Beck had loved me?
Beck had loved me. Past tense. I stood as why didn’t you tell me screamed at the back of my throat and exploded in my ears.
It was better that I hadn’t known.
Beck rose from the bed and hugged me around my shoulders with a strength that wasn’t mine to absorb. I didn’t move in too close.
“I couldn’t have gotten through those six months without you.” I looked up as he kissed the top of my forehead, but didn’t linger. “I’m not staying away anymore.”
“I’m glad.”
“And I don’t want to lose you again. I know it’s not like before, but…”
“Me either,” he said.
I walked out of the room and heard Beck push the door shut behind me.
“I loved you, too,” I said, loud enough for him to hear.
Chapter 21
I AWOKE AS THE sun was lifting away darkness, and slipped a dress over my head and quiet shoes onto my feet that wouldn’t click or flap. I pulled my hair into a ponytail and slipped my camera over my neck. I turned the doorknob slowly and opened the door with gentle ease.
My velvet bag was on the floor, a note attached.
T—YOU SHOULD PUT THESE
WHERE THEY BELONG.
B
I tucked the stones into my camera bag and walked outside.
The porch was damp from morning dew. I held the banister and looked out at Lark Street, then closed my eyes to snap a mental picture. I touched my camera to make sure it hung around my neck even though I’d just placed it there.
I shook out one leg. I needed to move, to walk, to run. I skittered around to the side of the house, through the white gate, under the weathered trellis covered in purple clematis, and into the garden, shrouded from Lark Street by high bushes and draping trees. I looked at the stepping-stones but walked on the grass, examining the flowers and bushes. I clamped my lips in defiance of my mother, who used to ramble off every species and insist I repeat them. It took me six months not to read the signs with the plants at Hester hotels, to just look at the plants and flowers and stones and grasses and photograph them. I did not want to get caught in the academic details of beauty. I snapped a few photos through the morning mist, with the light offering just a peek at what was to come. I slipped a stone into my pocket that had been hidden beneath a cluster of black-eyed Susans. There were weeds to be pulled there as well, but I wasn’t in the mood and it wasn’t my job.
Celia would have done it anyway.
I stood in the garden longer than I ever had before.
My stomach grumbled. Perk would have just opened a half hour ago. I could take my tablet, set myself up at a corner table, and review the wedding schedule and shot lists. Today I would be on my own. Josie was helping set up for an open house. Miles and Violet and Shay were tending to post-trauma and pre-wedding details with family. I was happy and sad. I was hopeful and fearful.
I was also eager to see Cameron, and tell him that I’d decided about my dash. And to ask him to be part of it.
*
I opened the garden gate and walked to the front of Nettie’s. Someone was standing on the porch facing the house.
“Miles?”
He turned around. “Look who I saw walking on Main Street.”
A man rose and came into my line of vision, blocked momentarily by a pillar and by a tightening in my stomach. My hand touched my side as my brain arranged the visual puzzle pieces. Taller than Miles, slim, but broadened by a sport coat, meticulous hair, a familiar gait. The man turned and held up a garment bag. “Special delivery!”
I stopped at the bottom of the steps. The knot in my stomach cinched and stomach acid lurched into my throat. Simon! In Chance. On the porch. With Miles. The puzzle pieces fit together in my head. I wasn’t ready. “What are you doing here?”
“I wanted to surprise you.”
“It’s eight o’clock in the morning?”
“I took the red-eye.”
What had Annie done?
“I just wanted Annie to send the clothes. You didn’t have to fly all the way out here.”
“I wanted to talk to you, Teddi.”
“I found him in line at Perk. What luck, right?” Miles said, missing all the cues that I wasn’t happy about his discovery.
I walked up onto the porch but stood near no one. Miles linked my arm and coaxed me closer to Simon.
“How’s Shay?” I whispered. “I was going to text her a little later.”
“Still asleep, of course. We were up late talking. She’ll be okay, Teddi.”
I leaned over to Simon and more nudged him than hugged him. He hugged me with his one available arm, still holding up my clothes with the other. I took the garment bag and laid it over the railing. “You should have waited, Si. I’ll be back on Monday. You should’ve waited.”
“But then I wouldn’t have met him, and your boss here has already given me some great insights on luring a hotel chain to Union County. I’m disappointed he doesn’t think it’s right for a Hester, but I understand. Business is business. He’s been very generous,” Miles said.
“You could’ve told me about the land, Teddi. You know I’m always interested in possible opportunities,” Simon said.
“It wasn’t the right time for business.”
“It’s always the right time for business,” Miles and Simon said in unison.
“I like him, Teddi,” Miles said.
I told you so. I couldn’t believe Miles was pitching a hotel for Union County the day before his wedding. Yes, I could.
“I’ll leave you two to your unfinished business.” Miles shook Simon’s hand. “Maybe I can pick your brain later?”
“Call me anytime, Miles. Happy to help.”
“Thank you,” Miles said.
“When Shay wakes up, tell her I love her,” I said.
“Who’s Shay?” Simon asked.
“He doesn’t know about Shay?”
Right then I knew Shay had told Miles about Simon, the impending marriage proposal, my possible yes, and maybe even about Shay being my maid of honor. Miles shook Simon’s hand again. “If you’re here tomorrow, you’re welcome to come to the wedding, considering.”
“Miles, stop. Simon isn’t staying.” I turned to Simon. “You’re not staying, are you?”
“I guess not.”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it that way.”
“Should I know who this Shay is? And why didn’t you tell me you were shooting your best friend’s husband’s second wedding? It wouldn’t have mattered to me.”
Exactly.
I shook my head as if that were a way to align right and wrong and good and bad and sense and nonsense.
“Teddi, are you okay?” Miles said. “You look pale. You never look pale.”
Miles motioned to the swing, and I sat, hoping neither he nor Simon would join me. Miles held on to the pillar nearest to the step and swung himself back toward me. “Call me if you need something before tomorrow. I have to go check flowers and napkins.” He rolled his eyes but smiled wide, bounced down the steps, and almost skipped to his car. Simon and I said nothing. Heart-shaped exhaust may have spewed from the tailpipe as Miles drove down Lark and headed for home.