Page 48 of Could Have Been Us
Stella’s lashes flutter, and her gaze drops. “You’re welcome.”
We break apart and the loss of her, God, it kills me.
I don’t know how I’m going to survive working by her day in and day out. How I’m going to endure the constant heartache that comes with being near her.
Grayson’s mother rests her hand on my arm, and I dance with her. Mrs. Parkerson has never been my favorite person, but she’s always been nice to me. Even during everything with Stella, she wasn’t cruel so much as she was sad.
Her baby girl was pregnant, and I was the irresponsible asshole who did it.
“You and Stella would’ve made a beautiful couple,” she notes quietly. “If everything had gone just a little . . . differently.”
I try not to let that sting, but it does. “Right.”
“I know you don’t believe me, but I didn’t have the same objections that Mitchell did. I just wanted you both to have a chance at a life.”
I turn her a little farther away from her other sons who are dancing. “It is what it is. Stella and I made choices, and we’ve lived with the consequences.”
She looks at her daughter and sighs. “We all have. I’ve spent thirty-eight years married to a man who I don’t love. I’ve watched him use our children as pawns, destroy their hopes for his own gain, and have said nothing about the countless affairs he’s had. And for what? We all live with our choices, Jack.”
“And you think I’m making the wrong choice?”
The song ends, and she takes a step back.
She smiles up at me. “You are a smart man, figure it out.”
Mrs. Parkerson walks away, leaving me feeling off-center and dazed. What the hell does that mean? Suddenly, Stella’s mother thinks I should be with her daughter? Weddings and funerals bring out the crazy in people.
I walk over to the bar and grab a drink while I do my best to forget the last three minutes of my life. I’ve been handling things with Stella. I’ve learned that love isn’t for me. I don’t get the girl in the end, she’s not for me.
She’s meant for love and happiness and a family.
I toss back the drink the bartender set in front of me. Then, as fate would fucking have it, I feel her beside me.
“I thought weddings were supposed to be happy,” Stella says as she grabs a glass of wine.
“They are.”
She laughs once. “Neither of us looks very happy.”
“We both know the truth about it all.” I turn to her, my elbow resting on the bar.
“And what’s that?”
“That love and happiness don’t go hand in hand.”
Stella shakes her head. “And I thought I was the jaded one.” She brings the glass to her lips and takes a long sip. “That’s where you’re wrong. They are happy because they’re in love.”
“And what about the people who are in love but are miserable?”
She drains her glass and places it down. “Follow me and you can find out.”
There’s no pause before her exit, she just walks out of the tent.
I look around to see if anyone notices, but everyone is drinking, laughing, dancing, and smiling, not paying attention to Stella and me.
So, like a dog with a bone, I follow her. My feet are moving before my mind can think better of it. I trail along the path she took, and when I get to the tree line, she calls my name softly.
I move into the forest, finding her in a small clearing where the sun is coming through the leaves, making her look like an angel.
