Eloise
The after-breakfast noise had faded, and silence now surrounded me as I sat with my laptop in front of me at the small round table in the Harmony Inn living room. I was attempting to answer a few emails, but failing miserably. My mind was whirling and swirling with thoughts.
I’d spent the weekend avoiding Hudson as much as I could. When Gaines told me on Saturday that they were heading out to meet Hudson at the Sunny Side Up Diner for lunch, I told him my head hurt so I was going to have to pass.
On Sunday, I convinced Shelby to insist that I stay and help turn over some rooms because she was short staffed. Luckily, Gaines had just quirked an eyebrow at me and said, “Have fun.”
After I dropped them off at the airport Sunday night, I headed straight back to the inn, where I crawled into bed and spent the night fighting off the image of Hudson sitting at the table in the bar, staring at me.
There was something in his gaze that confused me.
I knew it wasn’t disgust, but something more… something deeper.
Something that I had no headspace to try to dissect.
Needing a distraction and a reminder of why I didn’t want to be around him, I pulled out my phone and found my text message chain with Hannah. Messaging her would be like an ice water bath. An instant reminder as to why I hated Hudson.
Hey, Hannah! Just checking in on how things are going.
I set my phone down next to my computer and stared at the screen. I was looking at the words, but I wasn’t reading them. I was waiting for my phone to buzz.
Thankfully, Hannah was quick to respond. I picked up my phone and swiped the screen on.
They’re okay. Life, you know?
I nodded, the familiar frustration that I reserved just for Hudson began to rise up in my throat. Good, this was good. This was the antidote to help me focus on why I disliked him—why I was always going to dislike him.
Anything I can do to help?
Well…
I waited for her to elaborate, but after a few seconds with no response, I picked up my phone.
You can tell me.
Three dots appeared and disappeared a few times before, finally, her message came through.
Benjamin’s birthday is next week, and I don’t have any extra cash for a party or really any gifts. Maybe you can work your magic and let his dad know? Just, don’t tell him that it’s me asking for it. Or that we’re talking.
Any feelings for Hudson that had been confusing me since Friday night were gone, and they were replaced with anger. Anger that Hudson seemed content to ignore his son. Anger that he didn’t care about Benjamin’s birthday. And anger that I’d let his low-life antics confuse me.
Hudson was a bad guy, and he was never going to change.
Of course, mums the word. Let me see what I can do.
I quickly sent her $100 dollars to tide her over, and then found Gaines’s number and pressed talk. Benjamin’s birthday was a serious occasion, and there was no way I could wait for Gaines to respond to a text and then wait even longer for him to confront Hudson. Gaines was getting a phone call.
After a few rings, he picked up.
“Lou?” he asked. There was quite a bit of background noise.
“Gaines? Where are you?”
He paused. “I’m out with dad at a rally. What’s up?”
“Can you go somewhere quiet? I need to talk to you.”
“Yeah, hang on.”
A scraping sound came through the receiver, and I could only assume that he had covered the microphone with his hand. After a few seconds passed, the sound stopped.
“Okay, it’s quieter. What did you need to talk to me about? Is it the wedding?”
His question confused me, but then I realized how my sudden phone call must appear to him. I was here in Harmony to get his wedding together, and I was calling him early in the day on a Monday.
“Oh, no. This is not about that.” I reached out and began to trace the outline of the keys on my keyboard. “It’s about Hudson.”
He sighed like an annoyed parent.
“Listen, this is not what you think. I just got a text from Hannah.”
“Why are you still texting Hannah?”
His response was quick, and there was a sharpness to his tone that threw me for a second. I paused, wondering if I’d heard him right.
“Because she’s my friend.”
He snorted. “You barely know her. She graduated the year you pledged.”
I frowned. He was focusing on the wrong thing. “Anyway, I was texting her, and did you know that it’s her son’s birthday next week?”
He paused. “No, I didn’t know that.”
“Well, of course you didn’t know, but does Hudson?”
When Gaines didn’t respond right away, I took that as a no. Hudson had no clue. That made my anger reach the boiling point.
“Can you talk to him about it?” I moved my hand away from the keyboard and began to methodically tap my fingers on the tabletop, moving from my forefinger to my pinkie and then from my pinkie to my forefinger.
He sighed. Loud and with a hint of annoyance. That reaction confused me. Why wasn’t he more bothered about this? Why didn’t he care that his best friend was being a schmuck?
“I’ll see what I can do. But, eventually, you might have to put this to rest. You know that, right?”
I frowned. I didn’t like his response. The only way I was ever going to put this to rest was when Hudson took responsibility for his son. When I knew Hannah was taken care of.
I knew what it was like to find yourself alone and struggling. Losing our mom and grandparents was awful. If I could assist someone in their healing journey, I was going to do everything in my power to help them.
“Things happen in college. If Hudson’s not claiming the kid, maybe it’s not his.”
I knit my eyebrows together as I parted my lips. Was he saying that Hannah was lying about who Benjamin’s dad was? Was that really the story my brother wanted to get behind?
What was happening? In the past, when I’d called Gaines about the Hudson and Hannah situation, he would tell me that he’d take care of it and I didn’t have to worry. This reaction was strange, and I didn’t like it.
I parted my lips to speak, but Gaines beat me to it.
“Listen, I gotta go. Dad needs me.” He paused. “Please, consider letting this all go. Let Hudson and Hannah deal with things. You need to move on and let their decisions lie.”
I murmured a half-hearted, “I’ll try,” but Gaines had already hung up.
I set my phone down next to me and stared at the black screen with my arms crossed. That had not been the conversation I thought I was going to have with Gaines. I thought that he was going to support me in this. I thought that he disapproved of Hudson’s actions as much as I did.
I apparently thought wrong.
Seconds later, a text notification appeared on my phone. I grabbed it and swiped the screen, fully expecting that it was Gaines with an apology. But it was a text from Hudson.
Centerpiece material just got delivered to the bakery if you want to come over.
Think of the devil, and he will appear. I shook my head as I texted a thumbs-up emoji and then turned my screen off and dropped my phone into my purse.
I closed my computer and slipped it into my bag.
After returning my work stuff to my room, I shouldered my purse and headed out of Harmony Island Inn.
It took me about fifteen minutes to get to the bakery. I took in a deep breath as I walked across the gravel parking lot to the front steps. Thankfully, enough time had passed since my conversations with Hannah and Gaines that I was now more annoyed with Hudson than angry.
I was at war with myself. I initially wanted to confront Hudson and ask him what the heck his problem was.
I wanted to lay into him. His behavior was unacceptable.
But I’d made a promise to Hannah that I would keep quiet.
I understood her not wanting Hudson to know that we were in contact with each other.
I just hoped that Gaines would get over whatever weird mood he was in this morning and help out.
If I couldn’t confront Hudson, I was going to make sure that my brother did.
I pulled open the front door of the bakery and headed inside.
There was an older gentleman lingering by the register like he was waiting for something.
He nodded a good morning, and I returned the gesture.
A few seconds later, a woman wearing a black apron and with an insulated coffee cup in hand pushed through the swinging door that led to the back.
“Here you go, Roger. Freshly brewed.” Before she handed it over, she warned him that it was hot and to be careful. He just nodded.
With his coffee in hand, he passed by me, mumbling a good day before he stepped outside. The door swung shut behind him.
“What can I get you?” the woman asked, her lips tipping up into a smile as she stood by the register.
“Just looking for Hudson.” I wasn’t sure how he would feel about me just marching into his office unannounced.
Even though I’d known him for over half my life, with how things were between us, it felt best for me to remain surface level with him.
Things had changed between us, and I was going to put my feelings for him aside and remain professional.
I was here to put the finishing touches on my brother’s wedding, and that was it.
Whatever had happened Friday night at the pub was in the past, and I was determined to move forward. Besides, I doubted he even remembered what he’d done that night. He was definitely intoxicated and not thinking straight.
“Lou?” Hudson’s voice sounded from the back, and a second later, the swinging door was pushed opened and he appeared.
His eyebrows were knit together as he studied me.
“What are you doing waiting out here? You could have just come back. The boxes are still at the back door,” he said as he waved for me to join him.
I hated that, to him, everything was fine. It was like his past never affected him in the way it affected me. He was the champion of not giving a damn, and that irritated me. There were a lot of things in his past that he should feel bad about. How was he able to compartmentalize like that?
And why did I let it bother me so much?