Page 23 of Fa-La-La-La Faking It
Jace hadn’t told a soul he was leaving. He’d been too scared to believe it himself until the next morning when his mom and dad came to get him from Uncle Gus’s house. Somewhere deep down, he’d been afraid his mom was going to show up by herself and tell Jace that his father was dead. Why else would they send him away for a year?
Nothing about cancer made sense to a little kid. But that unspoken fear had been brimming beneath the surface the entire time he’d been with Gus. Jace would lie awake at night, staring up at the knotted pine ceiling and wondering what it might be like to stay right there in Bluebonnet instead of going home to face whatever his family had wanted to shield him from. When the family station wagon pulled up to Gus’s house, Jace had run and hid. It took over half an hour for Gus to find him hiding in the back corner of a horse stall in the big old barn on his property.
He’dwantedto stay, and that thought had been the most frightening thing of all.
His mouth went bone dry at the memory. The shame and guilt of those childhood feelings still clung to him. No wonder his past girlfriends always accused him of keeping things at surface level. He didn’t want to revisit emotions he’d spent a lifetime trying to forget.
Jace shifted from foot to foot. “Adaline, surely you know I didn’t mean those things.”
“It didn’t matter if you meant them or not. You said them, and it made me feel like there was something wrong with me.” Her chin wobbled, and Jace got the feeling there was more to this story than the part he’d played in it. That didn’t matter, though. He’d hurt her, full stop. “You were just a kid, but so was I.”
There were so many things he could’ve said right then, but he couldn’t seem to form the words for any of them. Not even the one resounding truth that might’ve made a difference.
You were the best of this town for me.
“I’m sorry,” he said instead.
She didn’t say anything for a long moment, like she might be waiting for more. Outside the gazebo, snow flurries whirled in dizzying circles. But beneath that old shelter, shimmering with golden light, the stillness was almost unbearable.
“It’s okay,” she finally said, and when she smiled at him this time, shereallylooked at him. She actually meant it. “Like I said, fifth grade was a really long time ago. It was silly of me to hang on to all of that. It’s just that the way I felt when I overheard you talking about me...” she sighed. “Let’s just say I’ve heard similar things from other men in my life. But that’s my problem, not yours. In any case, now you know.”
Yes, he did. Minutes ago, that’s all he’d been focused on. And now, Jace had gotten exactly what he’d wanted. Adaline had opened up to him. She’d even absolved him.
Christmas came early,he thought, but the realization was bittersweet. Jace should’ve felt better. Hewantedto feel better.
So why didn’t he?
Chapter Eight
“Gram, I was hoping we could look at your wedding album. It’s around here somewhere, isn’t it?”
Adaline hopped up from the sofa in Gram’s room at the senior center. She couldn’t seem to sit still this morning. Nor had she been able to sleep last night after the heart-to-heart she’d had with Jace in the gazebo.
Could she really call it a heart-to-heart, though, considering she’d been the only one who’d shared anything meaningful? Jace had apologized, which she’d appreciated. But after she’d spilled her guts all over the place, he’d otherwise gone strangely quiet.
Was it weird that she’d expected something a bit...more?
Obviously, yes. Classic Adaline. More, more, more. Unlike her, some people knew how to have a conversation without dumping their big feelings at the other person’s feet. He’d wanted to be her friend. Period. The man hadn’t asked for a deep dive into her fifth-grade psyche and how it related to her dating history for the past two decades. Why, oh why had she brought that up?
“Adaline, stop pacing. You’re making Coco dizzy.” Gram rested a soothing hand on the robotic dog’s back as her little mechanical head swiveled back and forth, tracking Adaline’s every move.
As usual, Gram was sitting in her beloved recliner. Fuzzy sprawled at her feet with his chin resting atop the toe of one of her slippers. Adaline had taken him on a long, meandering walk this morning before they’d ultimately ended up at Gram’s. Snow still covered the ground, and Fuzzy had taken great joy in snatching a twig arm from a snowman someone had built at the corner of Main Street and Dogwood Drive. The Cavalier had toted that snowman arm all over town. The poor puppy was spent, and it wasn’t even 9:00 a.m.
“Sorry.” Adaline plopped back down on the couch. “I’m a little restless.”
“I can see that, and I have a feeling I know why,” Gram said with a nod.
“You do?” Adaline toyed with the fringe on the hand-crocheted blanket slung over the sofa and wished for the thousandth time that she’d asked her grandmother to teach her how to crochet before she’d given up the hobby due to problems with her eyesight. Maybe someday she’d try and find a YouTube video and teach herself.
Just as soon as she saved the Comfort Paws training program, baked enough holiday pies to satisfy every sweet tooth in Bluebonnet and created a solid plan for Maple and Ford’s wedding cake. Her to-do list was getting out of control.
“This is about the wedding,” Gram said.
“I suppose it is.” Although, it was technically about the cake, not the wedding itself.
“Don’t you worry. It’s only natural to feel a little lonely when your sibling gets married. There’s nothing to be ashamed of, dear.”
Wait a minute.
