Page 56 of Love is a Game

“Well, yes,” she said, an edge to her voice. “Partly. That’s why I got involved with all this in the first place.”

“So when you said you wanted to do what was best for Briar Cove, you meant you wanted to do what was best for you.”

“I am doing what’s best for Briar Cove. Yes, it happens to help me reach the goal that I’ve been working toward for years, but that doesn’t make it any less true.” She leaned forward, resting her hand on the blanket between them. “Please, try to understand the position I’m in.”

He moved back, suddenly anxious to get away from her. “Oh, I understand perfectly. See, this is exactly the kind of behavior I saw in myself when I was working at the law firm. This is exactly the kind of self-serving move I would’ve made back then.”

“That’s not fair,” she snapped, then sucked in a breath and tapped her clenched fist against her forehead. When she spoke again, her voice was calm. “Andrew, I really think you’re worried over nothing. If they want community support, they know they’ll have to leave the building more or less the way it is.”

“You can justify it however you want, Sadie, but I think we both know that’s not true.” He stood and brushed off his pants before packing up the food.

“Wait.” She reached out to stop him. “Can we please talk about this reasonably? I know you’re upset, but if you would just listen—”

“The Cypress Hotel means everything to me.” He looked down at her and then shook his head. “But I guess there’s no reason why that should matter to you. It was stupid to think it did.”

“Andrew—”

“I’m gonna go.” He grabbed the bags of food and garbage.

He turned, not waiting for her to respond, and headed back along the hillside. He’d known there was a chance Sadie didn’t feel the same way about him as he felt about her. He’d prepared himself for the night ending amicably, a simple dinner between friends, if that was the way she wanted to keep things, no worse off than he’d been before. As he stormed back to his car, though, he could feel everything he cared about slipping away. Who was he to go up against a big corporation like Maddox? If they wanted to get in the way of protecting the hotel, there was probably nothing he could do.

And Sadie? He’d been a fool to think she had changed.

By the time he reached his car, large drops of heavy rain began to fall. He’d left the blanket behind, he realized. It would be wet and heavy by the time Sadie started walking back with it. For a moment he thought about going back to help her get across the hill, but he decided against it. He didn’t care about getting the blanket back. As for Sadie, she obviously didn’t need anything from him.

Chapter Nineteen

“I thought you were going to be here another week or two,” Julie said, handing Sadie the last shirt in her drawer.

Sadie shrugged. “Things wrapped up early. That’s the way it goes sometimes.”

It was true, but only because Sadie had been working overtime in order to get back to Seattle as quickly as possible. She couldn’t risk running into Andrew, not after the way they’d left things. Other than driving out to Port Angeles, she’d barely left her parents’ house in the three weeks since the picnic and it was making her restless.

“Did I leave anything in the closet?”

Julie pushed the closet door aside and stuck her head in. “Yeah,” she said, emerging with a blue bundle in her arms. “Is this your blanket?”

Sadie hesitated. The rain had picked up enough that night, so by the time she made it back to her car, Andrew’s quilt was wet and dirty. Her first instinct was to throw it away just to spite him, but she couldn’t. She’d brought it home and washed it, intending to return it to him, but she chickened out and shoved it into the back of the closet instead.

“Yes, it is,” she finally said. “Just put it on top of that box.”

Julie did so and then sighed heavily and fell back onto the bed.

Sadie stopped packing and mustered a small smile. Something about Julie’s dramatic positioning, arms spread out to the sides and legs hanging over the edge of the bed, made her look like a child. No matter how old she got, Sadie would always think of her as her baby sister.

“Okay, move over,” she said, pushing at Julie’s legs.

With an exaggerated groan, Julie moved to the other side of the bed so Sadie could lay down beside her. Above them, the fairy lights twinkled in the garland of vines along the edge of the ceiling. It almost made the room feel like a tree house, a perfect place for two sisters to hide out together. Sadie reached over and wrapped her arm around Julie’s.

“Remember when we were kids and we would climb into each other’s beds at night?” Julie asked quietly. “Sharing secrets in the dark.”

Sadie grinned. “Like the time you woke me up at two in the morning to tell me you snuck out to meet Tyson and he kissed you?”

“Yeah,” Julie said dreamily. “Thanks for not telling on me.”

“I thought about it,” Sadie admitted. “I was so shocked. Here you were, barely finished with your freshman year, sneaking out to meet a boy. I never snuck out in high school.”

“Well, yeah, you were kind of a dork back then.”