Page 42 of Fool Me

As they walked, the sounds of happy party guests and music trickled through the leaves and branches of the towering hedge wall to her right. Ten yards in, the path opened onto a small stone patio, at the center of which stood a large, carved-stone fountain. It’s plume of water rose well over her head. The lowering, golden sun blinded her momentarily as it glinted off the droplets, but she gradually saw that a person stood facing away from her on the opposite side of the fountain.

Like a slow-motion scene in some kitschy romantic movie, the person turned. Sadie’s already-weakened heart threatened to snap apart. It was Grant. The scattered rays surrounded him in sparkling stars. His pure white, simple Hawaiian shirt with vertical rows of narrow, cream lace edging down the front accentuated the stunning whites of his eyes and teeth.

His blue eyes twinkled, and she found herself loosed from the strictures of ordinary place and time. It felt as if they were on their first fake date—no, their first meeting in his dorm room—the entire unblemished span of their lives together stretching before them. She had not betrayed him and never would. She had only to run to him and he would enfold her in his strong arms—the ones that had arranged pillows for her and rubbed her shoulders and handed her those perfect earrings—because he’d already fallen in love with her at first sight.

But as his pupils narrowed into focus, the outer corners of his eyes crinkled with unhappy surprise and his jaw tightened. Sadie’s dream world collapsed in on itself. This wasnottheir first date, and shehadbetrayed him, over and over again. She’d even humiliated him on her own front step when he’d attempted to explain himself to her. He was no longer the innocent boy she’d met in the dorms, nor the impossibly hopeful young man she’d taken to the temple festival, andshe was the reason for his lost innocence. She longed to bolt back down the cobblestones walk and straight into the path of an oncoming truck.

Ronny must have been expecting her reaction because, instantly, his arm was round her shoulders again, holding her fast in place.

“Now look,” he said, his party tone replaced with one that sounded as if it had been well-practiced on recalcitrant children, or more likely recalcitrant actors. “Both of you called me today to inform me you wanted out ofSurf Summer. I’m no Einstein, but something tells me those two things are connected.”

“Mr. Widner, I—” Sadie started to say.

“Actually, it’s—” Grant said at the same time.

Ronny lifted the palm of his free hand in the air forcefully, cutting them both off. “Whatever it is, I do not care. Work it out, because I don’t want to lose either of you, and I am definitely not losing both of you. One, okay, but not both. Now, I have a party to host. We’re expecting another truckload of sand any minute.” With that, he spun round and strode away down a path heading in the direction of the house and music.

Sadie’s urge to flee magnified, but Grant took the few steps around the fountain to face her. If he had the grace to do that, she could manage the apology she owed him.

She screwed up whatever crumb of courage she had remaining. “I’m so sorry for being so rude to you all through college. I checked with Trish and Abby and Carly, and everything you said was true. They aren’t upset with you at all. It was all in my head. I made it all up.”

“Okay,” Grant said in a tone that sounded more like “keep going.”

She struggled to swallow around the lump in her throat as she readied herself for the rest of it. “And I’m especially sorry for how I’ve treated you these last few weeks. I don’t know if you know, but these dates…I…”

“I know,” Grant said. Despite the warm evening, the chill coming off him made her wish she had a polar fleece coat.

“Youknow?” she repeated, keenly aware of the tremble in her voice. Part of her felt relief in not having to be the one to tell him, but another part was mortified at the thought of him figuring it out on his own, of realizing the woman he’d once loved so deeply had been doing her best to destroy his every chance at happiness. “I can’t believe I tried to do that to you. I’ve always strived to be kind to others, to support them and their dreams, because I have dreams too, and I know how important they are but…but…my sister Ginny helped me to see something, what I was doing, what I…what I...” All this babbling. If only she could die on the spot. Her lower lip quivered. “You probably don’t even want to hear it.”

“I shouldn’t,” he said, “but I do.”

His expression remained clouded with doubt, but his voice emanated the faintest wisp of warmth. It was just enough to keep her talking. The random patter of the fountain matched the chaotic beating of her heart. She brought a hand up to her chest in a futile attempt to calm it. “When I told you why I nearly quit theater—the Romeo who cheated on me—that wasn’t the whole story. Both my parents were killed by a drunk driver the day I graduated from high school. They were…they were…so in love, from the first day they met. And all these years I’ve blamed myself for taking them away from each other. Since it was all my fault, of course I didn’t deserve anything like that myself. So, when…so when…”

“When we saw each other on move-in day,” he said.

Her eyes prickled and she fought down the sob building in her chest. “Yes. I think I, I unconsciously…” The absolute stupidity and regret of what she had to say threatened to buckle her at the knees. “Ihadto hate you or else…” She bit back the wordsI’d have loved you. Though achingly true, telling him that now didn’t feel right, not after what she’d tried to do to him. “And when you broke up with my roommates, well, that just gave me an excuse to keep hating you, and even to?—”

“Want revenge all these years later,” he said.

She sucked on her lower lip, feeling smaller than the tiniest leaf on the lowliest plant in the nearby greenery. “But I’m so glad it didn’t work. And of course it didn’t, because you’re so talented and kind. Every time I tried to make you look terrible, you came off even more amazing.”

“Sadie—” he started to say, but she wasn’t done.

Her words came out in a rush. “And so, you can’t quitSurf Summer. You just can’t!” She reached for him but quickly lowered her arms again. She didn’t deserve to touch him. “You’ve worked hard for it, and you’ve earned it. And as hard as it will be to see you playing opposite Julia, I’ll never be able to forgive myself if you don’t star in this movie.”

“Sadie—”

But she interrupted him again. She couldn’t bear hearing her horrible name on his sweet lips. “And I certainly don’t expect you to forgive me. It’s not forgivable, what I did, what I tried to do. I want you to be successful and happy, because I couldn’t stand it if anything I’ve done hurt your future. That’s why I told Ronny I couldn’t be inSurf Summer, and nothing is going to change my mind about that.” A tear squeezed onto her cheek. She wiped it away with a trembling hand, waiting for his reply but dreading it too.

In a tight voice, he said, “Can I talk now?”

She closed her eyes and sucked in a breath. “Yes, yes. Let me have it.”

“Honestly, I don't even care about the festival or the mud wrestling. It was mean of you I guess, but I’ve done some questionable things also, as we both know. Besides, there was no harm done, and I had fun at both of those.”

“Me too,” she said meekly.

He flexed his hands, and she could see the little red halfmoons where his fingernails had bitten into his palms. “But I have to know—how could you have hired those women?”

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