Time After Time (Sweetbriar Cove #14) - Melody Grace Page 0,82
picnic, but she wouldn’t have traded them for the world. She gave a brief thought to that last year before Matty: when she was sixteen, with all those possibilities ahead of her. But what had she known then? Only how to pretend to be the perfect debutante daughter.
No, this was the year she’d woken up. The year she’d learned what it was to feel alive.
Because of Aidan.
Her heart ached again, but her friends were all waiting for her answer, so she kept on smiling. “I have high hopes for next year?” she offered. She caught the sympathetic looks, but luckily, Lila stepped up.
“That’s my cue. Who’s ready for their first glass?” Lila asked, and there was a chorus of agreement. They all got settled around the fire, as the first bottles were brought out, and they began sampling the vineyard’s wares.
Alice raised her glass in a toast. “Cheers to another year with friends and good food.”
“Cheers!”
Stella raised her glass with the others, and took a sip, but now that Aidan was back in her mind, it was hard to focus on the chatter around her.
Would it ever get easier?
“How are you holding up?” Alice moved into the seat beside her.
“Great!” Stella lied, but Alice knew her better than that.
“It’s OK, you don’t have to pretend,” she said, giving Stella’s shoulder a supportive squeeze. “Feel free to wallow, you have the perfect set-up here: booze, carbs, more carbs…”
Stella smiled back, grateful. “I’ll be fine,” she said, telling herself as much as her friend. “I just need some time, that’s all.”
“I saw you two talking, in the square.”
“You did?” Stella winced. “I just turned around, and he was standing there. It was…”
Awful. Heartbreaking. Miserable.
“…Awkward,” she finished.
Alice paused. “You heard that he’s leaving?”
Stella nodded. “I’m glad,” she said firmly. “It’ll make it easier to move on.”
Alice didn’t look convinced, so Stella changed the subject. “Was that a gift?” she asked, nodded to her necklace. “I haven’t seen you in it before.”
Alice pressed her palm to it, beaming. “It’s from Jackson. Isn’t it gorgeous?”
“Diamonds, huh?” Stella said meaningfully, and Alice gave a smug smile.
“I’m not supposed to know,” Alice admitted, looking mischievous. “So don’t say anything.”
“Then how do you know?” Stella asked curiously.
“Because he asked for my help choosing the design!” Natalie spoke up from across the table.
“And Luke came to me for exactly the same thing,” Alice said, laughing.
“Great brothers think alike.” Natalie agreed. “Although I draw the line at a double wedding.”
“Oh my god, can you imagine!” Alice laughed.
Stella felt another pang. Luke and Jackson were ready to take things seriously. They both moved to Sweetbriar Cove for love, and were happily building a life with their partners. Cassie was here, and even the ultimate bachelor, Chase, was so smitten with Letitia that he’d put down roots, too. All the other Kinsellas had found love. Aidan was the only one turning right around, and heading back to his old life. Which meant that whatever they’d shared, however much she’d fallen for him, it wasn’t enough to make him stay.
She wasn’t enough.
“An empty glass?” Lila said, swooping over. “That’s not allowed!”
“I’m driving,” she said quickly, covering. She didn’t want to turn weepy and morose. “But if there’s more cake around…”
“Done!”
Stella spent the afternoon wrapped up in friendship and warmth, before heading out into the rain again. The roads were wet all the way home, but she liked the downpour. It felt like it was washing away the last of summer memories, leaving nothing but the grey skies and foam-tipped sea. She used to take long walks in the rain all winter, when Matty was just a toddler: The both of them bundled up against the wind, watching the waves crash against the shore. Back then, it had always helped calm her, when she was feeling angry, or desperate, or just plain overwhelmed by the sheer scale of the problems she was facing. Making rent. Getting Matty to sleep through the night. Figuring out how to keep her rusted old Honda running another year.
Now, she wished she could just stand on that shoreline, and let the wind and the water wash all her problems away again. But something told her that getting Aidan out of her mind wouldn’t be quite so simple.
Money problems, parenting issues… She’d take them any day over this mess of emotion haunting her every waking thought. At least those things had answers, or a message-board or handy video