The Gala Contract: An Aster Mountain Lodge Novel by Ellie Mack

Author:Ellie Mack [Mack, Ellie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-05-09T16:00:00+00:00

20

PAUL

It’s Cleo’s death glare behind Alicia’s back that gets me to follow Danny to the lodge. I don’t believe for a single second that Alicia’s okay because the last time I saw her eyes go that hollow we were sitting in a diner with the remnants of her engagement ring coiled on the table between us.

“I am indisputably the world’s biggest asshole right now,” Danny says when the door shuts behind us.

The lobby of the lodge looks largely the same as it did the first time I was up here: a wide pine desk to the left that serves as reception, and a cozy room with a wood-burning stove and a handful of couches around a low coffee table to the right. The desk is stained and sealed now, and the couches are new, but the shape of the place is unchanged.The stove isn’t in use right now either, but the whole room still gives off a snug, inviting atmosphere that’s wildly at odds with my current mood.

“Wasn’t going to dispute you,” I say.

“There’s no paperwork, either,” he adds.

“Oh, I know. What I don’t know is why you pushed her like that,” keeping my voice low. Sound carries on the mountain, and I don’t want Alicia and Cleo to hear me shouting.

Danny scrubs a hand over his face and sinks onto one of the couches.

“It’s not an excuse,” he starts. “But prom was supposed to be the last good memory. I’d already decided I was going to New Mexico. I knew I was leaving Cleo, but I hadn’t told her yet.”

I don’t point out that he technically didn’t ever tell Cleo he was leaving; he just left. It’s more because I’m clenching my jaw so tightly than anything else.

“I was really fixated on making sure it was perfect. Cleo wanted Alicia there, but Alicia didn’t want to go by herself, so I found a date for her. Guess Leesh was right about the whole third wheel situation, seeing as I was apparently so absorbed in Cleo that I didn’t notice she wasn’t there.”

I try not to flinch at the nickname again. Alicia doesn’t seem to mind it, but every time Danny or Cleo calls her ‘Leesh’ it yanks underneath my ribs. I get the impulse to give her a nickname—I’m guilty of that myself—but we’re doing it for different reasons. Every time I call her Al or Hanratty, it’s to keep myself from calling her something far more tender. It’s to keep back all the sweethearts and darlings and babes that I haven’t earned.

When they call her Leesh, I think of a rope in their hands, pulling her back to a past that’s hurt her. I think of a teenage Alicia, homesick on Christmas at her own kitchen table. As unfair as it is to lay that blame at Danny and Cleo’s feet, the nickname is a reminder of her place in their trio. My stomach feels like it’s rotting away from the inside out, thinking about it.The prom story made it clear: Danny and Cleo being together has always meant loneliness for Alicia.

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