Fighting Fate

by Hope, Amity

  Sarah was silent a moment as she took in what her friend was saying. Finally she groaned. “Liz, what did you say?”

  “I may have told her that…” She took a deep breath. “I might have mentioned that you got a new job right away. And you’ll be working in a brand new library. In a brand new school with smaller class sizes. I may have also pointed out that a job like that is every teacher’s dream and that I’m actually kind of jealous. I also told her that you moved into an elegant, old farmhouse.” Sarah shook her head because Liz had never been to the farmhouse. If she had been, she would’ve known just how off her description was. Then again, under the circumstances, she probably wouldn’t have cared. “And,” she said, her tone turning even more apologetic, “I might have let it slip that you’ve reconnected with your high school sweetheart.”

  “You told her about Cole!” The words shot out of Sarah’s mouth.

  He stopped what he was doing. This time, he gave her a questioning look. He may not have been questioning what she said but perhaps the harsh tone in which she said it. She felt her shoulders droop and though she knew it was futile, she crossed through the kitchen to get to the living room. She dropped down on the couch and pinched the bridge of her nose with her fingers.

  “I know. But the look on her face was priceless,” Liz reasoned. “You can’t deny that she had it coming. She was so pissed that she turned to storm away but she collided with the waitress that was carrying our drinks.” Sarah groaned. “Yeah, it was pretty bad,” Liz admitted. “There was shattered glass and ice everywhere. She got drenched. But she so completely deserved it! Especially when she started screeching at the waitress like she was at fault.”

  “I wish you hadn’t done that,” Sarah said.

  “She also called you a thief, which you and I both know is backwards. She’s the damn thief. She just…she just wouldn’t shut up. Everyone was listening and I just couldn’t take it anymore! Please don’t be mad.” Her tone was pleading.

  That had not been the first time that Brynn had called Sarah a thief. The ring that Aaron had given her had belonged to their grandmother. Brynn had insisted only days after Aaron’s death—at the funeral of all places—that Sarah give it back. Brynn had held out her hand to Sarah, right there, in front of everyone. Sarah had backed away from her, startled and hurt, not just over the request but by the insensitive timing of it. When Sarah had refused to take her engagement ring off then and there, Brynn had gone into a rage calling Sarah a string of horrible names. ‘Thief’ was possibly one of the kindest.

  In the days leading up to the funeral, the origin of her engagement ring hadn’t crossed her mind. There had been other much more pressing and heartbreaking issues to deal with. In the days after, she realized that maybe Brynn was not so terribly out of line with her request. Though she had been exceedingly out of line with the execution of the request. Eventually she realized that giving the ring back was the right thing to do. It was, after all, a family heirloom. The problem was that she had not been willing to part with it yet.

  A few days later she had tried to explain this to Brynn. Brynn held no sympathy for Sarah. She deemed her brother’s death to be Sarah’s fault. Though Sarah didn’t disagree, she still couldn’t bear the thought of taking off the ring. Let alone parting with it completely.

  “Sarah?” Liz hesitantly asked, breaking into her reverie. “I’m sorry. Maybe I was out of line. Maybe I wasn’t. But I wanted you to hear it from me.”

  “It’s fine,” Sarah said on a sigh, just grateful she was in Laurel and not Crawford.

  “It is?” Liz asked, sounding surprised.

  “Not fine enough that I ever want you to do it again,” Sarah clarified.

  “Oh.”

  “I thought if I moved away, she’d forget about me,” Sarah admitted. “I thought I’d leave my whole, awful past behind.”

  “She definitely hasn’t forgotten. In fact she said—”

  “What?” Sarah demanded when it was clear Liz had thought better of whatever it was she had been about to say.

  “It’s nothing.”

  “I don’t believe you and if you don’t tell me, I can always call Shelby,” Sarah threatened.

  “Fine. She said that after what you did to her brother, you don’t deserve to have a happy ending.”

  “I paid my price,” Sarah finally said. “For over a year I felt so guilty it was hard for me to even getme p wid out of bed in the morning. I missed Aaron every bit as much as she did. But every chance she got, she reminded me that she thought it was my fault. It was an accident.” An accident that she still felt plenty guilty about all on her own but it was an accident.

  “I know,” Liz said consolingly. “I’m so glad that you finally see that. That it was an accident. To be honest, I think you’re a saint for putting up with that tyrant for so long.”

  “She’s Aaron’s sister.”

  “She’s also an evil bitch.”

  “Liz!”

  “Well, she is,” Liz unapologetically proclaimed.

  Sarah didn’t respond because she knew it would be pointless. She could still hear Cole, rattling around in the kitchen. If she could hear him working on the door, she had no doubt that he’d heard every word she said.

  “I hate to cut this short,” Liz said, “but I really do need to run. Gavin has a dentist appointment in a little bit.”

  They said their ‘goodbyes’ and then Sarah made her way into the kitchen.

  Cole glanced at her cautiously. She gave him a weak smile.

  “Did you fix it?” she asked.

  He swung the door open and then closed it. “It’s better. It doesn’t swing open on its own. But the doorjamb isn’t lining up right so it still doesn’t click into place like it should. I think the house has just settled too much over the last few years. Was this door possibly left open while the house sat empty?”

  “Yes, I think so,” Sarah said. “I think Dad thought it would be best to get some airflow down there.”

  Turning her back to him, she walked over to the counter to set her phone down. She had gotten particular over the years, trying to remember to set it in the same place. She took a few moments to try to compose herself. Now that her call to Liz had ended, Liz’s words were sinking in. Sarah did not have to be there to know just how venomous Brynn could be.

  Liz probably thought she’d gotten the best of her. Sarah doubted that. If anything, Liz had probably just pissed her off even more.

  “Hey,” Cole said as he stepped up behind her. He tentatively hugged her from behind. She felt herself relaxing into him. He took the cue to hold onto her a little more tightly. “I know I told you I wouldn’t push you to tell me anything you don’t want to,” he said quietly. “I’m not trying to do that. But is there any chance you want to talk about it?”

  What she wanted to do was close her eyes, melt right into Cole and pretend they were the only two people in the whole world. She wanted to pretend the farmhouse was completely restored. She wanted to pretend that Melinda hadn’t exploded into her life recently. But most of all, she wanted to pretend that a vindictive almost-sister-in-law didn’t exist.

  For just a few blissful seconds, she allowed herself to try to pretend. Cole’s arms were tightly around her waist. She placed her hands over his, pulling him in just a bit more tightly. When she leaned her head back so she could rest it on his shoulder, his cheek brushed against hers.

  He mistook her silence for hesitation.

  “Sorry, I didn’t mean to pry.”

  “No, it’s just…all so complicated. Or maybe messy is a better word.”

  She twisted around in his arms so she could face him. Her heart lurched as he worriedly gazed down at her.

  She had missed him so much.

  The other night, he’d said that he still loved her. He’d told her he wanted her to remember that she still loved him too. While her head may have been momentarily in denial, her heart was not. It knew exactly what it felt. It knew exactly what it
wanted.

  Secrets and circumstances beyond their control had destroyed them once. She was not willing to let him slip away again. Now that she had him back, she didn’t want anything else to ever come between them again. That included her silence.

  She sighed and pulled away from him, instantly noting the look of hurt her action caused. Just a few weeks ago, she’d told herself this was not something she would ever talk to Cole about. But so much had changed in just the last few days. Now it seemed that if they were going to move forward in their relationship, these were things she was going to have to talk about eventually. Wouldn’t it just be better to get it over with?

  “Do you have some time right now?” she asked resignedly.

  He nodded. “Yeah, luckily my boss, she pays me by the job. Not the hour.”

  Sarah didn’t smile because her head was a million miles away.

  Cole scowled at himself. “Sorry. That was a stupid joke. I’m suddenly really nervous. You have this look on your face like…” His frown deepened as he tried to liken her expression to something. “Actually, you look kind of like how I felt when I told you about the past. But yeah, I do have time. I mean, I’m behind schedule because we spent a few days on yard clean-up. But Tom’s behind on a few of his projects because of the storm too.”

  “Okay, then we should talk.”

  “I have an idea,” Cole said. “Let’s not do this here.” He reached for her hand and led the way.

  Chapter Eighteen

  “I used to love coming here,” Sarah said as she closed her eyes and tilted her face up to the sunshine. “If someone told me to go to the happy place in my mind, this would be it.”

  Cole laughed. “Yeah, me too.”

  She opened her eyes and looked at him. He’d taken a seat next to her near the edge of the pond. Since the storm, the weather had cooled just enough so that it was no longer miserable. The sky was a flawless, cornflower blue without a single wisp of a cloud in sight. A gentle breeze fluttered through the air.

  “I used to love watching you skip rocks. You could do it for hours.”

  “It was like cheap therapy for me,” he admitted. “Skipping rocks and just being around you. You were so good for me.”

  She shook her head but a smile tugged at her lips. “I don’t know about that.”

  “Oh come on,” he said as he gave her shoulder a nudge. “If it hadn’t been for you, we both know I would’ve pissed away my senior year. I know for a fact I wouldn’t have gotten my grades up. Hell, I might have even dropped out.”

  “You wouldn’t have,” she assured him.

  He sliced a look at her. “You don’t know that. Darkno siren dropped out. There’s a good chance I would’ve too.”

  “You are nothing like your brother.”

  He let that go.

  “You know,” he said, “when we were younger I used to dream about sitting here with you when we got old. Just like this.”

  “Are you calling me old?” she teased. Then her voice turned serious. “I used to think about that too. I just never thought we’d take such a twisted road to get here.”

  He was quiet for a moment before asking, “So how did we get here?”

  “How much did Gretchen tell you about Aaron?” Sarah wondered.

  He shrugged, trying to keep his tone neutral. “Not much at all. She told me that it was something I should talk to you about.”

  She nodded, looking contemplative. “Okay. I’m just trying to think of where to start.”

  “How did you two meet?” Cole asked, prodding her thought process along.

  “I’d seen him around campus. I knew who he was,” she began. “But I never really talked to him until a mutual friend threw a huge party graduation night. We were both in line at the keg. We started chatting and we just clicked.” She laughed self-consciously. “I know a college party isn’t really the kind of place where you typically find the person you think you’re going to marry.”

  Cole grinned. “Yeah, well sometimes you meet the people you fall in love with in the damndest of places.”

  “Like a ditch?” Sarah asked with a smile.

  “Like a ditch,” he agreed. “So I’ll be the last person to judge. The picture of the two of you together?” Sarah nodded, knowing what he was referring to. The morning after the storm his back had been to her but she had known he was looking at it. The photo and Cora’s antique jewelry box were the only two items on her dresser and she’d had a hunch he hadn’t been looking at the jewelry box. “You looked really happy. With him.”

  She bit her lip before saying, “I was. The day after the party we met for lunch. Then we met up again the next day and the next. We dated for over a year and then he proposed.” She frowned, trying to stick to the facts, wondering what needed telling and what she could leave out.

  “I never got along particularly well with his family. His dad was completely overbearing. His mom was a complete pushover. She did whatever he asked without even blinking.” She reached for a clover and began pulling off the leaves. She knew Cole was waiting for her but what she said next would be the hard part.

  “His sister, Brynn, hated me from the start. Aaron had been dating a friend of hers. She had been so sure they would get back together. I wasn’t exactly fond of her either, but I tolerated her. She had gotten engaged a few months before Aaron and me.” She paused and reached for another clover. “We would’ve gotten married right away, burig but I tt we didn’t dare. We put off our wedding so that it wouldn’t interfere with hers in any way.”

  She glanced at him to try to gauge how he was taking things.

  “I would guess that she didn’t bother to appreciate that,” he said.

  Sarah let out a nervous laugh. “No. Of course not. Anyhow, I was perfectly fine with not being in her wedding party. I found out later Aaron was not fine with it. I guess they came to a compromise and she asked me to be her personal attendant.” Sarah sighed because that was where everything had gone all wrong.

  It wasn’t until she felt Cole’s arm slide around her shoulder that she realized her breathing had sped up. He settled a kiss on the side of her head and waited for her to continue. He didn’t pull his arm away and she was relieved.

  “If she hadn’t asked me to be part of the bridal party, I probably could have gotten away with not going to the bachelorette party. I really had not wanted to go. I didn’t care much for Brynn and I liked her friends even less,” she explained. “I would’ve been happy to skip out on the whole thing. Looking back, that’s exactly what I should’ve done. But I didn’t. We went out, downtown Crawford. We spent the night barhopping. Her maid of honor had reserved a hotel suite for us nearby, within walking distance. We were all supposed to stay there.”

  She stopped talking again as the way that night had played out flashed through her mind. Cole continued to wait patiently.

  “As the night wore on, I just couldn’t deal with them,” she said with a shake of her head. “They weren’t the kind of people that I would typically hang out with. Brynn and one of the other girls had already spent a good portion of the night in the bathroom, throwing up. She told me as her personal attendant, it was my duty to hold up her hair. A lovely job,” Sarah said sarcastically. “By the end of the night, I’d had it. They were loud, crude and rude to anyone who wasn’t in our group. I was tired and irritable. I knew I’d never be able to sleep once we got back to the hotel. I’d had a few drinks because Brynn had ordered a few rounds for everyone. I told her I was going to call Aaron. I wanted him to come and get me because I didn’t think I should drive. She was furious. She called me selfish for asking him to get out of bed. I think more than anything, she was furious because she felt slighted. Like…how dare I leave her party?

  “I called him anyway and he didn’t seem bothered in the least. He was still up, watching a movie. He said he’d be there to get me in fifteen minutes.”

  Despite the heat of the day, she shuddered.

  “I waited for him down
on the curb. It was freezing out. He never showed up. He was hit by a drunk driver. It was a head-on collision and Aaron never had a chance. Brynn has never forgiven me. If I had just spent the night like I was supposed to, he would’ve been home, safely in bed. That’s all I had to do. Spend one night with Brynn. But I didn’t do that because I just wanted to go home. He’d still be here if I wouldn’t have been so stubborn.”

  “God, Sarah, I’m so sorry,” Cole said. idnle Sarah But please tell me you don’t blame yourself for that.”

  She let out a mirthless laugh. “Be happy we didn’t run into each other last year at this time. I was really a mess. I was drowning in my guilt. It was easy to do. Brynn made my life hell. She tried to ban me from the funeral. I wasn’t allowed to sit anywhere near the family. In fact, I was in the last row, stuffed into a corner. Gretchen and Liz were there with me, though. Mom and Dad, too. But Gretchen and Lizzy never left my side. I took a leave of absence from work. I was only gone for four weeks but Brynn used that to her advantage. She hates me. Truly hates me. She tried to get me fired from my last job. After my leave of absence, she went to the school board claiming that I was emotionally unstable. She tried to convince them that I wasn’t fit to be around kids.”

  “She what?” Cole asked and Sarah felt him stiffen beside her. For the first time since Sarah had begun talking, he sounded shocked. “That’s crazy! They told her she was crazy, right? Not you!”

  She nodded slowly. “Of course everyone knew why I was gone. I don’t think she really thought she could get me fired. I think she simply wanted to cause trouble. She even had a petition signed by—”

  “The signatures were probably all forged,” Cole grumbled. “That’s ridiculous.”

  “It was. And it eventually went away. But she didn’t stop there. More than once I came out of work to find that my tires had been slashed. I had graffiti on my garage door. She started calling my phone in the middle of the night. I finally got rid of my landline and left my cell phone off. So then she started leaving me hateful voicemails telling me that her brother was dead because of me. Only, she was a lot more…colorful when she said it.”