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Afterward, Momma handed Tam a cup of coffee, and said, “Come sit with me on the porch.”
“Are the screens down?” Tam asked. “Because the bugs are a real issue right now.”
“Yes, we’ve got them all zipped.” Momma led the way to the screened-in porch, and Tam sighed as she sat down beside her on a comfortable couch. “Tell me about Blaine, dear. Why did he not come? Really.”
“I told you why,” Tam said. “I didn’t know he was invited.”
“You’re still seeing him?”
Tam frowned, confused by this line of questioning. “Yes, Mom. Of course.”
“You can’t say of course,” Momma argued. “Hayes had broken your engagement for three weeks before you told me.”
“That’s because it wasn’t hard to get everything cancelled,” Tam said. That had been partially true. They’d still been more than sixty days from the wedding, so cancelling had been somewhat easy. Dealing with the emotional aftermath of the break-up had not.
Tam hadn’t wanted to tell the story again, so she hadn’t said anything to her parents to spare herself the pain. That wasn’t a crime; she was allowed to protect her own feelings.
“Where is Hayes?” Stacy asked, and Cara threw her a look.
“He’s back in Dreamsville,” Tam said slowly. She hadn’t seen him since the line dancing incident, and he hadn’t tried to call her. Or if he had, she wouldn’t know, because she’d blocked his number. “His father has cancer, so he came back to help with the dealership and be with his dad.”
“Darren’s doing really well,” Daddy said, smiling around at everyone as if they all got along like peaches and cream. “That’s what I heard. The surgery got out a huge tumor in his lower intestine, and he’s doing much better.”
“That’s great,” Cara said, and Tam nodded her assent too. Maybe Hayes would leave town once his father was feeling better. Then Tam could move forward too and try to forget everything that had happened since she’d asked Blaine to be her fake boyfriend.
He’s not fake, she told herself, and intellectually, she knew he wasn’t. In some other ways, though, he was.
The heavens parted, and her thoughts aligned.
What she was really worried about was whether they’d been kidding themselves this whole time. Her reaction to Hayes; his to Alex. People not believing that she and Blaine were together.
Was she really past Hayes?
Was Blaine really over Alex and ready for a real, lasting relationship?
Did she and Blaine evenhavea real, lasting relationship?
She took a bite of her pie, but the normally delicious pecan filling just felt like soggy cardboard in her mouth. She hated these doubts, because she’d thought she’d finally moved past them. She’d thought she and Blaine just needed each other.
She’d been wrong. She needed some sort of outside validation that she and Blaine were a real couple. She needed to know he wanted her. She needed to feel like while their romantic relationship had definitely experienced some bumps up until this point, that he hadn’t started to see her in a romantic way simply because she’d confessed to a having a crush on him.
Horror struck her right between the ribs, making eating difficult. She kept doing it, ignoring the conversation flowing around her.
What if Hayes hadn’t come back into town?
What if she’d never told Blaine about her crush?
What if all of this—the last few months with Blaine—reallyhadbeen fake, and that was why no one could really see the two of them together?
18
Trey pulled up to the white farmhouse, something not quite right about it. He and Beth were supposed to be going to dinner that night—finally. He’d finally followed-up with her about the invitation, and she finally felt like the ranch was caught up to a point where she could take a night off to go out with him.
Her father was coming to stay at the farmhouse with TJ, but Trey didn’t see another truck or car in the driveway. He got out of his truck anyway and went up the steps to the front door. His anxiety skipped through his whole system, but he managed to raise his hand and press the doorbell.
It was then that he smelled the smoke.
He spun around, searching for the tell-tale sign of fire. It wasn’t strong enough to be outside, and that only struck terror inside his heart. “Beth?” he called.
