfully, some are in good shape, like the studio here—and your diner.”
“Well, that’s another story.” Elisa looked up, amusement flickering across her face. “Magnolia Blossom has been through it the last few months, not even counting the hurricane. But I know what you mean.”
Rosalyn shifted positions on the ladder. “I’m just grateful Madame Paulette is letting me practice here like the good ol’ days.” Funny. She used to be so ready to hit the big time, she could hardly stand it. Now, she’d give anything to go back to those carefree days spinning on the silks a few inches off the ground.
Where it was safe.
“Did you and Cade keep in touch all these years?” Elisa’s overly casual tone sounded anything but subtle.
Rosalyn accepted the carabiner Elisa passed to her. “Not really. We ran into each other a few years into college, at a football game.” That night played through her dreams more than she wanted to admit. Usually when she was tossing and turning in yet another hotel room alone, city lights bright outside her window. What-ifs swirling. She shrugged. “We lost touch after that, besides the occasional social media message.”
“I love the type of friendships that pick up like nothing ever happened.” Elisa kept one steadying hand on the ladder.
“Cade and I were more like friendly rivals.” Though he had started using that nickname for her again, and there had been that banter about who beat who at what competition.
“I’ve known Cade a long time, and he and Noah have gotten closer the past year, which has been good for Noah.” Elisa’s voice warmed like a woman in love.
Rosalyn clipped the carabiner onto the swivel. “I’m sure it’s been good for Cade too. Not that he ever seemed to have trouble making friends.” Or having girlfriends. She leaned forward to attach it all to the reinforced beam on the ceiling. “He always fit into every clique in the school with ease.” Especially the cheerleaders—a fact that annoyed Amber to no end.
And when Amber was annoyed, everyone in her friend group had to be annoyed. Rosalyn still wasn’t sure why she’d hated Cade so much back then.
“Maybe the four of us could go out together while you’re in town.”
Rosalyn jerked, her leg wobbling on the upper rung.
Elisa grabbed the ladder with both hands. “Careful!”
“Sorry. I’m usually much steadier up here.”
“I’ll quit talking until you finish.” Elisa mimed zipping her lips shut.
Rosalyn double-checked the setup as her mind raced. A date with Cade was definitely not penciled into her calendar for this brief stay in town. But the thought did send a little happy skitter up her spine.
Still, she couldn’t even entertain the thought right now. Not while she had to watch her back. Not while her future was a giant question mark.
“Speaking of Cade…” Elisa’s voice trailed off and Rosalyn glanced down in time to see her point toward the front window of the studio.
Cade paced the sidewalk in the dying evening light, a leather laptop bag tucked on his shoulder, a cell phone glued to his ear as he gestured with his freehand. Even with his sleeves rolled up and top collar unbuttoned, he still looked professional. Put together. Confident.
Yeah, she better get off this ladder before her knee went from achy to swoony.
Elisa stepped back, out of Rosalyn’s way. “I swear that man can talk anyone into anything. You should’ve seen him with the police a few months ago when Noah and I broke into the courthouse.”
“I believe it.” If Rosalyn hadn’t witnessed Cade talking the school cafeteria cooks into double portions of mystery meat and single-handedly convincing the principal to install a second vending machine, she would’ve believed it simply for the dimple crowding his jaw.
Cade Landry was hard to turn down.
Then the rest of Elisa’s statement registered. “Wait. Did you say the police?” Rosalyn joined Elisa near the window, crossing her arms over her chest and hoping the other woman couldn’t hear her suddenly erratic heartbeat. “I’ll have to hear that story sometime.”
“He still gets a little paranoid about Sheriff Rubart.” Elisa chuckled. “Which is fair.”
They watched as Cade continued to pace and gesture. Rosalyn tilted her head. “So who is he sweet-talking now, you think? Another vendor for Magnolia Days?”
“Rumor has it—and by rumor, I mean Noah called me an hour ago—Cade is looking to get a movie crew back in these parts.” Elisa tucked her hair behind her ears. “It’s not a bad idea.”
“Back?” Rosalyn watched Cade pace. “They’ve been here before?”
“Cade didn’t tell you?” Elisa snorted. “I assumed he told everyone he met he was an extra in a ‘major motion picture.’” She air-tagged with her fingers.
Rosalyn raised an eyebrow. “And by major motion picture you mean…”
“Decently successful low-budget, high-quality indie film.”
“I see.” Her admiration for Cade inched a notch higher. The man was a go-getter—the only one who’d ever truly given her competition. On the ground, anyway. He made everything look easy.
The thought of sitting across from him on a double date suddenly felt…appealing. She shook her head. No. No sense going there. Cade had every chance to ask her out in high school and chose to spend time—and dates—with other girls, instead. She’d never even been invited to the parties he’d thrown. He could go months without acknowledging her in school.
She’d not been his type…which made her wonder if that moment at the Lazy Spoon had been embellished in her memory all these years.
“We should probably stop spying.” Elisa turned to face Rosalyn and clasped her hands. “Are you practicing tonight? I’d love to watch, if you want someone to cheer you on.”
Rosalyn rolled her lower lip, eyeing the silks now secured above them. She was tired, but it was more than that lately. Stress felt heavier ten feet in the air. And that probably wasn’t going to go away anytime soon. “Sure. That’d be great.”
Elisa moved the ladder to the corner of the room while Rosalyn separated her silks into two poles. Then she wrapped her feet to provide a foothold and climbed upward.
“You make that look easy,” Elisa called.
“Wasn’t at first.” Once Rosalyn reached six feet or so, she unwrapped her ankles, holding the silks with both hands, and flipped backward into an inversion.
Elisa gasped.
“It’s not as bad as it looks.” Rosalyn chuckled as she came right side up, continuing to weave the fabric around her legs and hips. Then she flipped again, rolling out of the silks sideways, legs extended, in a short wheel down.
Elisa clapped. Which was nice.
But not as nice as the view Rosalyn’s inverted position granted her of Cade, watching through the studio window, a big smile on his face as he munched through a bag of chips. He tucked the bag under one arm and provided an exaggerated slow clap, as if she’d performed an Olympic-worthy move.
So maybe the Lazy Spoon memory hadn’t been embellished after all.
Flustered, Rosalyn scrambled to lower herself as he shot her a wink. Her chest burned.
Elisa caught the exchange as she glanced back and forth between Rosalyn and Cade.
“Don’t even think about it.” Rosalyn bit back a groan as her feet landed on the mat, providing her with stable ground again. Though arguably, coming down from the silks had done nothing to get her head out of the clouds.
“I didn’t say anything.” Elisa held up both hands. “Your face is red though.”
“I was upside down!” Rosalyn protested.
“Don’t worry. Cade makes a lot of women blush.” Elisa stood with a grin. “It’s not just you.”
And there it was. The reality check that doused Rosalyn’s flush with a bucket of cold water. Cade Landry had been—and would always be—Mr. Popular. The mayor’s son. And maybe Rosalyn had made a name for herself in recent years, but did she even want to flirt with someone she’d never been good enough for?
As much as she hated to admit it, her friend Amber had been right that evening on the phone, when Rosalyn got stood up for a dance. Men are destined to hurt you, Rosalyn. They’re not emotionally evolved enough. Look at guys like Cade Landry and you’ll see everything you need to know. And hadn’t Blaine proven that men lied enough for the entire male species?
She watched Cade head around the corner of the studio toward the door. Maybe Cade wasn’t like that. Maybe he was an overall good guy.
But it didn’t matter. Her secrets owned her right now, and there was only room for friendship.
It was safer for everyone—and her heart—that way.
* * *
Elisa had vanished like a blonde Houdini, muttering something about it being past her bedtime—not that Cade was complaining about impromptu alone time with Rosalyn.
He stood in the shadowed doorway of the dance studio, Elisa’s perfume hovering despite her abrupt departure, and shook his head as he watched Rosalyn gather her things inside. “She’s subtle.”
“So was her suggestion of the four of us getting dinner while I’m in town.” Rosalyn tugged her blue athletic top down over the waistband of her leggings and laughed, though it sounded a bit forced.
He held the door open for her as she flicked off the lights. Everything about the stiffness in Rosalyn’s back suggested a double date would not be a good thing to request.
What else had Elisa said to her?
“Thanks for walking me to my car.” Rosalyn pulled the door shut behind them. “I didn’t mean to stay past dark, but Elisa wanted a demonstration once we got my silks rigged. I lost track of time.”
“No problem. I’m sure you’d be safe here in the Bay—it’s not like the big cities you’re used to now.” Cade stepped back to give her room to lock up.
“Well, never hurts to be careful.” Rosalyn checked the handle to make sure the door was locked, then slipped the key into her purse. She was on edge…maybe it didn’t have anything to do with him personally?
Overcome with the urge to make her smile, reclaim their banter from the golf cart that day, Cade nodded his head back toward the studio as they headed for the sidewalk. “Ever going to give me a lesson on those things?”
She shot him a sidelong look, illuminated by the streetlamp above, and his heart stammered…And not from that espresso he’d thrown back in Chug a Mug a few hours ago.
Then a grin emerged on her lips and he internally pumped a victory fist. “You wouldn’t be able to handle it.”
“ Me ?” He pressed a hand against his chest.
“I didn’t stutter.”
“I can do anything.”
“Except beat me for valedictorian.”
Yes. The banter was back. He shook his head in mock chagrin. “You flirting with me, Ace?”
“Right. I wouldn’t even know what that looked like.” She snorted.
So the idea was too far-fetched to imagine?
She slowed her pace, clearly favoring her knee. “Elisa and I saw you on the phone. Seemed like an animated conversation.”
And there was the subject change. He’d much prefer the flirting. “The call didn’t go great, honestly.”
Rosalyn met his gaze as they continued down the street to her car. She was definitely limping, so he slowed their pace another notch. “You’re so convincing. I remember that whole vending machine campaign at school like it was yesterday.”
He remembered a lot of things like they were yesterday, especially back alley near-kisses. But he knew better than to bring that up with the guard she had locked and loaded. “I guess I should switch my goal away from production crews and back to packaged junk food, then.”
“What happened?” A gentle summer wind teased Rosalyn’s loosely tied-back hair, sending strands fluttering against her cheeks. “Were you talking to the production company, like Elisa guessed?”
Speaking of the movies. If anyone had star potential, it was Rosalyn. She’d clearly made a name for herself in the aerial arts industry, but she would light up a film like a firefly on a dark night. Even more reason to convince the crew to come back during Magnolia Days and check out the circus. They didn’t realize what they’d be missing.
He looked back down at the sidewalk so he wouldn’t trip in the increasing darkness. “Yeah, I was trying to walk off my espresso after working at the coffee shop, and the assistant to the producer I connected with a few years ago called me back mid-lap around the block.”
How had he looked, pacing the sidewalk as he pleaded with Janie to convince her boss—his social media “friend” who apparently didn’t want to take his call—to send a scout to the Bay?
It’d come to that—begging.
“And?” Rosalyn pressed.
“I worked my magic but only got a halfhearted commitment for a return phone call from him tomorrow.” He shrugged, as if it didn’t matter. But it did—a lot. “Not very promising.”
She squinted at him. “But it wasn’t a no.”
He nodded slowly. “It wasn’t a no.” That was one way to look at it—the hopeful way, which was something he’d been losing track of lately in the throes of fundraising. It was hard to keep his normally positive outlook with this much pressure riding on his success.
They walked the rest of the way toward her car in companionable silence, as if talk of his failure had somehow lowered Rosalyn’s guard.
It was too overcast and early in the evening tonight for stars, but the crickets provided a full chorus from the shadowed bushes along the sidewalk. He thought of that boat scene in The Little Mermaid , where all the wildlife banded together to urge the prince to kiss Ariel.
Not that he needed a singing crab to give him that idea.
“The Cade Landry I remember never took no for an answer.”
He stumbled as Rosalyn elbowed him in the ribs, lighting his torso on fire, and he had to remind himself she hadn’t read his mind. She wasn’t talking about a kiss.
“Except, of course, when he realized he’d been beat for valedictorian.” She winked.
Rival days. Right. “I still think that poor, underpaid staff member made a tally error.”
“Underpaid staff?” Rosalyn snorted, eyes lighting as they neared Chug a Mug. “They used computers to compare our GPAs.”
He pretended to concede. “Well, there you go. You can’t trust machines these days.”
Rosalyn scoffed. “People aren’t much more reliable.” Then she pressed her lips together, as if she hadn’t meant for the words to escape.
“Touché.” He paused by the door of her car and studied her a moment, noting the angle of her cheekbones, the way her delicate nose dipped in the middle. The slight furrow between her professionally drawn brows. “I guess I didn’t think that through, did I?” He gave her a window to reveal more of what she meant, if she wanted.
He hoped she did.
But instead, she lifted her chin and smiled before she slid into the driver’s seat, clearly trying to cover the rare moment of vulnerability. “Always be prepared, Landry.”
“Hey, that’s easy. Prepared is my middle name.”
“Is your car still at Chug a Mug?”
He nodded.
“Hop in.” She gestured toward the passenger seat. “I can drive you.”
“It’s only a block.” But why was he protesting? Didn’t he want to go?
She insisted, so he walked around and slid in—just in time for her to tug that scrunchie from her tresses and release a wave of citrus-scented temptation through the interior.
Okay, maybe his name wasn’t Prepared, after all.
He closed his eyes against the scent, against her proximity. Against the wave of regret flooding his heart at not making a move when he’d had the chance years ago.
That night in Cambridge, after the Yale rival game. He’d run into her and her group of friends—ugh, and that awful Amber girl—at a sports pub, the first time he’d seen Rosalyn since graduation. She’d been wearing a flowing top in Harvard crimson, and skinny jeans paired with heels that made her legs go on forever and a day. She’d been laughing, until that one beef-head in a jersey had?—
“You okay?”
He opened his eyes, half startled to realize he wasn’t surrounded by face-painted fans and cheese fries. “Oh, yeah, of course. Long day.”
But what he really wanted to say was— do you wanna get out of here?
The question fairly begged to leave his lips—just like it had roughly nine years ago in the alley behind the Lazy Spoon.
But just like then, he swallowed it. Rosalyn hadn’t given him signals that anything had changed from their glory days of competing. That she thought any differently of him than she had then, the entitled mayor’s son who got bailed out. Now, though—she was back.
And maybe this time he could figure out how to say what he wanted.
Stay .