Under normal circumstances, Sasha and Daphne probably wouldn’t come to an intimate engagement dinner, but April knew she wanted them both there, including Sasha’s amateur chef skills.
“We can have it at our house,” Dylan said. “Right, babe?”
“Of course,” Ramona said, but she was still watching April.
“Great,” April said brightly, then lifted her glass of water. She still had no milkshake, no pie, no center of gravity. “To the happy couple.”
“To Ramona and Dylan,” Daphne and Sasha echoed—along with a few nearby patrons—and lifted their water glasses as well.
“It’s bad luck to toast with water,” Sasha mumbled under her breath, but April ignored her. She ignored the clench in her stomach and the sting behind her eyes, and she lifted her fucking water glass to the happy couple.
Chapter
Sixteen
April didn’t talkat all on the drive back to Cloverwild.
None of them did, in fact. Daphne wasn’t sure what to say, and the only thing she really wanted to do was hold April’s hand again. Even Sasha was mostly quiet in the back seat, offering a few meal suggestions for the engagement dinner—which they’d decided would take place at Dylan and Ramona’s lake house in a week’s time, as Sasha had that Friday night off and Ramona’s sister, Olive, would arrive home earlier that afternoon—to which April simply hummed her acquiescence as she drove.
She didn’t talk when they reached the resort, nor did she say anything when Sasha yanked April into her arms for a quick backslapping hug before heading down the path toward her cabin. April also didn’t speak when she and Daphne walked inside their own cabin, when she fed the mewling cats, or when she finally sat on her bed with a sort of lost look in her eyes.
Daphne stood in the middle of the room, trying to figure out what to do.
If she needed to do anything.
April’s best friend getting engaged was happy news, obviously, but Daphne knew there was a lot more to what April was feelingthan that. Her own mind was spinning from the events of the evening—the hand-holding at the café, how April hadn’t let her go until only a few minutes before they were ready to leave.
The kiss in the woods.
A kiss to end all kisses. Which was a dramatic way to remember it, yes. Quite possibly, Daphne’s imagination was blowing it into legendary proportions, but she was pretty sure it was the best kiss of her life. But more than all that, she was worried about April. She wanted to make it better, make April laugh or smile or even cry if that was what she needed to do.
And she knew—she justknew—that April needed to dosomething.
“Are you okay?” Daphne asked. Such a banal question, but it was the only one she could think of right now.
April looked up at Daphne slowly, but then she smiled. Which was exactly what Daphne had wanted, but this smile was soulless, didn’t reach her eyes even a little bit, and showed zero teeth.
“I’m fine,” April said, but continued to sit on the bed, fiddling with a loose thread on her moon pants.
“You’re sure?”
April looked annoyed now. “You should really believe people when they answer your questions.”
“I would if everyone around you hadn’t been doing exactly that for a while now.”
April frowned. “Should they not?”
Daphne should probably shut up, but she couldn’t stop the next words from falling out of her mouth. “Letting you lie about being okay? I don’t think so. Not if they care about you.”
April stared at her. “And that’s you? Someone who cares about me?”
Daphne didn’t know what to say to that. April’s tone was multilayered, like a fine perfume. Top notes of vitriol and irritation,middle notes blooming with exhaustion, bottom notes tinged with a little sadness and actual wonder. Daphne shuffled in place, unsure of how to proceed, when she had an idea.
She held out her hand. “Come with me.”
“What?” April said, flicking her eyes down to Daphne’s proffered fingers as though they were on fire. As though she hadn’t been clinging to them just an hour earlier, palm sweaty and anxious.
“Just come with me,” Daphne said again, as firmly as she could muster. April intimidated her, but right now, Daphne needed to be in charge. “Don’t think, don’t question, and for god’s sake, don’t assume I have your worst interests at heart.”
