Yes, I do. He would catch them and I’d sit and stare at them for half an hour until he insisted that we let them go. It’s why he calls me Firefly. Tears burn behind my eyes. No matter what he did, Chase Hunter will always be a part of me, and despite the heartbreak, my life is richer for having had him in it. “That’s what the table decorations are supposed to be. Lightning bugs in jars.”
“They’re going to be perfect, Addie. Just like you.” We stare at each other for the longest time, the moment stretching out between us and I’m not sure I ever want it to end.
Until I remember the dinner. “I have to get ready!”
“You have to get out of here,” he says at the same time.
It breaks the tension at least. “Can you turn on all the table lights before Brax and Eva come in? The lights are battery powered and the switch is inside the jar.”
He nods. “Anything for you.”
Does he truly mean that? I don’t have time to ask. I have a rehearsal dinner to get ready for. I run out of the room and leave him to make the lightning bugs in jars happen for me.
Chapter 19
Addison
# One kiss is all it takes…to ruin your life
Eva dabs at the corners of her mouth with her napkin, having finished the last drop of her champagne from the rehearsal dinner. “So, how’s it going sharing a cabin with Chase?”
I’m immediately suspicious. “Why? What has he told you?”
She laughs and shakes her head. “Nothing at all. But why are you so defensive, Addie?” Her eyes are sparkling with mischief.
“I’m not defensive,” I insist—defensively.
“Okay.” Then she sighs. “It’s just…”
“Just what?” I take a sip of my champagne, careful not to drink more than one glass because I have to drive Angelina back to the cabin.
“I always thought you and he would be perfect for each other, you know? I used to fantasize about how cool it would be if all four of us were in couples.” Then she pulls a horrified face. “Obviously, I mean me and Brax and you and Chase.”
“Yeah, I got that. But why would you think that? I mean, Chase is Chase. He’s always been…well, Chase Hunter.” Aka an unattainable godlike creature.
“I don’t know. I know you used to have a crush on him back in high school, and then sometimes I used to see the way he looked at you and I wondered. And then he…”
Then he broke my heart into a million tiny fragments and never came back to Juniper Ridge again. It was Eva who found me that afternoon, crying in my bedroom. Well, not exactly crying, more like hyperventilating and having a full mental breakdown. I lied and told her it was about some guy from college rather than face the humiliation of Chase being the one who’d betrayed me so badly. I was ashamed to have been so wrong about someone I’d always looked up to and trusted.
“I always thought he’d move back some day, you know? When we were kids, he always talked about growing old in Juniper Ridge. We all did.”
“People change, I guess.”
She nods and then wraps an arm around me. “Not you. You’ve always been so wonderfully you. I love you, Addie.”
Well, now I’m crying. I brush away the tears before anyone sees. “Love you too, Eva. I’m really really happy you’re marrying Brax.”
She’s crying now too. “Yeah, me too.”
Speaking of whom, he walks up behind us, sliding an arm around each of our shoulders. “You two okay here?”
Eva sniffs. “Yes. Just telling your sister how much I love her.”
That makes my brother smile, and he kisses her head and then mine. “The hall is truly something else, Addie. Thanks.”
Eva nods her agreement. “It’s stunning, Addie.”
“Thank you. It’s the least I could do for both of you.”
