Page 30 of Promises We Meant to Keep (Love in Massachusetts #1)

thirty

“I needed last night. Thank you for that.” Elia had pulled Kamryn to the side at the wedding as they waited for the day’s festivities to begin. They were there early so that Kamryn could make sure Andra didn’t need anything, but that didn’t mean Elia was ready to wait around either.

“I needed it too.” Kamryn wrapped her arm around Elia’s back. They’d already checked on Andra. They’d gotten the last few things that she’d forgotten, and they’d run interference with the groom when he very nearly walked in on the bride and bridesmaids. “I’ve never been so happy to just be a friend and not in the wedding party.”

“Not your style?” Elia could barely contain the smile and laugh. “I can totally see you in blush pink with your hair twirled up on top of your head.”

Kamryn laughed wholeheartedly. “I’d need you to help me out with that.”

“With your hair or getting dressed?”

“Probably both.”

Elia could see that happening. She’d watched Kamryn get dressed enough times to want to be there right in the moment, touching her. The sexual energy between them wasn’t lost on either one of them. That wasn’t the issue they had to contend with. It was everything else.

“Elia?”

Elia jerked sharply. Her heart in her throat. She spun around, instantly putting space between her and Kamryn and wiping the smile off her face. She put that mask into place and pretended she was the most aloof person on the face of the planet. “Simone.”

Kamryn spun around instantly, and Elia winced. Kamryn wouldn’t be as good at holding her own on this one. Elia braced herself, trying to figure out what exactly Simone was doing here, at a wedding that had nothing to do with the school.

“What are you doing here?” Simone asked, frowning.

“I was going to ask you the same thing,” Kamryn said. “Andra’s my best friend.”

“That… doesn’t explain why Elia is here.” Simone looked over Elia’s shoulder to Kamryn.

“She came as my guest.” Kamryn stepped in closer, lowering her voice. “My ex-girlfriend is an absolute bear, and I needed someone who was cool, calm, and collected and who could verbally beat the crap out of her if I needed it.”

Simone’s lips twitched upward at that. “Oh, I understand exes like that.” She looked around, her gaze skimming the room before she leaned in and lowered her voice even more. “And some current spouses.”

“Right,” Elia said, trying to stay present in the moment, but her brain was spinning. How could Simone Parks be here? Another teacher at Windermere was somehow connected to this wedding? Kamryn had promised no one was connected.

“So who are you here for?” Kamryn butted in.

Elia’s fingers itched to reach for Kamryn’s, needing that touch to bring her brain back to this earth and her heart rate back into a normal range of beats, but with Simone standing right in front of them she couldn’t do that.

“Andra’s my soon to be daughter-in-law…well, step-daughter-in-law, but that’s a mouthful.” Simone gave them a sweet smile before she frowned. “I married Garrett’s dad right after he graduated college, so I haven’t been that involved in the wedding planning. It’s a bit out of my responsibilities.”

“You didn’t mention anything,” Elia said, finally coming back to herself.

“It’s not that big a deal to me anyway. I’m sure it is to Garrett and Andra. All they’ve done lately is talk about the wedding.” Simone smiled, but it didn’t quite reach her eyes. She wasn’t someone who ever talked about her personal life, but Elia remembered when she’d gotten married and then when she’d gotten the job at Windermere shortly after. And that was about the extent of what Elia knew about her.

Not that she’d tried to get to know her better. Elia pretty much kept to herself.

Panic seeped its way into Elia’s body, eating its way up her legs and into her stomach before reaching her chest. She tried everything she knew to tamp it back down. But if she and Kamryn were caught out like this, and with all of Kamryn’s friends thinking they were in a relationship, she was screwed.

They were screwed.

Elia had to put a stop to this, not just for her own self-preservation but also for Kamryn’s.

At least one of them should walk out of this unscathed. Elia took another step, putting even more space between her and Kamryn. She didn’t want anyone to have even an inkling that they were attending this together as dates. Nope, she had to snuff out any and all of those thoughts immediately.

“Ah, there’s Garrett.” Simone smiled, and Elia followed her line of sight. Garrett was young, and he looked everything the perfect groom should. His hair was coiffed, his suit was impeccable, and he had his horde of merry men surrounding him.

“I’ve never met him,” Elia commented.

“He and Andra met a few years ago when we were trying axe throwing for the first time. Which the ax throwing was a disaster, but the result… not so much.” Kamryn smiled sweetly, no doubt reliving the memory of it. “I haven’t spent much time with him, but what little time I have, I’ve liked him. He’s very sweet.”

“He can be,” Simone replied.

Something in her tone put Elia’s back up. As if there was a lie in there somewhere, but Elia couldn’t figure out exactly what it was.

“If you’ll excuse me, I need to play the part.”

Don’t we all? Elia thought, but thank God she kept her mouth shut. The last thing she needed was that getting out. She turned to Kamryn, who looked a few shades paler than she normally did.

“I can’t—” Elia started.

“I know,” Kamryn finished. “This was an unexpected hiccup.”

“Unexpected in the very least.” Elia folded her hands in front of her, trying to make sure that she wasn’t tempted to hold Kamryn’s hand or touch her unexpectedly. She’d gotten too good at lowering her defenses and forgetting to watch herself when she wasn’t at the school, and she was around Kamryn. It would be far too easy for her to accidentally do something that would send out signals that they were together.

“Do you need to leave?” The worried wobble in Kamryn’s voice would be obvious to anyone in the vicinity. But the sound was only meant for Elia’s ears.

“I’m not sure. If it’s just Simone, I might be fine if we keep our distance. But I’m worried about what your friends will say.”

Kamryn hummed her acknowledgement. “I guess it comes out today that all of this was fake.”

Was it?

Elia didn’t want to believe that. There’d been so much that was real between them, so much that she had come to rely on in the last few months. She wasn’t ready to let all of that go, to shatter the dreams that they had built together, even if they were on a false premise.

“Kam…” She was about to say something when she stopped, her eyes locking on the back of Susy Butkis’s head. “Susy’s here.”

“What?” Kamryn flung around, frantically searching for Susy. “No. No, no no no no. Just no.” Kamryn rolled her eyes, tears filling them. “I’m so sorry. I promised—”

“You made a promise you couldn’t keep.” Elia frowned deeply. “I need to leave.”

“I don’t want you to.” Kamryn looked like she was so close to crying.

“I need to.” Elia hated doing this. She hated being the one to walk away, but it had to be her. She was the one causing all of this turmoil. Not just the pain from her past, but the trouble now, standing in the center of a wedding that should have been fun and easy. “I’d appreciate it if you’d tell your friends, so that maybe we can do some damage control.”

“Yeah. I’ll uh…figure it out.”

Elia turned slightly, a woman who looked very similar to Kamryn walking up to them with a huge grin on her face. Her hair was pulled up and out of her face, loose strands hanging around her cheeks. Her smile faltered when her gaze settled on the two of them.

“I was going to say nice to meet you, but I feel like I should be saying goodbye.”

Elia furrowed her brow in confusion. Who was this?

“Greer,” Kamryn said, supplying the answer without saying anything else.

This was Kamryn’s best friend. This was the one person in her entire friend group who could know that all of this had been a lie, and she was the one that Elia was going to have to trust to help Kamryn set this right.

Kamryn stepped forward and wrapped her arms around Greer’s shoulders, tugging her in tightly. Elia wished she could be in that embrace. That she could be standing there with Kamryn instead of Greer. She wanted to be that support, that shoulder to cry on. Instead, she was the one causing the tears.

“You must be Elia.” Greer stepped back and held out her hand.

“Yes. It is good to meet you.” Elia glanced at Susy to see if she’d noticed them yet. “But I’m sorry, I have to leave.”

“The wedding hasn’t started yet.” Greer frowned deeply.

“I know. Kam can explain.” Elia really hated doing this. She took the risk and touched the back of Kamryn’s arm, the smallest of touches that she’d allow herself. “Will you be okay?”

“Uh…yeah. Greer’s here. I’ll be fine.” Kamryn’s face pinched in pain.

It was a lie. They both knew it. But Elia was going to have to accept it for right now. She couldn’t dig into this one. Straightening her shoulders, she took a slow deep breath. She didn’t want to stop looking at Kamryn. She didn’t want to leave Kamryn here to deal with all the problems that she had created.

“I’ll see you around, then.” That sounded like such a goodbye. Not an I’ll call you later and not an I’ll see you tonight when you get home. Elia couldn’t say any of that. Not in a room full of people who might overhear.

Elia walked out of the wedding hall and directly to where she’d parked the car. She couldn’t look back. She had to protect both of them, and she had to be the one to leave. Andra was Kamryn’s friend. Elia had no connection to anyone there—at least not any connection that she wanted to have.

The drive back to Windermere was quiet.

Elia didn’t even turn the radio on. She wanted the silence. She wanted the spinning of her mind with all of the disastrous possibilities. And she wanted to name them all and then let them go. But when she got back to her house, there was only one that was truly bothering her.

Kamryn.

Taking out her phone, Elia called Abagail and waited impatiently for her friend to answer. She already knew what Abagail was going to say, but she needed to hear it again. She needed to know that she was doing this for the right reasons.

“What trouble have you gotten yourself into this time?” Abagail’s words weren’t as comforting as they should have been.

“What makes you think I’m in trouble?”

“Aren’t you supposed to be at a wedding against my better advice?”

Elia winced. She had said that, and Elia had flat out ignored her and gone anyway. She really should have listened to Abagail. “Simone Parks was there.”

“Shit, El.”

“And Susy Butkis.”

Abagail groaned. “I take it you left…immediately.”

“Yeah, I did. But that’s probably not going to stop the rumors.” Elia pinched the bridge of her nose. “I should have listened to you the first time.”

“Yeah, you really should have.” Abagail sighed heavily. “How bad is the damage?”

“I don’t know. I left, remember?”

“And Kam? What’s she doing?”

“Damage control, if she can.” Elia finally let the tears that she wanted to spill before burn her eyes now. She needed to figure her life out. She needed to take a step back from everything and find the best way forward. “What do I do now?”

“Retire, resign, leave. I told you that before.”

“I’m not ready to be done teaching.” Elia wiped her fingers under her eyes. “I’m not set up to take an early retirement anyway, but I don’t want to leave my students high and dry.”

“Then find another job doing something else so you can at least live until you can pull from your pension. But you need to get out of there. It’s the simplest solution to this problem that you seem to be making worse by the week.” Abagail’s voice rose in accusation.

Elia couldn’t avoid the guilt that was eating away at her. “I’m so tired of putting up this front.” Her tone changed from angry and avoidant to melancholy in a snap. “I’m so tired of being someone I’m not just because it’s safer this way.”

“That’s the decision you made eighteen years ago.”

“Yeah, it is.” Elia brushed away the tear that slid down her cheek. “And I’m done.”

“What does that mean?” Abagail asked, alarm in her voice.

“I don’t know yet.” Elia stared out the window across from her, watching the first snowfall of the year. “I honestly don’t know.”

“You’re scaring me.”

“I’m scaring myself.” Elia pursed her lips. “I’ll call you when I figure it out.”

“Elia!”

“I promise. I’ll call you.” Elia hung up, and when Abagail tried to call back, she didn’t answer. The quiet was everything she needed right now, and she was going to take every single second of it that she could get.