Hailey waved me off. “No, this stuff needs to be said in person. But what you really need is a kick in the butt.”
I shook my head and laughed. “For what?”
Her lips pursed. “For taking your sweet time with Lydia. Have you saidanythingto her?”
Clenching my teeth, I turned to look at the mountains in the distance. “No.”
She huffed. “Do I need to do it for you? I’ll tell her everything.”
I jerked my attention back to her. “And what exactly would you tell her?”
“Everything.” Her smile widened mischievously. “I’ll tell her how you and I concocted the whole girls’ night together so you could show up and surprise her.”
There wasn’t a hint of bluffing in her expression. The problem was that wasn’t all I had conspired in the past few days.
“What else would you tell her?” I asked curiously.
“Let’s see,” she began. “I’ll tell her the truth about my spare bedroom. It wasn’t filled with supplies from the store. You could’ve easily stayed with me and Oliver.”
I held up my hands. “That was all you. I just went along with it.”
Her gaze narrowed. “Yeah, but youknew. You wanted Lydia to ask you to stay here.”
And I did. I wanted as much time with her as I could get. Was it selfish and underhanded? Yes, but I would do it again in a heartbeat.
“I just wanted to be with her,” I said, feeling the ache in my chest which had been there since last Christmas. When I found out about Max, that gnawing pain intensified. I thought I could move in and make her see me as more than a friend, but it didn’t look like that was going to happen. Groaning, I leaned back and ran my hands over my face. “There are way too many secrets.”
Hailey giggled. “Yes, there is.”
“Nothing was this complicated with Daphne.” I turned to Hailey before she could speak. “And no, I would never consider going back to her or anyone like her ever again.”
She clutched her chest. “Thank God. Oh, and just so you know, there is something I never told you,” she said sheepishly.
My curiosity was piqued. “What?”
“Do you remember last Christmas Eve when you brought Daphne to the party and I dragged her away?”
I did remember that; I thought it was odd she’d want to spend time with Daphne.
“Yeah,” I replied.
She bit her lip. “I did it intentionally so you and Lydia could be alone together.”
That didn’t surprise me one bit. “Very sneaky. Although, I’m glad you did. It was that night, when I was alone with Lydia, that her words about Daphne got through to me. I knew I had to end it.”
Hailey grinned triumphantly. “See. Some good came out of it.”
“Maybe I should come clean to Lydia about everything,” I admitted. “We tricked her into letting me stay here. I lied about my car not starting so I’d have to ride to the festival with her and Max. Not to mention, I purposefully walked into the kitchen in just a towel because I knew he was here.”
Hailey slapped a hand over her mouth to muffle her laugh. “That is a Jake Reynolds move if there ever was one. I wish I could’ve seen Lydia’s face.”
“She wasn’t happy,” I said. “Nothing I did worked.”
“I wouldn’t say that. We did interfere with their good-night kiss the other night by shining the headlights on them.”
I wasn’t proud of sabotaging her relationship with Max, but I couldn’t stand the thought of him kissing her.
“And what did that accomplish?” I asked. I shook my head and scoffed. “Nothing. I waited too long.”
