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Chapter 25
Danny
“Oh, snap out ofit!”
“How’s the hand,there, Rocky?” I look up from the purple picnic table at a busy Dip and Twist to find Emily smiling down at me.
“It hurts like a bitch,” I tell her, looking down at my red, swollen knuckles that finally stopped throbbing when I woke up this morning. Thankfully, after a trip to the hospital that Melanie insisted on yesterday, I found out nothing is broken. I won’t be able to paint for a little while, but at least I didn’t do any permanent damage, acting like a nut job. “What are you doing here?”
“Laura called us. She said you were trying to have Sip and Bitch tonight all by yourself.”
Glancing over at the side pick-up window, Laura waves and blows me a kiss before moving to one of the front windows to wait on a customer. I look back over my shoulder to find Melanie, Tess, Birdie, and Wren smiling at me.
“One does not just attempt a Sip and Bitch alone. There are rules in place for this,” Birdie informs me.
With a sigh, I look back down at the table, unable to even crack a smile when I see someone carved Melanie’s and my name into the table, next to old carvings of all the other women’s names. Tess grabs a tray of boozy slushes Laura just held out the pick-up window, and everyone takes a seat at the picnic table around me.
“You’re wallowing,” Tess says, sliding a slush in front of me.
“Of course I’m wallowing.” I roll my eyes, taking a sip of my drink. “Now, Ryan’s daddefinitelythinks I’m evil incarnate.”
“Oh, snap out of it!” Tess bangs her fist against the table. “You punched an asshole in the face yesterday defending this island and your man. For defendinghis son.That deserves a celebration, you badass!”
Everyone cheers, bumping their Styrofoam cups together in the middle of the table. They keep holding them there when I don’t join them, staring at me until I finally give in.
“Okay, fine. It was alittlebad-ass.”
Everyone cheers again when I bump my cup against the circle of cups, bringing the straw back to my mouth and taking a drink, wondering how much vodka I’ll need to consume to make this hurt go away.
“I know it’s probably not very comfortable to be friends with me,” Emily suddenly says, making me slowly pull my drink away from my mouth. “If one of Quinn’s ex-girlfriends was in my face all the time, wanting to be my friend, I probably would have killed her by now. But I just need you to know that hereallyloves you. Every time I see him looking at you, I cannot even tell you how happy it makes me. He never looked at me that way, and frankly, I think I would have been a little freaked out if he did.”
We both share a laugh, but my heart is hurting even more than it did before she sat down at this table. But I’m thankful she’s so cool, and understanding, and trying to be helpful. I can see now how this group of friends came to be. No matter how different each one of them is, they are still good people, with big hearts. Just like Ryan.
“I just wanted him to fight for me,” I whisper, taking another sip of my slush to try to get rid of the lump in my throat.
“Uh, I think you took the fight out of his hands. Literally.” Birdie laughs.
“You know what I mean. I wanted the stupid fairy tale, all right? I wanted my knight in shining armor to come charging after me, telling me he was a fool and never should have let me walk away, proving his love with a grand gesture or some shit.”
Everyone’s quiet around the table for a few minutes, the hum of conversation from all the ice cream stand patrons sitting at the other picnic tables and the sounds of a busy Summersweet Island evening filling the silence.
“I’m sorry, but have you forgotten where you live now?” Wren finally laughs.
“Seriously.” Birdie laughs with her. “This is Summersweet Island. Magical, fairy-tale shit happens here all the time.”
“Right, except he let me just walk away for asecondtime and….” I trail off when I suddenly hear really loud music playing from somewhere. And it’s one of my favorite songs, a song from one of my playlists I listen to all the time, instead of the typical island music that can usually be heard on the main drag.
Turning and looking back over my shoulder, I see a bunch of people rushing toward Summersweet Lane, including half the people who were sitting here at the picnic tables.
“What the hell is—” My words cut off when I turn back around to our picnic table, just in time to watch the girls all smile at me. My heart is suddenly racing, and butterflies start flapping around in my stomach, and I have no idea why.
“Did someone ask for Summersweet magic?” Melanie continues grinning at me.
“What’s going on right now?” I ask, when Laura suddenly puts the Closed sign on the stand, runs out the back door and around the building past us, and out into the crowd of people.
No one answers me. All the girls just quickly get up from the purple picnic table and race to join everyone else as the music gets louder, with Tess moving a little slower. “I really hate all you assholes right now. No one better be filming this,” she gripes, and then she’s off, running out onto the street, with her blue hair flying, and I have no other choice but to get up and hurry after them.
As soon as I push through the crowd of people lining the street and make it to the curb, my eyes practically pop out of my head, and my jaw drops right down to the pavement.
