Oh my word. Maybe this wasn’t going to be as simple as I’d pretended.
With an effort, my feet continued on their path towards the Levesque brothers. “Pat, Sam.” My lips tried to find the shape of a smile.
“Helena!” Pat exclaimed with the sort of excitement he only reserved for me. When he and Charlotte had first started going out, it had been a bit weird. Pat had always felt almost like a baby brother to me. After all, Sam and I had dated for long enough that I’d gotten to know Pat well.
But he had definitely grown up. He and Charlotte matched in ways I couldn’t have even imagined. He made her happy. That instantly put my awkwardness to one side; they were happy and that was what mattered.
Sam and I, on the other hand…
It was so strange to see him, to be so close to him. After a decade, it felt surreal. The last time I’d seen Sam was... him dropping me off at the airport. Before we’d even agreed that we were truly over. We were going to ‘take a break’. That break turned into a broken engagement.
After ten years, I was over it. But seeing Sam did bring memories back. Not, however, the bad ones.
“You look good, Helena,” Sam told me. Pat’s eyes widened like he’d forgotten that Sam and I even knew each other. It made me laugh, shaking my head. This whole situation was bizarre.
“I do,” I agreed, mostly to break the tension. Pat chuckled while Sam’s polite smile stretched into something more genuine. I’d forgotten what a rush it gave me to make Sam grin like that.
I did look good. And I could honestly say that it wasn’t because Sam was going to be at the party. My choices had been more about getting a chance to wear the more fun items in my wardrobe. Working as a lawyer, even in a small town, meant my weekday wardrobe consisted almost entirely of suits.
“I just came over to help you set up the music,” I informed Pat. Briefly, my gaze moved to Sam. “I’ll just steal him for a second. You can have him right back.”
And as easy as that, my first meeting with Sam in ten years came to an end. It had been short, polite, and to the point. Exactly as I had imagined.
So why did I feel as though something was missing?
Chapter Three
Sam
While I hadn’t spent long thinking about what seeing Helena would be like again, I definitely had spent some time on it. What actually happened wasn’t too dissimilar from what I had imagined. Even without seeing Helena, I had known she’d look stunning. Helena always looked stunning.
Ten years had only done her justice. Her hair looked soft, the black curls falling over her shoulders and hugging her face perfectly. The piercing color of her eyes was as blue as I remembered it. Even after ten years, and maybe especially after ten years, Helena made my breath catch just like she had all those years ago when we’d first met as teenagers.
Our run-in was brief. As I watched Helena and Pat leave, I wondered if it should have been more. Helena and I hadn’t left things on good terms, but we hadn’t exactly left them on bad terms either. We’d broken up and it had sucked. But that was ten years ago.
A voice in my head asked if I genuinely thought Helena and I could just brush it all under the carpet and be friendly. I had no idea. I didn’t even know if that was something either of us wanted. Or whether it was something I wanted.
Muting the voice in my head, I carried on with the party. I found Charlotte again, hoping to make sure she knew that I wanted to get to know her better. It was weird knowing that we’d been in school together and had kind of grown up together, and now she was marrying my baby brother.
Still, there was no denying it that Charlotte made Pat happy.
Every time he glanced our way, Charlotte smiled the same way Pat smiled when he talked about her. They were so in love that it almost ached inside me. When he came to retrieve Charlotte for the dancing, I let them go easily.
What I hadn’t expected was how it would somehow lead me to stand next to Helena again.
“Hey,” I greeted, willing any sort of awkwardness to disappear.
The smile she gave me had some stiffness in the corners, like she wasn’t sure quite how to greet me. I could hardly blame her for that. My own uncertainty swirled inside me. We were more than strangers, and yet less than friends, especially after such a lot of time had passed.
“Hey, Sam.” The way she said my name brought me a wave of nostalgia. She shook her head, like she’d just surfaced from the exact same waters. As I glanced towards the people dancing, it was impossible not to remember that the very first words I’d spoken to Helena had been to ask her to teach me how.
None of those were thoughts it would help to dwell on. “How are you?” Helena asked. “When did you get back to town?”
“Only a couple of days,” I answered, glad for the lifeline she’d given me. We could chit chat about this. Nothing we talked about had to be serious. “Mom and dad were away on a whale-watching cruise, so Pat’s been feeding me,” I joked. I could very well feed myself. In fact, I had made mom and dad dinner on the night of their return.
“Did you know he’s now an amazing cook?” I asked instead. Pat deserved all the praise for his cooking. “He says Charlotte’s been teaching him, but I
