“But you can rearrange a few things, can’t you? It wouldn’t feel right not having you there.”
Oh, she’s clever. People start gathering around us, slowing down to listen. I hate being the center of attention like this. If we were alone, I’d tell her where to shove her bridal invitation. Maybe I should just tell her to screw off. Sure, it would fuel the gossip mill and paint me as vindictive, but who wouldn’t react the same way? At some point, one of us has to put an end to this farce of polite conversation.
Instead, I shrug. “I’ll see what I can do.”
“I’ll send you the details! Love you!” Kenzie practically skips away, and I shake my head as I watch her go. She orchestrated this entire encounter to rub in the fact that she has what I should have.
A familiar pickup rolls to a stop at the curb, and the passenger window slides down. “Hop in. I’ll give you a ride home.”
Chapter 10
Ford
Harper stands frozen on the sidewalk, clutching a box in her hands as I pull up to the curb. Snowflakes swirl around her, framing her like a winter angel. “Hop in. I’ll give you a ride home,” I call out after rolling down the passenger side window.
I half-expect her to resist, but she simply climbs in, the box settling in her lap, and fastens her seatbelt. Something’s off, and I dread that it might relate to last night. The thought of her regretting it gnaws at me.
“What’s wrong?”
It’s tough to keep my eyes on the road when I want to read her expression, but the snow makes driving tricky. Everyone in town seems to lose their wits with the first snowfall.
“I got cornered,” Harper replies.
“Cornered?”
“I basically agreed to attend every event Kenzie has planned before the wedding. She painted me as the villain for not being a bridesmaid.”
No wonder she looks so shaken. Why would she want to attend the wedding of her ex and former best friend? It’s baffling anyone would think she’d want to witness the marriage of the two people who betrayed her the most.
“Sounds like Kenzie,” I say as I pull into her driveway.
I wish her parents lived further from Main Street, giving us more time together in this confined space, but the town is small enough that it takes only about fifteen minutes to drive from one end to the other and around the perimeter. I can’t figure out how to stretch this moment without leaving Frosthaven Falls.
Harper unbuckles her seatbelt and turns to face me, placing the box on the dashboard. “Be honest. Has Kenzie always been this way? This… manipulative?”
I scrunch my nose and nod. “Unfortunately, yes.”
“How could I not see it?”
“Because you see the best in people. Kenzie, on the other hand, is selfish and jealous.”
Her laughter surprises me. “Of what? She has Asher. She stole him. She wins.”
“It’s not really about Asher. He’s just a piece of the puzzle. What she craves is feeling superior to you.”
Her eyebrows lift in disbelief. “And this doesn’t make her superior? She’s getting everything I had or was about to have. I don’t see how she can get any higher.”
“Everyone in town likes you. They…” I hesitate, searching for a way to phrase it without sounding harsh. “…tolerate Kenzie. Her engagement announcement barely made a ripple. Even the outrage she anticipated didn’t materialize. But when you got engaged, it was all anyone talked about for weeks. Trust me on that.”
“It’s about attention?”
“Kind of. Kenzie has always been jealous of you. She doesn’t quite grasp that how she got Asher shocked no one but you. The lack of reaction from everyone convinces her that you’ve outshone her.”
Resting her head against the headrest, she shakes it slowly, staring at my chest. “She won’t be satisfied until she’s completely humiliated me, will she?”
“Probably not. But you can fight back easily. It’s not hard to throw Kenzie off her game.”
Her smile sparks a deep yearning in me to reach out, to kiss her, to hold her close forever. The way Asher walked away from Harper for Kenzie remains a puzzle I’ll never grasp. “How?”
