Page 106 of Love Complicated

“Aly, hon, you and I both know you won’t be there alone.” She’s right. I won’t. Tori and Henry will be there, but then she grabs my cheeks, careful not to smear my makeup. “You’ve never been alone.”

Now I know where she’s going with it. I’ll never understand why, but my parents have always loved Ridge as their own. Despite him being trouble, they saw past it and loved him for what he was. A child. A boy. One who loved their daughter from the very start and had a strange way of showing it at times.

“Now, go,” she tells me. “You’re gonna be late.” And then she whispers, “Henry is in there corrupting your children.”

Oh, God. That can’t be good.

And I’m right. It’s not. When I come around the corner, trying not to trip in my heels, I spot Henry with Cash on his shoulders trying to get his tie off the ceiling fan.

See? Told you. I don’t even ask why the tie is up there.

Henry snaps his eyes to mine and nearly drops Cash in the process. Then smiles. “I uh. . . can explain?”

Tori groans, walking from the kitchen to the living room and downs an entire glass of wine in her hand. Jesus. She’s wearing the hottest red dress I’ve ever seen. “Hey, bitch, we’re late.”

By the way, she’s not talking to me.

Henry sets Cash down on the couch, and I hug both boys and leave before they learn any more curse words this month.

When we’re outside and I’m gingerly stepping off the porch, balancing on heels I shouldn’t be wearing and attempting not to step on my floor-length dress, Henry whistles. “Damn, girl, Ridge’s gonna—”

He doesn’t finish. I jab my elbow into his stomach. “Shut up.”

I’m too nervous to think about Ridge being there.

Inside Henry’s Expedition, pushed up against Ada’s car seat that has an entire box of Cheerios in the cracks, Tori twists around from the front seat. “You’re having sex with him, aren’t you?”

I gape at her, then notice Henry’s grinning in the rearview mirror. Though it’s dark, it’s fairly obvious my cheeks resemble the color of Tori’s dress.

She takes my lack of response as admittance.

“Hope he’s better than he was at fourteen.”

Henry’s head snaps toward Tori. “What?”

Silence. It fills the car. Dead. Silence.

“Nothing.” Tori waves him off, turning his head back to the road. “Just drive. We’re late.”

By the way, Henry doesn’t know that his wife lost her virginity to Ridge. Not that it matters. It was a long time ago and way before they started dating. I have a feeling, by the way Henry’s scowling, he’s not going to let this one go.

Watching the street lights hit the dark windows of the car, my mind drifts to the one controlling my every thought. My heart feels weak, broken over time, emotions that overwhelm and suffocate. My lids flutter shut, memories flooding, confusion building. I don’t know how I’m going to walk into the winery with Austin there. . . with Brie. . . and have to navigate through all that, and Ridge, the one I can’t possibly ignore.

As we exit the car, in the front drive of Campbell Vineyards, clouds dominate the sky and my mind. I look up, blinking, and I swear I feel the heaviness of them weighing down on me.

There’s an unmistakable chill in the air, a slight breeze that caresses my skin. I’m barely wearing anything. The air, the smell, the impending rain, as eerie as it is, takes me back to the night with Ridge when my life turned, twisted, changed everything about how I thought I’d end up.

And now here I am, another night, eleven years later, my life nothing close to how I imagined it.

Henry stands next to me, his expression off, his words soothing. “You nervous?”

“I’m terrified,” I admit, tucking loose flying strands of blonde behind my ears.

“Why?”

“Because ofwho’sin there.”

He raises an eyebrow, his eyes shining in the soft twinkle lights above him. “Austin?”

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