“I don’t have a choice anymore, Max. Dad already has everything lined up. All the steps. All the players. I’m going to have a wife and a kid. A house. Be a second-generation senator, and that’s the end of it. That’s my story.”
I hated that he’d lumped Daisy in with the rest of it like he hadn’t picked her, like he wasn’t in love with her. And he was. He was just struggling. That was all.How many times had I told myself that over the last six months? How many more times would I continue to believe it?
I didn’t know what he had argued with his dad about last night, but it didn’t matter. It probably had something to do with the massive party his parents announced at dinner that they were going to host at the country club to celebrate the wedding. They’d been furious when Daisy stood her ground on a small, intimate ceremony. But in the end, they figured out how to get their way.
“You always have a choice,” I said and filled the cup again from the sink, handing it to him.
Todd downed the second glass the same way as the first, like he’d been stranded in a desert for the last twenty-seven years, and finished it by setting it on the counter with a thunk.
“You don’t need them, Todd. You have Daisy. You’re going to marry the woman of your dreams this morning.”And mine.The thought no longer stabbed my chest, the knife perpetually buried there, but twisted it instead. I wished I were a worse man. One who would let this spiral happen and separate him from Daisy. But I couldn’t—I wouldn’t—do that to him. Or her. “And in a few months, you’re going to be a father. It’s never too late to be better. To pick a different path. To walk away from your parents’ plan.”
I caught the hard flex of his jaw. “You don’t understand,” he muttered and gripped the edge of the counter.
“Me? How long have I known you?” Sometimes, it felt like I understood Todd’s demons more than he did. Especially the ones that made him drink. “I understand this—the baby wasn’t part of your plan. Or your parents’ plan. But Jesus, man, do you know how lucky you are?” I turned away and raked a hand through my hair, feeling my own demons start to claw up my throat. “Daisy is smart and funny and genuine and gorgeous. Doyouunderstand just how fuckingluckyyou are that she picked you? That you get to have forever with a woman like her?”
I bit into my tongue then, tasting the coppery tang of a confession about to go too far. For a beat, I wondered if I already had.
There were so many times over the course of their relationship that I swore he had to see it. He had to see the way I looked just a little too long at his girlfriend.His fiancée.That I knew all her favorite things to help him grovel when he came up short. But that was Todd, perceptive only to the perimeter of ignorance. He noticed only his best friend having his back, the way I’d done for the entirety of our friendship.
But right now, the way he looked at me…the haze in his eyes…Did he realize?No.He was drunk. He could hardly follow the tether of what we were talking about. There was no chance he could hear all the things I wasn’t saying.
I cleared my throat, and whatever clouded his expression was gone in an instant, convincing me I was right.He had no idea I was in love with his soon-to-be wife.
“You’re right.” His shoulders slumped.
“Come on.” I patted him on the back. “Shave. Rinse off. Fix the rat’s nest on your head.”
His gaze found mine in the vanity mirror. “She deserves better.”
“So get ready and give her a better man.”
Todd stared at me for long enough to make me question what I’d said—to make me question what was going through his mind—but then he nodded.
“Get dressed and brush your teeth. I’m not letting you be late.” Todd reached for his toothbrush and rinsed it in the sink. I let out a slow exhale of relief. We’d made it through the storm. “I’ll be outside.”
“Max.” He stopped me.
“Yeah?”
“I need a favor.”
I folded my arms over my chest. “Name it.”
“Daisy’s bouquet…”
“You didn’t drop it off this morning?” I looked over my shoulder. The bright pink peonies I’d hand-picked for Daisy were still in the vase on the small table in his room.
“No.” Todd scratched the back of his neck, looking guilty but not apologizing. “Probably wouldn’t have been a good idea.”
“I’ll handle it,” I told him, feeling my throat grow tight. “Get dressed. I’ll be back for you in an hour.”
I didn’t want to see Daisy before the wedding. I didn’t know why I was afraid I’d do something stupid like confess just how much I loved her—how much I’d always loved her—when I’d had the better part of four years to do so. I guessed there was something about the finality of her and Todd getting married. Something that gave me the same instinct I’d had at the Brew Bar the day we met—the one that screamed to get up, to do something before I missed my shot.
But now, like then, I buried the instinct and the way I felt about her, and did everything I could to make sure my best friend’s wedding went off without a hitch.
The townof Friendship started to get quiet this time of year. While Stonebar Harbor still drew in visiting crowds through September, the smaller seaside town to the south had already begun to shed the dregs of its tourist season.
My car rumbled over the cobbled, aptly named Maine Street and pulled up out front of the Lamplight Inn. My cousin, Elouise—Lou—had bought the historic landmark of Friendship last year, renovated it back to its bed-and-breakfast glory, and officially opened the inn to guests early this year.
