Page 19 of Chasing I Do
“Rhett might be the songwriter, but Gage was always good with words.” Darcy opened the note she’d tucked in her dress pocket. Unfolding it, her hands shook as the faint scent of cologne and Gage escaped into the warm summer breeze. She ran her finger across its edge, then released a deep breath.
“He wrote you notes a lot then?” Jillian questioned, sounding a little too suspicious.
“In a notebook,” she defended. “Nothing big. I had this composition book in college.”
“Like that?” Jillian pointed to a black notebook on the picnic table. It had a worn spine, tabs sticking out the top, and fabric swatches hanging from the bottom. It was how she put together an event, collected her ideas and designs.
“Exactly like that, except this one was for taking notes in my calculus class. I hated calculus, and Gage was great with numbers.”
“Great with words, great with numbers, and you chose the self-centered philanderer?”
Darcy ignored this. “Every time he’d come to my dorm room, he’d write some silly note in the margins for me to find the next day. It was this thing we had.”
“And you never dated?”
“No,” Darcy said, smiling at the question they’d received a million times over the years. “He wasn’t looking to get married, and a guy would be insane not to marry me.” She looked up. “That’s what he used to tell people.”
Jillian gave a disbelieving snort. “Did he have to tug your ponytail to make you wonder if there was more there?”
“Oh, I had a thing for him when we first met, but he had a long-time girlfriend, then Kyle came for a visit and he charmed me into a date.” She shrugged. “Gage was all for it. Said I needed to get out and have some fun. Then Kyle and I started dating and people stopped asking, and well—”
“Here you are all these years later, and he wrote you a note?”
Darcy looked at the words once again and that strange humming, the one that had started when she unintentionally felt him up during their fall, came back. “It’s a good note.”
Darcy handed it over to her friend. She didn’t need to read it again. She’d already memorized every curve and line.
D ~
I know I am a better man than my past actions have shown. It shames me to know that the one person who helped me through my father’s death didn’t benefit from the honorable man he raised me to be. A friend doesn’t walk away without a goodbye, and you, Darcy, were one of the best I’ve ever had. You deserved more from me. And for that I am truly sorry.
~ G
Jillian finished, held up a finger so she could read it again, then slid another cupcake in front of Darcy. “That was a good note.”
Without a word, Darcy pulled out the newest offer that Rhett had emailed last night and handed it to Jillian. “Now, read this again and tell me if you see a problem with it.”
“I thinkIneed a cupcake before I do.” Grabbing Darcy’s cupcake, her friend dove in, not coming up until the wrapper was licked clean, and she’d finished the contract.
“Oh, boy,” Jillian said dramatically. “He said he was sorry, then gave you the wedding of a career, and a hundred-thousand-dollar venue fee.” Jillian set the wrapper on the bench. “I mean, yes, it was clear there’s no wiggle room on most all of his conditions, but I don’t see a problem at all. You get demanding clients all the time. You are the Bridezilla’s kryptonite.”
“The email was titled,We need to talk. He never mentioned Kylie, but I know that’s what he meant.”
Jillian set down the contract. “You do need to talk. About a lot of things. He needs the chance to understand why you never told him about Kylie, and you need a chance to finally clear the air and get past the big Easton rain cloud that has been following you for five years.”
It wasn’t all the Eastons who had haunted her memories. More like one specific Easton.
Gage.
“But that isn’t the Gage I knew,” she said, pointing to the contract. “That guy is calculating, unwavering, and cold.” She held up the note and felt her resolve soften. “This is the Gage I remember. The one who was humble and honest, and always did the right thing, no matter how hard. The guy who would never use his family’s name and money for leverage. This is the guy who I miss.”
The guy who would know that, although Darcy might make her own mistakes, she didn’t need a hundred-thousand-dollar bribe to set things right.
“He told me to disregard the apology, and offered me money.” Exactly what Kyle would have done. What he had done—several times.
“What if the money had nothing to do with his apology?” Jillian offered, as if handling a dispute on the playground. “What if he apologized, then changed his mind in giving it to you because he didn’t want it to get lumped in with your decision about Rhett’s wedding?”
“Maybe.” That did sound more like Gage, and took some of the sting out of his offer.
