Page 91 of The Plus One Professional
Billie shrugged. “I like Mrs. G and Mr. Burke. They deserve their day to be perfect.”
A smile spread on my face. Mrs. G and Mr. Burke had a love story so pure that it even melted the cold block of ice around my sister’s heart.
“Have you talked to Cole?” Billie asked, changing the subject to a question she’d posed several times since our early morning phone call.
“No.”
Her forehead scrunched in confusion. “You haven’t?”
“No. Why?”
“When I was leaving the boutique yesterday, I saw him. He had parked up the street and was getting out of his truck.”
“He was probably going to Sweet Temptations. Remember, I ran into him there when he was getting his sister’s cake. He said it’s his favorite bakery.”
Hearing that he’d been so close to the shop and hadn’t even said hi made me feel sick to my stomach. But I told myself, it made sense. If he was, indeed, back together with Lindsay, it wouldn’t be right for him to be stopping by to see me, even if it was just to say hi.
Billie didn’t look convinced. “Have you tried to call him? To text him?”
“No.” And if I was on the fence about that decision before, knowing he’d been on the street outside my shop and hadn’t contacted me, put me firmly on the side ofnotreaching out.
For a month now, I’d picked up my phone to call or text him at least a hundred times. That wasn’t an exaggeration. Several times a day, every day, I had to actively resist the temptation of contacting him. Now, I knew more than ever that keeping my distance was the right thing to do.
The last thing I wanted was a repeat of my relationship with Simon. I refused to romanticize the time we’d shared together and make it into some larger-than-life love story. The best thing to do was to see the weekend for what it was and nothing more.
“Why not?” Billie questioned.
“Because.”
“Is it still the age thing?”
That didn’t help, but no, it wasn’t.
“No.”
Something was stopping me from telling my sister that I’d seen Cole and Lindsay kissing. Right now, Billie had a good opinion of Cole, which was something that didn’t happen often. I wasn’t totally blind to the fact that I was repeating old habits. I’d always defended and protected Simon, and now I was doing the same thing for Cole.
The difference was, Simon deserved my sister’s wrath, Cole did not. He didn’t owe me anything. We weren’t a couple. We shared one weekend together. Sure, it was the best weekend of my life, but it was still only one weekend.
No promises were made. There wasn’t any discussion about the future. Nothing indicated to me that he’d ever planned on us seeing each other outside that vineyard. The opposite, actually. He’d been very forthcoming about not being in the right headspace to have a relationship.
The whole thing sort of felt like a fever dream to me. If someone had told me three months ago that Simon’s wedding to another person would be one of, if not thebest, day of my life, I would have been sure they were either crazy or on drugs, or both. But it had been. Because of Cole.
He hadn’t done anything wrong, and I didn’t think it was fair for Billie’s opinion of him to sour because he’d gotten back together with his ex.
“I’m going to go check on Mrs. G,” I told my sister, figuring it was my fastest way out of this conversation. She couldn’t argue with me doing my job.
Billie nodded and headed back inside the main house, where the men were holed up. I headed down the path to the ADU, which Mrs. G lived in with Mr. Burke. As I looked around, I couldn’t help but note that this wedding was my perfect wedding.
Beautiful backyard.
Under fifty guests.
All I needed now was the right groom.
38
COLE
