Page 31 of Building What's Meant to Be

“And that’s less than a day too long,” Mae quips.

Aiden stiffens beside me as if the bickering has gone on long enough. I agree, but I also understand why she dislikes me. Heck, if I were her I’d dislike me. Sometimes I dislike me. Here are all these women, some sisters and the rest who seem like sisters, perfectly comfortable with each other and in their skin, never mind their clothing. The sequins on my dress dig into my thighs and my hair may as well belong to my mother’s Lhasa Apso between groomings. Paul, back there in the kitchen, could fry an egg on my greasy forehead. I’ll make nice if only to ask one of them if I can use their shower.

Talk about a walk of shame. Yeesh.

“Now that we know Aiden didn’t steal a cat, what sent you to jail, Tinsley? Did you have a rough night?” Camellia’s English accent doesn’t make the question sound patronizing. Her voice is the kind that could be delivering the lines of a supervillain and still seem soothing.

But I get major stabby eyes from the sisters Fuller. This would be the part in the movie when PJ and the Oak Brook Boys play a tune of reckoning like in an old cowboy movie. Or Taylor could do it if he’s not busy playing love songs for Mae. I’m not jealous. Definitely not envious. But surrounded by all these couples, I wouldn’t mind someone having my back.

“Wait a minute. I think I recognize you,” Christina says.

“Yeah, she showed up at the Fall Fundraiser Festival,” Mae says darkly, reminding me of how I made an uninvited guest appearance and stormed the stage, acting as if the love song was for me when I had a feeling Taylor’s heart belonged to someone else. In fact, it never belonged to me, if I’m honest with myself.

Getting stared down by ten sets of eyes on top of the last couple of days will humble someone faster than a stolen BMW speeding south through Georgia. Clarity whizzes toward me like a boomerang. I can catch it and clutch it. Do the right thing. If I don’t, it’ll keep coming back to me until I set my ego aside and make the right decision. Or it’ll just wallop me upside the head.

Swallowing the dregs of my pride, I shift to face Taylor. “I want to apologize for my behavior back when you were in the band and afterward too. I’m sorry for being clingy, manipulative, and for making assumptions.”

He looks at me as if I’m a stranger as his eyebrows climb his forehead. “Can’t say I ever expected to hear you say that. That’s mighty big of you, Tinsley. Thank you. Apology accepted.”

A low sound comes from Mae’s throat.

I draw a deep breath for this one. “Mae, I am sorry for the day at the festival and the night after. I was out of line, rude, and behaving like a selfish diva. I apologize if what I did upset you, hurt your feelings, or ever made Taylor doubt his feelings for you. He never wrote a love song for me. Just saying.” That’s because he never loved me. I never loved him for that matter.

I wade into the depths of my loneliness on the edge of an island, all alone with tourists floating by on their yacht, watching me. I prepare for them to point and laugh.

Instead, Mae eyes me like we’re meeting at a dusty intersection in the middle of an old western town. “Thank you. Apology accepted.” Her gaze trails to her brother. “As for you, Murder Doll has plans of its own.”

The space between Aiden’s eyebrows tightens. “I have it in my custody.”

“For now,” Mae says like the low and foreboding note in a horror movie.

Christina breaks the silence that follows when she says, “I knew it. I thought I recognized you, Tinsley. You were at the house in California when Puma Palmer got arrested. It’s all over social media. Such a scandal.”

I wince.

Aiden’s eyebrow lifts almost imperceptibly.

I was hoping the gossip didn’t spread through this backwater town. I suddenly want to leave all the wreckage from my old life behind me. To kick off these high heels, tear off this sequined dress and put on something sensible, something made of cotton.

“So what happened?” Camellia asks, leaning in.

As briefly as possible, I tell them the truth. I was sleeping, woke up, was taken in for questioning, then released. I leave out the part about my family banning me from the New York City building, stealing the BMW, and fleeing to Newport, Rhode Island only for my brother to reject me. Among this group, that seems more scandalous than what sent me running from LA.

As I tell the story, Aiden nods, reminding me of the guys who asked about Puma.

“The only upside of the last however-many-hours was I got to see firsthand that federal agents are brawny, burly, beefcakes. They’re strong, protective guys. Then there was the Southern Agent...” I wave my hand in front of my face like a fan. “But I’m going to enjoy being single for now. Take a break. A vacation. A man-cation.”

Christina says, “I did that once. Then I got married a mere few months later to this guy. Good luck.” She scootches closer to Buck and pecks him on the cheek.

“Thank you. Seeing as I’m stuck here and don’t plan to stay any longer than necessary, it shouldn’t be a problem.”

“Well, don’t be too quick to judge Butterbury. We all unexpectedly ended up here and love it,” Camellia says.

“It’s home,” Louella Belle adds. “Home sweet home.”

I’ve never had one of those.

They break off and talk about Butterbury and who knows what else.

---