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“It’s a family. Bit of a messy one sometimes, but it’s mine.” She smiled sweetly at me. “And it’s yours. No matter how far you are. All right,” she said with a yawn, stretching her arms over her head, “I should finish setting the tables… just a bit left to do now and then I’ll see if I can stay awake.”
Bayview was never a town where people took anything too seriously, so nobody actually showed up at the official start time—half the people showed up early and the other half would stroll in at some point. Either way, for once, Paisley was in the early crowd, turned out, because I was in the middle of a conversation with Aria wondering if I was supposed to tell her now that I was leaving and suddenly blanking on how—I jumped when someone tapped me on the shoulder, and I turned back and felt my heart in my mouth at the sight of Paisley, wearing a pale gold dress and sandal heels, a light and fresh makeup look, and her hair braided. I’d never even seen her with her hair braided. Hardly an everyday look for her, but it was cute. Good for an event.
“Don’t just gawk,” Paisley said, putting a hand on her hip. “I’m expecting a compliment.”
Behind me, Aria laughed. “Someone’s dressed up today.”
Paisley sniffed dismissively at the air, not looking away from me. “Hm… I’m choosing not to acknowledge that she’s here.”
“That’s a new dress,” I said, something fluttery in my heart. She’d been going out more and more wearing these kinds of looks, a little at a time, but this was her first time attending an actual major event like this, one where half of Bayview would see her. “It’s gorgeous. Did you pick it out with Kay?”
“Nope.” She puffed her chest out. “Grabbed it myself. Specifically for the festival. It’s got total spring vibes, am I right or am I right?”
“Definitely right,” I said. “Honestly? I didn’t know you even could braid your hair that well.”
She beamed. “Can’t. Tried it and it looked like I had a bird’s nest on my head. I asked Priscilla to help.”
“It’s a cute look,” Aria said. Paisley shrugged.
“Still don’t hear anything from that direction.”
Aria put her hands up. “Far be it from me to commit the grievous sin of complimenting you, Paisley, dear. Have fun, you two.”
My first instinct was to reach out and catch her before she could walk away, grab her by the hand and tell herwe’re not dating or anything like that,but… well, that would just make things more suspicious.
Besides, we were.
I nodded Paisley towards the front of the plaza, where people were lining up and gathered around the buffet tables, sitting at the tables in their pink-and-white checkered tablecloths, faint music streaming from the speakers around the square. “Hey,” I said. “You remember that peach-mint jam you were obsessed with?”
She lit up. “Oh my god. Did you bring it here?”
“I can do you one better. Made danishes and cream puffs with it. Just for you.”
Paisley beamed so bright it was like there was nothing else in the universe. “Harper.Oh my god. I’m a lucky woman. I’m stealing, like, five. And you. C’mon.”
She took my hand, and my heart jumped into my mouth when she leaned in and gave me a swift peck on the cheek, leading me towards the food.
Why couldn’t I pull away? Why couldn’t I tell her we needed to stop this?
Not that it mattered. Forty people had just seen her kiss me. This was Bayview, so by the end of the night, everyone would know.
So most of all, why wasn’t I upset?
I wanted this so badly.Sobadly, it tore something out of me, and it left me hollow, aching, bleeding, even as I stood by the food line next to Paisley and listened to her gush about the pastries, even as I laughed together with our friends who were all, ever so politely, not saying anything about the two of us.
Nobody until, of course, Priscilla showed up.
It was an hour into the festival when she showed up—her special training session was scheduled right at the start of the festival, and unsurprisingly a well-regarded Olympic coach couldn’t spare a lot of flexibility on time—and I’d gotten a second to myself, sitting at the edge of the square watching as Paisley and Emberlynn chatted about something together, leaning over the railing between the plaza and the field. I’d been so focused on the two of them—something there that I wasn’t sure how to describe—that I didn’t even notice Priscilla coming until the chair pulled out next to me, scraping over the stone.
“Hey there,” she said, smiling softly at me as she sank into the seat.
“Hey. You’re… dressed better than I expected. Thought you’d throw a shirt and pants on over your swimsuit, towel your hair out halfway…”
She laughed lightly, looking down at the form-fitting silver dress she was in. “Oh… you know. I’d die if I went out without dressing up. Plus, Annabel likes this dress, and I’m a sucker for her, so… you know.”
I longed for a world where she hadn’t said that. I had enough first-hand experience to know Annabel loved a dress likethat specifically because it could slide right off. It was a relief to realize I didn’t feel jealous, just… like I didn’t want to know about my friends’ sex lives.
Maybe it was a relief I was leaving. If I stayed here, stayed with Paisley, people would definitely find out about my sex life. It was a miracle she hadn’t already let slip about anything we’d done, but I especially didn’t need anybody to know about me and her strap last night…
