Chapter 22
twenty-two
T wenty minutes later, after the final parade of acts, Rosalyn could still hear the applause ringing in her ears.
Backstage, she pulled shorts over her leotard and zipped her hoodie before shouldering her duffel. Energy flowed, despite her trembling legs and achy knee. She’d done it—and she hadn’t fallen. Now to find Cade and get that good news. This was turning out to be a pretty great night after all.
All that worrying for nothing.
She pushed her way out of the tent and into the crowd, who lingered on the festival grounds, holding leftover boxes of caramel corn and candy. Twilight had faded into dusk, and the carnivals lights blazed brightly against the growing shadows.
Linc, Miley, and Owen, still wearing his ringmaster’s hat, stood with Noah and Elisa at a balloon dart booth several yards away, where it appeared Noah was trying to win Elisa a teddy bear. Rosalyn’s parents should be around here somewhere, though Dad was probably hitting up the beignet booth before Zoey sold out.
Where was Cade? They should have determined a meeting point, but now her phone was dead. He’d mentioned Zoey would be opening her shop that night for their friend group to hang out while she put away leftover inventory…she could catch up with him there, but didn’t want to wait. Maybe he’d gotten tied up in a festival emergency.
She continued to scan the crowd, smirking at the long line stretching out from Backwater Bruno’s frog leg truck. Funny that had turned out to be a hit.
“Hey, doll.”
Rosalyn stilled, ice pricking her veins. The laughter of children and ping of arcade games faded around her. Her shoulders tightened. No . A rush of warm evening wind tugged her hair, still stiff with glittered gel, but she barely felt it graze her neck. She turned slowly. Not here.
But there was Blaine, wearing a designer polo and pressed chinos, holding a bouquet of mixed flowers. His ever-present leather satchel hung from one shoulder, and he seemed more big-city out of place than ever, posed against the backdrop of small-town festivities.
He smiled, all charm. “Saw the show. You were amazing.”
Rosalyn licked her dry lips, her performance lipstick long gone. “What are you doing here?”
“I came to see you. I tried calling.” Blaine stepped closer, his musky cologne familiar and overpowering.
She swallowed. “But how did you know where?—”
“It’s my job to know, doll.” He gestured with the bouquet. “The real question is, why are you secretly performing?”
His gaze held steady, despite her rapid blinking. He didn’t look mad—why didn’t he look mad? But hadn’t he been unpredictable since Saudi Arabia? Maybe he was just holding it together to not cause a scene.
Regardless, she needed to downplay—she couldn’t trust him.
Rosalyn fought the urge to retreat and lifted her chin. “Performing? Come on, this hardly counts.” She waved one hand at the striped tent behind him. “It’s a silly fundraiser I agreed to when I got here. I felt bad for them.”
She couldn’t read his gaze, but he seemed to be buying it. She added the final touch. “Besides, it gave me a way to test my knee before I got back to my real shows.”
“Ah.” Understanding lit his eyes. “I gotcha.”
Rosalyn’s shoulders relaxed.
Was he coming in for a hug? She instinctively moved back, right onto someone’s shoe in the crowd.
“I’m sorry—” Rosalyn’s distracted apology died as she looked over her shoulder, into the face of her old classmate. “ Amber ?”
This was a night of surprises and none of them good. The only surprise she wanted was the one Cade had yet to tell her.
“Rosalyn!” Amber grabbed her arm, her chin-length bob swinging across her sharp jaw. “Wow, look at you. It’s been years.” She pulled a brunette woman closer. “Gabby, can you believe our girl here?”
Rosalyn’s old friend from school turned, carrying a cone of pink cotton candy. “ Totally can’t.” Gabby shook her head, hair flowing over the shoulders of her sundress. “You were fabulous tonight, Rosalyn. But I’m not surprised at all.”
“Um, thanks.” Worlds colliding. This was too much. And what did Blaine want? He hovered nearby, near her elbow, impossible to ignore. “What are you two doing here?”
Gabby grinned. “We realized on social media we were both going to be home visiting family, so we planned to meet up for the festival.”
Half listening, Rosalyn cast a look over their heads at the throng of college-aged kids attempting to win goldfish, at the huddles of middle-aged parents eating foot-long corndogs and children downing lemonade slushes.
No Cade.
“So what else is new? Are you still single?” Gabby asked as she pinched off another bite of pink fluff.
Rosalyn hesitated. How to answer that? Technically married, but crushing hard on Cade, yet not officially in a relationship…nope. Couldn’t explain, especially in front of Blaine.
“Of course she’s single.” Amber crossed her arms over her black T-shirt and smirked. “See what happens when women go for their dreams without being distracted by men? They become successful . I told you for years it’s the superior way. We’re far more evolved, so we can accomplish more without?—”
“But what about him?” Gabby pointed her cone at Blaine.
He stepped closer, wrapped his arm around Rosalyn’s shoulders. She stiffened.
“Who is this?” Amber’s steely gaze registered on the bouquet in Blaine’s hands, and her brow furrowed into anarch. “Who are you?”
“Me?” Blaine pointed to his chest before grinning at both women. “I’m her husband, of course.”
“ Husband ?” Amber’s brows arched into her hairline.
Her tone sounded as shocked as Rosalyn felt. “Blaine, what are?—”
Cade’s face suddenly registered in Rosalyn’s peripheral vision. Finally . Her heart surged and she tried to duck out from under Blaine’s grip. Cade was so close but seemed to be stuck in the crowd behind two kids and a slow-moving man on crutches. Was Cade carrying a rose? Aww . Joy pulsed.
Wait.
He was frowning.
Her joy stuttered. Ugh, Blaine. He wasn’t taking the hint to release her. Rosalyn turned her face up, forcing another smile to temper her curt whisper. “Let me go ?—”
Then Blaine kissed her.
Full on the lips.
Her pulse roared in her ears. Gabby’s delighted cheer collided with Amber’s snort of disgust.
Rosalyn’s mind reeled and she wrenched away from Blaine. She sucked in a breath and looked again in time to see Cade.
Tossing her rose in a nearby trashcan.
* * *
He’d turned into a circus clown.
Cade’s throat knotted as he pushed through the nighttime Magnolia Days crowd, away from Rosalyn. But no matter how fast he maneuvered through the throngs of people, he couldn’t outrun the image of that kiss. Of all the moments in history to have to repeat themselves.
His stomach burned, his fist clenching at his side. All the times he’d held back from kissing Rosalyn the past week, all those efforts to do this the right way. To wait until she was legally free. To be noble. He’d thought she’d wanted that too.
But what had it gotten him?
A big red nose.
Out of breath, he paused near the row of food trucks, the lingering scent of turkey legs and cinnamon nuts doing nothing to tempt his appetite, for once.
The truth turned his stomach—Rosalyn was kissing exactly who she wanted to.
Cade leaned against the side of the Friends of the Library booth, turning his back to the line of kids waiting their turn for Harper to paint their faces, cheeks. Stars twinkled above, breaking the night sky. He crossed his arms, watched the horde of people lining up for funnel cakes, and tried to control his breathing.
It wasn’t just the kiss but the words she’d uttered before that wrung his heart. He’d located Rosalyn in the crowd, after having apparently missed her backstage. He’d seen Blaine approach, then got tripped up by a kid stopped to tie his shoe. By the time Cade had made it toward them, he’d heard the whole story. Silly fundraiser. Felt bad for them. Going back to my real shows…
And then the grand finale that connected all the dots—the kiss. Rosalyn clearly wasn’t over Blaine. The access she’d allowed him into her life and finances, the blind trust she’d given him in the hospital— if that whole Saudi Arabia story was even true—made sense now. Cade’s instincts had told him all along that something wasn’t adding up, that someone had a different motivation in play.
He’d assumed it was Blaine, but maybe it’d actually been Rosalyn.
“Cade Landry ?”
The voice he’d hoped never to hear again after that night at the Lazy Spoon registered over the din of his heartbeat. He drew a breath, then turned and painted on a smile that should have won an Oscar. “Amber…uh…” He couldn’t remember her last name and didn’t care to try harder.
“Stockwell.” Amber’s eyes narrowed.
“Of course.” He nodded at her, then at the taller, thinner woman standing next to her. “Gabby, isn’t it? I saw you guys across the grounds earlier.” With Rosalyn. Before his heart had cracked wide open. He kept his smile though. “Glad you ladies could make it to the festival.”
“It’s so…quaint.” Amber lifted her chin, lips pursed. “Well done for a small town, anyway.”
Well, she hadn’t changed. “The cotton candy is amazing.” Gabby’s eyes widened with sincerity.
“Even if Magnolia Days isn’t big-city worthy, I hope you’re enjoying yourselves.” Cade slid his gaze to the food trucks, wondering if he could get away with pretending to hear someone call his name. “I’ve got to?—”
“We’re running into so many people from high school, like Rosalyn.” Amber stood with her arms folded over her cross-body bag. “ And meeting new ones.”
His smile tightened. “That’s what a festival is for.”
“Like Rosalyn’s husband.” Amber’s grin stretched to catty. “Have you had the pleasure?”
“Pleasure? I thought you hated—never mind.” Cade shook his head. It wasn’t worth it. The aroma of cheese fries turned his stomach, and he started to step away. “I’ve got festival business to attend to, so I’ll see you ladies around.”
“Wait.” Amber stepped forward, unfolding her arms. “I think you left something behind.” She held out a rose.
The rose he’d thrown away, now crumpled. Was that mustard on the petals?
He didn’t take it. Or reward Amber’s tight-lipped, knowing grin with a response.
His heart thudded, and he was right back in the alley of the Lazy Spoon, being made to look a fool as Rosalyn chose to go with Amber and her friends instead of staying to catch up with him. Right back in freshman year, when Amber spread the word about Cade’s father saving him from being expelled about the Justin Davies situation.
Right back in sixth grade, volcano goo dripping off his shirt, Amber and her friends cheering as Rosalyn accused him of being a show-off and ruining everything.
Amber twirled the stem between her fingers. “You probably thought you had a chance with her, didn’t you?”
Gabby elbowed her friend in the side. “ Amber .”
Amber ignored her, her gaze shooting fire. “Daddy might have gotten you the grades and the popularity, but I guess he can’t get you everything you want, huh?”
“Okay, that’s it. We’re leaving.” Gabby tugged at Amber’s arm. “You’re not in high school anymore.”
She shook Gabby off. “Rosalyn’s husband looks like he’s loaded too.”
Cade tightened his jaw. Ironically, Blaine was loaded—just not with his own money.
“Did I strike a nerve? The Cade Landry, finally taken down by a woman?” Satisfaction gleamed in Amber’s face. “Imagine how you made so many of us feel back then.”
Us? He narrowed his eyes. “You have no idea what you’re talking about, Amber.”
She scoffed. “Or maybe I do. Maybe you don’t want to admit that, for once, being a Landry isn’t enough.”
“Come on .” Gabby shoved Amber in front of her, pushing her down the walkway. They nearly collided with a teenager on a skateboard, but Amber barely seemed to notice.
She turned, walking backward, tripping over Gabby. “The Landry name wasn’t enough to pass the bar either, was it?”
Her parting words hit their mark. How did she even know that? Cade’s eye twitched and he pressed his lips together to avoid causing a scene as Gabby propelled her friend forward, turning around to mouth I’m sorry at Cade.
He waited until they were out of sight, then leaned his head against the library booth and closed his eyes. Amber’s words ricocheted in his mind. He didn’t really care what she thought, did he? Man, but they’d hit a target.
Because being a Landry wasn’t enough. Or maybe, he wasn’t enough to be a Landry.
Was the entire town about to find out when he tried to become mayor? Would he be the laughingstock, falling short of his family name? Maybe Rosalyn and Blaine were laughing together about his attempts to save the day right now.
What a night. “Cade, come quick!”
Are you kidding me?
He opened his eyes as Miley rushed up to him, the hem of her flannel shirt hanging long against frayed shorts. “What now?”
“The porta-potties are full.”
That wasn’t an emergency. He scrubbed his hand down his cheek. “I’m sure people are used to lines, Miley. It’ll be fine.”
“No, everyone is sick .” Her eyes grew wide in her flushed face and she tugged at his sleeve. “Come on.”
Okay, that might be an emergency. He started to follow her, matching her quick stride toward the line of food trucks. “What do you mean everyone ?”
“Everyone who ate at Backwater Bruno’s.”
Of course. How else would he expect this night to end?