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“I’m saying that I hope no Eggs a la Campbell are going to show up this weekend.” He gave her a look, and Polly and I both burst out laughing. Finn was hilarious. When I’d first met him, I hadn’t been sure I was going to like him, but now I loved him. I thought he was perfect for Harriet.
“Whatever…” She giggled. “See ya later, darling.”
“Come on, Harriet,” Polly said. “We gotta go.” She looked over at me. “I’m dying to know what happened, and she’s busy flirting with her man.” She grinned. “Doesn’t she know that you’ve got some juicy gossip to dish with us?”
“How would she know that?” I glared at her. “It’s not like I’ve been advertising it. I don’t want the men knowing.” I gave her a stern look. “If you tell Max, I will kill you.”
“But…” She made a face. “Fine.” She crossed her arms. “It will be our secret.”
“What secret?” Lily asked from behind us. “Don’t tell me you’ve gotten a publishing deal, Polly?”
“No.” She shook her head. “That’s not what’s going on. In fact, I’m still writing my first book. I’m talking about something else.”
“Ooh, what?” she asked excitedly. “I need some gossip that isn’t about me.” She wrinkled her nose. “God knows my name has been passed around every gossip circle in Port Sunshine in the last few weeks.”
“It’s not that bad,” I said, offering her support. “You were just living your life.”
“Yeah, but I feel like people are judging me.” She sighed. “And I still don’t know if I should tell Creepy.”
“Why would you tell him about anything?” My eyes widened. “That is not a good idea. It’s like me telling Travis that Chandler and I slept together,” I said and then paused as I realized what I’d said.
“You slept withChandler!” she screamed out, and everything went quiet. She slapped her hand to her mouth, and we turned around slowly.
“What?” Harriet screamed out, and Finn squeezed her waist. I looked back and saw Max, Travis, Chandler, and Creepy all staring at me with differing expressions of shock and amusement on their faces.
“I guess we don’t need to go to the coffee shop anymore.” Polly shrugged and looked at a distraught Lily.
“I’m so sorry, Chelsea.” Lily looked like she was going to cry. “Me and my big mouth.”
“It is what it is,” I said, looking away from her. I couldn’t believe it. Lily would have killed me if I’d done that to her, but I also knew she was loud when she was excited. I should have been more careful with my own words. I held my hands up in the air and stepped forward. “It’s true, and it’s between Chandler and me.” I looked at Chandler, who was smiling warmly at me. “We’re—”
“I’m in love with her,” he spoke up and stepped toward me. My jaw dropped at his words. “I’m in love with Chelsea, and I have been in love with her for years. She doesn’t quite trust me yet, but I’m here to prove to her that I love her, and I’m not going anywhere.” He stopped in front of me and grabbed my hands. “You can trust me, Chelsea. I’ve always put you first. You mean more to me than I mean to me.” He grinned. “And you know that I mean a lot to me.”
“I know.” I laughed and bit down on my lower lip. “I’m just nervous.” I looked over at Travis to see what his expression looked like. I was surprised to see that he had a wide smile on his face. I wasn’t sure if he was pretending to be happy or if he actually was enjoying this moment. It didn’t make sense. If he wanted to be with me, then why wasn’t he looking jealous? Why wasn’t he getting upset? Why hadn’t he challenged Chandler to a duel? I knew that was an absolutely ridiculous thought, but I was slightly deflated that he wasn’t getting upset. It wasn’t like I really wanted to be with him. I think I’d always known that he was someone I only really liked as a friend. Even if he was an attractive man. He wasn’t the man for me.
“I know,” Chandler said. “But we can go slow. We don’t have to rush anything.”
“We’ve already slept together.” I rolled my eyes, and he laughed.
“You don’t know how much that means to me, knowing I was your first. Knowing you felt enough for me to trust me in that moment. You know I love you, Chelsea. I know you’re scared, but I know you love me as well. We were made for each other.” He cupped my chin and looked down into my eyes. “On the first day, God made the earth, and he thought to himself, I’m going to make a man and call him Chandler, and I’m going to give him the perfect woman. And her name is going to be Chelsea.” He leaned down and kissed me. “Whatever you want. Whatever you need. I got you, baby.” He wrapped his arms around my waist. “If you want me to compete with Travis, if you want us to fight, if you want—”
“One second.” Travis stepped forward and held up his hand. “I have an announcement to make.”
“Oh no,” I heard Natasha mumble, and I looked over at her in surprise. I tried to make eye contact with her, and she mouthed, “I’m sorry,” at me. I frowned as I watched her biting down on her lower lip. What on earth was going on here? Why was she looking so guilty? And why was Travis staring at her and smiling? I could feel a clock ticking in my brain as I thought back to the past couple of weeks. Travis at the barbecue talking to Natasha. Travis at the breakfast talking to Natasha. Travis and Natasha laughing. Natasha not having been around the last couple of times I’d gone out with the girls. My jaw dropped as it suddenly hit me that perhaps Travis had never really been interested in me. But then why had he pretended that he wanted to get to know me? And why hadn’t Natasha told me anything?
“I didn’t want to announce this right now, but Natasha and I are dating.”
“What?” Polly looked shocked. “ButI thought you wanted Chelsea.”
“That’s my fault.” Max grimaced. There was a look of contrition on his face that almost made me want to laugh. What on earth was going on here? Why would Max be at fault for Travis saying that he wanted me? “I asked Travis to express interest, just in case you guys grew upset at his response of not caring that Chelsea was not actually sexting him but someone else.” Max shrugged. “You girls are all a little crazy. I didn’t think that it would be a big deal. It was fairly obvious to me, as it was to Travis, that Chelsea never actually really wanted to date him. They never even really had a conversation. She was just looking to get Hoefler on, and well, she and Travis were just not compatible.” His words were correct. Travis and I were not compatible. In fact, I thought Travis was quite boring, but I knew I had to keep that to myself, no matter how much my ego was being bruised right now.
“Don’t get me wrong, Chelsea, I think you’re absolutely adorable. I think you and your sisters have an absolutely amazing connection, and I love that you are part of my world, but I felt something for Natasha the very first moment I saw her. And these last few weeks we’ve really bonded and gotten to know each other. Natasha didn’t even wanna go on a date with me. She said that she knew you liked me, and she didn’t want to be that sort of friend. Which made me like her even more. If I’m honest, we haven’t even kissed. But I would love to kiss her, and I would love to take her out on a date. And I’m only bringing this up now, so that no one thinks I’m upset that you and Chandler have fallen for each other. In fact, I think that’s amazing. It seems like you both have really strong feelings for each other. And I hope it works out.” He looked over at Natasha then. “I really hope you will allow me to take you on a proper date and give you a real kiss at the end of the night.”
I could see that Polly, Harriet, and Lily all looked as shocked as I did. At that point, I wouldn’t be surprised if he got down on one knee and proposed. Chandler leaned over and whispered in my ear, “Well, we weren’t the biggest shock here tonight.” I looked over and saw the slow, warm grin on his face, and my heart leaped for joy as I giggled. He really was the one for me. I grabbed him by the head and kissed him hard.
“You’re sleeping in my tent tonight,” I said as I pulled back from him, my eyes twinkling. “And if you’re a good boy, you might even get lucky.” I felt warm and happy in that moment. I was excited to spend the night in a tent with Chandler. It wasn’t my picture-perfect, most romantic destinations, but I was starting to realize that it didn’t matter where I was as long as I was with him.
“Promise?” He grinned at me and grabbed my hand. “This is all my dreams come true. Just being able to hold your hand and smile at you. I’ve waited a long time to make you mine, Chelsea. And now that I have you, I’m never gonna let you go. I want us to grow old and gray together.” He squeezed my fingers. “And one day, we’ll bring our grandchildren here and tell them all about today.”
