Unfinished Business

31

MACEY

As soon as I dip behind the makeshift curtains hanging from the rafters of the barn, I'm bombarded with people. Tons of people.

All of them want to congratulate me on how incredible the designs are, and at first, it feels like a dream. This is all I've ever wanted, and yet... A piece of the puzzle is still missing. I feel like I won't be able to celebrate until it's complete.

The only person I want to congratulate me right now is nowhere to be found. I want to jump up and down and fly into his arms because he knows how important this is to me. This accomplishment is huge, and I know he wanted to put some distance between us, but did he really not come? He didn't want to see this?

Plastering a fake smile on my face to try and mask my disappointment, I'm interrupted by an editor for the local newspaper, who wants to do a piece on the collection I designed for the auction. I'm still in shock, and somehow my legs are able to walk over to two bails of hay.

"How does it feel to know the collection is already sold out?" She asks

My eyes pop up to hers, then to the pen and paper clutched calmly in her hands. "I'm sorry, what?"

"In less than five minutes," she says smugly. "How does it feel?"

"It feels..."

Unbelievable.

"It's the most the auction has ever raised," she adds.

Holy shit.

All those years I spent in New York trying to find my place seemed wasted. I told myself I wasn't good enough, and my designs were shit, but maybe I was just in the wrong place, and if I had stayed here in Darlington... If I hadn't let my dreams get in the way...

Wyatt and I would be married. I would never have fucked up that night, and we'd have that farmhouse in the middle of the country, and our kids would be running around barefoot through the fields, fishing in the pond, and learning to ride their first horse.

That is the life I always dreamed of.

Not moving to New York City.

Not having this fashion line be successful, even though it's incredibly cool.

It's always been Wyatt, and yeah, I screwed up that night, but I will never do anything like that ever again, and instead of letting him end things, I need to fight for him. I've never fought for him, and what if that was what he wanted all along? Parker came back, and he felt insecure, and instead of telling Wyatt he's all I've ever wanted, I let him cut things off because it's what felt safest.

"Can we continue this interview at another time?" I ask. "Tomorrow? At the diner?"

The woman in her mid-forties pushes a strand of dark hair behind her ear and gives me a subtle nod. "Does noon work?"

"Perfect. I just... I have to do something first. Sorry."

Rising from the hay bail, I ignore the crowds around me and make a beeline for my Prius parked in the grass. Loretta is leaning up against it with a cane in hand, and she points a thumb over her shoulder to the passenger side seat. "I need a ride to The Starlighter," she says.

Of course, this is at the most inconvenient of times, but she had to start using a cane from the arthritis in her hip, she said, and after all she's done for me, it's the least I can do. I'm not that rude.

"Hop in," I reply.

***

When I pull into the familiar gravel parking lot, Loretta asks me to help her up the steps to get inside.