Page 48 of The Summer Dare
Throwing my hands in the air, I shout, “That’s just it! One minute we were enjoying the evening, the next she was just fucking gone—saying she needed air. I’ve been going out of my mind since she left.”
“What do you want us to do?” Sloane asks skeptically.
“Hell, I don’t know. I just need to know if she’s okay.”
For the longest moment, no one moves—and we just stare at one another.
Lanie steps around the corner from the hall and says, “It’s okay, girls. I’ll talk to him.”
Relief floods through me. For the first time since the wedding, I finally can breathe.
Her eyes are puffy and her face blotchy. She’s obviously been crying, but at least she’s willing to talk.
Her sisters are hesitant, but one by one, they walk away without a word.
My voice is hoarse when I rasp out, “Why?”
“I need to ask you the same thing,” she states solemnly.
As if I wasn’t already confused, I ask, “What are you talking about?”
“Why did you invite me to the wedding?”
Cocking my head to the side, hoping for a better view into that brain of hers, I’m frustrated I still need to clarify. “What. Do. You. Mean?”
“Why did you bring me as your date tothat wedding,specifically?”
“Because you are my girlfriend.”
When it’s obvious this isn’t going to cut it for her, I continue, “Because I didn’t want to spend another weekend away from you.”
Nope, still not enough for her. Her expression is bleak and completely unreadable. But she asks again, “Why did you invite me toVanessa’swedding?”
Where is she going with this?The way she says Vanessa’s name makes me pause before continuing.
“What about Vanessa?”
“Is she the one you’ve been in love with since freshmanyear? The one that you watched fall in love with someone else? The one you’d do anything for?”
Oh, fuck. Now it all makes sense.
Sighing, I try to figure out where to begin. After what feels like an eternity of silence, I find my words. “Yes, but you’ve got it all wrong.
“When I met Vince and Vanessa freshman year, they had just lost their parents, and basically their entire life as they knew it. He was determined to get her through school because Jules, Vanessa’s daughter, needed the best life she could get.
“When I met Vanessa, I’ll admit I was attracted to her. We got along as friends and that’s all we ever were because she had too much to deal with to even think about dating so I was gladly friend zoned.
“Someday, well… you’ll have to hear their story from them because it’s not my place to tell. But the long and the short of it is that it was easy for me to fixate on the unavailable because then I never had to put my heart out there. I could be the friend, pine for the girl. But I was never the one for her.
“It took a while, but once I finally saw her look at him like he was the sun, moon, and stars all wrapped up in one, it was all it took for me to realize I wasn’t the one for her.
“It was a hard pill to swallow, but in that one instance, I knew without a doubt I wasn’t in love with her. What I felt for her was infatuation and desire for the unobtainable. I won’t lie to you. I do love her, but as a friend like I should have all along.
“If you take the time to learn her backstory, I’m sure you will, too. She and Vince have been dealt a shitty hand in life, but they’re making the best of it. I said I will doanythingforthe two of them because I amliterallyone of the few people who’ve become their built-in family. For years they only had each other and Jules, and I will do what I can to make their lives better. Period.”
“So you’re not in love with her?” comes out as a whisper.
Needing her to hear this, I firmly state, “No. I’m not.”
