Page 102 of Pick Me This Time

48

DAPHNE

After closing up the bakery with June, I’d decided to head downtown to enjoy the last night of the festival. It was my favorite event of the year at my favorite time of year, and I wasn’t missing the grand finale for the world.

Okay, so it’s not grand. But still. It’s the last night, and then I’ll have to wait another whole year before I get to enjoy it again.

My heart was heavy, but I loved everything fall and festival related and I was on a mission to make the best of the last little bit of the festivities. Lacey-Lee and a few of the other volunteers were sitting at the long bar at the far end of the tent, and I walked in with my head held high, not even looking around as I strode toward them.

I didn’t want to know if Eric or Sterling were here. I had a feeling they were, though. Rachel had mentioned that she and Jake were meeting Sterling for a drink and my brother wouldn’t miss this for the world either.

Even so, I’d come here for me, and the other volunteers were nice people. I was going to have a good, drama-free night with them.

Lacey-Lee smiled when she saw me, waving me onto the barstool beside hers. “Daphne! I’m so glad you came. What are you drinking?”

I surveyed the options written on a chalkboard menu behind the bar. “I’ll have a Pumpkin Caramel Martini, I think.”

She lifted her own drink and I chuckled when I saw she was having the same. “Good choice. It’s so sweet this year, it’ll make your teeth hurt, but it’s really good.”

One of the volunteers was behind the bar and he nodded at us, leaving to mix my drink while Lacey-Lee and I got caught up. We chatted a little bit about the reunion, but I got distracted when I saw Sterling sitting at a table not far away.

My heart leaped before it sank. Alone with his beer, he sat with his long legs stretched out under the table, his body angled so he could see most of the room without having to look around too much. Not that he seemed to be enjoying his vantage point, though.

He appeared lost in thought, absently sipping his beer and staring off into the distance, his head moving slightly to the beat of the music. Everything in me was so drawn to him that even my hair stood on end a little bit, my insides reaching toward him.

I wonder what he’s thinking about. What’s going on in that big brain of his?

“Daphne?” Lacey-Lee’s voice snapped me out it, bringing my attention back to her.

I smiled, blinking fast in an effort to rid myself of all thoughts about him. It didn’t work, but I did my best to forget he was there. “Sorry. I must’ve zoned out for a minute. What did you say?”

She giggled, taking another sip of her drink, and I tried to relax. Sterling was here, but I’d known he might be and I’d come anyway. I wouldn’t let his presence throw me off. I couldn’t. Soon enough, he’d be gone and I needed to learn how to not care about where he was or what he was doing.

Intensely aware of him nonetheless, I chatted to my friend until Peter showed up. My blood turned to ice in my veins at the sight of him striding into the tent, laughing with some of his old teammates. He hadn’t seen me yet, and I angled my body to face the bar more, wishing I’d kept my hair down so that I could’ve hidden behind it.

Unfortunately, with the way I was sitting, I could see the far entrance at the back of the tent, and Fiona had appeared in that doorway, looking like a supermodel as she and her minions marched in. Dear Lord, Peter and Fiona in the space of a minute?

Everyone I’d wanted to avoid was suddenly around, with even Eric walking in not long after Fiona and her girls. With him, Sterling, Fiona, and Peter now in attendance, I immediately started looking for an out.

I’d been prepared to deal with one or two of them, but not all four and certainly not all in the same place at the same time. Lacey-Lee had struck up a conversation with another of the volunteers, and as I looked around, trying to determine which exit I could use that wouldn’t involve crossing paths with any of them, I saw Fiona approaching Sterling.

My heart gave a painful pulse when she leaned down to whisper in his ear. Sterling had spotted me while I hadn’t been looking at him though, and he was watching me the entire time she was speaking to him.

With my heart racing out of my chest as those eyes hooked on mine, I didn’t even notice my brother coming up to me until he stepped into my line of sight. Putting himself firmly between Sterling and me, he crossed his arms and waited for me to look at him.

I sighed, my gaze slowly moving up until it met his. “What do you want?”

“To talk,” he said, but his jaw was hard and cool fire danced in his eyes. “This thing with you and Sterling⁠—”

“You know what, just leave me alone,” I snapped, sliding off the stool I’d been sitting on as all the tumultuous emotions of the last few days boiled over. I met his gaze head on, needing him to see that he’d pushed me over the edge. “I don’t need your protection and you don’t get to have a say in who I love.”

The L-word slipped out before I could stop it and my cheeks flushed, but I clenched my teeth, stubbornly refusing to take it back. Despite everything that had happened, I knew it was true. I was in love with Sterling.

Surprise flickered across my brother’s features, his lips parting and his eyes flaring wide open. “Do you? Do you love him?”

I couldn’t answer that question because I didn’t want to say it out loud again—especially not to Eric. “Just leave me alone. Thank you and goodbye.”

I left him standing at the bar, turning and practically running for the nearest exit. It felt like I couldn’t breathe, like my lungs weren’t absorbing the oxygen I was gulping in. I love Sterling North. I do. I love him. And he’s leaving. And then it’ll be years before I see him again. He’ll probably be married by the time he comes back here. He’s probably going to marry Fiona. He⁠—