Hattie’s mother makes an annoyed sound in the back of her throat. “Harriet Simms?—”
We stand, hand in hand, but Hattie just shakes her head.“No. I’m done with you. All of you.” Hattie looks around the room, tears brimming her eyes. This is hurt I can’t take away from her, I realise sadly. It’s something I can’t heal. “Good luck with your wedding to Brad and the eventual divorce. But take this as my RSVP ofno.”
With that, she turns, our hands still clasped and starts for the door. Part of me wants to leave them with a piece of my mind, but it won’t matter. Hattie has said everything she needs to. And that’s all I care about.
She’sall I care about.
TEN
HATTIE
Isit back in the truck as Casper starts the engine. Heat warms the chilled air, but neither of us talk. I don’t really know what to say, and neither does he.
I’m not surprised by Stella’s request. The audacity to ask, either. But I am shocked by what Casper revealed, even if it was only part of whatever bigger thing happened between them.
“What did you mean by that?” I ask quietly, watching him as he sits back in his seat.
“I don’t know,” he replies, eyes on the steering wheel. “I do, but—fuck.”
He pulls away from the curb, scrubbing a hand down his face as he does. There’s a part of me desperate to know what it meant, to understand that time better. But I’m also deeply afraid of pushing him.
He might have been worried about scaring me away, but now, I’m the one sitting on the sidelines, forced to watch on as he goes through something I don’t understand.
I blink hard against the threat of tears as emotion thickens my throat. “You can tell me anything,” I say, closing my eyes. “I won’t judge you, Casper. Not for what happened. It hurt whenyou two got together, but if there was something else, something you haven’t told me…”
Casper is quiet for a long moment before he rests his hand on my knee. “I want to tell you. I just don’t know how.”
“I’m here for you,” I whisper, forcing my eyes open. We aren’t heading towards the inn, I realise. Or the diner. Frowning, I sit up. “Where are we going?”
“Home,” he says, squeezing my knee.
“You shared something totally earth shattering, but won’t explain it, and you want to take mehome?” I ask, heart pounding. “Why?”
“Because the night’s not over,” he replies. “And I do want to tell you. I think it’s time to. I need you to know that I never,everdid anything with Stella. Not ever.”
“You dated her, despite knowing what she did to me,” I point out hesitantly. “You still chose her over me at some point. She still got between us.” But now I’m starting to think it was more than that.
Despite the darkness of the truck, I notice the tick in his jaw as he clenches his teeth. “Yeah,” he says shamefully, I think. “But you don’t know the whole story about that, either.”
I shudder, wrapping my arms around myself tightly. It has to have something to do with that comment. There’s a part of me who doesn’t want to hear anything more about her.
And yet… “What don’t I know?”
He spares me a quick look before sighing. “I wasn’t with her because I wanted to be,” he admits, voice low. “It happened at a party. You were away at that art camp you finally convinced your mom you wanted to go to.”
I nod slowly. “I remember. We were emailing the whole time.”
“Yeah.” He takes us onto the ranch, which is dark. The main house has the lights out, the wedding venue quiet. “It was Stellawho convinced your mom to let you go. She admitted it to me. Because she wanted to make sure we’d be alone.”
My heart races as he pulls into the main house. God, I haven’t been here in years.
“What happened?” I ask, turning to him fully. “She wanted you alone. Why?”
“She wanted to get me alone to sleep with me.” I press my lips together and let him continue, but I’m not surprised. She had to have everything I had. I just never really thought about how badly she wanted my best friend.
“Stella and her two little followers showed up,” Casper continues, his voice full of shame. “She came to me with hopes of getting me to sleep with her, and was surprised when I said no. The friends laughed, she got pissed, and then she started talking shit about you. Wanted to know if the reason why I wouldn’t fuck her was because I was already screwing you. If Calder was, too. She made comments about you being ours forfair use, and I was pissed.”
Why does she hate me so much? Why did she hate me so much then, and even now? For years, I’ve tried to figure out why.
