by Rachel Hanna
The conference room smelled like her perfume, and the doors to Theater B reminded him of their movie night. He still couldn’t believe all the trouble she’d gone to.
Everything reminded him of her. The only consolation was that she’d be back in a few hours, so he tried his best to focus on the work at hand.
Even though they were head over heels for each other, they’d still managed to get a lot done in a short amount of time. The grounds were almost complete, with a mini golf course and a small carnival area being built from scratch. They planned to have a Halloween festival there in October, in fact.
Inside, there was new paint and flooring, and a brand new state-of-the-art arcade had been installed a week ago. Brad had to refrain from venturing off into the arcade or else he might not ever make it back out.
The theaters were getting an overhaul this week too. It was all coming together, and that made him even sadder. If Ronni went home, he wasn’t sure what he would do.
“Excuse me?” a man said from behind him, startling him enough that he thought about using the stapler beside him as a weapon.
“Man, you scared the crap out of me. I thought the door was locked,” Brad said as he stood up and puffed his chest out like some kind of wild bird trying to scare off a predator.
“Sorry,” the guy said. He didn’t look familiar, and he definitely didn’t have a Southern accent. He looked every bit the part of “preppy” with an actual sweater tied around his neck. What was this? 1990?
“Can I help you?”
“I’m looking for Veronica Blair.”
“Oh, you must be from California? Did you guys get your wires crossed? She’s in Atlanta waiting for you…”
“I’m confused. She definitely didn’t know I was coming. Took me awhile to find out where she was.”
“Huh?” Brad was totally baffled. “Who are you again?”
“Evan Carlton,” he said, reaching his hand out toward Brad. Evan. What on Earth was he doing there? Brad crossed his arms. “Did I do something to offend you?”
“Yeah. You left my friend at the altar. What kind of guy does that? Leaves a beautiful, smart, funny….”
“She left me.”
One of the shortest sentences in history, but it took the wind out of Brad’s sails. This guy had to be lying.
“What?”
“She left me,” Evan said before letting out an ironic sounding laugh. “I guess she told you I left her? Wow. Unbelievable.”
Brad leaned against the front counter, trying to take it all in. “So you’re saying she left you? And I should believe that why?”
“I don’t care if you believe it or not. Hell, I don’t even know who you are!” Evan said. “Where is she?”
“None of your damn business,” Brad said, seething for reasons he couldn’t quite comprehend at the moment. Was he mad at this guy? Or was he mad at Ronni for lying?
“Listen, man, I don’t know who you… Oh, wait. I get it now. She’s with you, isn’t she? Oh my God… She sure moved on fast. Wow.” Evan shook his head and laughed. “I give up.”
“You’re telling the truth,” Brad said, more to himself as a confirmation than anything else.
“Yes. I am. I came here to try to talk some sense into her, but I can see it’s a lost cause. But at least I can save another man from her craziness.”
“Don’t talk about her like that,” Brad warned.
“Fine. Protect her, but let me say what I need to say.”
Brad nodded and walked into the conference room. Evan sat down across from him and leaned back in his chair.
“We were together for two years. Everyone thought we were perfect for each other. The business woman and the doctor. Wonderful life laid out before us. Planning kids and vacations. I let her plan the biggest wedding she wanted, all the bells and whistles from the Four Seasons Hotel to the top caterer in California. No expense was spared. The only thing she paid for was the caterer, and that was because she insisted on contributing. She always was a bit stubborn. Anyway… Then she bolted. Literally an hour before the wedding, she climbed out of the bathroom window just outside of the ballroom where almost two hundred guests waited. Thank God her maid of honor checked on her before I was left standing like a fool in front of our family and friends.”
“And she didn’t say anything?”
“Nope. Well, she texted me later, once she was long gone. It simply said ‘I’m sorry’. I was worried sick. I finally bribed someone at her company to tell me where she was. They were very tight lipped, but I’ve found if you wave enough money in front of someone’s face…”
“She must’ve had a reason,” Brad said, trying to convince himself more than Evan.
“Does it really matter? Who does that to a person? Do you know how humiliating that was? And still I was willing to come here because I love her… and I know she still loves me. You can’t fake that.”
“Maybe she was.”
“Well, maybe she is now too,” Evan said. “Good luck, man. You’re gonna need it.”
And with that, he walked out and Brad was left wondering if it was all a big illusion.
Brad sat on his sofa, a beer in one hand and his cell phone in the other. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to get a text from Ronni ever again, but if he did he didn’t want to miss it.
His heart ached. A few short hours ago, he’d been longing for her and now he was wondering who she really was.
Evan was right. Who does that? Did she have a conscience? Was she just stringing him along too? Did she really care about him, or was she some kind of runaway bride character like in the movies?
Brad was startled out his thoughts by a knock at the door. When he opened it, he didn’t expect to see her standing there.
“Surprise! My meeting ended early, so I drove straight here!” she said before kissing him on the lips. He didn’t move. He didn’t kiss her back. He just stood there, unable to make eye contact. “Brad? Is everything okay?”
“Yeah,” he said as he stepped back to allow her inside. He shut the door behind her and stood there, hands in his jean pockets.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, clearly concerned by the look on her face. He honestly didn’t know how to answer that, so he went with the simplest route.
“Evan.”
Her face went pale. “What?”
“Evan came to see you today. Well, actually, Evan came looking for his runaway bride today.” He walked around her and sat back down on the sofa before taking a long swig of his beer. It was empty within seconds. He crushed it and threw it across the room toward a trash can before popping open another one.
He wasn’t a big drinker normally, but desperate times called for desperate measures. Right now, he just wanted to dull the pain of being lied to and strung along. At least that was how he saw it.
“Brad, let me explain…” she said as she crossed the room slowly.
“Explain? Seriously? What kind of explanation could you possibly have for spending so much money on a wedding and then climbing out a window an hour before? And then telling me that he left you standing at the altar? Are you some kind of compulsive liar?”
She took in a deep breath and wiped a tear that was already cascading down her cheek. The silence in the room was deafening. There was no explanation.
“I can’t believe you lied to me, Ronni. I thought you really cared, but you were just playing me like you played Evan.”
“That’s not true! I didn’t play you, Brad. I do care about you! I love you!” she said for the first time. Right now, it meant nothing. In fact, it caused him more pain. He shot up off the sofa.
“You don’t love me! Stop telling me lies, Ronni! And why should I be surprised anyway? The only other woman I ever loved - who by the way I didn’t love even a shred as much as I loved you - did the same thing to me that you did to Evan. I can’t believe I fell for it again. At least I wasn’t the idiot who spent all that money…”
She walked forward and grabbed his ar
ms before he could bring another can up to his mouth and swiped it out of his hands and onto the floor where the contents started saturating the carpet.
“Now you listen to me, Brad Parker! You don’t know the story, and maybe it won’t matter, but you’re going to sit down, shut up and listen to it. Then, if you still don’t want to be with me, I’ll leave and never come back.”
He breathed in and out of his nose, teeth clenched, like a bull about to charge, but he sat down and stared straight again. He couldn’t look at her. She was too damn beautiful, and he was too damn angry.
“Fine. Talk.” He leaned back on the sofa and stared at the ceiling as she began.
“I never loved Evan.”
“Oh, that makes it all better.”
“Are you going to let me talk or not?” His silence was her answer, so she continued. “Evan was a nice guy, or so I thought at the time. I was just making my way in business, and we met at a party.” She stood up and walked around the room, pacing out of nervousness.
“I don’t need the history of your dating life.”
“Fine. I’ll cut to the chase. He pushed very hard for marriage, and I went along with it when I shouldn’t have. I knew from the start that he wasn’t the man for me, but honestly all of my friends were settling down and I was starting to feel like my time would never come. He wooed me unlike any other man I’d dated.”
“You mean he had money, and apparently you’re a gold…”
“You finish that sentence, and I swear I’ll slug you like a man!” she said, pointing her finger right in his face in an instant. “I’m not a gold digger, Brad. God, don’t you know me at all?”
“Apparently not!” he yelled, finally looking at her. She looked exhausted, ragged almost. Not the beauty he knew, but someone who was digging deep into her soul for answers that would never be good enough for him.
“Listen,” she said, sitting on the coffee table in front of him. “I was raised in a very bad situation. We never had anything. I always dreamed of a fairy princess wedding, so yes, I fell for all the stuff Evan could provide. The stability. I thought I could make the love happen at some point, but until then I’d be safe. The day of the wedding, I showed up totally planning to marry him. But I just couldn’t do it, Brad. I didn’t love him, and I felt sick. It wasn’t nerves. I suddenly realized that it wasn’t the life I wanted to lead. No amount of money is worth that… It felt like he wasn’t my soul mate, and I believe in soul mates. I felt like I would be cheating on my soul mate, whoever he was. I can’t explain it…”
Brad sat silently, unsure of what to believe anymore. He loved her, but he couldn’t trust her.
“Why lie to me, Ronni? Why tell me that he abandoned you?”
“Because I was ashamed of myself, quite honestly. I should’ve talked to Evan and explained, but I just didn’t have the courage at the time. I knew he would beg me to stay, and I couldn’t do it. I was embarrassed, so I made something up. When I came to January Cove, it was an escape in so many ways. I never expected to fall in love. Real love,” she said softly as she inched ever closer to him.
“I can’t do this,” he said.
“Can’t do what?”
“This. This thing between us. I thought we had one kind of relationship, but we didn’t. It was an illusion, Ronni.”
“No, it wasn’t,” she pleaded as he stood up and walked across the room, his back facing her. “Everything else I said was totally real.”
“Everything else?” he said with a laugh. “Except the important things, right? I mean, why be honest with the country bumpkin?”
“That’s not fair, Brad,” she said, standing and walking across the room. He wouldn’t turn around.
“I think you should leave.”
“So this is over between us? Just like that?” she asked softly. He didn’t answer, so she picked up her purse and walked to the door. “Fine. But I have one thing to say. When I told you Evan left me at the altar, I lied. I get it. That was wrong. But I didn’t know you very well at that time. I didn’t know I would fall in love with you. I was just your boss, and I didn’t want to talk about my personal life. I was going to tell you the truth, Brad. I just needed time.”
He still didn’t speak, mainly because he didn’t know what to say. So she left quietly, and Brad was left standing in his living room worrying that he’d just made the biggest mistake of his life.
Chapter 11
Addison put the final touches on the cake she’d baked for her new guests. A newly married couple had just checked in, and she was delighted to learn more about them and get them to try her new cake recipe.
“Yum. What’s that?” Clay asked, reaching toward the thick white icing. She slapped his hand away.
“No, no… This is for the honeymooners…” she said with a smile. “I think I did pretty good.”
“Let me taste it, and I’ll tell you if it’s good…”
“Clay Hampton, if you want to keep that hand, you’ll move it right now!” she said playfully. He was like a big kid sometimes.
“Fine. Meanie,” he said as he slumped down onto the bar stool. “Hey, listen, I didn’t know Ronni was leaving today, did you?”
“What? No. Brad didn’t mention that. I wonder if he knows…”
“I was upstairs changing a light bulb in the bathroom, and I saw her packing her bag on her bed. When she ran into me in the hallway, she looked a bit stunned, actually, but she finally told me she was leaving. Some other guy is coming to take her place and finish the job. It was kind of weird.”
“Uh oh. That doesn’t sound good. I talked to Brad a couple of days ago and he was so head over heels about her. Something must’ve happened… Hey, can you deliver this cake to the couple while I go try to stop a disaster from happening?”
“Of course.”
“And don’t you dare eat any of that cake, Clay!” she chided as she removed her apron and folded it.
“Would I do a thing like that?”
“Yes.”
“True,” he said. “But, I won’t. This time.”
“Is she still upstairs?” Addy asked as she walked toward the foyer.
“No. She left about ten minutes ago. Not sure where she was going, but I know her flight doesn’t leave until late tonight.”
“I’m on it!” Addison called back as she ran out the front door.
Brad sat on his sofa, staring at some random show on TV. It was Saturday, the perfect day to sit around and lament the terrible turn his life had taken yet again.
Women. Can’t live with them… Ah, he was too tired to even finish the thought.
Last night had been the worst night of sleep he’d gotten in years. Two hours. Two whole hours was all he got. He’d tossed, turned, popped a sleeping pill even, but nothing worked.
All he saw was Ronni in his mind.
No woman had ever turned him so upside down. He’d been a fool for believing in her. The only problem was, he didn’t feel like a fool at the time. He felt whole and loved.
The sudden banging at his front door startled him out of his walking, or sitting rather, haze. He slowly, slothfully, made his way to the door, opening it to find Addison standing there with a frantic look on her face.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, immediately springing into “brother mode”.
“She’s leaving…” Addison said breathlessly, her quick paced walk from the B&B getting the better of her.
“Who’s leaving?”
“Ronni. Tonight. Back to Cali…”
“Okay…” he said, pretending it didn’t affect him, but inside his heart was beating wildly.
“Don’t you care?” she asked as she pushed past him into the darkened living room. “Damn, Brad, did something die in here?” she asked, looking around at the empty pizza boxes and beer cans.
“Shut up,” he said as he closed the door.
“You look like hell too,” she said as she stared at her normally handsome brother. His hair was sticking up everywhere, h
is navy blue t-shirt stained with tomato sauce. He was wearing a pair of gray sweatpants with holes in them.
“Thanks. Can I help you with something?” he asked as he fell back onto the sofa. Addison couldn’t believe her eyes. Her brother, the life of every party, was depressed.
“Um, I think I should be asking you that question. What on Earth happened between you and Ronni?”
“None of your business,” he muttered. Without warning, Addison leapt onto the sofa and put her hand around her brother’s neck just like she had done so many times as a kid. She was strong for a petite woman.
“Cut it out, Addy!” he said in garbled speech as she squeezed.
“Listen up, buddy, you’re going to tell me what happened or I’m going to give you a purple nurple and a wet willie and…”
“Fine,” he whispered and she finally let go.
For the next few minutes, he recounted the whole thing. Ronni’s initial story, Evan showing up, her confession… Addison took it all in without saying anything for a moment.
“You’re an idiot,” she finally said.
“Excuse me?”
“She’s the perfect woman for you. You love her. She loves you. And you’re sitting here like some kind of deranged redneck, holed up in your holey pants in the dark watching… what is that? A pie eating contest? Jeez…”
“She lied to me!”
“And?”
“So you’d be okay with Clay lying to you like that?”
“I lied to him, and everyone else, like that. Remember?” she said softly. “And he forgave me, Brad. And look where we are now.”
Brad was quiet. She was right. Her secret had been so much bigger than Ronni’s, and Clay forgave her. They’d built an amazing life together already.
“Look, I know you’ve been burned before, and I’m sorry for that. But she made a mistake. She didn’t know you well at the time. She didn’t know if she could trust you either. So, she protected herself. I don’t think she’d make the same choice again, Brad. Do you?”
“No. I don’t. But how do I know that I can ever trust that she’s telling me the truth?”
