She continued, sounding relieved that he was finally coming around to having this conversation. “Carla was my friend, too, and I know for a fact she wanted you to be happy. She wasn’t selfish enough to think that you’d never fall in love again, and she would’ve been heartbroken to see you like this.”
“It’s just hard to let her go.”
“You don’t have to. But you can’t use her as an excuse to pull away from what’s inside of you, either.”
When he heard Beth catch a quick breath, he realized she was trying to hold back a sob. He looked at her, and her eyes were filled with tears.
He’d never meant to bring anyone pain, and he knew that his best friend couldn’t help but feel it whenever she looked at him. And as for Leigh...?
Gripping the box, he wasn’t sure if she might be thinking of him, too. Did she still want to lay her heart out to him, as she’d said before she left?
He reached over and wiped Beth’s cheeks with his thumb, then rested his head against hers.
“Please don’t fade away before your time just like Carla did,” she said. “Promise me, Adam.”
Unable to speak, he let her go then, the room so quiet that he could hear the wind through the pines outside.
It was almost as if he could pick out Carla’s whispers through the trees. He and she had bought this place before she’d died, but they’d never had the chance to move in. She’d loved the Colonial-style house, the pines, and he’d described them to her sometimes on her bad days when the sickness had racked her. The image of trees had never failed to cheer her up.
He got up from the bed, taking the box with him as he left the room. He went outside to the porch, then walked farther, into the midst of the pines, which were so tall that their tips nearly blocked the sunset. Looking up at the tops of the evergreens, he took in their scent, closing his eyes.
“I promise I’ll always love you, Carla. You know that. But I met a woman. We didn’t have what you’d call a regular courtship, but I suppose you already know that from where you are.” He laughed a little, bittersweet, soft. Wistful.
Then, after listening to the song of the pines around him, he started again. “You really would’ve liked her. She’s lighthearted, down-to-earth, laughs a lot. I’m not sure how she feels about me right now, but I’m hoping...”
The wind picked up, and the branch nearest him nodded above his head.
Adam had never believed in mystic things, but it felt like a positive sign to him. And maybe it was just his imagination, but it seemed a good omen that all the lower tree branches around him had started to resemble open arms.
This was truly the moment.
Moving closer to a tree, he took a deep breath, opened the jewelry box, then spread the ashes in the wind, the pines catching them. He’d never forget. And any woman in his life would understand that.
As twilight folded over the sky, he knew it was time to get out of the dark. Finally time. But first he dug an impromptu hole with a big branch, burying the box, marking its place with a bough.
The sun went down as the wind stopped blowing, leaving everything in peace.
* * *
ON MARGOT AND Clint’s ranch near Visalia, Leigh was in the midst of twenty women while feeling very much alone.
It was Dani’s surprise wedding-planning party, which Margot and Leigh had decided to throw just to bring Dani out of her funk. They were all waiting for Margot to bring her back from the early movie they’d gone to see while Leigh had begged off, claiming that she felt sick.
As the guests, most of them sorority sisters, chatted, Leigh checked around, making sure everyone was comfortable and that they all had notepads for brainstorming for the reception, as well as full wineglasses.
But even with all the laughter, she felt as hollow as a person could get.
Adam hadn’t gotten in contact with her, and in spite of everything, there’d been one tiny sparkle of hope in her that he would. Who was she fooling, though? You couldn’t make a man fall out of love with his deceased wife, and Leigh didn’t even want him to. Carla had obviously been a huge part of who Adam was, and Leigh would never ask anyone to turn his back on that part of his life. It would’ve been like asking her to forget her sister—the good times, when they would sneak under Hannah’s blanket during grade-school nights, using the flashlight to read Judy Blume books together. The times when Hannah would experiment with makeup on Leigh, then wipe it off her face when they heard their parents down the hall. You don’t need makeup anyway, Hannah would always say. You’re just gonna charm the boys to death, believe me.
No, Leigh wouldn’t have taken such memories from anyone. It was just that she’d been so sure that she might be enough to have a place in Adam’s life, too. There’d been so much promise there, but now it was over.
A stir in the living room roused her, and Leigh pulled herself out of her funk, rushing toward the window to see if a car had pulled up.
It was Margot’s Prius. Leigh told everyone to hunker down as Margot led a blindfolded Dani out of the car and toward the ranch house.
God, the last thing Leigh had wanted to see was a blindfold, but Margot had persuaded her that it was necessary to complete Dani’s planning party.
The front door opened, closed, and the next thing Leigh knew, Margot was standing with Dani at the entrance to the room, pulling off her blindfold.
“Surprise!” everyone yelled.
Amid the laughter, Dani held a hand to her mouth. Her bobbed curly red hair was held back in a short ponytail today, and she was garbed in a new flowered dress that was a little tighter than the ones she used to wear.
After Leigh had left Adam behind, she’d indeed gone to Dani, on a quest to cheer her up from that last phone call while forgetting about her own sorrows. And although Dani had made it her mission to pad Leigh’s smarting heart and thighs with enough baked goods to shame Martha Stewart, Leigh had gotten the feeling that Dani was only distracting herself from her own issues and there was something still niggling at her about the upcoming wedding.
“Put the veil on her!” someone yelled.
“Give her the bouquet!”
As Dani stood there, her gaze huge, everyone began to clap and chant.
“Bride-to-be! Bride-to-be!”
Silently, Dani held up a finger, and the volume lowered. “I’ve really gotta pee, guys. Just a sec.”
Everyone thought that was pretty funny as she scooted off. Margot shrugged and announced that they’d had some coffee on the way back from the movie.
While the guests sat back down, Margot found her way to Leigh, who’d taken a seat near the fireplace. No amount of flames could warm her up, though. Not these past few days.
“Brighten up,” Margot said, plopping down next to her. She looked svelte in her designer jeans and cashmere sweater. Leigh glanced at the engagement ring on Margot’s finger, and she felt cloudy enough. But she wouldn’t be a drag on everyone else.
“I’m a happy partygoer,” Leigh said, smiling.
But the excuse didn’t wash with Margot. “Just call Adam, would you? You know how to contact Beth, and she can—”
“I can’t.” Leigh pulled at the sleeve of her tight silk blouse. “He doesn’t want to have anything to do with me or he would’ve stopped me from leaving that day. Besides, he’s too...”
“Haunted?” Margot only sighed, having nothing to add. Even a mastermind like her couldn’t come up with a way to get around Adam’s big emotional obstacles.
They waited for Dani to come back. Waited some more. Finally, it became uncomfortably obvious that something was wrong.
Clint poked his head into the room to crook a finger at his fiancée, and after asking one of their sorority sisters to start brainstorming ideas for a reception that Dani would love, Leigh went with Margot to the kitche
n to join Clint.
He leaned against the counter, his golden hair free of the cowboy hat he usually wore, his posture lackadaisical in his typical jeans and Western shirt.
“You looking for Dani?” he asked. At their nods, he motioned toward the back door with his thumb. “She just flew right on out of here. I happened to be walking toward the house from the stables, but she didn’t see me.”
“What?” Margot asked.
Leigh blew out a breath. “It was the veil and bouquet we wanted her to wear.”
Clint interjected. “Just so you know, Riley was planning to come over today. We thought we’d give you all another surprise because he’s bringing a keg for a real party. Maybe you two could see what’s up with Dani before he gets here?”
“On it.” Margot, who wasn’t a traditionalist, didn’t seem to mind that Riley intended to crash the bridal party. “Which direction did Dani go?”
“Toward the gazebo, I think,” Clint said.
The big gazebo, where the wedding ceremony was supposed to take place.
Quickly, Margot planted a kiss on his cheek, then tweaked it. “Thanks. Can you entertain the girls for a bit? I know it’s not out of your wheelhouse, you womanizer, you.”
“Very funny. Those days are gone and you know it, Hemingway.” Just one of many literary nicknames he used for his English major.
Leigh had already opened the door, and they rushed toward the gazebo, hoping Clint was right and that Dani hadn’t made it to her car and peeled out of here.
Luckily, the gazebo wasn’t all that far, and when Leigh saw Dani sitting inside, bent over, she and Margot slowed down, catching their breath.
“Oh, this is bad,” Margot said. “Isn’t this bad?”
“I had a feeling that a breakdown wasn’t out of the question.”
They cut the chatter as they approached, and when Dani heard them, she straightened up, her hand to her chest.
“Can’t...breathe....” she said.
“Oh, honey.” Margot rushed in, sitting on one side while Leigh took the other.
Even so, they gave her room while trying to comfort her.
Dani’s breath did smooth out, but she was still paler than usual. “This is it. Everything’s becoming so official. Veils, bouquets, plans upon plans....”
Margot and Leigh exchanged glances.
“Don’t worry,” Dani assured them. “I’m going to marry Riley. I just don’t know when.”
She leaned down, elbows on knees, burying her face in her hands. “I’m a disaster, aren’t I? The more time I have to think about what I’m getting into, the more time I have to rethink it. Margot, are you this freaked out about marrying Clint?”
Margot was as blunt as usual. “No.”
Dani put her hands to her face again, and Leigh blasted Margot a death look before rubbing Dani’s back.
“Just breathe, Dan.”
Even as she soothed her friend, she knew all too well what it was like to think that the past was going to consume everything about your present. But it wasn’t a parental divorce and a cheating dad that dogged Leigh—it was a man who wouldn’t forget his past.
“You can’t just assume with no hope for a happy future,” she said to Dani, thinking of Callum...no, Adam...and his continued loyalty to Carla. “You can’t give up without even trying.”
As Dani turned her head to listen to Leigh, Margot was just as interested.
She asked, “Are you talking about you and Adam?”
“Yeah. And you know what? If I’d had some time to think about it before I turned my back on him, I would’ve realized that I needed to give him the opportunity to show me that I can still be important to him, even with his struggles.”
Leigh thought about that some more as Margot said, “Just like Riley deserves the chance, too, Dan. He’s an honorable guy who’s never let you down. You can’t go on assuming that he will.”
“You’ve got to make your own life with him,” Leigh whispered.
Wow, did that sound easy. But couldn’t it be? Shouldn’t she have given Adam more of an opportunity to let her do just that? And how could she lecture Dani on this if she didn’t have the guts to do it herself?
“Make my own life,” Dani repeated. “Maybe if I keep saying that, those other crazy thoughts will go away.”
Margot nodded. “You can’t have a marriage if you don’t find some way to banish those fears.”
“I know,” Dani said. “God, don’t I know it....”
A sound from outside the gazebo distracted them, and when Leigh looked up she saw Riley, his dark hair ruffling in the breeze and his mile-long legs eating up the distance, striding toward them. Before any of them could ask what was going on, he barged into the gazebo and headed straight for Dani.
“Clint told me you took off from your own party,” he said.
“I—”
Not waiting for her answer, he bent down, scooped her up and hefted her over his shoulder, turning on his heel and walking out of the gazebo.
Dani pushed at his back and yelled, “What’re you doing?”
“Something I should’ve done a long time ago.” He kept heading toward the house. “We’re not going to wait even another day to get married, Dani.”
13
OUTSIDE THE LIL’ Big Heart Wedding Chapel on the south end of the Vegas Strip, Leigh tossed rice at Dani and Riley with several other guests who’d made the spontaneous road trip.
The bride and groom had only now just run out of the chapel door and under the white awning with the latticed posts, holding hands, laughing. Dani clutched the lily bouquet that’d come with the quickie wedding package, a small veil covering her short red hair, but she was wearing the same pretty, simple flowered dress she’d started with today.
It’d all come together as rapidly as Riley had wanted it to when he’d shouted his intentions to Clint back at the ranch house while he stuffed Dani into the front seat of his pickup.
“We’re heading to Vegas, and whoever wants to come better do it fast!” he’d said before closing his door, then taking off.
Of course, the party guests had dispersed at that point. A few of the wilder sorority sisters had grabbed their purses from inside the house. Then they’d zoomed off after Riley’s pickup, yelling, “Marriage or bust, whoo-hoo!” out the window as Clint, Margot and Leigh had watched in shock.
Riley wasn’t the reckless type, but he’d clearly had enough of Dani’s cold feet.
Then, with a “What the hell,” Leigh, Margot and Clint had run into the house, closed it up, grabbed Dani’s purse and a few necessities, let the ranch staff know where they were going and zoomed off on the five-hour-plus drive to Vegas. Soon they caught up to the others, thanks to Clint’s lead foot. The entire time, Margot and Leigh were in contact with Riley on his Bluetooth as they tried to find a chapel with openings that evening. They’d lucked out with a last-minute cancellation.
Now Dani, who’d gotten into the spirit and kicked off her shoes inside, was a barefoot bride on a red carpet. She stood on her tiptoes to kiss Riley, who was wearing the jeans and Western shirt he’d had on earlier. It didn’t look as if she had any misgivings now that she’d jumped headfirst into this. Riley’s put-his-foot-down gesture had sure done the job, although Leigh was pretty sure Dani was going to need support as she went along.
As the sorority sisters cheered the married couple, Clint swept Margot into his arms, apparently inspired by this romantic turn of events. Leigh stood apart from them all, watching.
Just as Callum used to watch.
She was happy for Dani and Riley, and for Margot and Clint as well, but she felt lonelier than ever. Why hadn’t she cooled down after her confrontation with Adam and given him that chance she’d talked about with Dani today? Had leaving Adam been wort
h it?
Dani broke off her kiss with Riley, staring up into his loving gaze. Clint and Margot separated just long enough to toss Riley the extra coats they’d brought, knowing that he and Dani didn’t have anything packed.
“Warm her up,” Clint said to his friend.
While Riley put the smaller coat over Dani’s shoulders, he jerked his chin to Clint. “You don’t have to tell me what a honeymoon’s all about.”
Laughter filled the air around them, the fairy lights on the awning making the night magical. But Leigh merely huddled into her own coat, trying to find warmth.
When Dani turned around and all the other women except Margot gathered to catch the bouquet, Leigh stood toward the back. The flowers sailed right at her, and as that single blip of hope she’d felt earlier started to expand, one of her sorority sisters grabbed the bouquet from in front of Leigh’s face.
“Sorry, baby,” said Jessica Huntly, with her good-time smile. “Ya snooze, ya lose!”
Well, it wasn’t anything Leigh hadn’t been telling herself for the past few days.
One of the sisters handed Dani back her shoes, and they all kissed and hugged the newlyweds goodbye. Then the women headed over to a waiting limo, unwilling to waste one more minute of their night in Vegas.
Dani came over to Leigh and Margot while Riley took care of last-minute matters with the chapel staff. “I still say my parents are going to throw a fit because I eloped.”
“They saw the ceremony on the webcam,” Leigh said. So had Riley’s parents, and anyone else who’d been invited to the official wedding next month had access, too.
“Dani.” Margot hung her arms over Leigh’s and Dani’s shoulders. “We’ll just turn what should’ve been your wedding on the ranch into a massive reception. You and Riley can even take your vows again.”
Dani smiled, then brought them all into a group hug. “I love you guys, you know. You’ve stayed with me through thick and thin.”
Leigh held them close, the best friends she’d ever had. “What else would you expect? We love you, too.”
Mystery Date Page 17