TWENTY: Taryn

TWENTY

TARYN

I rush upstairs with my heart in my throat, desperate to ask if James feels the same way I feel, if maybe—just maybe, I haven’t misread the signs during our road trip.

And the other night…

When I enter the suite, I notice that his suitcase is no longer by the door. I check to see if housekeeping moved it to one of the closets, but they’re all empty.

I walk through the living room and check the balcony, and there’s no hint of him ever being here with me.

Stepping into the kitchen, I spot a note clinging to the fridge.

Taryn,

I enjoyed the ride here with you,

Happy holidays,

James

That’s it?

I flip it over and check my phone for missed calls and texts.

There’s nothing from him.

Confused, I return to the elevator and head downstairs.

Even if my feelings may weigh more than his, I refuse to believe he would leave the estate without telling me goodbye.

Halfway there, I spot Cameron chatting with Savannah and Georgia.

His eyes meet mine before I can turn around.

Shit…

“Come over here, Taryn!”

I force a smile and oblige.

“Did you find whatever you were looking for?” he asks.

“Not really.”

“Well, I’ll help you find it after we finally handle our business.”

“What business?”

He doesn’t answer me. Instead, he lifts a champagne glass and taps his spoon against the glass.

“Attention, everyone!” He calls out. “Attention!”

I swallow as the crowd falls silent and notice family members and friends moving to surround us.

“Wait,” I whisper to Georgia. “Did you have something to do with whatever this is?”

“With Cameron?” She shoots me a pointed look. “Please…”

“I won’t take up too much of your day, I swear,” Cameron addresses everyone. “First, I’d like to thank you all for joining me here at this beautiful estate for an event that Taryn and I hoped would never happen.”

Everyone laughs, except me.

I grab a champagne glass and down the alcohol in one gulp. Then I grab another.

“As you know, Taryn and I became friends during our senior year of high school, and I was assigned to help her catch up on all her math projects, along with a former friend of mine. The more time we spent together, it was clear that she was a great person who I truly admired and like, but time wasn’t on our side. She was set to study business in Seattle, while I was committed to school in Atlanta. Then…”

As he speaks, I can’t help focusing on seven of his words: Along with a former friend of mine…

He’s always made it seem like it was just us two against the world back then like we were practically inseparable, and I accepted his recollections as my own.

I suddenly recall two of the strangest memory ornaments on my tree at home, those that aren’t written like the rest. Cameron often chalked the words to “someone with bad grammar” or “someone trying to get inside your head.”

I miss when it was you and me in study hall before the third wheel came along and rolled you away with him…

If you ever remember how close we were and you're single, call me. You were always special to me.

“What was your old friend’s name?” I interrupt Cameron’s spiel.

“Uh, our high school was massive babe. I don’t remember.” He kisses my forehead before addressing the crowd again. “Anyway, to stay in touch, me and Taryn talked on the phone at least once a month and during our senior year of college, we agreed that….”

“Because the last time I lost a girl to a friend, I promised I would never forgive it again…”

The timelines adjust and bend in my mind. Suddenly, fragmented memories slowly stitch into a short, hazy montage: Me, James, and Cameron hanging out after school, James driving me home and kissing the hell out me, James letting me cry on his shoulder, James glaring at me when I see him on my first day at Magnolia Marketing for no reason.

Or, so I thought.

It can’t be…

“Taryn Stone, I’m happy to have you as a long-time friend, and I promise to cherish you as my best friend and number one woman for the rest of my life.”

He gets down on one knee, clasping my hand.

“Will you please marry me?”

“I…” I pause, and more memories play, this time even faster. “I can’t.”

He furrows his brow. “What did you say?”

“I can’t.” I shake my head. “I can’t marry you. No .”

“Taryn,” he says, smiling as whispers and murmurs fill the room. “We made a pact. We’ve been talking about this for years.”

“Did you really like me before or was this your way of sticking it to your good friend because the two of you fell out?”

“ Him ?” Cameron shrugs. “Babe, what are you talking about?”

“You knew James and I had a history, but the accident happened and you… You took advantage of me…” I press a finger against my temple. “I need you to tell me I’m imagining this.”

“Yes.” He nods. “You’re imagining it, and the only thing you need to do is focus on saying ‘yes’ to being happy with me for the rest of your life.”

“She already said no.” James’s deep voice makes me look up. “We all heard her loud and clear.”

“I wasn’t talking to you James fucking Calloway.” Cameron jumps to his feet. “Who the hell invited you here anyway? I’m sure Taryn doesn’t want her boss and her most hated coworker ruining her off days.”

The room falls silent.

“I should’ve said something to you years ago,” James moves in front of me. “Memory issues or not, I could’ve at least told you when you reappeared in my life at Magnolia.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” Cameron grits his teeth. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

“I love you, Taryn Stone,” James says, looking into my eyes, “and the only reason I came here to Colorado was because I knew you’d find a way to slip away for the holidays, and I wanted to prevent you from marrying this asshole.”

“If the marriage pact you made with him holds any weight, you did find someone, and he’s not giving you up without a fight.”

“That’s fine with me.” Cameron growls, pushing James’s shoulder. “Let’s take this outside, shall we?”

“No, right here is fine,” Georgia says. “It’s below zero degrees out there, and this is a much better view...”

“You’re fighting for someone who doesn’t want you.” James glares at him. “Just walk away, like you asked me to years ago.”

“I don’t hear Taryn saying a word about wanting you at all.” Cameron pushes up his sleeves. “By the way, is that your ex-fiancée with your brother over there?”

He looks at me. “Can you imagine how terrible of a person he must be if his girlfriend left him for his brother, babe? I need you to stop believing whatever delusions are going on in your mind and see what’s happening here.”

The redhead I sparred with earlier says something I can’t quite understand, but I can’t bear to let Cameron hold everyone’s attention hostage for much longer.

“I’m in love with James Calloway, Cameron.” I don’t want him to waste his time fighting for a prize he’ll never win. “I have been for years. I just didn’t realize it until?—”

“Until you were texting me all this week about how you couldn’t wait to fuck me on the slopes?”

“I never said that.”

“You implied it.” A vein swells in his neck, and Georgia subtly motions for security.

“This entire week, we’ve been texting and calling each other about this moment and you wait until it’s everything I’ve dreamed of to ruin it?”

“We agreed that we would call it off if we fell for someone else…” I say. “I honestly didn’t realize how much James meant to me until we spent the past few days on the road.”

“Wait a minute, what?” His eyes widen. “James is the ‘just a coworker’ you drove here with?”

“Yes.”

“I see…” His face is as red as the ornaments above us, and his eyes are filled with rage. “So, you fucked him, and now you’re backtracking on your promise to me because you think that’ll benefit your career somehow.”

“No, Cameron. I’m just in love with him.”

“You’re a filthy deceiving slut,” he says, lifting his hand. “I’ll never forgive you for?—”

A fist meets his jaw mid-sentence, and he falls to the ground in a heap.

“Oh my god!” “Whoa!” “He’s not getting up for a while…”

I grab James’s hand to prevent him from doing more damage, but I realize he isn’t the aggressor.

It’s his brother.

“Let me see.” One of my uncles stoops to check Cameron’s neck for a pulse. “He’s still breathing, but can someone call a doctor, please?”

“Get the police, too,” Georgia says. “We need to permanently trespass him from this estate.”

“I’ll leave,” Tucker says, holding up his hands in surrender. “No need to get the cops involved.”

“I’m not talking about you.” Georgia shakes her head as the crowd starts taking pictures. “Cameron.”

“Thank you,” James says to Tucker. “I was seconds away from doing the same thing.”

“Hell, I would’ve done it a lot sooner, but I gave him a slight holiday pass. If only he’d stopped talking sooner.”

Lauren moves toward us, avoiding eye contact.

“We should start making our way to the slopes, Tucker,” she says, her voice soft. “Our tickets say we need to be there within the hour. Merry Christmas to you both, and I hope your relationship lasts.”

“Wait.” James sighs, squeezing my hand. “I’m sorry, Lauren.”

“Huh?” She looks up at him. “What did you say?”

“I said that I’m sorry…” He pauses. “I should’ve never proposed to you back then, and I didn’t realize that I was treating you like a rebound.”

“Like your sixth rebound.” She corrects him. “We hadn’t even slept together, and you were just looking to make anyone make you move on from what you thought you’d missed out on by losing Taryn.”

“I know,” he says, looking at his brother. “I took how I felt about Cameron out on you. I’m sorry.”

“I’m sorry, too,” Tucker says. “I should’ve talked to you about dating her first, and proposing on the following Christmas was a low blow.”

The apologies hang in the air, accepted and appreciated, but I can only stare at Lauren.

I’m not the slightest bit sorry about threatening to give her a black eye for harassing me earlier, and she doesn’t look remorseful about anything she said to me, either.

A slow smile crosses her face, and a laugh escapes my lips.

Good enough.

“The slopes are prettier at night,” I say. “You two should spend the afternoon on the train tour instead.”

“All the night tickets are reserved,” Lauren says.

“My cousin is the manager,” I say. “I’m sure she can work something out, and we’ll join you.”

“Sounds good.”

“We’ll meet you later.” James hugs his brother before leading me down the hall.

“Why are you looking at me like that, Taryn?” he asks,

“Like what?”

“Like you’re in a daze.”

“I thought you’d left without saying goodbye,” I say.

“Why would you ever think that?”

“You took all your stuff out of my suite.”

“No, Georgia bribed me with free dry cleaning and luggage steaming when she saw what I’d gotten you for Christmas. She demanded to test it out for herself or threaten to ruin the surprise.”

“That doesn’t sound like—” I pause; it sounds precisely like Georgia.

“What about the note on the fridge?” I say.

“You said you wanted me to start acknowledging the holidays more, regardless of whether I liked them or not.” He smiles. “That’s me trying.”

“Oh.”

“Yes, oh .” He laughs.

“About all the stuff you said a few minutes ago, can we go somewhere private and discuss that over lunch?”

“Sure.” He pulls me against his chest and presses his lips against mine. “After we go back up to our suite for a while…”