“Andi’s got something over on her. I don’t know what it is, but while Linda was keeping you out, Andi slipped over to your cooler and surreptitiously removed the butter.”
“I was sure I’d replenished the butter! Did she confess to you?”
“No. I was filming your argument with Linda—”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.” Danny ducked his head and wentback to petting Sabrina. “You looked so beautiful standing there in the morning sun.” He pressed his lips together, paused. “I just started filming you.”
“Danny,” she said as kindly as she could. “We’re done.”
“I know, I know. I screwed up.” He looked so miserable, her heart ached for him, but her empathy changed nothing. They were over and honestly, had been since before he slept with Andi. “But you should see this.”
Danny pulled his cell phone from his pocket, queued up the video and passed her the phone.
Jazzy reached for it and their fingers brushed. His hand was cool to the touch and she felt...nothing.
No spark. No electricity. No longing for what might have been.
She watched the video. Danny had started filming as she and Roan walked up. The camera zoomed in for a close-up on her face. She appeared frantic, hair in a messy bun, eyes wide as Linda cordoned off the pavilion.
Jazzy watched herself and Roan set the ice chest down. Then she’d gone up to square off with Linda with Roan right behind her, backing her up. She smiled now, seeing Roan put his hand on her shoulder to steady her.
People started clustering around, both inside the pavilion arena and out. She hadn’t been aware at the time that they’d attracted a small crowd.
In the video, Linda was shaking her head. The camera crew came into view as they filmed the incident.
Danny’s camera stayed focused on Jazzy’s face. She could see her own desperation. It hit her then, how foolish she’d been. Thinking that if she could just beat Andi one time it would make some kind of difference. That she’d at last feel worthy.
That brought her up short. She wasted so much time and effort on a vain pursuit. Worse, she’d wasted Roan’s time.
Then, the camera panned out and there, in the corner of the video, Jazzy saw Andi at the back of the crowd. Furtively, Andi looked around, and saw all the attention was on Jazzy, then she crouched, slipping a hand around the tape Linda had used to cordon off the pavilion. Andi pried open the lid to Jazzy’s cooler, stuck her arm inside and quickly pulled out the butter.
Another quick glance around and Andi stuffed the butter into the waistband of her pants and walked to her station just as Christine Noble showed up to intervene with Linda. The video ended with a close-up of Jazzy’s relief as Linda let her in.
Jazzy passed the phone back to Danny. She didn’t know what to say. She was still grappling with the realization that she’d spent far too many years in a useless rivalry. There were no winners here.
“I confronted Andi as soon as I reviewed this,” Danny said. “She wasn’t the least bit ashamed. In fact, she bragged about how clever she was. That’s when I realized how blind I’d been. How she’d manipulated me.”
Blowing out her breath, Jazzy nodded. “I’m glad you’ve seen her for who she is, but this isn’t a flattering portrait of me either. I’ve been telling myselfI wasn’t jealous, but I was. I wanted to prove I was as good as Andi, instead, I proved the opposite. I’m as bad as she is.”
“Hey, I’m right there with you. Andi convinced me that your positive attitude was harmful. That’s how stupid I was, Jazzy.”
“Don’t beat yourself up. You and I? Well, we weren’t working long before Andi. We were just too stuck on Twilight fables to admit it.”
“You could take this video to the conference coordinator. Get Andi disqualified.”
Jazzy shook her head. “It’s not worth it. Let her have her ill-gotten win.”
“You’re a good person.”
“So are you, Danny. A little misguided on occasion, but aren’t we all?” She smiled at him.
“Why didn’t we work, Jazzy?” His sad eyes filled with regret.
“We were just too young. We got together before we really knew who we were and what we wanted out of life.”
“I was a fool.”