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“Of course. Do you know when she’ll be starting?”
“I think she said sometime next week?”
Derek’s stomach turned to stone.
“I think it’s good for her,” Brad said. “To move on with things and settle herself a bit more.”
Move on. From Camden. From him. Next week? She could’ve told him herself or texted at least.
“Yeah.” Before the hurt could build up inside him, he plastered a fake smile on his face. “It was good seeing you, Brad.”
“You too! See you around.”
Derek spun away to leave.
“Any message for Kylie?” Sandy called from the counter.
“No.” He had to get out of there. Now. “No message.”
He forced himself to act casual until he got to the station, where he slumped in the chair behind his desk and cradled his head in his hands.
How could he be so stupid? He thought he’d be okay when it was time to say goodbye, but he wasn’t. And she’d promised just yesterday that she would give him plenty of warning, but he had to find out from Brad?
Derek was blindsided. And crushed. In that moment he realized he was holding out hope she would choose to stay in Camden, find a way to be with him.
She’d given him full warning. But she’d also kissed him and wormed her way into his life.
According to Brad, she wasn’t even sad about leaving—she was excited?
In the minutes Derek sat there, his heart went from broken to furious to broken again to stone. He thought of calling Kylie or even confronting her for not telling him, but part of him was embarrassed. He’d meant to keep things light so these exact feelings didn’t bother him when she left, but there he was, heartbroken. And he had to work with her on the fair in a few hours. He would get through this fair and then put any hopes he may have had for her behind him.
~ * ~
The evening was cool, although the sun was still at the edge of the horizon. Derek had been grumpy at supper, but when Cate asked him what was wrong, he lied saying he was stressed out about the fair going well. She would give him a glittering‘I Told You So’speech when she heard the truth, but he was too raw to deal with that for the moment.
Kylie was already at the football field, clipboard in hand. The golden glow of the remaining sunlight picked up on natural highlights in her dark brown ponytail. She directed the guys who were delivering the pieces of the bandstand. Adam was there with a few members of the high school football team, helping to set up the pieces and move a collection of large metal garbage and recycling bins around the football field.
“Yeah, right at the back there!” she yelled to a couple of football players carrying a bin toward the stage area.
Derek took a deep breath to brace himself and squash down his hurt. He needed to stay professional right now. Still, he wouldn’t be the first of them to speak. Maybe she was waiting to tell him about the job in person, so he would give her a chance to. Stepping up beside her, he waited for her to notice him.
“Derek.” She smiled at him.
He stiffened, not expecting her to act like everything was normal.
“Hey,” she said. “Are you okay?”
“Sure. Yeah. Everything going okay here?”
She stared at him with a furrowed brow as if she didn’t buy his brush off, but continued anyway, “All the heavy lifting is almost done, so you showed up right on time.”
She nudged his arm trying to joke with him.
“Adam brought help I see,” he said, keeping his face expressionless.
“Yes, and they’ve been amazing.” Kylie’s eyes glittered. “The only thing really left to do tonight is finalize the map of stalls, the barbeque, and the pony rides.”
She flipped through the pages of her clipboard until she reached a blank page and started sketching out the grounds. “I was thinking the pony rides should go closest to the road so when the wind comes off the lake no one is caught downwind of them.”
