“I don’t mind. I mean, at the time I was horrified. I had that big, televised wedding... I’m sure you know what that’s like. Everyone saw it and I was really embarrassed by how fake it had become.”
Scarlet definitely got that. “I try really hard to think of all my social media stuff as a job. When I film, I think of it as getting dressed up for the day. I’m still me but I’m playing a part. Then when I’m home I’m the real me... But if I had a wedding like yours, it would have been hard. I loved it, by the way. My sister and I watched the entire thing. It was a gorgeous wedding.”
“Thank you,” Bianca said. “I had hoped to transition into doing more lifestyle modeling after it, you know, a prettied up version of my real life, focusing on being a new mother and all of that, but with my marriage breaking down and the baby, it just never happened.”
“I’m working with Kinley and Helena to do some subscription wedding boxes... Would you be interested in sponsoring a month? You would be perfect for a fairy-talewedding planning one and then maybe you could keep it real by talking about living in the actual world after all that fantasy,” Scarlet said.
Hadley came back and handed Scarlet a glass of water and the damp towel, which she placed on the back of her neck. “I love the wedding box idea. I hope it’s ready before I get much further into planning mine. Do you have one for dealing with moms who want to take over the entire thing?”
Bianca and Scarlet both laughed at that. Hadley’s mom was definitely having a moment with two engaged daughters and enjoying planning both of them.
“Not yet,” Scarlet admitted. “We will have to do one.”
She continued talking to the other women and started to feel sort of normal again, but in the back of her mind was the reminder that no matter how much she was enjoying her time in Cole’s Hill, it was just a short interlude before she was going to have to return to her real life. Bianca’s comments tonight had made her realize she needed to make a decision about Alec, so she could start figuring out the pregnancy and childbirth part.
She liked his family and his hometown. So, if they weren’t going to be together, the thought of asking him to raise their child was becoming harder because each time she pictured that future she imagined herself with him. And she wasn’t sure that she’d fit in. Right now when she was out of control and adrift it was easier to think of letting Alec raise their baby alone, but she had started to change and she only wished she could trust herself and believe that she could be a good mother. But had she ever been good enough at anything except scandal?
Chapter Twelve
The Five Families Club house was adjacent to an eighteen-hole golf course, tennis courts and the community swimming pool. Growing up, Alec had spent most summers at the clubhouse, charging things on his family’s account and playing with his brothers and the friends he still had today. The area was named after the five families that had originally inhabited Cole’s Hill. Wanting their town to be different from the others in the area, they’d established a close bond and had often driven their cattle up to Fort Worth Stockyards together back in the frontier days.
“You’re looking...different tonight,” Mauricio said, coming up to him and handing him a Lone Star beer.
His brother had always seemed like he had too much energy, like he was going to explode if he didn’t keep moving. Their mom had often said that they were yin and yang to each other. But since Mo and Hadley had gotten engaged, his brother was calmer. Alec wanted to know what had made the difference but tonight wasn’t the time to ask.
Alec took a long swallow and then glanced around to see if anyone was close enough to hear their conversation. The coastwas clear; Mal and Diego were off in a corner discussing the upcoming polo match on Sunday and new strategies for the game. “It’s Scarlet. Her blood pressure is a little high. I’m worried about her. I had been thinking of the—” he dropped his voice lower “—baby as something that we had time to adjust to and had completely forgotten that pregnancy can be complicated. And things between us are just starting to gel, you know?”
Mo clapped him on the shoulder and squeezed. “I get it. That’s how I continue to feel with Hadley and she’s even worse than I am. We both want this perfect version of life but it’s not that way... It’s messy and complicated. I don’t want to sound like a sap but do you feel like you two are a team?”
“A team?”
“Yeah, like sometimes when things get really stressful I know I can turn to Hadley and just vent or other times I don’t have to say it, she can see I’m on the verge of losing it and she helps me destress. I do the same thing for her.”
“I don’t know. It’s hard to really tell. We are getting closer, but you know me... I’m not really good at reading people,” Alec said.
“I am. And she watches you like she cares about you,” Mo said.
“I think we like each other. How did you know things were different this time with Hadley? I mean, you broke up after high school and then got back together, and did it again after graduating college, and then again when she moved to New York.”
Mo shook his head. “I didn’t, bro. I was just winging it and trying like hell to control my temper. Then I started to realize instead of being angry...that part of me, well, Hadley calmed me down and was exactly what I was missing in my life.”
“I don’t have the anger you always did,” Alec said.
“No you have a different kind of thing... Maybe emptiness?” Mo asked.
He shrugged. But his twin was right on the money. There had always been an emptiness inside him that he didn’t know how to fill. But Scarlet was starting to fill it... Maybe that was what had him so off-kilter. Because she hadn’t indicated that there was any reason for her to stick around after the baby.
“What are you two talking about?” Diego asked, coming over to them with Malcolm on his heels.
“Relationships.”
“So it’s getting serious with Scarlet?” Malcolm asked.
“Yes, but I know she’s only in town temporarily. I mean, we’ve only been together for six weeks,” Alec said, rubbing the back of his neck and taking another long swig of his beer. This discussion wasn’t what he’d intended for the evening.
“Six weeks can be a lifetime in some relationships. Helena and I dated a long time before we got married but I knew on our second date that she was the one,” Malcolm said. “Then I had to figure out how to up my game so that when I asked her she’d have no choice but to say yes.”
“How did you up your game?” Diego asked. “Pippa and I started out with lust and then, well, things sort of happened.”