I bit my lip to keep from smiling.
“I’ll try to—to—find your, uh, server,” she said.
“Or you could do it,” C. Q. said.
“I can go do it,” I offered, standing up. “If I’m your assistant, then—”
“No, you’re not going for coffee, you’re going for a land-speed record, typing this manuscript for me. Carry on. I take mine black,” he said to Caroline. She made a tsking noise and walked away.
“You need to stay right here. The fewer distractions, the better.” He stared at the beach for a second. “Oh, great. Here comes distraction number one.”
What was he talking about? I looked up and saw Hayden walking toward the Inn. He must be on break. Just seeing him, I felt this magnetic pull.
“Keep your mind on your work.”
“Sir, yes sir,” I replied. “But anyway. Why do you say that?”
“I saw you two. I’ve seen you two.”
“What?”
“Never mind,” he said.
I glanced over at C. Q. (Larry), a new cigarette dangling from his lip, writing in a notebook. While I typed, maybe he could use up some more pens, I thought, or notebooks. Then Hayden and I would have the perfect excuse to escape together.
Maybe he could run out of his famous Turkish cigarettes. And maybe Hayden and I would have to go to Turkey—or at the very least Providence—to buy some more. If Miss Crossley wanted me to keep a long-term guest happy, I was willing to do my part. As long as Hayden went with me.
I had to work so late that night that by the time I got back to the dorm, it was nearly eleven. I’d missed the party at Crandall’s Point—sitting on the porch and then after dark in the lobby typing, I’d heard everyone go rushing by. I’d missed everything. My back was killing me. But Mr. Wallace had his pages ready to send off, so tomorrow I’d have a break. I was more than ready to try something else.
I couldn’t wait to see Hayden—being away from him for the entire day had been pure torture. Even though it was late, I decided to stop by his room to say hi before I turned in for the night.
I was about to knock on the door when I heard Hayden’s voice. “I don’t want to hurt her, but I have to tell her before tomorrow,” he was saying.
Was he talking about me?
“So tell her,” Richard said.
“I can’t. She likes me now. She won’t like me after I tell her,” Hayden said.
I stepped back from the door. I was feeling really scared. I’d totally fallen for him. I’d slept with him. What did he have to tell me that was so horrible?
I definitely didn’t feel like barging in right that second and finding out. Not without checking in with Claire first. I’d go upstairs—maybe he’d left me a note, saying he needed to talk. When he was ready, he’d come find me—probably he’d been waiting all night for me to show up.
I went up to our room. There was no note and no Claire. Where could she be this late? I kicked off my sandals and sat on the edge of my bed, letting out a big, tense sigh. What was Hayden talking about? I took a deep breath and tried to collect myself.
You’ve got to go back downstairs right now, I told myself. You have to find out what this is about.
And I would—in just a few more minutes. I lay back on the bed, completely exhausted by the last forty-eight hours.
I never went back down to talk to Hayden. I fell asleep and slept so hard that the next day I slept right through breakfast, then got woken up by Miss Crossley pounding on the door, telling me to meet her at the Inn’s main doors, at the shuttle pickup. I had vague hopes of seeing Hayden, but instead it was an Inn kids’ trip to play miniature golf, race in go-karts, and hit in batting cages.
(They tried to do all that stuff without me, but I wouldn’t let them. No way was I spending the entire day observing.)
Miss Crossley dropped us off at the amusement park at ten and came back for us at four. By the time she fetched us, almost all of us had sunburns and were completely exhausted from the intense heat and activity.
I had just enough time to rush to the dorm, shower, heavily apply aloe lotion, throw on my catering clothes, run back to the kitchen, and take my tray of champagne and sparkling water out to the dining room.
When I walked in, I looked around for the bride, knowing it was Zoe’s sister, Anneke. I wanted to see how much she and Zoe looked alike. I couldn’t find Anneke at first, because she and the groom were mingling, but I did spot them across the dining room.
I spotted Zoe next.
And then I saw Hayden.
There, sitting at the head table beside Zoe, was Hayden, wearing a dark-blue suit and looking extremely handsome.
What was he doing there? He didn’t tell me he was going to the wedding.
They’re old family friends, I tried to tell myself. They go way back.
Don’t they?
Okay, so they were from the same town, so why wouldn’t he be at her sister’s wedding? It made sense. It was all extremely innocent and platonic.
Then I saw the wedding photographer stop at the table to take a photo, just as I was walking in that direction to say hi to both of them.
“Come on, everyone, say cheese. Kiss for the camera!” the photographer urged, and somebody in the crowd started to ring their glass with a knife, so the married couple would kiss.
Hayden put his arms around Zoe’s shoulder, and then he pressed his lips against Zoe’s cheek. She turned her head and he kissed her right on the mouth.
Chapter Nineteen
The champagne glasses tumbled off my tray and onto the floor.
Fortunately I was in the carpeted area at the time, so instead of shattering and drawing everyone’s attention to me, they just sort of bounced and knocked into each other, splashing my shoes with champagne.
Unfortunately I let out a little shriek as it happened. So everyone looked at me anyway.
I caught Hayden looking over at me with a startled expression, and I glared right back at him. If I didn’t strangle him now, it was only because there were about two hundred witnesses.
Was that why everything between us always had to be a secret, because he was still trying to get back together with Zoe? Or had he been with her this whole time—while he was also with me?
Was I the stupidest girl on the planet—or in Rhode Island—or what? Everyone knew, I thought. Everyone knew except me.
Caroline knew—she tried to warn me to stay away from Hayden, in her own weird way. Richard knew—that was why he was so nice to me, because he pitied me. Maybe even Claire knew, and that was why she kept warning me against dating Hayden. Everyone else who’d ever hung out at Crandall’s Point probably knew Hayden and Zoe still had a “thing.” Or something. And they were all looking at me.
She likes me now, Hayden had said last night to his roommate. She won’t like me after I tell her.
He was right. I wouldn’t like him anymore, now that I knew he wanted to see two girls at the same time.
Uptight Knight was on me immediately. “Do you know how impossible it is to get the smell of alcohol out of carpet?”
I turned to him and raised my eyebrow. “We’ll Febreze it.”
Claire and Josh found me in the kitchen, where I was collecting myself by drinking iced tea mixed with lemonade and snacking on shrimp cocktail.
I must have downed five or six consecutive shrimp without really pausing, because the plate—which was supposed to go onto the tray and be served—was now empty.
“Where have you been?” Josh asked. “One whole table didn’t get their champagne and we had to scramble for more glasses just in time for the big toast.”
“Where have I been? Didn’t you see me?” I asked.
They both shook their heads.
“You didn’t see what happened? Well, that’s two people out of two hundred. You must not have been in the dining room when it happened. I had a little accident. Dropped my tray. Screeched when I did it. Fortunately it was on carpet, but I got splashed.”
>
“So you’re in here recovering from spillage?” Claire asked.
“You could say that.” I brushed a speck of lint off my black skirt, part of my official catering gear uniform. “You could also say that I’m recovering from seeing Hayden with Zoe. I mean, what is that?”
I wandered over to the kitchen doorway and looked out at the scene. Yup, Hayden and Zoe were still sitting next to each other. They didn’t seem to be talking, at the moment, but that was because they were both eating.
“I noticed they were at the same table,” Josh said.
“I guess their families are pals—you said they came from the same town, right?” Claire asked. “So he must have gone to the wedding—you know, as a friend.”
“That’s what I tried to tell myself. But would a friend sit at the head table with the bride and groom and wedding party?” I asked.
“It’s a pretty big table. So maybe,” Claire said.
I glared at her. “Hey, I’m the optimist, not you. And would he kiss her on the mouth? Tell me—is it as bad as it looks?”
“It’s not good,” Claire said.
“I have an idea. Josh, dance with me,” I said.
He groaned. “Please don’t make me do that.”
“One dance. It won’t kill you.”
“You don’t know that. Have you heard the music?” Josh pretended to stick his finger down his throat.
I laughed. “Okay, so the music’s kind of cheesy, but come on, just a quickie.”
“Well, if that’s what we’re talking about—”
“We’re not.” I grabbed the sleeve of Josh’s white button-down shirt and pulled him out of the kitchen, toward the dance floor, with Claire following close behind us.
“You’ll owe me for this,” Josh said as I put my hands on his shoulders, and he rested his hands on my waist.
“I know. I already do,” I said.
We moved around the dance floor, staying in the middle so that Miss Crossley wouldn’t notice us. I tried to dance close enough to Hayden’s table that he’d see us. Two could play that game. He wanted to have someone on the side? So did I.
Okay, not really, but I might be able to make it look that way.
“Take it easy,” Josh said, as I leaned my cheek against his shoulder.
“Too close?” I asked.
“A little,” he said.
I know Hayden saw us, because he and I exchanged yet another awkward glance.
Cut in anytime, I thought. Cut in and show me—and everyone else—that we’re together now, the way you said we were the other night.
But he didn’t budge. He sat there beside Zoe, taking part in the conversation at the table, without moving. I turned away; that was something I didn’t need to see over and over.
The song came to an end, and I felt a tap on my shoulder.
I turned around, my heart beating faster.
“Excuse me, but aren’t you employees?” a man in a black tuxedo asked. “Are you supposed to be dancing? I mean, this is my daughter’s wedding, and if you’re dancing, then what are we paying you for?”
I don’t know, I thought, but nobody’s paying me nearly enough to put up with this.
“Don’t you have cake to hand out?” Zoe’s father asked.
“Sorry, sir. We got caught up in the moment,” I said. The moment where I want to throttle your other daughter and her apparent date. “It won’t happen again.”
“Got that right,” Josh muttered as we headed off the dance floor.
I passed right by Miss Crossley, who was walking through the lobby in the opposite direction. “I’ll be back, I promise,” I told her, hoping that Zoe’s dad wouldn’t complain to her about me and Josh dancing. “I just need some fresh air.”
“But—Liza—this is highly irregular—”
No kidding, I thought. “Ten minutes, okay? I really have to do this,” I said.
She gave me a stunned look as I bolted out the back door. I ran past guests on the porch and nearly knocked down a woman walking back up from the beach.
Then I heard heels clattering on the boardwalk behind me. “Liza! Liza, wait up!” a female voice called.
I turned around and saw Caroline coming. She ran toward me, tossing her stilettos onto the sand, her fancy strapless dress (because she was a wedding guest, too) rippling in the wind. “Are you okay?”
I couldn’t believe her nerve. “No. Not really,” I said. “But you told me not to come crying to you. So I won’t.”
“I’m sorry,” Caroline said. “I shouldn’t have—”
“You know what, Caroline? You could have just told me. You had every opportunity in the world.”
“Yeah, I guess I could—but I wasn’t—I didn’t really think they’d go through with it. They both wanted to call it off, but—”
“But what?”
“It was all arranged. A long time ago.”
“So I was merely messing up their social calendar? You know what? Forget it. I don’t want to know.” I didn’t want to listen to her, of all people, explain this to me.
I took off jogging down the beach, kicking the surf with my feet, wishing I’d come anywhere except the Inn for the summer.
Chapter Twenty
Hayden was sitting in the hallway outside my door when I got back to the dorm, around two in the morning. His suit was rumpled, his tie untied.
I really, really wanted to talk to him. And I also really didn’t ever want to see him again.
Was he waiting for me? Or was he just slumped there because he’d been in Zoe’s room, which happened to be right next door to mine?
This dorm stuff sucked. It was like living in a fish bowl. And I was starting to feel like that one pathetic fish that’s always at the edge of the bowl, staring straight ahead like it can’t wait to escape.
If dorm life was what college was all about, then maybe I should reconsider going away to college and stay home.
“Where have you been all night?” Hayden asked.
I was holding my sandals, and my legs and ankles were covered in sand that looked like a dusting of cinnamon and sugar. I’d tried to wash it off before I came inside, with the hose by the door, but sort of halfheartedly. If sand got all over the dorm, what did I care?
“I was walking on the beach,” I told him. “Then I lay down to look at the stars and I guess I fell asleep.”
“You slept on the beach,” Hayden said.
“Yup.”
“By yourself.”
What was he implying? Did he really think I’d be out there with someone else? “Yup.”
Hayden scrambled to his feet. “Do you know how dangerous that is?” He gave me this pleading look. “Promise me you won’t do that again.”
“It’s not dangerous. I sleep with one eye open.”
“Right,” Hayden said.
“How long have you been waiting?” I asked. “Or did you just pass out here after the big wedding night?”
“I’ve been here since midnight,” Hayden said. “Since Zoe and everyone else at the wedding crashed at the Inn. They rented the second and third floors, you know?”
“Fascinating.” I opened the door to our room and walked inside.
I couldn’t believe it. Claire wasn’t home. Claire, who I’d been counting on to get me out of this. She was not in her bed.
Hayden, apparently seeing that she wasn’t there, followed me into my room and closed the door behind him.
I walked over and opened it a crack. It wasn’t that I was scared of him, or what would happen. I just didn’t want him to think that he could have me all to himself. I was too mad to want to be alone with him. Let Caroline hear us argue, too. Maybe she could tell Zoe what happened.
“I didn’t know how to tell you,” Hayden began.
Oh God. Anything but that. What a horrible thing to say.
“My family was coming and I was all stressed out about that and I didn’t know what to say.”
“So you didn’t tell me anything.”<
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“Don’t hate me,” Hayden said. “I had to do it.”
“Had to do what?”
“Had to be at the wedding today. It’s—it’s complicated.”
“Not really,” I said. “You and Zoe still being together is actually not all that complex.”
“But we’re not still together, you know that.”
“Do I?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“I thought I did, until today. Then everything started to look a lot different.”
“You don’t understand.” Hayden paced back and forth between our beds, which was a pretty small space to use for pacing. “Our families—they expect us—they want us to be together.”
“What?” I laughed. “Are you serious? This is the twenty-first century. Are you trying to tell me you guys have an arranged marriage or something like that? Because this isn’t exactly the culture where that is the norm. So I don’t think that’s it. What’s the problem, then? Am I not good enough for you? Because that’s ridiculous.”
“Of course you’re good enough for me,” Hayden said. “But our parents—they have these ideas. So I agreed to go to the wedding with Zoe, to make her parents happy, which makes my parents happy.”
“I don’t understand. But I do know that I can’t—I don’t—trust either of you. If you can’t stand up to your parents—I mean, you’re in college—and you’re still letting them tell you what to do?”
“I don’t have a choice. They expect things from me.”
“And they don’t expect…what? You to be with a completely scandalous girl from Connecticut? Ooh, scary. Do they restrict other states? What about Rhode Island, is that out?” I snapped my fingers. “I know. It’s because I don’t go to stupid Maple Syrup Acad—”
“I’m sorry, but I don’t want to rock the boat right now. Too much is happening,” Hayden said. “I was all worried about my mom and dad and whether they’d fight, and it took them like two seconds before they got into an argument, and then my sister, Grace, gets out of the car and she’s wearing black lipstick and combat boots to a wedding—”
I started to feel sympathy for him, remembering our conversation on the beach about his family. But what was he saying? They’d been at the wedding—and he hadn’t introduced me? All my sympathy was gone as I realized that. I’d never treat him like that!
So Inn Love Page 15
