“I was right the whole time, wasn’t I?” Sarah asked, a knowing smile on her face.
Haddie relinquished the clipboard a final time, scooped the dresses into her arm, and said goodbye to her student.
She marched through the square and back toward the inn.
“Yes, Ramirez,” she whispered under her breath. “You were right the whole time.” She still was.
***
If there was one thing Haddie had never imagined on her best friend bingo card, it was holding the skirt of Emma’s dress above both of their heads while the bride relieved herself in the tiny bathroom inside Mrs. Pinkney’s sweet shop.
“Oh. My.God. That felt so good!” Emma exclaimed as Haddie struggled under the weight of the skirt. “I should probably cool it on the sparkling grape juice.” Emma stood and flushed, then reached past Haddie to open the stall door so Haddie could back out and carefully lower the dress back to the floor.
Haddie stared at the wedding band now stacked with Emma’s engagement ring and sniffled.
“You and Matteo aremarried, Ems.”
Emma finished washing and drying her hands before meeting Haddie’s gaze.
“Hads? Oh my god, are you crying?”
Haddie swiped a finger under her eye, and it came away wet. She let loose a tear-soaked laugh. “I feel like I don’t do anything else these days!” She laughed…or maybe cried…some more and then attempted to clean herself up before heading back out to what was officially the best block party she’d ever been to.
“Hads…?” Emma asked, more tentative this time. “Are you okay?”
Haddie nodded with a sad smile. “Thanks for having me and Levi walk down the aisle solo tonight instead of…you know…” She sighed. “Can I tell you something?”
“Anything,” Emma replied.
“Do you know why I refer to my grandmother as my grandmonster?”
Emma shook her head, and Haddie sniffled.
“Because if I thought of her as this horrible monster incapable of love instead of a woman who just didn’t know how to grieve her own daughter while taking care of her spitting image, then I wouldn’t feel so…impossible to love.”
Emma cupped Haddie’s cheeks in her palms. “Oh, honey.” Tears pooled in her friend’s eyes. “You are, without a doubt, the most lovable human I know. I am willing to bet the deed to this entire town that your grandma loved you so much and died hoping that even if she failed to show it, that you somehow knew.”
Haddie hiccupped. “It hurts so much to be left,” she admitted. “God…it’s the fucking worst.”
Emma nodded. “You get that even though I moved away, I didn’t leave you, right? No matter where we are physically, I’m neverleavingyou.”
Haddie blew out a long breath and nodded. “I’m starting to get that, I think. But Levi isleavingleaving. Like in all senses of the word.”
Emma nodded, and even though her friend was stunning in her dress with that unmistakable wedding glow, Haddie couldn’t help but smile when she gazed up to the bride’s crystal-beaded tiara that boasted two tiny, pointy cat ears.
“You are so unabashedly yourself, Ems. I love that about you.”
“Why, thank you,” she replied with a small curtsy. “You know, I was thinking… You could ask Levi to stay.” She shrugged like she’d just suggested that Haddie grab a carton of milk on the way home.
Haddie shrugged. “I signed the petition.”
Emma narrowed her eyes.
“What?” Haddie asked. “Am I supposed to ask him to give up his career after he told me he loved me, and I walked out the door and ghosted him for weeks?”
Emma raised her brows. “What if that was all he wanted, Hads? To be asked? For you to chase him a little? He sure as hell tried to chase you with all those unanswered texts.”
Haddie flinched. “I don’t chase, Ems. That’s how I stay safe.”
