by Emily Childs
Tossing my shoulders back, I refuse to cry, right now at least, and I refuse to think another moment about that wretched, confusing sign.
“Heya Dorothy-Ann, Miss Olive was about to send out a search party if you didn’t show up.” Arnie, the Cutler’s groundskeeper and friend, says as he shoves through the kitchen, adjusting a nice black tie.
“Well, look at you, Mr. Wilcox,” I say, adjusting the knot. “You look mighty dapper, if I do say so.”
“Girl, are you ever going to call me Arnie?”
I pat his whiskered cheek. “Probably not. Blame my mama.”
He scoffs. “Manners.”
I wink. “Manners.”
“They’re all upstairs, in case you were wondering,” he says, then hurries to help Grant, another groundskeeper who took a risk trying to balance an enormous vase of flowers on his own.
Upstairs is quiet, and it’s the first time I hear the sound of my heart pounding in my skull. Because of the wedding. I’m excited is all. And I tell myself that the entire walk to the master bedroom. The moment I go to open the door, Bernadette, Olive’s mother slips out, dressed to the nines as always. “Dorothy-Ann.” She glances at an old clock on a thin table in the hallway. “Girl, you barely made it.”
“Don’t worry, Mrs. Cutler, if I’m anything, I’m punctual.”
“Sugar, you’re all flushed,” Bernadette says. “Are you all right?”
Ever since Rafe and Olive got hitched, Bernadette has taken a massive chill, in the best ways. She’d never have patted my face all motherly like this a year ago. I’m extra fond of the woman now, and I force a smile or she’ll worry through the entire ceremony. “I’m fine. Simply excited as all get out for this day.”
Bernadette grins and looks around, as if absorbing the splendor. “It is a lovely day, isn’t it? Well, get on in there. You’re needed.”
I adjust my pale dress, one of the better bridesmaids’ dresses I’ve worn, all tight and shapely around my hips. It’s flattering, and some would say that was foolish of Jo. Isn’t everyone else supposed to look awful so the bride shines? When I go into the room, though, I realize Jo has nothing to worry about. She’s glowing. I blink through a sting in my eyes, Mylanta, I need to stop or I’ll be blubbering before we make it down the aisle. I can’t help it. My favorite people are all gathered in one place. Olive is matching me and is wearing her big, kind smile. The truest friend any of us are lucky enough to have. She bustles around, helping zip up dresses, or pin lace to Jo’s hair. Jace helps with a final layer of nail polish, chatting—maybe complaining—about that European company that’s starting to merge with hers. Agatha, Zac’s sweet as honey mama, helps place some of Jo’s curls. She whispers something to her soon-to-be daughter-in-law that reddens Jo’s eyes, then Agatha squeezes her shoulders. What a beautiful day.
The hem of my dress is tugged and I melt, melt, right there on the spot. “Brinny-boo,” I squeal and squeeze the toddler in her puffy fairy dress. She even has a crown of flowers. I’m done for when she giggles and looks at me with her daddy’s big eyes. “You are just a regular princess!”
My voice snaps everyone’s attention to the door. Lily laughs and adds a little pearl bracelet to her daughter’s wrist. “Dottie, girl, we thought you’d be here barking orders at the crack of dawn. Where’ve you been?”
“I’m sorry y’all,” I say with a sigh and a tickle to Brin. “I got held up on the road. Josephine!” I practically squeal. “You are a vision. Ugh, I can’t wait to see Zac pass out. It’ll give me so much more ammo to tease the man about.”
Agatha chuckles and moves aside, giving me room to hug the bride.
“No worries,” Jo says. “I’m so nervous, no offense, but I’ve hardly noticed who’s here and who isn’t.” She holds the sides of her face. “I can hardly believe this is happening.”
I squeeze her shoulders and don’t miss Olive’s glance in the mirror. Raised brows and that look we give each other that means she knows I’m holding back and I better spill whatever the truth is later. I even nod subtly in the mirror. We’re that good at mind reading. I turn back to Jo. “You’ve got one heck of a guy waiting for you down there. I knew it would take someone extra feisty to tie Zac down. Are you ready?”
Jo nods and adjusts a dainty, netted veil over her wavy hair. “So ready.”
* * *
Here I am crying again. I hope I’m not all smeared, but it’s near impossible not to choke up watching Zac tenderly take Jo’s face like he keeps doing, as if the man can’t keep his hands off her. I swallow past a lump as the officiator does the big pronouncement. He barely finishes before Zac has his mouth on Jo’s. My heart is going to break something. Zachariah kisses that woman like it’ll keep the earth spinning. Ah, to be loved like this. I blink too fast, I get dizzy, then pull myself together in time to cheer with the rest of the crowd as Zac and Jo raise their clasped hands.
His face blazes into my head like he deserves a spot on this day. I wince. Why is he still haunting my head? That darn sign. I make plans to kick it down on the way home tonight.
I follow after Jace back down the aisle. The crowd is pure southern with sun hats, lace gloves, and pearls. But let us not forget the lone New Yorker, Jo’s quietly pleasant family attorney. It’s sad Jo has lived so many years since her daddy died feeling alone as she has. I think someone ought to smack her deadbeat mother upside the head, but that isn’t my place to say. Besides, the way the bride is getting swallowed by folks, I’d say she found a few people to fill any loneliness she had.
Later, when food gives us a break from the crowds, I listen to the banter around the table, pushing my fish around my plate. My head is drifting to him again, and I wish I could just keep focus for one night. Until Rafe brings up Jo’s slimy ex. Now I’m all ears.
“How long will y’all be in New York before you head out on the trip?” he asks.
Zac drapes an arm around Jo’s chair and sighs. “A couple days. John told us the hearing might be two days or so, and since Jo needs to testify, who knows. But the second we’re free, we’ll go to Maine and I won’t see your face for two weeks, so don’t destroy my business, yeah?”
Rafe chuckles and makes no promises.
Jo squeezes Zac’s hand, her smile a little sadder. “Sort of a drag way to start our honeymoon.” Zac presses a kiss to her forehead.
“Oh, no it’s not,” I insist. I can already feel the steam coming out of my ears. “That dirtbag thinks he can pull those shenanigans with your money? He’s lucky it’s a stinking medical license hearing and not a legal court.”
“Losing his license would be worse than jail to Emmitt,” Jo says. “Odds are it’ll happen, too.”
“Well, after that we don’t need to think about it again,” Zac adds.
Jo leans on his shoulder, nuzzling his neck. “I look forward to that day.”
I hope the big Doctor Jerk loses his medical license. He tried to take all Jo had left of her daddy, and what sort of human does something like that? A terrible one. I guess the doctor who Jo was supposed to do business with by investing in his clinic was beyond peeved and went for blood after he learned there had been devious scheming going on. It wasn’t even Jo who filed the charge, he simply beat her to it.
“At the very least,” Jo mutters, “he won’t keep his fellowship.”
“I bet he’s going to die seeing you come all married and sassy and ready to take some names,” Jace says, laughing.
Jo sneaks a grin at Zac, there’s something playful in it and I feel like we’re all intruding. “I don’t know if he’ll be so surprised that I married Zac, the way he blazed up to New York last year and had a standoff with Emmitt at my apartment.”
Zac grunts. “Some standoff. If I knew what he was up too, it would’ve been messier.”
August and Rafe laugh as Jo pecks Zac’s cheek. “Babe, don’t be mad. We know you’re tough.”
I snort when the groomsmen have a few crude things to add to that. Ex-lovers—they’re t
he worst. I roll my eyes when my thoughts once again betray me and flash his face across my head. The heartbreaker of the century. But I do wonder what he’s been up to this last year. Who he’s been up to it all with. My throat tightens and starts to go all sorts of dark places I don’t want to be today.
“Hey there,” Olive whispers and hands me a sweet tea while the photographer snaps pictures of the Dawson family. “You going to tell me what happened?”
I peek around. Lily rocks Brin, who crashed, while the others hang around her and August since they’re pretty planted in their seats. “No. I’m not okay,” I admit. Olive will understand this better than anyone. “Ollie, my daddy, he texted me something on the way here sent my heart shooting right out my downstairs.”
“Vivid picture, but I got it. What happened?” I show her my phone screen and she reads aloud. “Big city insurance company brings small-town values to Honeyville. Pretty generic headline.”
I groan. “No! Read on.”
Olive squints and mutters about the app first. “Oh, yeah. Jo mentioned something about that. It offers discounts on prescriptions and insurance premiums.” She claps her hands together. “You know what, there was a little girl in my class who got some weird virus. Would’ve been three hundred dollars for her medicine, but her mama told me at our parent-teacher conference not two days ago that some app made it so they only paid seventy-five. Pretty cool, but I’m not sure how a life-slash-health insurance company is so upsetting.”
I rest my chin in my hands. “Girl, you’re missing the name of the company! The app, the insurance, they’re all owned by Lanford-Hewitt Enterprises.”
Olives eyes widen like someone slapped her in the face. “Wait, Lanford as in—”
I nod viciously, a few more curls slip out. I don’t even care if I get lipstick on my teeth, I bite my bottom lip anyway. “As in Sawyer’s company he bought right when he . . .”
Broke up with me. That’s what I’m thinking, but after all this time the words are still like a stab to the heart to say out loud. The man who’d shredded my heart and soul, a guy who was supposed to ogle me the way Zac is ogling Jo right now.
“Well, maybe it’s just the company. He could be expanding. Doesn’t mean he’ll show up.” She clears her throat and turns away.
I lift a brow. “What was that? That look. Olive Whitfield, do you know something?”
She takes a drink of her tea. “No. It’s just, well, you know my daddy’s rental properties?”
I nod. Mr. Lon Cutler had his hand in several different enterprises and owned a few beachside properties he leased out. “Yeah, what about them?”
“It’s just the blue palace was leased. I did the paperwork since Daddy is in London, and I didn’t . . . well, I didn’t think of the name until now, but—” She lowers her voice. “It was to a man named—”
“Don’t say it.” I groan. “No, do say it. A man named Sawyer, wasn’t it?”
“I didn’t even piece it together. I didn’t even really read the last name before I scanned all the paperwork.”
I let my head flop into my hands. The blue palace is just a nickname for a lovely beach house, oh, only a mile down from mine!
Olive pats my shoulder. “Let me double check and if it is, maybe I can find a way to cancel the rental agreement. I don’t know.”
“No,” I say quickly. “No, that’s your daddy’s business. We aren’t letting a broken heart mess with his wallet or he’ll stop spoiling us.”
Olive snorts, but she knows it’s true. At least once a month the Cutlers host rambunctious dinners with our entire crew that are finer than any five-star place in town. And Lon shares my affinity for chocolate desserts.
Still, this is a disaster. I know why my daddy sent it to me, and it has nothing to do with my ex-boyfriend being on the letterhead. There’s shady insurance dealings left and right we’ve learned since meshing in the healthcare world. Lanford & Hewitt just happen to specialize in trainings and are known to be ruthless to those who try to game the insurance payout system.
I’ll not lie, there’s been some trouble at the clinic as of late. After the disaster with billing the wrong codes that Jo saved us from, I don’t know, the books are just off. That falls to me as the business side of everything. Clearly, I know what’s destined to be in my future.
My father is going to bring Sawyer’s team in for the clinic. I feel it in my bones.
I remember moments where I’d muse with Sawyer about the clinic. I remember him dreaming right along with me about of a full packaged deal. Health care for folks who needed it but didn’t have great coverage, and then a way to help them save on the prescriptions. He’d already worked in the medical expansion business. Made a great living, but then he’d altered course and gone into insurance. Honestly, I’d been a little surprised. The app, that makes sense. Sawyer loved coding, but I guess a preference for claims and reports was one of the other things he never told me about. Like how he wanted to break up. That was probably his biggest surprise.
“I’m sorry, Dottie,” Olive says, dragging me back to reality. “There is still a chance it’s not him. A lot of businessmen let their people use their names.”
She’s reaching, and I appreciate the attempt to cheer me up, but in my heart I know. My entire body is trembling because I know. I’m glad for the distraction when Zac and Jo are sent off to their happily ever after with white and pink petals and lots of stolen kisses.
I’m even smiling as I make the dark drive back home. Enough that I give into curiosity. The article image gave an address. The new building where the insurance tycoons are planning to set up shop. I’d like to see it, if only to prove to myself this is real. One streetlamp is out in the empty parking lot, but there is enough lighting near the office building that I notice the man. I squint in the dark. A guy, in a suit, is just . . . standing there.
I roll down my window, turn down my radio, but curse myself when the sound of my blasting music catches his attention and he turns around.
No. No. Nonononono!
He tilts his head, those big honey eyes, the kind a girl can get lost in, drink me up. “Dot? Is that you?”
I should leave. Speed away into the night, but he’s already on me like a June bug in summertime. One of those hands—those delightful hands—rests on my open window. I clear my throat. “Sawyer.”
That’s all I can manage.
Sawyer Lanford. Tall, chestnut hair that swoops in all the right swoops. Kind eyes, a hilarious laugh that was once contagious, and ears that poke out just a bit, but I always loved them. Oh, also a big scoundrel who pulverizes hearts.
A shadow crosses his face, his voice deepens. “Been a while.”
“Yeah.” I keep my eyes straight ahead. “Well, I best be going. Goodbye, Sawyer.”
It might be my imagination, but his fist clenches at his side. Is he angry? And just what in all that is holy does he have to be angry about? “Right. I think we’ll be seeing more of each other soon enough, Dottie.”
Dottie—oh, no he did not. He’s not the only one who can toss out names. “I doubt that, Lucky.”
His jaw tightens. Good. He deserves it. Take a good, long look Sawyer at what you lost. Except I’m fighting not to cry. Not the tough, unbothered woman I’d like to be. I put my car into gear, and he steps away.
My worst fears are coming true. He’d see me around? I slap my steering wheel. Because he’s back. He’s living in the blue palace, no doubt.
Oh, Mylanta.
Sawyer Lanford is back in Honeyville.
* * *
Fall in Love with Dot and Sawyer here: readerlinks.com/l/1710759
Coming April 2021
Also by Emily Childs
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For more sweet reads check out my other b
ooks:
A Little Like Romeo
A Little Ado About Love
A Little Fool for You
Loving on the Enemy
Christmas at Holly Berry Inn
Thank you!
Come stop by at www.emilycauthor.com. I love to hear from readers. I’d love to thank all those who made this book possible. First Suite Six Studios for the perfect covers! Seriously, the best, www.suitesixstudios.com. I’d love to thank BH Writing services for fixing all my comma sins and smoothing out the edges. Thank you to my family for giving me moments to write and bring this story out there.
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