“It’s good that they have a place to go.”
They walked inside, and a harried woman waved to them. “Just sit anywhere. We’re short staffed, as you can imagine, so the menu is pretty limited. Soup, salad, or sandwiches.”
He held out a chair for Ashley.
“Thanks.”
He sat across from her. “Even though this is some kind of crazy situation, I’m glad to see you.”
Ashley’s eyes filled with tears.
Justin peered at her. “Do you want to tell me about it?” he asked quietly. Though she’d made her lack of feelings for him clear, he still didn’t like to see her upset.
“There are things I should have told you. Things that are hard for me to talk about.” Ashley angrily wiped a tear away. “You’ve always been so open and up-front with me. About who you are and about where I stand with you.” She gave him a shaky smile. “And I was never able to do the same.”
Justin regarded her with serious blue eyes. “I disagree. I’d say you were pretty clear about where I stood.”
She shook her head. “Yeah, but not for the reason you think.”
“Okay. You can tell me anything. I think you know that.”
She took a breath. She’d gone out on a limb by telling Summer she wanted to be business partners, but that was nothing compared to this. “You know I’m divorced.”
He nodded.
“My husband left me for another woman. I know. It’s the oldest story in the book. But when it happens to you, it feels different.” She grimaced. “I was never totally convinced he was ‘the one,’ but in the town I lived in, there weren’t manyoptions. We got along pretty well, and I thought we wanted the same things.” She hesitated.
Justin reached over and took her hand. “Go on.”
“And soon after we married, he cheated on me. I’m not sure when the affair started or if there was more than one.”
“One is enough.”
She nodded. “She was several years younger. One of his sister’s friends. They reconnected online of all places.” She made a face. “I noticed that she’d posted on his Facebook page a couple of times but didn’t think anything about it. But apparently there was more to it than that.” She looked into his sympathetic eyes. “And then one night he came to me and told me he loved her. There was no discussion. Nothing I could do.”
Justin squeezed her hand. “You’re better off.”
“It was difficult though. I know I’m better off. I know I don’t want to be treated disrespectfully. But my family, especially my mom, thought I should look the other way. She actually made a comment about how I wasn’t exactly in the prime of youth anymore.” She sighed. “And I think that’s been part of my problem with you.”
Justin furrowed his brow. “What do you mean?”
“I know you’re not even thirty yet. And I’m thirty-six.”
He looked at her with wide eyes, then his face broke into a smile. “That’s what this is about? Our age difference?”
“You knew I was older?”
Justin looked sheepish. “Well yeah. I saw your diploma on the wall. And I figured based on the dates that you must be a few years older. Either that or you were some kind of prodigy.”
Ashley swallowed. “And that doesn’t bother you? I mean, technically I could’ve been your babysitter.”
He burst out laughing. “I really don’t want to lose you over a technicality. Besides, if you’d been my babysitter, I would’ve had a crush on you and hoped that someday I’d grow up and be able to take you on a date.”
She couldn’t help but smile. “But don’t you think you’d be better off to date someone younger than you?”
Justin laced his fingers through hers. “Ashley. I’ve dated girls younger than me. And you know what? They aren’t serious. They want to go out and have a good time, and that’s it. I’m looking for more than that. I thought you knew that.”
She nodded. “I know, you say that now. I guess I’m worried that you’ll get tired of me and want someone more exciting.”
“Are you kidding? Do you know how amazing you are? You’re smart and kind and funny. Not to mention beautiful.” He squeezed her hand. “I was an idiot who messed up from the beginning and then brought a toddler on a date.” He laughed. “If anything, I expected you to tell me that I wasn’t even in your league.”
She looked at their joined hands. Maybe she shouldn’t throw away their obvious connection because she felt insecure. “Thanks. I might have overreacted a bit.” She gave him a tiny smile. “But you have to remember that it’s been a long time since I’ve met anyone I could actually see a future with. And things seemed to happen so quickly.” She sighed. “I guess in my experience, things that happen fast don’t always work out in the end.”
“That’s my bad. I was so excited to finally meet someonelike you that I jumped the gun. I know I started talking about the future way too soon. Part of that was because of the situation with Colton. And part of me wanted to hear you say you’d want to be a part of both of our lives. But I can see that it was probably too much too soon.”
She nodded. “Can we take things slowly? Are you okay with that?”
Justin lifted her hand to his lips and kissed it gently. “If it means I get to have you in my life, I will move as slow as molasses.”
She smiled. “Sounds perfect.” She raised an eyebrow. “Although I probably wouldn’t complain if you kissed me a time or two.”
“I’m more than happy to oblige.”
Chapter 38
Luke, wait!” Summer ran after him through the parking lot.
The pouring rain soaked her clothes and plastered her hair to her face, but she didn’t care. “Luke!” He’d almost made it to his truck.
He turned around. “Summer? What are you doing out here? Go back inside.”
She could barely see him with the rain coming down so hard. A gust of wind sent a plastic pool float whizzing past her.
Luke grabbed something out of his truck and ran toward her. “Come on. We’ve got to get inside.” He pointed at a building just off of the parking lot.
She ran toward the building, fighting the wind as she went. The hard rain stung her skin, and she tried to shield her face with her arms.
The Weather Channel reporter and a cameraman opened the door just as she got there.
“We’re heading to the main building,” the reporter said. “But this place is for authorized personnel only.”
Luke came up behind her. “It’s okay. She’s the wedding planner.”
The reporter looked at her for a minute then shrugged. “Whatever. Be careful.”
The two men ran toward the hotel.
She couldn’t stop the laugh from escaping her lips. “It’s okay, she’s the wedding planner,” she mocked. “Like that means anything.”
He joined in her laughter. “Use your powers for good and all that, right?” He held the door open for her. “Hurry. It looks like the storm is almost here.”
She ran inside the building. “Looks like this is where they keep the beach chairs and supplies.”
Luke grabbed a white pool towel from a shelf and tossed it to her. “Here.”
“Thanks.” She toweled off her soaking hair then wrapped the towel around her wet clothes.
Neither of them spoke for a long minute, and the only sound was of the wind and rain outside.
Finally, Summer turned to Luke. “I’m sorry,” she said softly.
“You shouldn’t have followed me.” Luke attempted to mop up some of the water that fell around him in puddles.
Her mouth quivered. “I didn’t want you to leave without hearing me out. Jefferson being here is not what it looks like. I didn’t know he was going to show up, I promise.”
Luke walked over to her and took the plush towel from her hands. He gently wiped her face, a mix of water and tears. “I wasn’t leaving,” he whispered. “Just getting a little air.”
She met his gaze. “I saw you talking to J
efferson. I need to explain.”
Luke lifted a beach chair from a stack and set it on thefloor. He guided her to it and motioned for her to sit. “We might be here for a while. May as well get comfortable.” He sat next to her.
She swallowed, hoping the right words would come out and not the mixed-up thoughts that were rolling around in her head. “Why are you here in the first place?” she asked. While Jefferson showing up had been unexpected, Luke being here in the middle of a potential hurricane was totally out of the blue. He was supposed to be at home with Milo, boarding up their windows in case the storm hit.
He shook his head. “I came to see you. I admit, I was surprised to run into him. And I wasn’t too happy to hear him insinuate that you might be falling for him again.” He frowned.
“He said that?” She closed her eyes. “Ugh. I’m sorry. I can’t say it enough. Nothing happened between us. I honestly thought he just wanted to be my friend. And I somehow convinced myself that a friendship would be okay, because at first he seemed genuinely concerned about you and me.” She sighed. “I was an idiot not to see him for who he really is.”
She’d never thought she might be one of those people who did something that could be construed as inappropriate. She was a firm believer that an emotional affair was as bad and as damaging as a physical one. And even though things hadn’t gone that far with Jefferson, she could see how easy it would’ve been to go down that path.
To her surprise, Luke took her hand.
“You believe the best in people until they give you a reason not to. From where I sit, that’s a good quality.” Hehalf smiled. “Although I could do without you thinking the best of Jefferson.”
“You’re not mad?”
Luke shook his head. “I was pretty upset a couple of weeks ago. I saw the two of you together at the park.”
“You did?” That explained a lot. “It wasn’t planned. At least on my part. Looking back, I wonder if maybe those chance meetings weren’t so much chance after all.” Summer sighed. “Honestly. I planned to go to Blue Bicycle Books and then over to get a cupcake. I needed a little time to decompress. I’d barely left the office, and then there he was. I sat at Marion Square while he went and got cupcakes. And of course, he insisted on staying with me and walking me back to the office.” She hung her head. “He could tell how upset I was.”
“I passed by there on my way to your office. I knew it was supposed to have been your due date, and I wanted to see how you were doing. But when I saw you with him, I got mad and left.”
“That’s why you didn’t show up to the counseling appointment later that day?”
He nodded. “I know I gave you a flimsy excuse about work. But I actually went to see your grandmother instead.”
She raised her eyebrows in surprise. She’d spoken to Gram on the phone that very day, and Gram hadn’t mentioned Luke’s visit. “Well, if it makes you feel any better, Ashley tore into me when I got back to the office. She said I was playing with fire and not even realizing it. She had Jefferson pegged all along. I guess everyone did but me.”
“As far as I’m concerned, that’s all over now.”
Summer gripped his hand. “Thanks.” She’d never expected to be in this situation. “You have to know that I never would’ve done anything to jeopardize our marriage. Not with Jefferson or with anyone else. I love you, Luke. And the vows I made to you are sacred.”
He nodded. “I believe that. But honestly, I don’t even think Jefferson is one of our problems. He doesn’t have anything to do with what’s been going on between us.”
“I know.”
“There are a lot of things I wish I’d done differently. I know I shut down on you. Not that I was ever that open to begin with.”
“I should’ve tried harder,” she said.
Luke shook his head. “I don’t think there was anything you could’ve done. This lesson was one I had to learn on my own. I’m sorry I hurt you in the process.”
“So what did you learn?” Summer knew she’d learned her own lessons over the past months, but she wanted to know what Luke had gleaned from their separation.
“The first time I went to see Daddy in the nursing home, I fell apart. I didn’t know where to turn and felt like I was completely alone. Bobby’s Bible was in my truck, so I picked it up and flipped through. He’d highlighted a lot of pages, so I started reading to try to calm myself down. The first one I came to was that passage in Ecclesiastes that talks about how there’s a time for everything. It helped me to put things into perspective, you know?”
She nodded. Luke had struggled with his faith ever since
Bobby’s accident. So for him to finally open his heart again was a big step.
“I was so selfish. I looked at all these things that had happened in my life as being things that had happened just to me,” he said, pointing toward himself. “But I started to realize that I’m not the only one who was impacted. It’s not all about me.” He shook his head. “I might not understand why Bobby was in that accident or why you had a miscarriage. But I can accept those things now without feeling like I’m being singled out.”
She squeezed his hand. “I’m glad you can accept things.”
“And then I realized that I might have talked the talk, but I didn’t walk the walk. I went with you to church. I prayed. I tried to do what was right. But the moment things got tough, I turned my back. I stopped praying. I stopped being the man I know I’m supposed to be.” He shook his head. “I see now how foolish I’ve been.”
She hadn’t seen that honesty in his brown eyes in a long time. “I haven’t been perfect either. Even before Jefferson came back to town, I’d started to pull away from you. I was exhausted. I didn’t have it in me to try to fix whatever was going on with us, because I felt like I was broken myself. The miscarriage is the worst thing I’ve ever gone through, and I felt like you wanted me to get over it and move on. And I wasn’t ready to do that.” She sighed. “So I felt stuck, you know? I wasn’t able to handle it the way you wanted me to, so I did nothing. I turned into this scattered, foggy version of myself.”
Luke put an arm around her and pulled her close.
She sat like that for a long minute, relishing the nearnessof her husband and shutting out the storm that had been raging in their marriage. And the storm that was raging outside the door.
Luke had missed her even more than he’d realized. But he hated to hear that he’d hurt her. “I’m sorry,” he murmured against her hair. “I wanted both of us to move past losing the baby because it was so painful.” He pulled back from her so he could see her face. “But there hasn’t been a day when I haven’t grieved.”
“Why didn’t you share that grief with me? I felt like it was mine alone.”
He rubbed his jaw. “I wanted to be strong for you. I saw how hurt you were, and I didn’t want to add to that by making you watch my own pain.” He shook his head. “But I guess I didn’t realize how it would come across.”
“Like it didn’t matter.”
The words stabbed him. “I think about our little boy all the time. What his laugh would’ve sounded like. How proud I would’ve been watching his first step. What he would want to be when he grew up.”
“You say it like you were certain it was a boy.” She looked at him curiously.
He laced his fingers through hers. “I’m pretty certain.”
“How?”
He smiled. “I read this article right after we found out you were pregnant. It told how to figure out if you were havinga boy or a girl. It said that when a woman is carrying a girl, she’s sharing her beauty, so she’s not as attractive as when she’s carrying a boy. And I knew right then that you must be having a boy, because you were more beautiful than I’d ever seen or even imagined.”
Tears filled her eyes. “You really thought that?”
He reached out and tenderly wiped a tear away. “I sure did. Sometimes you would literally take my breath away.” His mouth turned up in a smile.
“And you still do.”
“Thanks,” she said softly.
The wind howled outside the building.
“It’s getting nasty out there,” he said.
She smiled. “Good thing we’re warm and dry in here.”
The power flickered and went out, leaving them in total darkness.
He put his arm around her. “Are you scared?” he whispered.
She turned her face toward his. “A little. But it has nothing to do with the weather.”
He pulled her to him, and his lips found hers in the darkness.
Chapter 39
Ashley paced inside the ballroom. It was the interior room and supposedly the safest. But she wasn’t crazy about being there. She felt trapped.
“You okay?” Justin asked. He’d brought Milo down, and the big dog was curled up in a ball next to him.
“It’s the waiting I hate. Will it hit, will it not hit? If it hits, what category will it be…?” She trailed off and sighed. “The uncertainty is a pain.”
“If it makes you feel any better, I talked to the weather guy a few minutes ago. He thinks we’re going to dodge a bullet.” He patted the floor next to him. “Sit down. Milo and I will keep you safe.”
She had to admit, having him here was a comfort. She sank down onto the floor. “Thanks.” A loud cackling laugh came from the other side of the wall. “Those ladies I was telling you about found a Monopoly game in the library. I guess the game is going well.”
“You want to go join them?” Justin asked.
She nodded. “I think that might help take my mind off the storm. This is my first tropical storm, so I guess I’m extra nervous.”
He stood up and shook his legs out. “Come on, Miles.” He tugged on the dog’s leash, and Milo slowly rose from his spot on the floor.
She led them into the next ballroom.
Two elderly women sat hunched over a table, a Monopoly game between them. They were glowering at each other.
“Hi, ladies,” Ashley said.
One of the women stood up. She had to be close to six feet tall. Her bright orange hair, while not a color found in nature, somehow suited her. She grinned at Justin like a schoolgirl. “I’m Mavis Bunch,” she said. She stuck out a manicured hand as if she were royalty.
A Wedding to Remember in Charleston, South Carolina Page 22