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I knew I had no right to be jealous, but that didn’t change the fact that that’s exactly what I was.
“Ruby! Watch me!” Harper shouted before she began swinging across the playground. She’d just mastered the monkey bars last week when she finally made it to the other platform. Before that, she’d only made it halfway.
I clapped and encouraged her as her legs swung beneath her, using the technique I’d taught her to give herself some momentum. When she landed on the wooden platform, Harmony, Destiny, and I broke out in cheers.
“She’s going to miss you when you leave,” Destiny pointed out.
“I’m going to miss her, too.”
When I agreed to move in with Kane for the summer, I was worried that I would become too attached to him, and in fairness, I had. But what I hadn’t expected was to become so attached to Harper, or Otto, for that matter. He’d managed to worm his way into my heart with his stubborn, curmudgeonly charm. My attachment to them planted seeds of something new in the garden of my happiness, which I’d been neglecting to water for nearly a decade.
I’d never considered settling down and having a family before. My entire adult life, I’d had blinders on, only focusing on getting to the big stage. Nothing else had mattered to me. And I’d gotten there, even if it was only for one night, and that night had been a disaster. Still, I could say that I accomplished my dream. But at what cost?
Everything in my life was fake, and fleeting. My relationships. My happiness. My career. None of it was solid. The foundation of my life had been built on sand, so when the tide rolled in, it got destroyed in one fell swoop.
“We’re all going to miss you,” Destiny wrapped her arms around me and gave me a tight cuddle. “When are you leaving?”
“Um, in a week.”
Next Friday would be Kane’s final night shift. He was officially going to days just in time for Harper to start school. When I’d told him about Remi’s call, I was trying to tell him that I wasn’t sure if I was going to go out to California at all, but the conversation just sort of went sideways. He assumed that meant I was going back to New York, and before I could correct him, he got that call. When he made it clear they would be fine and I could go anytime, I searched his eyes for any reaction to my leaving, but there was nothing. No recognition at all. No sadness. No emotion. All I saw was indifference.
When he left my room, I called Remi, told him the one-month timeline, and asked if I could stay with him. He said yes, of course. Then I hung up and cried into my pillow for the next four hours before finally drifting off to sleep.
That was three weeks ago, and most nights I still cried into my pillow.
“You’re coming tomorrow, though, right?” Harmony asked.
“The wedding? Yeah.” I nodded.
Harmony’s older brother, Wyatt Briggs, was getting married the next day. Kane had asked me to go with him and Harper, but now…now, I wasn’t so sure he still wanted me to. What if he’d forgotten he’d invited me to go along and had asked Madison to be his date? I had no plans on being a fourth wheel.
“I still can’t believe all eight of my brothers are going to be married!” Harmony lifted her hands to the sides of her head and made an explosion as she fisted, then opened her fingers wide. “I know Wy’s bummed that Remi can’t come to the wedding.”
Remi’d had to miss a lot of things because of his job. Weddings, which were usually in the spring and summer, was one of them. I’d always maintained that if I ever did get married, I’d do it in the winter so he could be there.
“Whitney’s great; you’ll love her,” Harmony assured me. “Not that you’ll really get the chance to know her since you’re leaving us.”
“I’ve actually met her a few times at events in New York.” The bride was an influencer, who was known as Whitney in the Wild. “She was always really nice.”
I hadn’t seen her since tragedy struck her life. Whitney was my age, and overnight, she’d become the guardian of her nephews Michael and Benji and her niece Alice when her sister and her brother-in-law died tragically in a car crash. After that happened, she sort of disappeared from social media. Like me, she’d also gone off the grid for a while and only just started posting again. I’d been so surprised when her first post after months was at the Briggs’ farm. It made me happy that she’d found Wyatt. The Briggs brothers all seemed to fall hard, and they were devoted to their partners.
“Lilah is so happy that Alice is moving here. I don’t know if she’s more excited about the wedding tomorrow or the sleepover with both her best friends.” Destiny smiled.
After the wedding, Harper was going to go to Lilah’s to spend the night, and Alice was going too.
Harmony sighed. “It’s still crazy to me that Wyatt is moving home. Out of all my brothers, I was sure he was never going to settle down in Wishing Well.”
“I remember him always saying he’d never live here,” Destiny confirmed. “He also said he never wanted kids, but I guess things change when you get older. It’s funny how many people move away but then end up coming back home.”
“What about you?” Harmony turned toward me. “Have you ever thought about moving back home permanently to live by little ol’ us?” Her lashes fluttered up and down as she comically batted her eyes at me.
If you had asked me a year ago, six months ago, or even three months ago, the answer would have been a hard no. Wishing Well had always been the last place I’d planned on living. Coming back here had been a symbol of my failure, even if it was only for the summer. But now…now everything felt different.
I hadn’t had a single panic attack in two months. I slept a full eight hours. I was singing and dancing again, just for fun. I was…happy. Really happy.
This town wasn’t what I’d thought it was as a kid growing up here. Being back in a place where people cared about you, really cared, was something I didn’t have in New York. I’d been thinking about maybe staying just a little while longer. I’d wanted to run it by Kane the other night, but he sort of shut down.
“I don’t know,” I answered honestly. “Melody asked me if I’d be interested in taking a full-time position as the head of the after-school program, but I don’t know.”
