Like most girls, I’d imagined what a moment like this would be like. Walking down the aisle towards my future husband. Brendan Fraser stared in those dreams initially, and then…
Then he’d been replaced by Casper Sterling.
I shake those thoughts from my head. “We should go find the others,” I say, stopping before we make it to the pews. “Or at least figure out what’s happening.”
Casper’s eyes narrow, but he doesn’t call me out. Instead, he starts for the back of the barn. “Let’s try the back storeroom. Lucy has her office set up there.”
I swallow hard but say nothing as he leads me into the back. My gaze stray to the arch one last time before it disappears from sight, leaving me more confused than before I got here.
Willow Ridge feels like home, but my life is elsewhere. And yet, here is Casper, trying to prove otherwise.
And I’m scared he might be right.
We waituntil whatever meeting the others are in is over before intruding. Tensions run high when Mom and her husband leave the office first, followed by Stella and Brad.
The bride-to-be glares at me like I’m wearing white on her wedding day. Meanwhile, the groom is uncomfortable—and that’s putting it lightly.
Mom’s husband sighs as he checks his watch. “We have reservations at The Jade Garden. If we leave now, we’ll be ten minutes early.”
“Is that what you want, dear?” Mom asks Stella, giving her golden child stepdaughter a pitying look. “Are you up for lunch?”
Casper and I share a look like we’re intruding on an entirely different family.
Hell, that’s probably how they feel, too.
Casper gives my hand a squeeze when Stella sniffles. “We should go out,” she says, batting her eyes at her father, then at Brad. “I’m okay.”
Brad looks even more uncomfortable now, like he’s questioning everything that got him to this point. But funnily enough, he shoots me—and Casper—a look. “Will you both be joining us?”
I open my mouth to decline, but Casper answers before I can. “Of course, wouldn’t want to miss out on catching up.”
My mouth snaps shut. I’d actually just wanted to pick something up from the diner and take it back to the inn to binge while editing some photos from my most recent shoot. Anything to avoid being in their presence any longer.
But instead, Mom’s husband nods in acceptance, neither disappointed nor relieved at the addition of Casper and me. I had a feeling we weren’t expected to go, but both him and my mom like to keep up appearances. They won’t deny having us, especially in front of Brad.
Stella’s glare becomes more lethal, directed only at me. I have a feeling her hatred for me is only going to get worse, not better. And Mom…
She rolls her eyes, like somehowI’mthe problem.
And it hurts more than I expect it to.
We’re silent as we make it out to the cars. Casper keeps my hand tightly in his until we get to the rental.
“Let me drive,” he says quietly, somehow ignoring the death glares being sent our way.
I look at him, then the car. With a sigh, I pull the keys from my purse. “If you total it?—”
He smirks, grabs the keys, and opens the passenger side door for me. “Don’t worry, shortcake, I’ve got you.”
My eyes narrow, but he rounds the front of the car before I can call him out.
The stupid pet name came from Calder, and it’s one I’d hoped to escape a decade ago.
I slide in without a word as he gets into the driver’s side. “I know you probably don’t want to have lunch with them,” he says, adjusting the seat and starting the car. “But trust me.”
I cross my arms as he pulls out. “You would be correct on the first point. Whatever you have planned won’t work,horse boy.”
Instead of rolling his eyes or shoving me like he would have once done, Casper grins. The smile is so boyish and charming, reminding me of what he’d been like when we went to high school—before Stella changed everything.
