Page 16 of The Girl I Once Loved

“You have a choice to make,” she adds steadfastly. “You can either woman up and get past your shit for the next couple of months, or I can drive you back to the dock and put you on the next ferry back to Falmouth. You decide.”

My jaw clenches at the new ultimatum she’s imposing on me.

“You’re choosinghimover me?” I ask,himbeing the bane of my existence that I refuse to name outright.

I haven’t saidhisname in years, and I refuse to do so now.

“I’m choosing happiness over bitterness. I want you here. I really do. But if you can’t promise me that you’ll put your animosity and resentment aside long enough for my wedding to go off without a hitch, then you leave me no choice.”

Crap.

I haven’t even fully laid eyes on the asshole yet and already he’s ruining everything by inserting a wedge in between me and my sister.

But this isn’t about him.

This is about Daisy.

And her wedding.

A wedding that I would very much like to be a part of.

She’s right.

No matter how much I loathe the bastard, I will not be responsible for ruining my sister’s big day, by any means. It’s a milestone that I want to witness first-hand. Just one of many to come. If I bail on her now, then I can kiss goodbye to being a part of all the other amazing events that will occur in my sister’s life. I missed more than enough as it is. Because of my decision to run as far and as fast as I could from Thatcher’s Bay, I ended up losing my family, my dignity, and my pride; he managed to take that away from me.

I won’t let him steal this from me too.

With a newfound resolve, I give my sister’s hands a light squeeze and stare into her expectant, hopeful eyes.

“I’m sorry. I really am, Daisy. It won’t happen again. From here on out, I’ll be the best bridesmaid you could possibly hope for. I promise.”

“Bridesmaid?” She smiles softly. “No, you’ll be the best maid of honor this island has ever seen.”

My heavy heart soars in equal measure of relief and happiness as I pull my sister into a hug.

“I was starting to think you’d never ask,” I say with tears in my eyes, hugging her tightly.

“Like I’d ever ask anyone else. It’s you and me against the world, remember?” she says, hugging me just as fiercely.

“I’ve missed you so much,” I admit, letting a few stray tears flow through me.

“Me too,” she retorts, unable to keep her own tears at bay. “I really am happy you’re here, Sky. So happy.”

“Same,” I tell her and mean it, even if only because of her.

When we pull apart and begin to wipe our tears away, Daisy is back to her jubilant self.

“Watch out, Thatcher’s Bay! The Ames sisters are back, baby!” she shouts, making us both burst out in laughter.

“You two about ready to come in now?” I hear Curt’s voice coming from the porch.

Still laughing, we both turn towards the house and find our stepfather chuckling at the top of the stairs waiting for us. We start walking over to him, and the heavy pressure on my chest lightens further at the sincere smile that’s stretched on his lips.

“You have no idea how happy I am to see you,” Curt utters cheerfully as I bridge the gap between us. And when he opens his arms, I fall into him and give him a huge hug. “So happy,” he mumbles into my hair, hugging me tightly.

“Me too,” I reply, feeling safe in his arms.

I always liked Curt, especially with how he doted on my mother, but it took me leaving to really appreciate him. When I left for Dartmouth so abruptly, my stepfather didn’t need to make an effort to build any type of bond between us. Since I was no longer living under his roof and was, for all intents and purposes, an adult now, there really was no need for him to go out of his way to have any type of relationship with me. But to my surprise, and regardless of the fact that I wasn’t his flesh and blood, Curt did his best to be a constant presence in my life. He texted me every day, wanting to know how school was going and if there was anything I needed. And when I graduated and got a job at Rosewood Publishing, he was the first to congratulate me for the accomplishment. He tried his best to fill in the role of a father figure even when I was supposed to already have one in my life. It’s true that my biological father stepped up when I needed him to, but he never really made the effort to know me. Not like Curt has done over these past few years.

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