Page 50 of When Fate Breaks
“Just a week away– September 1st! It’s at the Old Scarlett House. It’s the most fabulous venue, darlin’. Please, just take your time for a few extra days on that old greenhouse. Truly, youwon’twant to miss it.”
“Miss Lori Beth, I don’t think Blake–”
“I’ll be there.”
My lips part. “Blake, really. It’s your–”
“I said I’ll be there,” Blake declares, his darkened teal gaze meeting mine for the first time in several minutes.
My spine steels, my brow furrowing. My throat burns and my eyelids feel heavy. Lori Beth is jumping for joy. Remy is grabbing another beer. Leah’s head is swiveling back and forth between us. I’m frozen in place, Blake not seeming far off. I notice his throat bob, his eyes flicking down and back up to mine.
“Okay,” I breathe.
10
TEN YEARS AGO
“Evangeline!”
I am ripped forcefully from my dream, the Boston skyline and music fading away.
“No,” I grumble, pulling the comforter over my head and rolling on my side, unwilling to let the moment go.
“Evangeline, get up!” the voice whisper-shouts again. “We don’t have much time.”
Huh?I roll onto my back. “Time? For what?” I slowly allow my eyelids to open, the teal eyes in my dream being replaced with real ones. Older ones. “Blake?”
Blake sits on the edge of my bed, leaning over me. His hands are still resting on my shoulders where he was just shaking me awake. “Nice of you to join me,” Blake says, his mouth pulling into that crooked smile of his.
I blink the sleep from my eyes, coming back to reality as I take in my surroundings. Baby blue walls and a quilt that doesn’t belong to me.Oh, right. I’m in the Di Fazios’s guest bedroom. It’s the last week of July and we’re in Lake Placid to visit them and Grammy before I start my freshman year at the University of Alabama.
“Now, get up. We gotta get a move on,” Blake says, hopping up from the bed and clapping his hands.
I glance over at the digital clock on the bedside table.
12:47 a.m.
“Are you insane?” I sit upright, pulling the blanket up with me in one hand and rubbing my face with the other. “It’s the middle of the night.”
“We have to start now,” Blake says. “There’s much to do and so little time to do it.”
“Are you sleepwalking? Or high?” I ask.
Blake crosses his arms, drawing my gaze to his body for the first time and bringing to my attention that he’s wearing all black, from his backwards baseball cap to his darker than usual flannel to his tennis shoes. I also notice he’s wearing both long sleeves and pants which makes no sense considering it is the dead of summer.
“Or amIhigh?” I ask, tilting my head to the side. “Why are you dressed like a bank robber?”
When Blake just frowns in response, my exhaustion starts to seep back in. “Oh, forget it. Goodnight,” I say, flopping back down in the bed and rolling over.
“Well, you’re especially pleasant this morning,” he says.
“It’s literally midnight,” I mumble back, eyes still closed.
“And today of all days.”
My eyes snap open, met once again with the digital clock on the table right in front of my face. My gaze shifts from the time to the corner of the screen where the date is displayed.
JULY 31.
