by Marci Bolden
Dropping onto her couch, Taylor watched Darby intently. “And?”
“She accused me of being cruel to Sue and the other brides. That really… That hurt because… Well, you know.”
“I know.”
Shame curled its way up Darby’s spine and settled over her heart. “I made Sue Berdynski cry because I shared her story. I embarrassed her to the point that she was crying. I didn’t want that, Taylor.”
“I know you didn’t.”
“I didn’t think it would matter because I didn’t say her name, and I guess once I realized it did matter, I wasn’t ready to admit that I’d done something so incredibly wrong. I don’t want to be like that.”
“You’re not like that,” Taylor assured her. “You made a mistake, but that doesn’t define you, Darby.”
“I hope not.”
“I know not,” Taylor insisted. “You’re a good person. You screwed up. You’ll make it right.”
Darby gave her a weak grin and nodded. “Yeah. I’m going to try.” She swallowed hard before voicing a concern she’d had all afternoon. “What if Sue doesn’t forgive me? What if… What if I make things worse?”
Taylor shifted for a moment before exhaling slowly. “If she agrees to meet you, do you want us to go with you? Jade can negotiate if it comes to that and I can…kick her ass if she gets too mean.”
Darby smirked. Taylor was always threatening violence, but Darby knew she’d never hurt anyone. Like Darby, Taylor had been scarred but hadn’t turned hard. She liked to pretend she was tougher than she really was. Like Darby liked to pretend she was more carefree than she was. “I’d like that,” Darby said softly. “I think that would help me.”
“Okay. We’ll go, then.”
“You guys really are the best.”
Taylor smiled. “Yeah. I know. Come on. Let’s go make sure Jade can go.”
As they stood, a familiar and annoyingly happy giggle filtered through Darby’s window.
“Ugh,” she moaned. “Liam’s here.”
Taylor scrunched up her face. “God, she sounds like a high school cheerleader trying to hook up with the quarterback.” She peered out the living room window at the cove where Jade and Liam were paddling to shore as the sun set in the background.
“I know.” Darby joined Taylor in peeking outside. “It’s gross. Before long, they’ll be splashing each other and screaming. Then Liam will swoop her up and she’ll scream, and…” She sighed. “It’s sweet, really, but I’m tired of hearing it.”
As Darby had predicted, Liam rushed up and threw his arms around Jade’s waist as she reached the shore.
“Here we go with the squealing,” Darby warned.
This time, however, Liam didn’t lift Jade into the air and spin her around playfully. He spun her right then and there where she stood. Darby and Taylor gasped dramatically. Even from across the beach, Darby could feel the intensity flare between Jade and Liam. Their sexual tension washed over the cove like a tropical heat wave.
“He’s going to kiss her,” Taylor whispered as if they might be overheard.
“Oh my God.” Darby gripped Taylor’s arm, enthralled by what they were seeing. “He is. He finally is.”
“We shouldn’t watch,” Taylor said, but neither made a move to turn away as Liam cupped Jade’s face in his hands.
“This is better than my telenovela,” Darby said.
Liam leaned in, and Darby held her breath. She wanted to jump up and down and cheer her friend on, but then Jade turned her face to the side and Liam stopped short of kissing her.
“Wait…what?” Darby asked with a voice several octaves higher than usual. “What happened?”
A moment later, Jade shook her head, said something, and then pulled away. Liam dropped his hands and said something back.
“No,” Darby said with disappointment. “What are you doing, Jade?”
Liam ran his hand over his shaggy brown hair, and Jade stepped around him.
“She turned him down,” Taylor said with disbelief. “She actually turned him down.”
As they watched, stunned, Jade headed toward Darby’s cabin. Liam watched her walk away for several long moments before pushing his kayak back into the water and climbing in. Jade didn’t look back until he’d already started paddling away.
“Oh, no,” Darby said, putting her hand to her heart. “Why did she do that?”
“Is she playing hard to get?” Taylor asked.
As Jade neared the cabin, Darby saw the distress on her face. “No, I don’t think so. She looks sad.”
Jade reached the top of the stairs. Darby knew the moment she caught them watching her. In an instant, she went from looking pained to looking shocked. “Oh my God!”
“Busted,” Taylor muttered and slowly backed away.
Jade threw the front door open and gawked accusingly at her friends. “Were you spying on me?”
“No,” Darby insisted. “We were looking out my window. You happened to be there…with Liam.”
Widening her eyes, Jade stared her down. “I would expect this out of you,” she said to Darby. “But you?”
Taylor simply shrugged. “If you don’t want your private life out there, don’t do it in the cove. I mean, you’re right there. For everyone to see.”
“For everyone…” Jade huffed and shook her head. “I can’t believe you two.”
“What happened?” Darby asked softly, dismissing Jade’s chastisement. “Why didn’t you kiss him?”
Gaping at her, Jade didn’t speak. Didn’t move. Didn’t do much of anything until her bottom lip quivered and tears filled her eyes. “I don’t know. I like him. I do. A lot. I don’t know why I keep pushing him away.”
Darby offered her a sympathetic look. “Maybe it’s because—”
“No,” Jade stated firmly. “We’re not talking about this.”
Frustration lit in Darby. They’d been talking about her issues for over a week now. But Jade didn’t want to talk about hers? That wasn’t fair.
As Jade snagged a tissue from the chartreuse box on Darby’s end table, she asked, “What were you guys doing?”
“Nothing as interesting as you,” Taylor muttered.
Jade offered her a playful glare and then focused on Darby.
“Taylor offered to go with me when I go to talk to Sue…if she’ll talk to me. Can you come too?”
Jade glanced at Taylor. “We’re not interfering.”
“Not unless needed,” Taylor agreed.
“It would help me so much if you guys were close by,” Darby said. She stuck her lip out ever so slightly in the pout that usually won Jade over.
“Okay,” Jade said, caving in. “But we’re only going for moral support.” That statement was made toward Taylor, a warning of sorts. “Not to interact on Darby’s behalf. This is her issue to resolve.”
“And if we want our issues to be resolved,” Darby said gently, “we should talk about them. With our best friends so they can help us move forward and help us get our lives straightened out so we could maybe…date a cutie pie guy, if we wanted to.” She eyed Taylor in a silent plea for backup.
“Right,” Taylor said. “I mean, look at me. I’ve been one ongoing issue for as long as I can remember. I wouldn’t get shit done if I waited for this mess”—she gestured toward herself like a game show hostess—“to be resolved. You know, I had to start working on it, and you guys have helped a lot.”
Looking from Taylor to Darby, Jade sighed. “I’m sure. But we’ve talked about my problems all I intend to. I mean, if we’re going to try to fix someone, we’re not lacking options in this room.”
When Darby and Jade turned to Taylor, she threw her hands up. “Hell no. We are not talking about me.”
Darby held up her hands when Jade and Taylor looked at her. “Nope. We’re not saying another word about the fire I’m about to walk into by reaching out to Sue.” The smile on Darby’s face faded when she noticed Jade looking at her with concern in her eyes. “What?�
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“I found her number. Are you ready to give her a call?”
Darby felt like she could melt into the floor. “You found her already?”
“Your stalking skills are terrifying,” Taylor said to Jade.
Jade held up her phone. “I put it in a text to you. All I have to do is hit Send.”
Glancing from Jade to Taylor, Darby clutched her hands together. Holding her breath, she counted to ten, and then she nodded. Jade fiddled with her phone for a few seconds, and then Darby’s dinged to let her know she had a new message.
She stared at the device for several long seconds before opening the text. There were the digits needed to call Sue and hopefully put all this mess behind her. Her fingers trembled as she hovered over it. “What do I say?” she asked, barely above a whisper.
“Tell her that you’re calling because you’d like to apologize, and if she’s willing, you’d like to do that in person,” Jade said.
Darby’s mouth suddenly ran dry, but she closed her eyes and tapped the screen. The phone rang for several seconds before Sue Berdynski’s voice mail picked up. Thank the heavens for voice mail. Darby listened to the message, and as soon as the beep filled her ear, she swallowed again.
“Sue,” she said far faster than she’d normally speak, “this is Darby Zamora, and I… I was hoping we could meet somewhere. Sometime soon.” Shit, she was starting to stumble already.
Jade put her hand on Darby’s and gave her a soft smile.
Darby cleared her throat. “I, um, I’d like to apologize to you for…for sharing your story. I was hoping I could do that in person. If you’re willing. Please call me or text me back at this number, and…I understand if you don’t want to see me, but I do want you to know that I am incredibly sorry.”
She pulled the phone from her ear and ended the call. Her eyes were wide when she looked at Jade again. Okay. She’d just done that. Even if Sue never called her back, she’d apologized to her…well, to her voice mail. And that felt damn good.
Nine
The next afternoon, Darby sat in a little cafe in Richmond with her hands wrapped around a mug. If she were there for any other reason, she’d be thrilled by the aesthetic that reminded her of a television show her mom used to watch. The waitresses weren’t quite so sassy and the décor wasn’t as dated, but the feel of the little cafe was familiar in a way that seemed like a warm hug from her past and brought her some comfort. Well, as much comfort as she could get while waiting for someone to come and tell her to her face that she was a horrible person.
She had barely hung up from her voice mail to Sue the night before when she’d received a text telling her they could meet at this place, this time. Sue had followed up with directions and a declaration that she was eager to chat.
“Eager to chat” didn’t sound as much like “looking forward to putting this behind us” as Darby had hoped.
The scents in the air—greasy burgers and onion rings—would usually make her crave a huge helping of unhealthy food, but she felt far too sick to her stomach to even consider eating. She was certain if her waitress brought her anything fried, Darby would lose all the contents of her stomach then and there. Though that wouldn’t be much because she hadn’t been able to eat anything for breakfast either. Her nerves were wound too tight and her entire body was on alert—ready to run on a second’s notice.
The pounding of her heart echoed in her ears, drowning out the old Buddy Holly and the Crickets tune. As with the décor, if this were any other day, this scene would fill her with joy. Any other day, Darby would be bopping her head and doing a little dance in her booth to the song filtering from the speaker. But she could barely breathe. Dancing and enjoying one of her favorite songs wasn’t an option at the moment. Not with her stomach sitting like a boulder and her pulse beating faster than the melody coming from a speaker above her.
She tried to force her anxiety to go down a notch or two. If she didn’t find a way to calm down just a touch, she was going to stammer and stumble and ruin any chance she had at earning Sue’s forgiveness.
Darby looked at the table next to her. Taylor and Jade would be inconspicuous to anyone else, but to her they were like a rainbow poking through a dark cloud. If she was lucky, Sue wouldn’t show, and she could call them to join her at her table and her stomach would settle enough that she could order a slice of pie from the display case they’d passed on the way in. While waiting to be seated, she’d distracted herself by looking over the various types of fruit nestled between layers of golden, flaky crust.
If the universe was on her side, she’d be eating a slice with tart apples and saying “well, I tried” in no time. None of that hope was because she didn’t want to apologize—she did. She simply didn’t want to face Sue’s wrath in person. Even if her wrath was deserved.
When Darby glanced at her friends again, Taylor offered her a slight smile and a reassuring nod before sucking hard on the straw stuck in her thick chocolate milkshake. Again, Darby wished she had an appetite, but anything more than the hot tea in her mug would probably make her vomit.
“What the hell am I doing?” Darby muttered and looked fearfully at the glass double doors, debating if she should make a run for it. The knots in her stomach were so tight, they were turning in on each other, and the weight on her chest made inhaling even more difficult. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d been this terrified—so scared that she’d do about anything to put an end to it.
Time slowed to a turtle’s pace as Darby sat waiting for Sue to join her, knowing a confrontation was inevitable. Knowing she was going to have to look the woman in the eye while she said nasty things. Sitting there alone, fearing some kind of trouble was about to begin, was once again taking her back to high school. Only this time, rather than ducking her head and trying to hide, Darby had willingly put herself in this situation.
“If she says one ugly thing…” Taylor had said several times during the drive from Chammont Point to Richmond, only to be reminded that the woman was about to confront someone who humiliated her in front of half of the state of Virginia. She probably wasn’t going to be overly polite.
Darby appreciated Taylor’s protectiveness, but in this instance, Taylor’s need to defend her was misplaced. If anyone had the right to treat Darby with less respect than most, it was Sue Berdynski. She hoped Sue would listen, but if she only agreed to meet Darby to lash out and speak her mind, then that was what would happen. Darby would listen and do her best to be humble and honest in her apology. But she understood that didn’t mean Sue would accept it.
Darby had barely been able to breathe since walking into the cafe. No. She hadn’t been able to breathe since she’d made the call. But when the door opened and Sue walked in, the gut punch that Darby felt caused her entire body to tense. Filling her lungs wasn’t even an option. However, emptying her stomach became much more likely.
Oh, God, she thought. This is going to be so bad.
“She’s here,” Darby said loud enough for the people at the table next to her to hear.
“You got this,” Jade said.
“I have a milkshake ready to dump if need be,” Taylor added.
Darby wished she could find the comment as amusing as she was certain Taylor intended, but she simply couldn’t. She couldn’t stop staring at the door, wishing she could run out and pretend none of this had ever happened.
Sue scanned the dining area before locking on Darby. She didn’t smile. In fact, the scowl on her face deepened, and Darby had the distinct feeling of elephants wrestling in her stomach. Sue shoved her sunglasses on the top of her head so they rested on the short brunette strands. The woman’s eyes were dark but angry. And tired.
Though she couldn’t be much older than her midtwenties, Sue looked like she’d lived a hard life without nearly enough self-care or downtime. She looked like she needed a vacation. An honest to God, no responsibilities vacation.
Darby felt bad for her. She felt responsible. No doubt much of the
exhaustion so plainly displayed on Sue’s face was the stress of the last nine days…ever since Darby sat in Noah Joplin’s studio and told the world about a groom, two bridesmaids, and an unscrupulous trip the trio made somewhere on Chammont Lake.
Sue narrowed her eyes as she glared at Darby. The hard look in her eyes didn’t ease as she slid into the booth. “Well,” she barked harshly, “what the hell do you want?”
Darby fought to swallow again. She glanced at the table next to her, this time to Jade who gave that maternal you-can-do-it smile. As she took a long, slow inhale, Darby returned her attention to Sue. “I-I wanted to tell you how sorry I am.”
Sue stared, clearly unmoved.
“I didn’t mean—”
“To make money by telling the world my ex screwed my two best friends in my canoe?” Sue asked with all the fury and accusation of a woman who’d been cheated on. The vein in her forehead bulged and her nostrils flared, as if she was about to jump up and tear her shirt in half and scream out a battle cry.
Darby put her hand to her heart, fearing it might explode in her chest. Her head spun—either from lack of oxygen or her spiking blood pressure. She hadn’t expected this to be easy, but part of her hoped she could get through this without their meeting turning into a brawl in a dinky, greasy diner.
“I didn’t think that I was hurting anyone.”
“Are you stupid?” Sue asked flatly. The anger and outright hatred in her eyes were undeniable. She despised Darby. Or at least had an incredibly strong dislike for her.
Darby saw Taylor start to stand and Jade stop her. After another forced swallow, Darby worked up the courage to give her the obvious answer, “No. But I should have thought about how my actions would impact you and the other brides. I didn’t do that, and I’m sorry.”
Sue did smile then, but nothing about the way she was baring her teeth was friendly. The glint in her eye was wicked, like she knew what she was about to say was going to inflict pain and she was going to enjoy it. Her smirk spread right before she spat, “So you aren’t stupid. You’re simply insensitive and vicious.”
