I pick out a few more dresses as Tessa checks the woman out. I step up to the counter with an armful, and she rings me up. It’s the diamond on her finger that draws my attention while she bags them, and then it dawns on me.
Oh, Karma, you disloyal bitch.
When I tried to play matchmaker with her and Tyler years ago, I’d been vetting her for the wrong man.
“Tessa—”
“Tyler wasn’t the one who walked in my shop after you left. It’s Roberts now,” she says, lifting biting blue eyes to mine. “We named our son Dominic. He’ll be four next week. Baily is two. We named her after his grandmother. But you never did get to meet her, did you?”
Fighting the lump in my throat, I shake my head as Sean’s wife holds out her hand. “That’ll be one seventy-three.”
Fumbling with my purse, I hand my card over as she cashes me out.
“Tessa, I didn’t realize—”
“I often wondered what I’d say to you if you ever came back here.” Her tone is no longer full of accusation, but curiosity as she walks around the counter with the bag in her hand. “I guess it shouldn’t matter that you got him first, only that he’s mine to keep.” There’s not a trace of fear or malice in her tone. She’s confident in her marriage.
“I’m nothing but happy for you both.”
I bite my lip as she hands me my bag. “You should grab another dress on your way out, on me. It’s the least I can do. After all, you’re the reason I have my family.”
Emotions warring, I rip my eyes away. What can I say? There’s nothing to say. I feel more like an outsider than I ever have.
Sean’s wife.
She’s probably in on more secrets than I can possibly imagine. Speechless, bag in hand, I turn to leave, and she stops me by speaking up.
“I’m sorry, Cecelia. You didn’t deserve that. But I just can’t look at you without thinking about the beginning.” She lets out a labored breath. “It took me a long time to get close to him. At one point, I almost gave up. And when I found out it was you who…” our eyes lock, “I guess I started to resent you a little and your place with him. All those days I dressed you…” she shakes her head as if clearing the memories and shrugs, but I feel the weight of the act. “Small towns can be a bitch, right? But that was a long time ago. I can’t fault you for being with him, can I?”
Tears threaten as I look back at her and imagine her struggle to try and build something with a man who was closed off due to the loss of his best friend and the woman who he felt betrayed him.
“I don’t know what to say.” Guilt eats me alive, and she gives me a solemn nod. I palm the handle on the door. “You have to know I’m no threat to you. I would never—”
“He would never,” she corrects me confidently. “But, he’s not why you’re back.”
She knows.
She knows my history. And I could give her a number of reasons for my sudden appearance that has nothing to do with her husband, but she’s no fool, and she’s not out for blood.
“Be careful, Cecelia. You know well not everything is what it seems to be.”
It’s not a warning. These are words of caution from an old friend. She’s throwing me a bone, and I accept it. She’s not threatening me, but she clearly resents the fact that I’m here.
And she’s not alone.
I say the only thing I can as the winter wind whips at me from where I stand with the door partially open. “Take care, Tessa.”
Heavily buzzing, I enter the dark, dank bar as a flood of memories come rushing back. Not much has changed. The floor littered with the same small round tables and cheap wooden chairs. The walls glow with a slew of neon signs. The only addition is a thinly carpeted stage and karaoke machine set up next to the jukebox.
“Cecelia?”
Behind the bar, Eddie stands scrutinizing me. I greet him with a smile as visions of the past swim in my head. “Boys of Summer” by Don Henley drifts from the jukebox as if welcoming me back to that time, in this place. The lyrics haunting, fitting, wrapping me up inside them as I sink back into the history I lived here.
“Hey, Eddie.”
“You shouldn’t be here,” he says as I approach the bar. “He won’t like it.”
No question of who he is.
“Yeah, well, I have an issue with management, and I think it’s time we settled it. I’ll have a Jack and Coke.”
He slowly shakes his head while toweling off a pint glass.