Page 60 of Fa-La-La-La Faking It
Instead, she simply nodded and gave him a placid look, like this was the ending she’d expected all along. “It’s fine. I broke all the other rules. You’re entitled to break one too.”
Jace had never for a second thought they’d stick to the midnight rule. He’d just always imagined they’d break it the other way around...that what they’d had would outlive the Christmas trees that would start drooping in their stands soon. But that was probably wishful thinking. They’d never said it was real. Not once.
But damned if it hadn’t felt a lot like love.
“Adaline,” he said, and all the emotions he couldn’t express were laid bare in that single, aching word.
Something was wrong. The Adaline standing in front of him with the vacant eyes and the deflated spirit wasn’t the same girl he’d been falling for all over again, just like in elementary school. The Adaline he knew was larger than life. She’d never give him a free pass like this and just let him walk away.
Fight for me, sweetheart. Please. Fight for us.
He hadn’t realized until that exact moment how badly he wanted her to ask him to stay. He needed to hear her say it. All it would take would be that small, simple word.Stay.He knew it was a selfish thing to expect, but the confrontation with Gus had left him feeling so hollow inside. So lost. All he needed, deep in the darkest part of himself, was to know someone still wanted him. Someone still cared. And more than anyone else on earth, he wanted that person to be Adaline.
She deserves better than you, and you know it.A good man would never put her in this position, but Jace had never really believed he was good. He might seem that way on the outside, but in his soul, he knew better.
The placid, detached expression on Adaline’s face told him she knew it, too. Either that, or he was just trying to fool himself into believing he wasn’t breaking her heart.
She squared her shoulders, and for a brief, beguiling moment, he caught a glimpse of the headstrong, bubbly woman he’d never forget. Then she vanished as quickly as she’d appeared, replaced once again by a girl with a broken smile.
“Goodbye, Jace.”
Chapter Twenty
Adaline wasn’t sure how she got through the following twenty-four hours. Somehow, she managed to flip off her emotions like a light switch as she finished the wedding cake, helped Maple with last-minute bridal preparations and broke the bad news about the training center to the Comfort Paws girls.
Maple, Jenna and Belle were wonderful about it, of course, which only made Adaline feel worse. No one had expected her to take on the organization’s finances and plan for their expansion all on her own. She’d jumped at the chance to do it, though, because she loved her friends. She believed in Comfort Paws with her whole heart, and most of all, she adored her sweet puppy. She knew what a difference therapy dogs could make in the lives of so many people, and like always, she’d run full steam ahead, convinced she was helping when, in reality, she only messed everything up.
But she put on a brave face and acted like everything was okay. The only time she allowed herself to give in to heartbreak over the way her life had fallen so spectacularly apart was when a waste management company showed up to haul Jace’s trees away. She hadn’t wanted to watch, but she couldn’t look away. With Fuzzy in her arms, she’d pressed her hand against the glass window of Cherry on Top and watched it all from start to finish. It all happened so fast. In less than an hour, the town square looked like it had before Jace and his trees showed up in Bluebonnet. If Adaline hadn’t known better, she might’ve thought the past few weeks never even happened.
But Adaline did know better. And no matter how hard she tried to hide her broken heart, it still showed. The people who knew her best had to see it. She suspected they were giving her grace and waiting for her to bring it up when she was ready, especially when no one uttered a word about the missing trees. She couldn’t say anything yet. Christmas wasn’t about her this year. It was about Maple and Ford. The wedding was only one day away, and Adaline would rather die than take any attention away from their special day.
Ford had other ideas, though. Because the morning before the wedding, he showed up at Cherry on Top bright and early under the guise of wanting pie. It would’ve been believable enough if he’d worked the night shift at the hospital the night before, like he did once a week or so. But he wasn’t wearing scrubs—a dead giveaway.
“Go ahead and ask. I know you want to,” she said as she slid a slice of warm cranberry pie in front of him.
He held Fuzzy in the crook of his elbow as he dug in. “I’m not sure what you mean, but if there’s something you want to talk about with your wise older brother, I’m here for you.”
Great. He was going to make her state the obvious.
“Jace is gone,” she said without meeting Ford’s gaze. Maybe if she stared at the Formica countertop hard enough, she wouldn’t cry. “He’s not coming to the wedding. We broke up. There, now you know everything. And no, I really don’t want to talk about it.”
Ford took another bite and waited quietly for her to cave and say more. This was their usual dynamic. Adaline and her brother had always been like flip sides of the same coin. He was every bit as patient as she was impulsive.
It wasn’t going to work this time, though. She had nothing else to say, period.
She grabbed a dish towel and scrubbed at the counter until the silence became intolerable. Good grief, how were they related? Sometimes it didn’t seem possible they shared a gene pool.
“Ugh. You win.” She threw the towel at him. It hit him in the face, and he didn’t even flinch. Classic Ford. Adaline hated his unflappable nature almost as much as she envied it. “Maybe I do want to talk about it...just a little bit.”
He nodded. “I’m listening.”
Where to start?
She sighed.How about with the truth?
“I’m going to tell you something really shocking, and I need you to keep it to yourself. Under no circumstances can you tell Gram. Promise me,” she said. Sweat was already beading on her forehead.
“Scout’s honor,” Ford said, despite the fact that he’d never been a Boy Scout.
