To All the Dogs I've Loved Before by Lizzie Shane

Author:Lizzie Shane
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Published: 2021-11-29T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Two

The bride and groom weren’t the only ones who looked right at home in each other’s arms…

—Pine Hollow Newsletter,

Monday, December 20

Wanted. Past tense.

He’d screwed it up. He’d missed his shot. Because he hadn’t listened when she told him he was what she wanted—or he had listened, but he hadn’t been able to believe it.

Contrary to what everyone in this nosy town seemed to think, he wasn’t trying to win her back. He knew he’d long since missed his window for that. But he still felt a compulsion to make amends. To fix this. Not romantically, but because this was Elinor and he needed her to be okay.

“I’m sorry.”

She shook her head, brushing away the words. “I am, too. I don’t want to fight. Especially not tonight.”

“No, I…that’s not what I meant. I need to…explain. Do you think we could…?” He glanced around the crowded rec center, which had been decked out like a Christmas ballroom for the reception. “Is there somewhere we could talk?”

Elinor hesitated. He could feel her reluctance through his hand on her side. They’d barely been swaying before, and he kept forgetting to dance, moving side to side whenever he realized the music was still playing.

He stopped moving. “Please,” he said softly. “I just…I want to explain. If you’ll let me.”

She chewed on her lower lip, the familiarity of the uncertain gesture hitting him in the gut. “Okay,” she whispered.

He took her hand and started to lead her from the dance floor, but Elinor quickly freed herself. “Everyone will think we’re sneaking off together,” she hissed at him. “Just…meet me on the balcony in ten minutes.”

The rec center had a second floor that provided a jogging track and a viewing area for the main floor below. It was a useful overflow space for the various craft fairs and farmers markets held at the center when the weather wasn’t hospitable at the town square, but no one was up there tonight.

Levi had hoped for somewhere a little more private, but he would take what he could get. He nodded, and Elinor slipped into the crowd without looking back.

He smiled at a few wedding guests without seeing them, going through the motions until he could disappear without rousing suspicion. Deenie and Connor were dancing—looking like they invented it. The show-offs. Astrid danced with Ben, while Ally chatted with his parents. No one seemed to be paying any attention to Levi, so he ducked through the double doors to the stairwell and headed up.

The balcony was all shadows. Levi paused at the top of the stairs to let his eyes adjust. The bleachers that rolled out for viewing sports events had been only partially shoved back after the last time they were used, and the bottom two rows stuck out onto the jogging track. Levi headed toward them, forcing himself to sit rather than stare over the railing, incessantly searching the crowd below for Elinor and wondering if she was actually going to come.

His palms were sweaty, and he rubbed them down the pant legs of the rented suit.

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