Was Preston right?
Chapter Twenty-six
Kelly’s wedding was equal parts emotional and beautiful, and it went off without a hitch. Leah had seen Kelly in her dress multiple times, right up until the moment they had to walk down the aisle. You’d think that would have prepared her for the sight of her baby sister, on their father’s arm walking slowly down the aisle between rows of white chairs. Leah’s eyes welled up immediately and she feared for the makeup that been so painstakingly applied to her earlier that day.
Stunning. It was the only word Leah could find to describe her sister. The dress was simple, with beaded stitch work and a long train, her bouquet of yellow, red, and orange flowers adding a splash of color. Leah cried silently, felt hot tears track down her cheeks. Makeup be damned, this was her little sister and she was beautiful.
It amazed Leah how quickly it all went. They’d been planning for more than a year. So much went into making one day as perfect as it could be. Just one day. And before Leah knew it, the ceremony was over, dinner had been eaten, the lights were down, and dancing had ensued. She sat at a table with her aunt and uncle and a glass of wine and simply watched as Kelly’s teacher friends formed a conga line and chugged around the room, Kelly in the lead. Dylan stood off to the side watching. He’d been grinning like a fool since the morning, and when he looked at Kelly, Leah’s heart ached. In two ways. It ached with happiness and joy for her sister, who now had a husband who adored her. And it ached for Leah herself, who’d had a woman look at her like that—a woman she’d given up on in the blink of an eye.
A woman who is right over there by the cake table.
Leah turned her chair so she couldn’t see Teddi. She’d been fairly successful at avoiding her all day, aside from times when they had to communicate or be in the same room, and much of her process had involved shifting her view. It didn’t help that Teddi looked amazing. Leah had never seen her dressed for a work wedding. She wore all black—an attempt not to stand out, Leah assumed—but on Teddi, with her dark hair and eyes and olive skin, a tight-fitting black dress was damn near the perfect outfit. She wore pumps, which surprised Leah, as Teddi was on her feet the entire time, but even now, as things were beginning to wind down, Teddi looked completely fresh, not a hair out of place, not anything remotely resembling a frazzled expression. Only smiles, calm words, instant solutions.
Damn her.
She hadn’t tried to talk to Leah on anything other than a business level today, and for that, Leah was both grateful and irritated. She also knew she was being selfish and irrational, and she was annoyed with herself for all of those feelings. Thank God this was almost over because she was beyond ready to be done and go home. Back to her couch and her cat and her romance movies that were now nothing more than cruel fantasies. Nobody had ever been able to shake her love of rom-coms. Until Theodora Baker had sidled into her life and been tossed out of it.
“Hi.”
Leah startled, and looked up into the darkest eyes, accentuated by dark, full lashes. Teddi’s face was framed by all that bouncy, wavy hair, and Leah was both drawn in and pushed away by the beauty.
“Hi.” That damn lump was back. Leah pressed her lips together in a straight line.
Teddi pointed at the empty chair next to Leah. “May I?”
Leah gave a curt nod. What was she supposed to say? No? She wasn’t about to be rude at her sister’s wedding.
“The ceremony was beautiful,” Teddi said once she’d taken a seat, and while to anybody else she would have sounded perfectly normal and confident, Leah knew her well enough to hear the slight tremor in her voice. The hesitation. “Kelly looks stunning.”
“She does. Everything went well.”
A beat went by as the two of them watched the dancers.
“I’m really happy for them,” Teddi said.
“Me, too.” God, this is painful. Did it have to be? How did they get here? How exactly had this happened? And why? What was the point of the Universe handing her somebody like Teddi—somebody she clicked with like two puzzle pieces fitting together—only to turn around and take her away? Leah had spent weeks now trying to understand what she was supposed to have learned.
“I miss you.” Teddi said it so quietly that between her low volume and the music from the DJ, Leah wasn’t sure she’d heard correctly. When she ventured a glance in Teddi’s direction, she knew she had. Teddi’s eyes were sad, wet, and she visibly swallowed.
Leah had so much to say and at the same time didn’t want to say anything. Not here. Not now. “Look—” she began, but stopped when Teddi held up a hand.
“No. No, I’m sorry. This is your sister’s wedding. It’s not the time or the place. I shouldn’t have said anything.” She stood and pushed the chair neatly back in to the table. Looking down at Leah, her whole expression softened. She reached out a hand as if to touch Leah’s face, but seemed to decide against it and let it drop to her side. “But it was really good to see you today, Leah. You look beautiful.”
She turned and walked away.
It felt final.
Leah understood suddenly that because the wedding was over, there would be no more need to see Teddi without making an effort. There were no more meetings. No more I don’t want to go, but I have to trips to Hopeless Romantic. This was it.
Leah downed the rest of her wine in a huge gulp, set the glass on the table behind her, and felt everything in her simply deflate.
It felt final because it was.
* * *
The aquarium was always busier on the weekends than during the week when Teddi usually went. But she needed the feeling, the calm it always brought her to sit and watch the sea creatures. She’d found a small bench in a tucked-away corner, and she sat there for a long while, watching the tropical fish in all their brightly colored neon glory swim past the glass.
Yesterday had been brutal. She could admit that now.
Turning the whole thing over to Preston had crossed her mind. More than once. But she couldn’t do that to Kelly. She’d been with her every step of the way, and passing her off to Preston on the day they’d been working so hard toward would’ve just been cruel. Bad business, yes, but also a bad thing for a friend to do. And she did consider Kelly a friend now. Which was probably stupid, given the circumstances.
Leah had been…
God.
Leah had been beyond gorgeous. Stunningly beautiful. Yes, all eyes were supposed to be on the bride on her wedding day, but Teddi’s focus had been on the maid of honor pretty much all day. She did her best to be subtle about it and Harlow only shot her a look once, telling her she noticed. But for the love of all things holy, the off-the-shoulder emerald dress? The way her hair was pulled back into a very complicated twist, a few strands hanging down to frame her face? The pride and love in her expression all day? Teddi had never seen a woman more beautiful in her entire life as Leah Scott was on her sister’s wedding day. Seriously. Teddi’d had trouble taking a full breath for much of the reception.
She was glad she’d approached Leah, that she’d sat with her. It had been so hard to simply walk up and say hi. Ridiculous, really, because how hard was it to say hello? But Teddi felt like her skin was being taken off by a vegetable peeler, she was so nervous. Leah had allowed her to sit, which was more than Teddi had expected, so the fact that the conversation hadn’t been long or in-depth or any of the things she’d intended didn’t really matter. And it really hadn’t been the right time to talk anyway. Teddi was proud of herself for taking her leave when she had. The sight of Leah’s deep green eyes looking up at her in concern, uncertainty, and sadness was something she wouldn’t be able to erase from her memory any time soon.
A bright yellow seahorse made his way by while a blue-and-yellow angelfish passed by him going in the opposite direction, and Teddi smiled, felt her stress level decrease by a point or two. She liked to think of the sea life as moving along on a road, heading to work or school or home, busily living their lives and pay
ing zero attention to the brooding brunette human sitting outside their window.
The only reason she’d slept like the dead last night was because she was so tired. The night of a wedding was always like that for her. She would go, go, go nonstop from eight in the morning until after midnight that night, and when she got home, she’d simply fall into bed. Sometimes, she didn’t even undress. Last night had been like that—except she woke up at four a.m. and her mind filled with Leah.
She had to do something.
Nobody made her think like Leah. Wasn’t that a weird thing to say? But it was true. First, about the dissolution of her marriage. Teddi had spent the better part of two years being bitter and angry and Leah made her see that yes, the end of any marriage was sad, but the split had been fair. Awful, but fair. It was a bump, an obstacle, but she’d gotten over it and had gone on with her life, and how amazing was that? Second, about marriage in general, specifically marriage for a second time. Well, to be fair, Preston and Harlow had also played roles, but the topic had been hanging out in Teddi’s head for days now. Sometimes in the background, tapping at her with a gentle finger. Other times in the forefront and using a sledgehammer. And she certainly hadn’t changed her mind and decided to jump into a second marriage. She was far from ready for that. What she had been doing, though? She’d been considering the possibility. And that was a big deal.
She had to do something.
But what? Because she very well might have blown it. For good. Leah had barely made eye contact yesterday and it hurt more than Teddi cared to admit. It had sliced her like a scalpel, deep and precise.
The blackbar soldierfish went by in a bright orange school, and Teddi watched them move as one. That’s what she wanted. To move as one with somebody. No. No, not with somebody. With Leah. Only with Leah.
She had to do something.
She slid out her phone and sent two texts out, then blew out a huge breath and sat back against the wall behind her bench. A purpose. She had a purpose now. A goal. That simple fact relaxed her in a big way as she watched the marine life flit by the glass. It was possible she’d fail. It was possible that she really had blown it, that there was no fixing things. But damn it, she was at least going to try. And that would allow her to look at herself in the mirror each morning. Knowing she’d tried instead of run.
It was time to do something.
* * *
“I hope you guys know how much I appreciate you meeting me on a Sunday. I’m so sorry to pull you away from your lives, but…” Teddi slipped her coat off and tossed it over the chair behind the front counter in Hopeless Romantic. She, Preston, and Harlow were all there. In fact, they got there before her and Preston had let Harlow in. They were waiting for her when she’d arrived from the aquarium, and the speed with which they’d dropped whatever they were doing and had shown up for her brought tears to her eyes. “I need your help.”
Harlow crossed to the coffee area and popped a pod into the machine. “Anybody else?” she asked. At two nods, she readied two more.
Preston reached under the counter and pulled out an unopened bottle of Baileys, a gift from a client the previous month. “Seems like we might need this,” he said, and Teddi surprise-hugged him, throwing her arms around his torso before he even saw her coming.
Once they all had coffee and Preston had poured a shot of Bailey’s into each mug, they sat around the table. Preston sat back in his chair, his arms folded across his chest, and the casualness of his jeans and black Under Armour compression shirt took nothing away from how precisely good looking the man was. Harlow wore leggings and a long gray sweatshirt that said Be Kind on the front. Her hair was in a messy bun, and she sat forward, leaning her forearms on the table. They waited.
“God, I don’t even know how to begin this other than to say I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately.” Teddi took a sip of her coffee, savored the sweetness of the Baileys, then cleared her throat. “About Leah. About me and Leah. About me. A lot about me.”
Preston sipped, waited. Harlow’s eyes never left hers.
“I want her back.” There. She’d said it. She inhaled, then blew out the breath loudly and said it again just for the hell of it. “I want her back. I miss her so much, my entire body aches.”
A grin had slowly grown and spread across Preston’s face. Harlow looked like she was two seconds from a happy giggle—which came two seconds later, and she clapped her hands together in delight.
“It’s about goddamn time,” Preston said. “I didn’t think you were ever going to get here.”
“Was it yesterday?” Harlow asked. “Is that what did it?”
“Seeing her yesterday definitely gave me a nudge, but I’ve been rolling some things around in my head for a while now. And you guys the other day?”
Harlow grimaced. “We were hard on you.” She sent a look Preston’s way.
“No,” Teddi said, her voice strong. “No, you were telling me what I needed to hear. I didn’t want to hear it, but I needed to hear it.” She turned to Preston, who hadn’t said anything about that day, but the red in his cheeks told her there was an element of shame for him. “And you were right.” Teddi reached across and squeezed his hand, silent forgiveness. “So. Here’s what I know.” She went on to tell them everything she’d concluded at the aquarium, the sum of all her thoughts of late mixed in with what it had felt like to see and be around Leah yesterday. “I realized at the end of last night that it was very possible I’d never see her again. With the wedding over, there’s not really any reason we’d end up in the same place at the same time. If we wanted to see each other, we’d have to make it happen, make the effort.” She gave one determined nod. “And I think that effort has to come from me.”
“I think so, too.” Preston sat forward and mimicked Harlow’s pose of forearms on the table, hands folded. He squinted—his thinking face, Teddi knew.
“I’m not ready for marriage and I don’t think Leah is either. But I need to find a way to tell her that I’m open to it. In time.”
“And are you?” Harlow asked, her eyes searching Teddi’s. “Are you truly?”
Teddi didn’t hesitate, surprising both of her friends and herself when the grin blossomed across her face. “I am.”
Harlow reached over, squeezed Teddi’s hand with both of hers, and if her happiness had been written all over her face, it would’ve been in bright neon colors.
Preston clapped his hands and rubbed them together, apparently preparing to hatch a plan. “Okay, then. You’re gonna need something major here.”
“Agreed,” Harlow said, her excitement palpable, her arms waving in enthusiastic animation. “Time to pull out the big guns. You need Bill Pullman from While You Were Sleeping bringing his whole family to the tollbooth.”
“You need Piper Perabo from Imagine Me & You standing on a car in a traffic jam.” Preston. At the startled look Teddi gave him, he shrugged and said, “What? I watch lesbian stuff sometimes.”
Harlow laughed, then said, “Henry Golding from Crazy Rich Asians professing his love on a crowded airplane.”
“God, that man is hot, steamy sex on a cracker,” Preston said on a sigh.
“Oh my God, he so is.” Harlow dreamy-sighed, too.
“Hey,” Teddi said, snapping her fingers in front of them. “Come back from fantasy land. We’re talking about me here.”
“Right, right. I’ve got an idea.” Harlow got up and hurried behind the counter, then returned with a pen and a small notepad. She sat down, turned to Preston, and then they were talking to each other. “We get her attention using what she loves: rom-coms.”
“We?” Teddi asked, amused.
“You. You. You know what I mean. But we’re going to need some stuff from the warehouse. And time to make it all work.” Harlow jotted some notes; Preston read them, nodded, and added a few things himself.
Teddi picked up her coffee mug and held it in both hands as she sat back and watched her best friends hatch a plan to help her. G
od, she was lucky to have them. She listened as the idea came together slowly, each piece sliding into place with a click. As Teddi’s eyes widened at the scope, Harlow smiled tenderly at her.
“Go big or go home, right?”
Teddi nodded, and when she smiled back at her friends, it was with a renewed sense of possibility.
I’m gonna get her back.
Chapter Twenty-seven
“I hate you because you’re tan.” Leah punctuated the statement with a pout as she sat in Kelly’s passenger seat.
“As long as you don’t hate me because I’m beautiful,” Kelly countered with a grin.
“I hate you ’cause of that, too.”
“I don’t believe you.”
Leah smiled as they drove along Main Street and out of downtown toward the suburbs. Fall was in full force as November waited in the wings, ready to make an appearance. The color palette of the world had shifted from lush greens to cozy oranges, reds, and yellows. Leaves blew along the street, summer flowers bid farewell until next year, and the air held that scent of earth and wood and crispness.
“I missed you,” Leah said as they sat at a red light. “I’m so glad you liked the cruise, though.”
“Oh my God,” Kelly said, dropping her head back and making a sound of intense enjoyment. “It was the best. I think everybody should take a cruise at least once. We need to get Mom on one. She’d love it.”
“And you and Dylan…?”
“Had so much sex I think we scared the older couple in the next cabin.” They laughed together as Kelly hit the gas and propelled them forward. “And how are you doing?”
Leah tried unsuccessfully to stifle her sigh. “I’m okay.” She felt Kelly look at her more than saw it.
“Yeah?”
A half shrug. “I guess.”
“Any contact since the wedding?”
“No.” And Leah was disappointed by that. And also confused. Because she’d been the one to break it off. She was the one who cruelly held the door open for Teddi and told her to leave. Expecting any more contact than Teddi had already attempted was not only unfair, it was ridiculous. Still, she missed Teddi more than she cared to admit to anybody. Time had only eased the pain the smallest of amounts. It still hurt. It still squeezed her heart. She still remembered how it was with Teddi, still dreamed about her…
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