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“Safety in numbers?”
I laughed, curling into him, happy to have his solid warmth at my side, and to be here, with some of the people I loved the best in the world. Happy they all got along. “Precisely.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
The former class officers had rented out the entertainment hall of Ashbury Inn, which had also served time hosting the junior prom, the annual Food & Wine weekend, and half a dozen bar and bat mitzvahs. Now, wandering through the ivy-twined trellises twinkling with white Christmas lights, memories sprang to life. On that bridge, overlooking that man-made creek, we had taken our prom pictures, and in that gazebo, I had rocked Madison as she cried after we caught Brian Davidson making out with Michelle Warner. And in there, on the dance floor, I had played Coke and P
epsi for half my thirteenth year.
I sighed happily, hooking my arm through Ryan’s. I hadn’t wanted to come, but now that I was here, everything felt nostalgic in the very best of ways. And it felt beautiful, too, in a way it hadn’t when I actually lived here. Now, the gentle jazz humming through the gardens sounded like an echo of a charmed past. My gauzy dress wisped slightly against my legs.
“Very country-club,” Ryan whispered, and I laughed.
“Every town needs at least one place where you can pretend you need to dress up, and have an excuse to look nice.” I looked around at my classmates, who all trickled through the landscaped garden and into the hall. “The actual country club is way more relaxed. Everyone just goes there to swim or play tennis or whatever.”
Ryan skittered a glance at me and didn’t say anything.
We stepped in through the open doors. Strung up across the entrance, a cheesy sign welcomed my class year in black and orange colors. Our school colors had always put me more in mind of Halloween than class spirit.
Three women sat behind a desk filled with name stickers. “Hi. I’m Rachael Hamilton.”
“Rachael!” Jenna Hutchenson, who I vaguely recognized as one of Sophie’s third-tier cronies, handed me a tag. “How good to see you! Here’s your nametag. And is this your boyfriend?” She beamed up at Ryan.
“Uh-huh.” I beamed just as brightly before dragging Ryan away. I stood on my tiptoe to speak in his ear. “And this is a small town. I did mention that, didn’t I?”
“I caught on when I met all your friends last night.”
“No, no.” I waved that away. “That wasn’t small-towniness. The fact that everyone here is going to know exactly who you are and how long we’ve been together, despite my friends only meeting you yesterday and Sophie last week—that is going to be the small-town effect.”
“Uh, I did mention I grew up in the country, didn’t I? I think I have you beat on small towns.” He took in the hall. “Though you guys definitely have us beat on suburbia. This is unbelievable. This isn’t your twenty-fifth year reunion. This isn’t even your ten-year reunion. Why the hell did you guys rent this whole place?”
“Casey Michael’s aunt owns it. And, as I heard it last night, apparently she cut us a deal five years ago where our senior class booked it for like a quarter of the price.” I shrugged. “Apparently that’s where the money from all those car washes went.”
He shook his head in disbelief.
I surveyed the room. There were already about a hundred of us, the girls dressed like they were ready for the red carpet, the guys mostly in jeans and khakis. Clumps had formed, and my mouth curved up. Were we all going to stand around in the same cliques we had been in during high school?
At one corner of the bar, I saw about half my friends, toying slightly with letting one of the other clumps join. Lead members of each group chatted with each other, while the rest hung back. I aimed us in their direction.
“Rachael Hamilton?”
Surprised and pleased someone outside my group wanted to talk to me, I turned to find a cluster of girls with strikingly similar hairstyles and makeup standing by my elbow. They stared at me with faces I half-remembered, and I felt guilty for not recalling their names. “Hi! How are you?”
“Great,” one said, her voice husky.
“How have you been?” The second’s eyes slipped toward Ryan. Actually, all their gazes did, and they angled their bodies at him, too.
Seriously?
I grimaced apologetically. “Small town.”
“As long as no photographers show up,” he murmured for my ears only. I laughed as he turned on the charm and greeted the girls.
A few minutes later, Madison snuck up to my side. She took in the girls hanging on Ryan’s every word, and then dismissed them with the same utter disdain she’d mastered in high school. Nice to know some things never changed. “This is embarrassing. But my brothers heard from Zac’s little sister that you brought Ryan, and they basically attacked me and begged for an autograph. It was pathetic, really. But.”
I grinned at her. “Go for it.”
She scowled. “Please don’t make me ask.”
