Jade headed to her car, not bothering to eat anything or talk to anyone. She’d been right about Logan, though. He was nowhere to be seen. That was two wins today, although she felt guilty for evading him.
Then again, if she hadn’t, she wouldn’t have danced with Sebastian or had those few sweet moments in his arms, even if it was under false pretenses and didn’t mean anything.
Her temples started to throb.
She drove back to the Clementine Inn, and as soon as she pulled into the parking lot, she realized she’d forgotten her bear. Disappointment hit her. It was a cheap toy and didn’t mean much... Except it did. Well, it was gone now. Hopefully it had found a home with a child. That thought made her feel better.
When she saw Mabel in the lobby, she went to her, holding out little hope that her briefcase had been found. Sure enough, Mabel hadn’t seen it. “It will show up, sugar,” she said. “Don’t you fret.”
Jade nodded and mustered a weak smile, then went to her room. She flopped on the bed, not bothering to take off her shoes, an absolute no-no in her world. She had too many things to think about... to fret about.
Her briefcase and Sebastian’s ledger. Finding a way to convince him to talk to Miles, although that was becoming as remote as finding the briefcase. Then there was Logan. And Lydia.No. No Lydia.She refused to think about her.
Nothing was going her way, and to make it all worse, she wished she was back on the dance floor with Sebastian. For those fleeting moments there was no business failure, no financial trouble, no family heartache. Just the two of them. Like it used to be.
But it would never be that way again.
Chapter 14
On Sunday morning, Kalista stifled a yawn as the preacher at Clementine Community Church droned on. When Viv insisted she join her and Bo at service, Kalista resisted. But her stepmother was firm, and here she was, sitting on a hard pew, fighting to stay awake. She’d only been to churches for weddings and her great-grandmother’s funeral. She’d been so young when Grammy died that she didn’t remember it. The weddings had always been about having fun, not paying attention to a sermon.
At least they were sitting in the back pew so she could people-watch. There were two sets of pews with one aisle in the middle, and when she scanned the other side of the church, she was surprised to see Mr. Hudson and Tyler sitting on one of the middle pews. She hadn’t seen either of them walk in earlier. Good, now she’d have a chance to thank Tyler for buying the funnel cake instead of waiting until tomorrow morning.
She glanced at Viv and Bo seated next to her, holding hands. Viv had been exhausted after the hoedown, and this afternoon people from the community were coming over to help with the cleanup. Her potato salad had won first place, so she was happy, and Kalista was happy for her.
After the service, Viv and Bo were visiting with other people in the greeting area outside the sanctuary. Kalista slipped away to search for Tyler. When she didn’t see him in the building, she went outside and spotted him in the parking lot.
“Tyler!” she called out, waving to him as he reached his car.
He looked up, then got inside his car and drove off before she could make her way to him.
Rude.She put her hands on her hips. All she wanted to do was talk to him, but he was ignoring her now. How could he be so nice to her one minute and so insulting the next? What a weirdo.
“Ready to go?” Viv appeared by her side.
“Totally,” Kalista said. She couldn’t wait to get out of here.
For the rest of the afternoon, she helped clean up outside. Although she was wearing a tank top and shorts—she was shocked Viv didn’t make her go back inside and change her top—she was sweating profusely. Thankfully there was a table with water bottles on it, so she went to grab a cold one. She took a gulp, feeling a stinging on her shoulders. When she glanced at her left one, it was bright red. Terrific. Now she was burned, and then she’d blister, and then she was going to peel. Yuck. How could she have forgotten sunscreen?
When the cleanup was done and everyone went home, Viv prepared a simple supper of ham sandwiches, corn on the cob, and of course, leftover potato salad. Kalista gave up trying to stick to any kind of low-carb, sugar-free eating in Clementine. It was impossible, and she was starving after all the physical work anyway. As usual, Viv’s food was delicious.
Bo didn’t stay very long, and both he and Viv still looked tired. Once he left and Viv went to her room, Kalista was by herself. Back home she was so busy doing stuff that she rarely had to sit alone in silence. Even if she was by herself, she either had the TV on or waslistening to music on her iPod. Daddy had even taken that away.He truly wants me to suffer.
She looked for a snack. Dinner had been filling, but she felt the need to eat. At least it gave her something to do.
Then she spied the phone on the wall. Other than the time she called Abbie after her father had shut off her phone, Kalista hadn’t tried to reach anyone. Oddly enough, she hadn’t been tempted to until now. Surely Daddy wouldn’t mind if she made one little phone call on her day off. She’d have to keep quiet since Viv was asleep in her room down the hall.
Should she call her father? No, he would be too busy, probably with Bettany. She didn’t want to get into an argument with him anyway. And she wasn’t calling Abbie—not after she betrayed her with Ryan, something she still didn’t understand. If he liked Abbie, why had he strung Kalista along? They hadn’t been exclusive, but that didn’t mean he could go out with her best friend behind her back. He owed her an explanation.
She dialed his number, and he picked up after the first ring.
“Hello?”
She gripped the receiver at the sound of his voice. Now what? She couldn’t just open with“How dare you cheat on me,”even though she wanted to. “Hi, Ryan.”
“Oh, hey, Kalista.” He sounded nervous.
Good.
