Chapter Twenty-Five
Sadie
I was nervous as I walked into the banquet hall.
Indigo Falls didn’t have a lot of places to hold events, and most of us had been to this banquet hall for a variety of reasons over the years.
Birthday parties, retirements, bridal showers, family reunions—all of them tended to be held in this building.
It hadn’t been updated in a couple of decades at least, and even though it could really use it, there was a strange level of comfort in the fact that it stayed the same.
The only thing that ever changed was the decorations.
It was the end of school and things were insane, as they always were.
I was trying to help out with Melinda’s classes as much as I could to take some of the pressure off her.
If I ever got married, I wanted to do it low-key, on a beach somewhere with only a few friends and family present.
We could have a big party after we returned home.
I definitely didn’t want to go through the level of planning I was seeing Melinda and her mother have to do.
Because things were so crazy as school was wrapping up for the year, I hadn’t even really paid much attention to the invitation when I’d received it.
I wasn’t entirely sure who was even hosting this particular party.
I just bought a gift and showed up. I flipped my hair over my shoulder and smoothed out my dress.
I hoped it wasn’t too short. When I’d bought it, I’d figured it would work for one of her parties.
As I saw the people going into the hall, I wasn’t so sure.
It was all the little old ladies from Melinda’s church.
I winced inwardly. It was too late to go home and change now.
I walked in, set my present on the gift table, and looked around.
The place was packed out. Melinda and Drake looked uncomfortable sitting at a small table in the center of the room.
The rest of the tables were long and arranged in a U shape, so everyone was pretty much staring at them.
I had to smother a laugh at the awkward smile pasted on Drake’s face.
I walked over and leaned down. “Hey,” I whispered to Melinda. “Who’s hosting this party?”
“My mom’s Sunday school class and her garden club.”
“Wow.” I exchanged a look with Drake. “So, this will be the most fun party of them all, huh?”
She snorted and then pretended to cough when she realized how many people were staring at her.
“I’m re-thinking the length of my dress,” I admitted.
“Oh, I’m sure it’s fine…” she stopped talking when she saw the hemline. “Well, it is a little short.”
“That’s what I was afraid of. I guess I’ll be the talk of the town for a week or so.”
“Doubt it,” Drake said with a smirk as the door opened.
I turned to look and was startled to see Harrison coming into the banquet hall.
I turned around slowly to Melinda, eyes wide. “Why is he here? I wouldn’t think any of those ladies would want him around.”
“Wedding party,” she said weakly. “He’ll be invited to everything.”
Good to know. I put on a smile, concentrating to make it look real. “Have fun being the center of attention,” I said as I patted Drake on his shoulder and then went to find my seat.
There were name cards in front of each place setting. There weren’t many vacant seats, and all of the wedding party was sitting together. So, it wasn’t rocket science to figure out where I was supposed to be.
The only empty spot was next to Harrison. Of course it was.
I sighed inwardly and made my way over.
I sat down just in time for the preacher to stand up and ask us all to stand, join hands, and pray. Melinda’s preacher was a legend for the length of his prayers, so I knew we were in for a long one.
And I had to hold Harrison’s hand.
I looked down at his hand as if it was a snake but then took it anyway.
I was shocked at the zap of energy that seemed to flow through me as I touched him.
I looked up and met his dark brown eyes, wondering if he felt it, too.
We stared at each other for a moment, before I bowed my head and closed my eyes.
As the preacher settled in for a sermon-length prayer, I realized that it felt natural holding Harrison’s hand. Like coming home.
That realization made me want to drop his hand, but I didn’t want to be obviously rude.
I’d seen people’s eyes on us and knew that my dress wouldn’t be the topic of conversation around town this week.
It would be either about Harrison being in town for the party, the two of us sitting beside each other, or both.
Either way, I knew we were being scrutinized. I didn’t want to give anyone the opportunity to feel sorry for me. I didn’t want any more pity because of my horrible breakup with Harrison. So, I pretended to be fine.
Even though I wasn’t.
I felt such a mix of emotions as I opened my eyes and surreptitiously checked him out.
He was so stinking handsome. He’d grown into an even better-looking man than he’d been before, which I’d thought would be impossible.
His hair had turned darker over the years, but I could see the blond highlights he’d always gotten in the summer already starting to form.
His jaw was sharper, his face leaner. He looked completely grown up now.
The last time I’d seen him, he’d still had something of the man-child left in him.
It was gone now. He looked every inch the successful businessman that he was.
He suddenly opened his eyes and looked down at me, catching me staring at him. I quickly ducked my head.
He squeezed my hand, and I darted my eyes back up at him.
He grinned at me. I bit my lip and tried not to smile back but was unsuccessful.
Then I rolled my eyes and looked back down.
I couldn’t let him suck me back in with his ridiculous good looks and magnetic personality.
I didn’t know what it was about Harrison, exactly, that had always attracted me to him.
I mean, sure, he was objectively very handsome. But I’d been out with other handsome men who hadn’t interested me at all. There was something about him. Something he’d lost for a while in college, but that he seemed to have possibly regained.
Oh, well. I steeled myself against those thoughts. Some other girl would have to reap the benefits if he’d managed to go back to how he was before those awful times. I was done with him. Forever.
As soon as the preacher was done with his prayer, I dropped his hand like it was a hot potato and sat down.
Later, after dinner was eaten, the presents were opened, and everyone was starting to leave, I happened upon Harrison talking to one of the middle-aged ladies from the garden club. They were blocking my way out of the building. I started to turn and go another way, but then I heard my name.
“You know, I always thought Sadie was partly to blame for all that mess that went down between y’all,” she was saying.
I’d heard this before, but it still didn’t seem to numb the pain I felt each time I heard it again.
“How could she possibly be to blame?” Harrison asked, sounding offended.
The woman leaned in, laying a hand on his arm.
“Oh, honey. Back in my day, women knew what to do to keep a man like you. You had needs, and she just wasn’t meeting them.
” She patted her blond hair and batted her lashes at Harrison.
“I can’t even imagine leaving such a virile, handsome young man all alone off at college for the summer. ”
Harrison pulled back from her. “No, Mrs. Reardon, it was one hundred percent my fault. I can’t believe anyone would have the nerve to blame Sadie for my horrible mistakes.”
Mrs. Reardon, with her perfectly dyed hair, carefully applied makeup, and designer dress just laughed. “Well, I know if you’d been with my Gemma, you wouldn’t have cheated,” she insisted. “I could set the two of you up,” she smiled, looking predatory. Like a very pretty crocodile.
For some reason, I didn’t like to think of Gemma and Harrison together. Gemma Reardon had already been married three times and she wasn’t thirty yet. But what did I know? Maybe she was exactly the girl Harrison was looking for.
I turned and walked the other way before they could see that I’d overheard them. But as I was leaving, I kept hearing Harrison saying ‘one hundred percent my fault’ on repeat in my head.
He was owning the blame. That was… unexpected. It’s not that I thought he’d try to blame me for it, exactly. I just thought he’d try to deflect some of it to Aubrey. To present her as a femme fatale who offered something he shouldn’t have been expected to resist.
But so far, he hadn’t even said her name.