Page 68 of I Always Will

He shook his head. “She’s Daniel’s best woman. She’ll be up at the front with him.”

“Oh.” Hailey had known that, she just hadn’t remembered. Through the fear and excitement buzzing through her system, she was having a hard time remembering much, honestly. She was concentrating on the concrete details in front of her because she was here for Esme and Dan first and foremost. And, if she let her emotions get away from her, she’d be standing up in the middle of the service declaring herself to Alexandria and ruining everything.

Her eyes roamed around the space, taking in the guests, the red carpet running up the aisle with printed turquoise vines leading the way to the altar, and the rich, luscious floral arrangements in deep, winter reds and plums, flashes of turquoise mixed in making everything pop.

As she looked towards the front, she caught sight of Susan. A couple of weeks ago, she’d been so uptight. She looked like a completely different person now. Hailey wondered how Alexandria was doing with that.

Hailey supported Susan doing what she needed to do for herself and all, but the person she’d been before had definitely left its mark on Alexandria. Plus, this Susan had installed herself in Alexandria’s home for a week without an invite.

Hailey supported Susan, but she loved Alexandria, and there was no getting away from the marks Susan had left on Alexandria that couldn’t be washed away at the drop of a hat.

The musical duo in the corner switched their playing, becoming louder, and the guests all shifted in their seats, looking around. Hailey wondered how their fingers weren’t freezing. The setting was gorgeous and all, but it was definitely a cold day.

In the corner of Hailey’s eye, a flash of red caught her attention. She looked towards the aisle to see Dan walking down it, grinning and practically bouncing. He’d come a long way from that babbling, giggling toddler she’d first met in Alexandria’s house over twenty years ago. They’d all come a long way since then. And no way at all in some senses.

Flanking him was Alexandria. Hailey gasped as she took her in.

She was in a gorgeous mulberry dress, a warm, formal coat over the top of it. She looked stunning. The fabric clung to the rolls of her stomach as though she were so beautiful, even it couldn’t bear to be parted from her. Hailey couldn’t blame it. It caressed her, cradled her, and held her in all the ways Hailey wished she still could.

Farid was looking at her, grinning his smug little smile, but she couldn’t look at him, couldn’t bring herself to care about whatever he was thinking. All she knew was Alexandria and how desperately she wanted to be back together with her—because they had been together.

After seventeen years of pretending denial, the truth sat certainly in her chest. They had been together. They’d left each other because they were young and foolish and being told it couldn’t last. They’d left each other because Hailey hadn’t wanted to become her homophobic parents. What they hadn’t realised was that such an outcome had never been a possibility in the first place. They hadn’t needed to be scared of each other or the world around them. So many people had told them they’d forget each other, fight, end up hating each other. None of it was true. They hadn’t even needed to be around one another to be completely in love.

Dan and Alexandria reached the front of the aisle and took their places, turning to look back at those gathered. It wasn’t a massive event, but Dan and Esme were friendly, magnetic people. They were not low on friends.

As Alexandria glanced across the crowd, Hailey watched her transfixed. When their eyes met, it was like fireworks and lightning striking. It was being eleven and seeing her for the first time, and being sixteen and kissing her for the first time, and being thirty-five and seeing her and wanting her all over again.

She practically felt the tiny, sharp inhale Alexandria took. She almost heard the way Alexandria’s mind was reliving all the same things Hailey’s was. She could remember Alexandria’s lips against hers, her soft skin under Alexandria’s fingers, the way they tangled around one another… There was nobody else in the world but the two of them.

The music changed and everyone around her stood up, cutting off her view of Alexandria. She looked around, wondering what was going on. Farid was looking down at her, yanking on her elbow to get her to stand too while laughing at her obliviousness.

She rose and realised this was Esme’s entrance.

“Tell me again you two aren’t completely gone for each other,” Farid whispered in her ear, far too amused.

“Shut up,” she muttered back, being unable to stop herself from smiling too.

She watched Esme—in her gorgeous, beaded turquoise dress and bright red bouquet—glide down the aisle, her eyes flicking over and over again to Alexandria. It made her heart jump every time Alexandria’s eyes found her too. There were so many things for them to say, so many things to get right this time, but Hailey could feel that they were both ready and willing to try, and that was the most terrifying, exciting thing that had ever happened to her.

Twenty-Eight

Present day

Alexandria had never felt so much like glittery jelly in her life. Before today, she wouldn’t have understood what it even meant to feel like glittery jelly, but that was exactly how she felt.

Her heart had pounded, her breath coming far too quickly, the entire time Daniel and Esme were getting married, and it hadn’t calmed down since.

Alexandria was over the moon for them, but none of the jitteriness had come from that. The hurricane of emotions was from Hailey.

From the minute their eyes met, with Alexandria standing at the altar and feeling every bit like she was attending their wedding, she’d been a mess. A glorious, happy, ridiculous mess. There was still so much to talk about, so much history between them, but she knew they were going to make it this time. It had been there in their unspoken whispers, in the way they moved around each other like celestial bodies colliding against a background of magnificent starlight, in the ways neither had ever moved on.

Once upon a time, her mother had told her high school romance never lasted, that there was no hope for teenagers in love, and you couldn’t throw your life away on it. Maybe you shouldn’t throw your life away on it, but it absolutely could last. Once in a lifetime—once in a blue moon—it could last. And that was her and Hailey.

Even if they couldn’t get a single minute together.

Alexandria had been whisked away for photographs after the service, busy with congratulating Daniel and Esme, chatting with her mother, complimenting Celia on another sublime, all-purple outfit, and working hard on not letting her feet carry her straight to Hailey and the one place she wanted to be more than any other.

But she couldn’t keep her eyes away. When they were close enough to see each other, her gaze wandered time and time again back to Hailey. She felt herself blushing as she drank in Hailey in her gorgeous bottle-green suit. It was such a perfect shade on her, complimenting her red hair and making her look absolutely radiant. She was certain Hailey could see the blush, but she didn’t seem to mind. She smiled back at Alexandria as if all the stars had aligned and she’d never known sadness in her whole life.

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