Page 25 of More Than Words (Trickle Creek: The Lyons #2)

Chapter Nineteen

Delaney

“ Y ou know, you’re my first Christmas arrangement?

” Charli, the owner of Alpenglow, smiled at me as she artfully arranged a pine bough with a sprig of holly in the oversized galvanized bucket outside my shop.

“You’re pretty smart for getting your order in early.

I’ll be busier than I can handle in a few weeks. ”

I smiled and rubbed my gloved hands together. “It has nothing to do with being smart,” I told her. “I just happen to love Christmas and start my decorating earlier than most normal people. In fact, I think I showed great constraint waiting as long as I did.”

“Your shop looks great,” Charli said. “I don’t know how it’s going to go with a tree this year now that Poppy has started to get into everything.” She chuckled. “It should be interesting.”

Charli and her husband, Symon, were the proud parents of the cutest little girl I’d ever seen. Best friends who turned into more, theirs was one of the sweetest love stories in town.

Not that I had any interest in love stories of any kind at the moment.

“I’m sure it’s going to be a great holiday,” I said with as much enthusiasm as I could. If she noticed my mood, she was kind enough not to point it out. A small mercy I was grateful for.

The last few days since I’d discovered what Ethan had been up to behind my back had been awful. It was a physical pain in my chest to know that after all this time, and after coming so far, I’d fallen for a smooth talker who broke my heart once again.

It almost felt worse this time than it had with my ex. Maybe because with Ken, the signs had been there almost from the beginning, and I’d always sort of known how it was going to end. But with Ethan, I really and truly thought he was different. Worse, I’d let myself believe what we had was real.

I’d believed it with all my heart.

And now…

“Delaney?”

I shook my head, pulling myself from my thoughts when Charli waved a sprig of holly in my direction. “Sorry. I just…”

“You looked like you were about to cry,” Charli said kindly. “Is everything okay?”

“It’s fine,” I lied. “I think maybe I’m just hungry.” It was a terrible lie, and we both knew it. “Maybe I should leave you to it and go grab something from the Bean Bag for lunch. Do you want anything?”

“I’m good, thanks. But don’t let me stop you.”

I was halfway across the plaza to the coffee shop when I saw them.

Quinn and Ethan, walking hand in hand, headed straight toward me.

It was too late to turn around. There was nowhere to go.

“Bookstore lady!”

Too late.

I did my best to paste a smile on my face as Quinn released her dad’s hand and sprinted toward me. “Hey, kiddo.” She wrapped her arms around me in a spontaneous hug that almost cracked me. I swallowed hard to keep from crying. “Shouldn’t you be at school?”

Quinn pulled back. “Dentist appointment.” She shrugged. “Not enough time to go back before the end of the day.”

“Makes sense.” I nodded before reluctantly looking up at Ethan, who’d joined us.

“Hey,” he said as if it were any other day and he hadn’t just completely shattered my heart.

“Hi.” My voice was thinner than I meant it to be.

The silence stretched out between us way longer than it should have.

Quinn looked between us, her brows knitting together in question.

“Did you get your inventory shipment okay?” Ethan asked.

“Yup.” I nodded. “It’s kept me pretty busy the last few days, stocking all the new products.”

“I bet.” He looked like he was going to say something more, but pressed his lips together tightly instead.

“The labels work out okay?”

I couldn’t meet his gaze for more than a few seconds at a time. Not without remembering the way he’d looked in the community hall, celebrating his victory that had completely blindsided me.

“They did,” he said. “Thanks again for picking them up.”

We stood silently in the middle of the plaza. The cold air did nothing to chill the anger, confusion, and stupid ache in my chest that pulsed with heat.

Quinn’s gaze flicked from me to her dad. “Okay…weird energy here.” She waved a mittened hand between us. “What’s?—”

“I should get back inside,” I said quickly. “Thanks for saying hi, Quinn.”

“Can I come by later and check out your new books?”

I hesitated, but only for a second. “Of course.” I aimed a small smile in her direction.

“Maybe we can?—”

“Right.” I cut Ethan off before he could finish his thought. “I should get back.”

I turned and walked back to the store, forgetting entirely that I’d planned to grab some food. I blinked hard and did my best to ignore the burning at the corner of my eyes while I pretended that every step I took didn’t feel like I was leaving everything important behind me.

Ethan

Quinn was quiet for maybe ten steps after Delaney walked away.

Truthfully, that was about nine more than I’d expected.

“What was that?”

I glanced over at her. “What was what?”

Her eyes widened. “That.” She pointed toward Plot Twist, where Delaney had just slipped inside. “You and Delaney,” Quinn continued, skipping the use of her nickname. “You guys are being all weird. And you didn’t even try the gross stuff.”

I’d wanted to pull Delaney into my arms and kiss her more than I wanted to take my next breath, but that was no longer an option. My heart ached with the loss.

“She looked like she was about to cry, and you…well, you looked like a bit of a jerk.”

“A jerk?”

She nodded but didn’t back down. “So, what’s going on?”

I shoved my hands deep into my pockets. “It’s nothing.”

“Nothing? It sure didn’t feel like nothing.”

I exhaled through my nose and started to move. “We’re fine.”

“Now you’re lying.”

“Quinn,” I said a little sharper than I intended. “It’s adult stuff.” I softened my voice. “Don’t worry about it.”

She stopped walking. “Wow.”

With a sigh, I turned to face her.

She crossed her arms and glared at me. “Since when do you pull that card?”

I hesitated. “I didn’t mean it like that.”

“Yes, you did. That’s why you said it.” Her jaw clenched the way it always did when she was trying not to cry. Only, it wasn’t usually me who was making her upset.

“I’m sorry,” I said genuinely. “It’s just…” I glanced to my right. “Let’s stop by the Sugar Shack and grab some chocolates for family dinner.”

Quinn narrowed her eyes as if she were trying to decide between trying to push for more or the lure of chocolate. “We don’t usually take chocolates.”

“I thought it might be a nice treat.”

“Is Delaney coming to family dinner?”

I froze mid-step and exhaled in a huff. “Drop it, Quinn.”

“So there’s something to drop?” Before I could respond, she continued. “You’re just trying to distract me with chocolate.”

“I’m not.”

“You are.” Her voice rose. “You don’t want to talk about what’s really going on with you, so you’re going to buy me off with chocolates and pretend everything’s fine when it’s?—”

“Enough!”

The word hit the air like a sharp slap.

Quinn took a step back and stared at me. Her bottom lip quivered.

We didn’t do this.

We didn’t snap. We didn’t raise our voices. And we definitely didn’t shut down.

But now, here we were.

And for so many reasons, I hated it.

She turned away without another word and started to walk ahead of me, arms crossed and chin tucked down.

I stood there for a second and watched her go.

And for the second time in less than a week, I found myself frozen in place, realizing a little too late that I’d made the wrong call.