19. Chapter 19
Chapter 19
A shley was waiting for them outside the restroom. She was several feet down the hallway, leaning against the wall, hunched over and picking at her nails. She stood up straight and hurried over to them when she saw them come out the door.
“I’m sorry,” she said to Haley. “I really didn’t mean anything by it.”
Jane knew she didn’t, and she knew Haley knew, too. That was what everyone meant when they said things like you know Ashley .
“I wasn’t trying to steal attention away from you,” she went on, ticking off all the factors she’d thought of in her defense. “I was definitely not going to say anything. We were going to tell everyone after. I was just excited to wear the ring. I promise.”
Jane could see Haley starting to soften. This was her almost sister-in-law, future aunt to her future children, someone who had become a friend in her own right … it was just Ashley. Unpredictable, not-always-thinking-things-through Ashley, but entertaining, funny, never-a-dull-moment Ashley, too.
And Haley really was happy, and really just wanted everyone else to be happy, too. Even if it drove her a little nuts in the process.
“I know,” she said with a sigh. “Let’s just—let’s move on, okay?”
“Congrats,” Jane said, albeit a little weakly, a party balloon short on helium.
“Thanks,” Ashley said.
“Let me see the ring,” Haley said, reaching toward her.
Ashley felt for it with her thumb. “Really?”
“Yeah, of course,” Haley said, starting to rally back to herself. “You just got engaged, we need to see the ring.”
Ashley beamed as she held her hand out. “Ahh, Ashley,” Haley said, leaning in to really look at it. “It’s gorgeous. It’s the perfect ring for you.”
“So pretty,” Jane added.
Haley stepped back with a little bit of a teasing grin. “Good thing you just got your nails done.”
“Good point,” Jane said, trying not to laugh.
Ashley was totally earnest. “I really didn’t even know he was going to do it,” she said. “He didn’t, either. It was just—it really was just an amazing, crazy moment.”
“Was it romantic?” Haley asked.
“ So romantic,” she gushed.
“Are you going to remember it forever?” Jane said.
Ashley brought her hands to her heart. “ Forever and ever.”
“I think we’ll all remember it forever,” Haley said, but she laughed as she said it.
“Well,” Jane said, resigned but good-natured as she looked at Haley. “I guess we did say love was in the air.”
***
Ashley flipped the ring back around during dessert—a symbolic gesture, if nothing else, since the ship had not only sailed on that whole situation but was probably many miles away. Haley beelined for Blake and checked in on Gumby, who was a little perplexed by the drama but seemed no worse for the wear.
After dessert, they made their way out to the beach. The sun was almost down, and there would be fireworks soon. Ashley was nestled up to Cody, twirling the ring with her thumb. She didn’t even seem like she realized she was doing it. Jane didn’t know how in the world she’d ever thought she would be able to keep it under wraps for the weekend.
“Please don’t post about me on one of those wedding message boards,” Ashley said.
Jane knew all about the wedding message boards. She’d clicked around on them in bed at night the past couple weeks, reading about seating chart dilemmas and family tug-of-wars, definitely entertained but also sort of grateful Haley had spared them months and months of that.
Haley rolled her eyes. “Too soon?” Ashley said, tacking on a ha-ha . “But really. Please don’t.”
“No promises,” Haley said, three-quarters-joking, one-quarter-not.
Ashley turned to Maddie. “You either,” she said to Maddie, who might have been in even less of a mood to joke about it. Maddie responded with some sort of mumble Jane couldn’t make out, which maybe was for the best.
They all got settled in their spots to watch the fireworks, Jane and Luke next to each other on an Adirondack bench facing out to where the show was about to start. Blake and Haley were nearby and the others on a long bench to Jane’s right. Tommy and Bree had ended up in chairs down the beach a little from them, but still within eyesight.
Jane let out a big breath, and tipped her head up to the sky. “It’s pretty tonight,” she said to Luke. “Lots of stars.”
“Tons,” he agreed. “It’s a really clear night.”
“If I haven’t told you,” she said, still looking at the smattering of stars in the dark, twinkling sky above her, “I am extremely, tremendously, unbelievably happy you’re here.”
“Are you kidding?” he said. “This is the most action-packed wedding I’ve ever been to. I couldn’t have missed all of this.”
She laughed a little as she rolled her head to the side toward him. “With me,” she amended. “I am overwhelmingly happy you’re here with me.”
He was still smiling, but his tone was all serious. “I’m happy to be here with you, too,” he said. “Overwhelmingly.”
The last time she saw fireworks was 363 days ago, the day she met Tommy. Now she was sitting on the same beach as Tommy—although not with Tommy—waiting for fireworks to start again. So much had changed in 363 days, and a lot hadn’t changed, too. She wondered if he even remembered, and then she wondered if it mattered if he did. Maybe it was enough that it had mattered, and that it had meant something, once upon a time. And that didn’t have to go away just because it didn’t matter the same way anymore.
“I think she might like Tommy,” Jane said out loud.
Luke didn’t seem terribly surprised to hear her say it. “Bree?”
“Yeah,” she said. “The way she was looking at him at the rehearsal—I feel like she likes him.” She paused. “It seemed sort of obvious, actually.”
Luke let that sit in the air for a second. “How would you feel about that?” he finally asked.
How would she feel about it? She rolled the question around in her head. “Honestly?” she said.
“Yeah,” he replied.
“It doesn’t really bother me as much as I thought it might,” she said. “The whole thing with Tommy—I think I was missing the idea of it more than I actually miss him.”
He looked out into the night sky, considering. “I can see that.”
She had this urge, an inexplicable, out-of-nowhere urge, to ask him to run away with her, right that second. Instead, she just looked at him. She traced his smile lines with her eyes, and then the line of his cheek, and then his ears, and his eyebrows, and his nose.
There was a crack to her right, followed by a series of them. She turned to see the fireworks taking off. Red, green, blue, rockets that spun up to the sky and exploded in a trail of glittering white light.
He caught her eye. “Guess the show’s starting,” he said.
Something certainly seems to be starting , she thought. “Yeah,” she said, hanging on to his gaze for a beat before turning back to the show in the sky. “I guess it is.”