Page 34 of Handling Skylar (Hope Parish #5)

The Gator Baters, a Cajun band out of Acadia Parish would be performing at three-thirty which would give me time to get ready for the Queen’s Ball.

The Reverend started speaking, and I gave him my attention, so many details running through my mind, least of all how I was going to handle my deep feelings for Jake.

He had a right to my past and why I thought like I did, but I was afraid, like I had been at the beginning of this relationship, that he would look at me in a different way, that he would be disappointed.

I wasn’t worried he would care about the scandal if it ever got out.

I knew Jake now and he’d changed. But that didn’t lessen my determination that the festival would go smoothly.

I drew a deep breath and decided after this was all over, I would tell him everything. Beside me, Jake shifted and drew me closer to him as if sensing my inner turmoil. I wrapped my arm around his waist, my heart melting and rolling over at the gentle way he touched me.

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. He said ‘Let the earth produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants, and fruit trees bearing their bounty with their seeds inside.’ We are here today to bless this harvest and these “seeds” that promote our welfare and prosperity in Hope Parish. Amen.”

Jake gave me a little squeeze, and we parted. I kissed him briefly on the lips. “I’ll see you at the ball.”

“All right. If you need me, call me.”

I remembered those words hours later standing in the back of the Suttontowne Country Club after I had just walked away from the hideous garment that Anna Kate just presented to me. It was a cliché and not a good one of an antebellum hoop-skirted dress in a terrible shade of lime green.

I was currently shaking with my anger that she was so damned petty she was willing to humiliate me and ruin this for everyone, especially Jake. “You are the most selfish, cruelest bully I have ever met. If you think for one minute I’m going to wear that monstrosity. You’re mistaken.”

“You don’t have any choice. What else are you going to do?”

“Pull a rabbit out of my hat, you snake in the grass shrew.” I was done with her. I had too much to do to stay here and trade insults with her. Top of that list was to get ready for the ball. I needed to get ahold of Verity.

“You would. Miss Perfect. Miss I-Can-Do-Anything. Miss Fucking Resourceful.” Her taunting words flew at me like daggers, but I kept walking and she kept talking shit.

“I will admit, you blocked me at every turn. But that’s all going to change.

You’re nothing, next to nothing, and I’ll prove it.

When Jake finds out that you were arrested for murder—of your parents no less…

” She released an incredulous, crowing laugh.

“— and arson, how do you think he’s going to react? ”

I whirled, the color draining from my face, my whole body paralyzed by shock as my stomach dropped away with a sickening rush.

Anna Kate’s eyes shone with her triumph over me. I knew she had me, and so did she. I stared back at her, stunned and wide-eyed, my mind deadened by shock.

She smiled so smugly, I lost control. I slapped her hard across the face.

She gasped and covered her cheek as I backed up and hit the wall.

I needed the support as I leaned heavily into the hard surface.

I’d never wanted my past to catch up to me.

I had thought I’d outrun it, lost it behind me, made it all go away.

Lived for the moment. Every day just being present.

Reality swept in, and I closed my eyes, a chilling comprehension washing through me.

She was right. Jake would be affected by my secret.

The scandal would be widespread in this small town.

How could I go through all that again? The accusatory eyes, the shunning, the hostility.

My home was being ripped away from me. Again.

My business would suffer. And, Jake…oh God, it was better if he was as far away from me as he could get.

Anna Kate disappeared into the storage room, with a parting shot in a venomous voice, she hissed. “No one takes what’s mine. I might not have him, but you’re not going to have him either. Choke on that, shop girl.”

My legs suddenly too weak to hold me, I sank to the floor, my heart thumping wildly in my chest. I closed my eyes again and slipped my shaking hands over my face, trying to contain the panic and the loss.

The ax had finally fallen with a cold, severing thump, but the victim, the one who was going to be savaged the worst was Jake.

One awful scenario after another unfolded in my mind—grim, wrenching scenes of Jake finding out.

There would be a cold, stunned silence, a reactive kind of rage, and, what was worst of all, a devastating sense of betrayal.

And it was betrayal—betrayal of everything that he believed about me, everything we thought we had.

He would hate me for putting him in such a scandalous position just when he was coming out of his own emotional upheaval.

This man, who was the only innocent in the whole terrible mess, would become the casualty in a horrible scandal, and the emotional pain, the sense of betrayal, the wrenching sense of loss, would be mine to carry.

A ragged sob tore loose, the pain from the image of Jake’s face so wrenching, so devastating, that the numbness broke beneath the pressure, and grief, sharp and rending, overwhelmed me.

Jake—my Jake, the man who had given me so much joy—was going to pay the price for my mistakes.

I would have ripped out my own heart to prevent that from happening. But it was out of my hands now.

Nothing, absolutely nothing, could equal the agony that sliced through me. And the devastation had only begun.

A thumping noise came from the storeroom and a low cry, but I only assumed it was Anna Kate having her own meltdown.

Too numb to respond, I sat with my hands still jammed against my hot cheeks, so many painful emotions churning around in me that I couldn’t sort them all out.

My vision blurring, I looked toward the storage room door, trying to swallow the awful ache in my throat.

I rose slowly to my feet. I would go to her.

Tell her that I would leave town if she wouldn’t say anything to ruin Jake and this festival we’d worked so hard to put together.

Even though Verity had made me the most beautiful princess dress I could ever have imagined, I’d wear the garment that Anna Kate tried to pass off as a dress.

I rose and went to the door, trying to get my rage under control, or I’d punch her in her mouth.

The room was dim and it smelled faintly of…

gasoline. My heart caught in my throat when I saw the ruined dress hanging in tatters from the hanger.

What the hell? I rushed over to it and tripped on something white protruding from a pile of boxes.

I caught myself against the dress, getting gasoline all over my hands.

I turned to look to see what it was I had tripped over.

I reeled back, a cry of surprise and shock burst from me.

Anna Kate looked up at me, her head at an odd angle, her eyes wide and fixed. I stared at her as if she was pulling a horribly mean trick on me. But, reality swept through me with a decimating force. Shaking so badly, I almost felt faint, I stood there as my world came crashing down around me.