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Maddie had been similarly supportive but sad, except with her, there’d been something else—Maddie didn’t hide that she had hoped Cam and I would find our way together.
“I can’t believe he’s letting you go,” she’s said through gritted teeth.
“It’s fine,” I had told her.
“Liar.” Maddie had gotten to know me well. “You care about him.”
“It’s pointless,” I said. “He won’t take the chance.”
“I think he would. Eventually. You sure you can’t stay a while longer? He’s being an idiot--he’s scared, and he’s a man… those two things don’t always combine well, you know. He’ll come around.”
I sighed, leaning on my elbows across the bar top at the diner as Maddie watched me hopefully from the other side. “There’s also a chance he won’t. I can’t put my life on hold, hoping for something that might not happen. I’ve told him how I feel. I’ve asked him if there’s a possibility. He can’t answer, and I can’t just wait.”
“Of course not.”
“It was fun while it lasted. Maybe meeting me has helped push him a step further toward getting over everything. Maybe the next girl he meets…” I trailed off. I couldn’t even finish the sentence. The idea of Cam with another woman wasn’t something I liked thinking about.
Maddie had come around the counter then and pulled me into a big hug. “I’ll miss you,” she whispered.
Even Adele had squeezed my hand as I’d left the diner that day, clearly having pried enough gossip from those who frequented the place to know exactly what was going on. “We’ll miss you, darlin.”
“Thanks, Adele.”
* * *
The morning of the wedding,my bags were packed into my car and I was ready to go. I’d stay long enough to make sure everything went off without a hitch, and then I needed to get going. I had a crate all ready in the back seat for the puppy I was going to take with me—I’d tried to tell myself I shouldn’t take one, but I had fallen in love with them all. I wanted a little piece of the time I’d spent here. A little piece of what could have been. The puppy I’d chosen was a tri-color pup with blue eyes who looked a lot like her mother.
“Ready for this?” Tuck asked me as he pulled together all the camera equipment. He wore a suit, and my breath caught in my throat at the sight of him.
“Holy… you clean up nice, Tuck.” I’d seen him in his usual scruffy surfer attire, but shaven and coiffed, the big Aussie was impressive. For a second, I saw the man he was in place of the friend I’d grown to love over these past weeks.
“Not so bad yourself, squirt,” he said, winking as I twirled for him, my pink bias-cut hem flaring slightly as I did.
“Let’s go,” I said. “You’re driving. My car is stuffed to the gills.”
I gathered my notes and clipboard, sweater and purse, and we got into Tuck’s car and headed out to the highway. I’d stopped by the reception venue earlier, meeting Mike there. Everything was set, and I had no doubt it would be perfect. The morning had dawned clear and bright, and the temperature was forecast to be in the high seventies. It was wedding weather, and my heart swelled with happiness for Maddie.
The actual ceremony was taking place in the middle of an ancient grove of Sequoias that stood just across the highway from town. There was a trail there but no road, so we’d gotten permission from the park to lay a planked walkway from the parking lot and to ferry older and less capable guests on the big four-wheel golf carts owned by the Inn. Tuck and I walked down the short trail, arriving to the clearing where chairs were set in rows and the forest floor was decorated in fresh green pine needles and scattered with flower petals. It looked like some kind of woodland princess wedding, and I sighed at the perfection.
The end of each row of chairs was decorated with a simple bouquet of roses, the dark red set off perfectly by the forest’s natural landscape, and the white satin bows on each one standing out against the petals and greenery.
As guests arrived, the sun blazed through the trunks of massive trees to one side, casting the entire scene in a golden light that seemed to sprinkle and sift from the treetops.
I stood at the back and watched as Cam, Chance, and Sam seated guests, and Connor arrived, looking surprisingly nervous as he pulled at his tie.
“You doing okay?” I asked him when he approached.
He slid a finger around the tight collar at his throat. “It’s been a long time since I’ve worn a suit,” he said, the sunlight glinting in the red of his hair. He gazed around at the crowd and then looked down at me, his eyes twinkling. “Yeah, Harper. I’m good. Maddie’s gonna love this. You’ve done a fantastic job. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” I said, feeling myself glow under the praise.
Connor stationed himself at the front, and Mike joined me at the back of the crowd, watching as everyone was seated and arranged. Tuck circled with the camera in his hand after stationing another camera up front on a tripod and a third to one side.
A string quartet had begun to play, set off to one side at the front, and the strains of Pachelbel and Hayden drifted through the forest like butterflies being unleashed one by one.
“It’s magical,” Mike said. “This is amazing, Harper.”
“A lot of this was Maddie’s idea,” I reminded her.
