“May I have the honor of a dance, milady?” He extended his arm toward her.
“Now you know I have two left feet.” Miss Shaw waved away his hand.
“I know no such thing.” Clyde kept his hand outstretched.
Miss Shaw shook her head and put her phone back in her large purse before handing it to me and taking Clyde’s hand. “Don’t say I didn’t warn ya.”
The smile that lit on her face as Clyde twirled her onto the dance floor revealed that he hadn’t twisted her arm to get her there.
As I watched half the town celebrating my best friend’s big day, dancing, talking, drinking all I could think about was the person I wanted to be talking to, dancing, and drinking with and the one person I’d been avoiding like the plague.
Cheyenne Comfort.
But this was Billy’s day and I’d promised myself that I would stay away from her.
My phone buzzed and I almost dropped Miss Shaw’s bag as I pulled it out of my pocket. When I managed to get it out, I saw that my mom had sent me a text with the link to what looked like the same news report that Miss Shaw had shown me on her phone. It was an aerial shot of the wedding party.
Mom:Wow! You look so handsome, dumplin’! Tell Billy I’m real sorry that we couldn’t make it, but travel is hard with Mitch’s back.
Mitch was my mom’s husband. I had a feeling that her not coming for Billy’s wedding had more to do with the scandal that surrounded her “running off with him” less than a month after my dad passed from cancer than it did with Mitch’s back.
My father was beloved in Firefly Island. But sometimes things weren’t exactly as they seemed on the outside. He may have been charismatic, outgoing, and friendly to Carla Higgins at the Piggly Wiggly but at home, my father had another side to him. A dark side. I knew better than anyone that people had demons, and Kenny Malone was no exception. He never hit my mom or me, but he was verbally abusive, cold, distant, and just intimidating. All my life, he’d felt like a stranger to me.
Which was why I hated it when everyone told me I was just like my daddy. I wanted to believe that all I’d inherited from him was his dark hair, Mediterranean complexion and blue eyes, but the truth was, I was scared that it was more than that.
So, as much as I wanted to be married and have kids, I wasn’t sure I ever would. Not if there was any chance I would end up like my father. I would never subject people I loved to that.
I hated to admit it, but I was relieved when my father died. It meant my mom was finally free from him. For years, I’d wondered why she’d stayed. She had a loyalty to that man that I’d never quite understood.
From what I could tell her new husband Mitch was a nice guy. The two of them met in an online support group for people with terminally ill spouses.
Another message came through: Have they cut the cake yet? How is the reception?
I messaged her back letting her know that the cake had been cut, the speeches had been made, and things were winding down. She sent back heart emojis and told me to give my love to the couple and that she missed me.
Her sixtieth birthday was in a few weeks and I’d been considering going up to see her. I’d gone to visit her less than a handful of times since she remarried, and I knew that it broke her heart that she didn’t see me more. She’d even resorted to having Mitch invite me up to go fishing.
I was going to be covering for Billy when he was on his honeymoon so when he got back I was taking a week off. It might be a good idea if I got away, got my head straight and off of Cheyenne.
I started to text her back to make sure that she’d be in town when I heard glass shattering. I looked up and saw that Earl, one of the other stooges, had pushed Clyde. I put my phone back in my pocket and tucked Miss Shaw’s purse under my arm before heading over and breaking it up.
This day could not end soon enough.