today would fix it.
A little.
Enough.
“Hey, Sydney,” Everleigh said, without any of her usual warmth. “What brings you here?”
“Well, it’s the first Saturday in March without any frost. Painting day. I promised I’d help you guys. So here I am.”
“That’s up to Alex.” Amelia waved an arm at the people scattered across the grounds. “As you can see, we’ve already got a lot of help.” She started to walk toward the porch. Ever and Teague followed suit.
In case Alex sent her away, she needed to flip her script. “Wait. Please don’t leave. I’m also here to apologize. To all of you.”
“The one you need to apologize to is Alex,” Teague said gruffly. He wore camo pants and cap, an Army long-sleeved tee, and looked incredibly intimidating.
“Well, I have. I’ll do it again. But I owe the rest of you an apology. For walking away. For assuming that you wouldn’t want to talk to me after Alex told you what I did. I guess I thought of you all as a package deal. Until I remembered that our friendships were totally individual.”
With a huge toss of her glossy black hair, Ever said accusingly, “You ghosted us. That hurt.”
And she regretted it. Deeply. Looking through the lens of her gram’s wisdom, it had been apparent that she’d treated them badly, too. If she could work it to spend more time in Chestertown, Sydney wanted to be sure to salvage these friendships.
Even if she couldn’t manage to salvage things with Alex.
“I thought that’s what you’d want. To not see me. Clearly, I have a problem with assuming what other people feel. Or need. Or want.”
Amelia tightened her ponytail. And squinted those green eyes at her. “You thought you were doing us a favor? Like how you did Alex a favor by not telling him you were behind his firing? Geez, Sydney. That’s just wrong.”
“I figured my staying away would give you peace. Space.” Her gram had labeled it as yet another instance of running away. Talk about beating a dead horse. “I told you from the start that I didn’t have experience with deep female friendships. You’re my OGs. My starter pack. That didn’t come with instructions. So I screwed up. I’m very, very sorry.”
“I missed you,” Amelia said softly.
Sydney put her hands to her mouth, overcome with relief. “Not as much as I missed you.”
Teague lightly squeezed her shoulder. “Don’t be a dumb-ass. You get one free pass.”
“Thanks.” Sydney looked down at her sneakers. “I’m going to try my best, but I might need more than one.”
“Did I say one? I meant one a month.” He winked at her. It was a devastating hit of charm and charisma, and for a split second, Sydney wondered how on earth Ever and Amelia had only seen him as a brother figure for all this time.
Ever threw her arms around Sydney in a tight hug. “Rule number thirteen: friends don’t give up on each other.”
“I’m learning.”
The three of them edged away again, and Sydney didn’t stop them this time.
Now it was just she and Alex, standing by his open tailgate. Alex, who had yet to say a word or acknowledge her arrival.
That didn’t bode well.
“I know you’re pissed at me. I respect that. But I have something important to share with you. An apology gesture. Please hear me out.”
“A gesture?”
Sydney was no body language expert. But his crossed arms and stiff posture weren’t encouraging. Not to mention that she couldn’t read him at all behind the dark sunglasses.
“Well, I said I was sorry a bunch of times and it didn’t seem to sink in to you. I get that you were fresh in the moment of feeling betrayed. There’s no judgment, no excuses. Then I realized that just saying I was sorry didn’t fix anything.”
“It helped.”
Sydney blinked. What felt like as fast as a hummingbird’s wings. “Oh. Good. Because I am sorry. So…I got the story pulled down from Excursion 365’s website. I know it doesn’t make it vanish in today’s internet-heavy world. But if anyone goes looking for your name, it shouldn’t pop up anymore.”
Alex gave a sharp up/down of his head. “Thank you. That’s a nice gesture.”
“What?” How could he think that was all she was willing to do for him? “That’s not my apology gesture. That’s barely a thing. And what I should’ve done back in February, the moment I put the pieces together.”
“Sydney, you don’t have to do anything. You made your choice. The consequences had unintentional blowback onto me. I know