Page 60 of Resisting Fate (Hope Falls: Brewed Awakenings 3)

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The sun was shining,and the birds were chirping as Audrey walked along the river on the way to Belles Bridal. She was meeting her sisters and Blake for Ava’s final dress fitting. The wedding was a little over a week away.

The past month had flown by so quickly, in the blink of an eye, yet she felt like so much had happened in that time. And she wasn’t just talking about her losing her virginity, although that was a biggie. She’d also felt like she’d been dating Josh, even if it was by default.

Between the dinner, dancing, yoga, and the cabin getaway she felt like she’d had a real relationship. But the truth was…that’s not what it was.

Yes, they’d shared all those experiences, but that didn’t mean they were together, or even really dating.

Case in point: It had been four days since they returned from Moonlight River Lodge. She’d seen Josh several times. He’d come in to get his coffee, he was friendly, he joked around and they had the usual banter about him paying or not. Thankfully, since he’d just changed her tire and hadn’t allowed her to pay for the tire or labor, he didn’t really have a leg to stand on in the gratis category.

But that was it. Everything had just gone right back to normal. There had been no mention of the night they’d shared together or even a hint that anything had happened at all. Which was exactly what they’d agreed to. She’d promised him that nothing was going to change, and it hadn’t. They’d had sex. It had been better than she ever could have possibly dreamed, and now they were back to being friends.

She was trying her best not to be disappointed and to try to take the glass half full approach to the situation. She was no longer the oldest virgin in the world. Not that she ever was, but that’s how she’d felt. And she still had Josh in her life. He was still her friend.

But no matter how much she told herself that was enough, she still wanted more. She wanted a full glass.

Hopefully, this dress fitting would be a nice distraction. She’d barely seen her sisters over the past few weeks. It felt strange that she hadn’t shared what was going on with anyone, including Viv. But why would she? It’s not like it was real, no matter how badly she wished it was.

Across the street she saw Justin Barnes and his wife Amanda with their baby who was about six months old now. They’d had a daughter and named her Parker after Amanda’s late father Parker Jacobs. The couple ran Mountain Ridge Adventure and Resort which was where Audrey and her sisters and mom had stayed when they had vacationed there. At that time, it was run by Amanda’s father, who if memory served, had also been the mayor of Hope Falls.

Since her own father had left when she was two, Audrey didn’t really have any memories of him. But she remembered when they’d stay at Mountain Ridge she used to watch Amanda with her dad and Audrey would pretend that her own father was like him. Audrey remembered that Mr. Jacobs had a booming voice, and he was kind and caring, especially with Amanda.

She remembered telling Viv that she wished she had a father like Mr. Jacobs and Viv told her, “Yeah, and I bet Amanda wishes she had a mother.” Amanda’s mother had died when she was young.

Viv taught her a very valuable lesson that day. It was so easy to look at someone’s life and envy it, but no one’s life was perfect. Everyone deals with their own demons.

Most people would probably look at Josh and have no idea the things he suffered with. The back pain, the night terrors. He looked so strong and healthy, but inside he was dealing with so much.

When the couple noticed Audrey they smiled and lifted their hands in a wave. Audrey waved back and felt the same feeling she got nearly every day that she’d lived in Hope Falls, like she was home. She loved the tight knit community. Hope Falls really was her own personal version of Stars Hollow.

I just wish Josh was my personal version of Luke, she thought as she opened the door to the bridal salon and was met with a very dramatic greeting.

“Finally!” Viv lifted her arms in the air. “You’re here!”

“We close at five.” Audrey looked down at her watch. “It’s five-o-eight.”

“I know,” Viv emphasized as if that was far too much time to walk four blocks.

In fairness, maybe it was. She had been in her head most of the way, and when she was like that she did tend to lollygag, as her mom used to say.

“Ava wouldn’t come out until we were all here,” Blake who was seated beside Grace explained Viv’s impatience to Audrey.

Audrey smiled at the teen and took a seat beside Viv.

“She’s here,” Grace called out.

“Are you guys ready?” Ava’s voice sounded from behind the curtain.

“Yes!” Viv exclaimed.

Ava walked out and Audrey’s jaw dropped. She’d never seen her sister in a wedding dress since she never made it to the actual wedding last time and she’d lived out of state so the sisters hadn’t gone dress shopping with her. Seeing her sister in this dress made everything feel more real.

Ava was getting married. Grace was engaged. Viv was barely in the shop anymore doing who knows what. Yes, Audrey knew that the past month it was because her sister had been busy planning singles week, but even before then Viv had been taking more and more time off. The writing had been on the wall for a while that her sister was going to be moving on to bigger and better things. Which was totally fair. Viv’s dream had never been to run a coffee shop. That was Audrey’s dream that Viv had supported.

Audrey always knew that it was temporary, even if Viv said it wasn’t.

All of the Wells sisters were starting new chapters in their lives, except Audrey. As the youngest she was used to being the last one to experience things, but to say that she was a late bloomer was an understatement.

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