Page 66 of Merry Me
Riley: Moral of the story, though…you’re fine. You just got sleighed. Happens to the best of us.
I didn’t laugh. I couldn’t.
Because just up ahead, tucked in the shadow of a side corridor near the library room, was Paige.
Sitting on a bench with her knees pulled up to her chest, her red waves a mess, her face blotchy and streaked with mascara.
And she was crying. Hard.
Panic flipped in my stomach. Not because I didn’t care…but because I had no idea what to do. Emotional comfort was not exactly my area of expertise. I could juggle sarcastic banter like none other, but crying?
I was out of my depth.
Still, I slipped my phone into my pocket and took a step closer. “Hey…uh. You okay?”
She jerked a little like she hadn’t realized anyone was there. Her eyes found mine, red-rimmed, shining. “Oh, hey,” she croaked, quickly wiping her face with the sleeve of her sweater. “I’m fine. Totally fine.”
My brows rose. “Right. Because nothing says fine like hiding in the hallway outside your wedding brunch and leaking tears onto your heels.”
She let out a watery laugh that turned into a hiccup. “I didn’t mean for anyone to see me like this.”
I dropped onto the bench beside her with a dramatic sigh, ignoring the uncomfortable feeling of Easton’s cum leaking down my thighs. “Well, I just panic-texted my friends that I might be falling for Easton again…afterhaving sex with him while he was wearing a Santa suit. So honestly? Neither of us is winning today.”
Her mouth twitched. “That makes me feel a little bit better, actually.”
I scoffed and side-eyed her. “What’s going on?”
She bit her bottom lip. Then she said it. Quietly. Almost like she regretted it the second it left her mouth.
“I invited him.”
I blinked. “Invited who?”
“Terry. Ourfather. I invited him to the wedding.”
Everything inside me slammed to a halt, like someone had yanked the emergency brake straight through my ribcage. “You what? Why would you do that?”
“I don’t know,” she said quickly, wiping at another tear. “I wasn’t thinking. I just—I got caught up in the moment. I was looking at old pictures, and I…I missed him.”
My mouth was dry. My lungs felttight.
“You missedhim?” My voice cracked somewhere between disbelief and betrayal.
She nodded miserably. “I know I shouldn’t want him there. I know. But Ido. I don’t want to. I just…do.”
I swallowed hard, a rush of memories hitting me all at once.
The year he left and all the pain that had come with it.
The birthday where I waited on the porch for hours in my best pink dress.
I thought of how Mom went quiet for months—not angry, just…empty. Like the air had been sucked out of her and she didn’t have the strength to try anymore.
The way Paige had pretended not to care. Even though she’d been sitting on that porch with me.
And now she wanted himhere? At her wedding? Like nothing had ever happened?
I blinked fast, forcing myself to look away before the heat in my chest spilled down my face. “Do you think he’ll come?”
