Page 97 of You, Me, and Forever

“I thrive when I’m exhausted. I’m in wedding mode, and I can rest after this weekend.” I’d forced myself to put a smile on my face every day. I would not wear my sadness with me.

“Blakely told me that Tracy Wright called the office looking for you this morning.” She pulled into the driveway and put the car in park. “Her wedding is over. Her honeymoon is over. What could she possibly want now?”

“You wouldn’t believe it if I told you,” I said as I pushed out of the car. It was cold this morning, and we were both dressed in sweaters and jeans. The sun was out, but the breeze made it chilly.

“Tell me. I need some entertainment.”

We walked up the cobblestone path to the front porch and saw several trucks parked out front. The crew was trying to get this done for us as quickly as possible.

“She asked me to go buy her whitening strips and drop them off. Then she called because she started her period, and she asked if I had a way to make it go away.”

I couldn’t make this shit up.

“You have got to be kidding me,” Violet said before she broke out into a fit of laughter. “The wedding is over. Why is she calling her wedding planner and not her husband?”

“She said she had bad cramps, and she just assumed I could run and do a quick favor to help her out. I told her to call Bryan because I was swamped at work.”

“Bad cramps, huh? It’s called karma, bitch. If you treat everyone like shit, the universe is going to deliver Aunt Flo with a side of cramps every month for the rest of your life.”

I chuckled as we stepped inside.

Charlie was there, bent down as he worked on the banister. His arms flexed as he used the nail gun to secure one end, with two of his guys holding it in place.

“Hey,” I said. “I didn’t know we were changing out the banister.”

“Yes. This is unexpected, Charles,” Violet said as she studied the wood railing and glared at our contractor, whom she seemed annoyed by most of the time.

“Well, it was kind of a surprise.” He cleared his throat before stepping to the other side of the staircase and motioning for me to follow. “Myles asked me to bring this over from the Seaside Inn. I think it’s got yours and your dad’s initials engraved here.”

A lump lodged in my throat. The one I’d fought so hard the last two weeks to push away. I nodded and blinked multiple times as my fingers traced over our initials carved into the gorgeous dark wood. There were little nail holes where we’d hung our stockings every year.

“You brought the banister from the Seaside Inn over here and switched them out?” Violet asked as she strode from one side to the other, admiring the woodwork.

“Yep. We’ll use the banister from this place on another project at some point. But he thought you’d like it if we could salvage the one that holds a lot of memories for you,” he said, and his gaze was filled with empathy.

Charlie was normally a pretty serious guy, but he’d been checking in with me more than usual lately. I assumed it was because we were working on this project together.

I nodded.

No words came.

He’d remembered that the banister meant something to me.

Damn you, Myles St. James.

I wanted to be angry at him for leaving. But the anger had yet to come.

I swallowed several times as I continued nodding, making a promise to myself that I could let it all out when I got home tonight.

I would give myself an hour to fall apart.

To grieve. To be sad. To feel all of these things that I was desperately trying not to feel.

“Fuck,” Charlie said under his breath.

“Is that a proposition?” Violet asked.

“What?”

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