“The intimidation speech.” Hallie paused, ratcheting up the tension as she looked at Reese, like she was supposed to know what Hallie was talking about.
All Reese could manage was a wide-eyed stare back, her brain working double time, trying to catch up.
Finally, Hallie rolled her eyes, and she let out a deep, resigned breath at Reese’s lack of understanding. “About not hurting my friend.”
Reese jutted her chin up, their faces almost colliding. “What’s wrong with Sydney? Is she okay?”
“It was a good speech,” Hallie lamented, like she was talking to herself more than anything before adding, “and she’s fine.”
Only, she stressed the word ‘fine’ like it was not, in fact, fine at all.
“I saw her in the lobby yesterday on her way to the tennis center,” Reese responded quickly.
She and Sydney had chatted briefly, though the embarrassment that had welled up inside her at the memory of the weekend had made it easier to acknowledge the family who’d walked into the inn, ready to check in for the holiday weekend.
Part of her wished that she could go back to the moments before she knew about her mom, before she’d told their lunch party that she owned The Stone’s Throw. To when she and Sydney had agreed on a fun, carefree weekend with no ulterior motives.
She still remembered how it had felt to push her body against Sydney after their match, skin and softness and the way Sydney’s breath had hitched when she’d leaned close.
And maybe the dressing room would have gone differently. Relaxed Reese would have melted against that wall as Sydney moved closer and let something happen between them, even if it had been fleeting.
They’d been so close, their bodies connected in all the right places, before Reese’s brain had gotten the better of her. Then she’d frozen—panicked, if she was being honest—at adding another complicated layer to her life.
But still, Reese wasn’tavoidingSydney. She really was nonstop busy with everything going on this week.
So, yeah, she could admit that this past weekend had been intense, and Reese wasn’t exactly sure where to go from there.
Both things could be true.
She’d left snot stains on Sydney’s shirt, for god’s sake.
There wasn’t a single time she could remember even crying in front of Megan or anyone else for that matter.
Her anger and sadness and frustration had always been a solitary endeavor for her, turning inward and pushing through it.
All it had taken was a few supportive words and open arms, and Reese had cried like a baby for the first time in years.
So no, she didn’t exactly have a playbook for breaking down in front of a woman who’d quickly been occupying more and more of her mental energy the same day she’d found out her mom had cancer and had then decided to implode whatever tentative sense of calm she’d been managing with her father.
Even if she could give herself a pass for the breakdown, that woman happened to be her brother’s ex-girlfriend, whom she’d become embroiled in a fake relationship with to antagonize said brother for his lifetime of mediocrity, which he’d gleefully rubbed in her face every chance he got.
Recipe, meet disaster.
“Sydney does that, too. The whole spiraling thing,” Hallie said knowingly, breaking into Reese’s thoughts.
“You are a… very involved friend.” Reese chose her words carefully, blinking to bring herself back to the present moment.
“I’m a very involved person. Period,” Hallie answered with an unassuming smile. “It’s a gift and a curse. Growing up surrounded by so many people coming and going in my life.”
If anything, Reese could at least appreciate the self-awareness. “You still haven’t answered my question. What’s wrong with Sydney?”
“She really is fine. I promise. It’s just, she’s being surprisingly tight-lipped about your weekend, which isn’t like her. And in my defense,” Hallie said, some of her bravado slipping away, “I’m trying to adjust to this whole ‘us being back in the same place again’ thing, and I want to make sure I’m doing everything I can to help her.”
Reese’s insides softened. Hallie was a good friend, even if her prodding was sometimes misguided. And Sydney, very likelywanting to uphold Reese’s privacy about what had transpired, had kept things to herself.
The weekend had been a veritable domino effect of situations boiling over into, well,worsesituations, and mentioning any of them out of context wove a complicated web of half-truths and lies by omission.
“Hallie, the weekend was a little intense because of my family, and I’m sure that Sydney was just respecting my privacy.” Reese’s cheeks warmed with the admission, not realizing how much it meant to her until she’d laid it out.
