23. Chapter 23
Chapter 23
T he photographer was getting some photos of Haley fully ready—looking in the mirror, getting touched up, putting her foot into her shoe—when Jane noticed the text come in on her phone. She checked, thinking it might be Luke, but it was from Tommy.
She looked down at it. “Can you meet me in the lobby for a second?” it said.
Her mouth dropped open slightly as she read it over again. Meet him in the lobby ? she thought. What is he talking about ?
Her fingers flew over the keyboard. “When?”
“Now.”
She looked up at Haley, who was getting ready to read a letter from Blake. “It’s not really the best time,” she typed. She looked at the screen for a second, waiting for the dots to show he was replying. When she didn’t see them right away, she added: “Why?”
“Just for a minute,” came the reply.
She hesitated, and then typed in a reply: “I’m going to see you at pictures in a little bit though.”
“Please, Jane?”
She exhaled. “Be right back, okay?”
“What?” Maddie said, turning around. “Where are you going?”
“I’ll be right back,” she promised.
***
She made it to the lobby first, and was impatiently pacing back and forth when he came through the door. He was dressed in his suit, and the sight of him stopped her for a second. He looked nice. Handsome, fun Tommy. Favorite cousin Tommy. Best man Tommy.
It could be us , she thought. It could be us all ready for Haley and Blake’s wedding.
It almost had been. It had been so close to being them arm-in-arm together at Haley and Blake’s wedding, the best friend and the cousin, the picture-perfect wedding attendants to the picture-perfect couple. The thought of it knocked the breath out of her for a second, like being jolted into a different dimension.
He stopped in front of her. “You look nice.”
“You do, too,” she said.
“Is everything going okay in there?”
“Yeah,” she said. “It’s going fine.” She paused, momentarily panicked by the idea that maybe everything wasn’t going fine over at the house. “What about—”
“Yeah, he’s good,” he said. “He’s excited.”
“Good,” she said, letting out a breath. “Haley, too.”
He shifted his weight from one foot to the other. “Haley’s dad talked to me.”
“I heard,” she said. “Sorry about that.”
“I don’t want there to be, like …” He trailed off, searching for the words. “I don’t want there to be bad feelings at the start of Haley and Blake’s marriage.”
Jane was silent for a minute. “There’s not bad feelings.”
“I don’t mean between them.”
“I know what you mean.”
He started fidgeting with his watch. “I’m sorry for … how it all happened. I guess I was just caught off guard.”
Jane let out a small sigh. “I know.”
“I’m really grateful for the time we spent together, Jane,” he said, looking up at her. “I just—”
“Sometimes it’s just not the right person,” Jane finished, echoing Uncle Bob’s words on the drive there. “It’s no one’s fault. It’s just not the right match.”
“Right,” he said, relieved. “It’s just not meant to be.”
“Right,” she said.
After they’d broken up, part of her had wanted him to come back and tell her he’d made a mistake. She didn’t want to feel like she was something someone could change their mind about. And then she thought maybe she was the one who had made the mistake, staying in something she wasn’t sure about.
But maybe none of it was a mistake. Maybe they were exactly where they were supposed to be.
“I really do think you’re great,” he said.
“I think you’re great too,” she said, then made a face. “Your timing, maybe not so great.”
He laughed a little. “That’s fair.”
“But I will always want you to be happy.” She felt the tears prickling at the back of her throat as she said it, and she didn’t know why. Maybe because it was true. Maybe because she was caught up in the feelings of the weekend. And maybe because it was hard to say goodbye to things sometimes, even if they weren’t the forever things.
“Come here,” he said, folding her in for a hug. She closed her eyes, knowing the door had closed on a sliver of her life, and knowing that was all right.
She felt Luke’s presence, somehow, before she saw him, that sixth sense when you know someone is there. She opened her eyes, and saw him standing in the opening of the lobby. For a second, he looked confused, then he put up both hands and took two slow steps back. “Hey. Sorry.” He looked at Jane, who moved away from Tommy. “I’ll see you at the wedding,” he said, phrasing it like a question.
“Just …” She looked at Tommy, then looked at Luke. “Wait a second?”
Luke took another step back. “I’ll see you at the wedding.” This time there was no question mark. He turned and walked out of the room.
She stood there for a second like she was suspended between two places: Tommy and Luke, before and after. Before her brain could catch up— go after him , it told her—Luke was gone.
And then an alarm went off.