Cross Country Hearts by Suzanne August

Twenty Six

“Driving in heels, huh?”

Georgia calls as I’m trying to get out the door. Perfect timing.

“Georgia,” I say, phone between ear and shoulder. I’m hopping around the room and trying to put on my heels.

“June!” She shouts so loud that I wince. “I’m so sorry we keep missing each other. When is the wedding?”

“In half an hour,” I say. I look at the clock in the room. Nope, it’s actually in twenty-five minutes.

We’ve been running around all morning. My mother, two of my sister’s friends, and I ate breakfast together before getting our hair done. We only just finished getting April wedding-ready, which was when I realized that I was still running around the church in bare feet and only half-dressed. My mother is fixing an issue with April’s wedding dress, and my aunt is grabbing something from the hotel. Whatever April’s two friends are doing, I have no idea.

“Can you talk?” Georgia asks.

No, I think. Aloud, I say, “What’s up?”

“Your text was real cryptic,” she begins. “I want to know what’s up with you.”

My breath escapes in one big whoosh, almost as if I’ve been punched in the gut. I’ve hardly had any time since waking up this morning to think about him. I wish Georgia hadn’t brought him up now.

“Um…” I pause and shake my head, running back into the room to grab my purse.

“June?”

“Yeah?”

“Did something happen?”

I make to leave the room again, determined to get back to April, but I tell myself I need to pause and talk to Georgia. How can I sum up the past few days in only a few sentences? I put my purse on a side table and sit on a couch.

I take a breath and let it out slowly. “Jasper and I were arrested in Atlanta.”

“What!”

“It’s a long story, Georgia, and I don’t have a lot of time to explain.”

“What happened?”

I wince again, bringing the phone away from my ear. “Um… Jasper and I were trespassing in a park. And we kissed, I guess.”

Did I need to add that last part? No, I didn’t, if Georgia’s surprised shriek is anything to go by.

“June!” she shouts. “So… what, what now? What are you guys going to do?”

I press my free hand against my forehead. “We’re not going to do anything, Georgia. We haven’t talked to each other since the jail.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

“You fought?”

I squeeze my eyes shut. “Yeah. We said a lot of things.”

There’s a long pause on Georgia’s end. It’s excruciating. I hear movement on her end before she finally says, “Well, you both are pretty stubborn.”

I’d say that’s an understatement. “It doesn’t change how bad the fight was.”

“Okay,” she says slowly. “How does that make you feel?”

Trust Georgia to turn into a therapist and the voice of reason when I least want her to. “I’m running around for a wedding, Georgia. I haven’t had a lot of time to think about it.”

“That’s bullshit.”

I almost laugh. Also, trust Georgia to call me out on my shit. “I don’t have time for this. I really need to get back to April.”

“I mean, I think that gives me your answer, girl.”

I stand, half ignoring her because I don’t want to be talking or even thinking about this again. I pick up the purse on the table and say, “I have to go.”

“June, wait.”

And because I like to think I’m a decent friend, I pause. My shoulders drop. “What?”

“Whatever you want, and I mean really want, you need to go for it,” she tells me. “You get me?”

I roll my eyes, uncomfortable. “Sure.”

“I heard about your conversation with Melanie yesterday,” she goes on. “I’m proud of you. You finally stood up for yourself, and you did it for yourself. I bet you think Jasper hates you, but you’re not going to know if that’s the truth unless you talk to him.”

I bite my lip.

“Are you listening?”

“Yeah,” I say. “Yeah, I am.”

“Okay, well… the worst that will happen is he’ll tell you off. Yeah, I guess that’ll hurt, but you’ll move on and forget about it.”

“Georgia, you make it sound like we’re in love.”

She laughs. “Okay, well, even if you just want to be friends with him, you should at least talk. Don’t be scared of his opinion of you.”

“Georgia—”

But she’s already hung up on me. Which, to be fair, was probably a good thing because I don’t want to talk about Jasper, and I also need to get back to April. With one last glance at the clock—twenty minutes to go—I run out of the room and back to the one where April is getting ready. On the way, I pass a handful of wedding guests arriving and wave off one cousin who tries to greet me.

When I get back to April, she’s hysterical. Not yet crying, but she’s nearly there. This alarms me because when I left her ten minutes ago, she was completely fine.

“What’s wrong?” I ask. I look from April to her friend, Beth, and then to her other friend, Nevaeh. Both her friends are trying to calm my sister down, but Beth draws away to whisper to me.

She takes my elbow and turns me away from April. “Carlisle’s car broke down on the way here.”

I raise my eyes to the ceiling. Of course, just like any clichéd movie, the groom is going to be late. “When can they get here?”

“They’re a fifteen-minute drive away. We’re trying to get someone to go get them before anyone in the church finds out something is wrong.”

Right. “Is my aunt back yet? And where did my mom go?”

Beth looks at me, and I see the crazed look in her eyes. Yeah, I doubt anyone has ever said weddings aren’t stressful. “Hannah should be back here any moment, but she’s not answering her phone, and your mom went to go get the flowers down the street, but she forgot her phone here.”

Shit. I pinch the bridge of my nose. Because I know my mother, I know her phone has to be in her purse. Since she forgot her phone, her purse also has to be here. Which means the keys to her car are here.

“Where’s my mom’s purse?” I ask Beth.

Her eyes widen. “You’re going to go get them?”

“Yeah, just get me the purse, and I’ll run out.”

Beth doesn’t argue. I wonder if she remembers the disaster involving me and a hijacked car this past week, but if she does, she obviously wants the groom here desperately enough that she doesn’t consider her better judgment. Beth rushes over to Navaeh and April, whispering something to the former, before grabbing a small red clutch from a table. April’s eyes follow Beth’s every movement, and when she witnesses her friend hand the purse over to me, her eyes also widen.

“June,” she starts, “if you—”

“I know. Now is a really bad time for a road trip.” I wave the purse in the air and spin on my heel. On my way out the door, I shout over my shoulder, “Don’t worry, this one will only take a half-hour!”

Beth follows me out the door, and as soon she’s given me the details of Carlisle’s whereabouts, I run out of the church and find my mother’s car in the parking lot. Getting into the driver’s seat brings waves of déja vu, but mostly I worry about the fact that I’m now driving a car in heels.

It’s only fifteen minutes, but the minutes go by slower than I want them to. It feels like all the intersection lights are red and that everyone is driving the speed limit when I don’t want them to. Eventually, though, I spot a black sedan pulled over to the side of the road. I have to do an illegal U-turn to get to them, but from church to Carlisle, it only takes twelve minutes.

I put the car in park and get out just as everyone else in the sedan emerges.

And shit, when Beth said them, I’d still only imagined getting Carlisle. Instead of just him, I also spot the heads of his father and one Jasper King.

I close my eyes for a short second, willing myself to stay calm because this is April’s important day, and none of my problems matter. Then I try to suppress the anxiety, open my eyes, and wave a hand. “Everybody in! There’s a wedding I think someone needs to get to!”

Carlisle laughs, and he gets to me first, giving me a tight hug. “Does your mother know you’ve stolen her car again?”

I blink, and more swear words come to mind. I hope that, since it’s for a good cause, she won’t kill me.

“If we hurry,” I say, “she might never find out it went missing.”

Carlisle laughs again before running around to get in shotgun. When I take my focus from him, my gaze lands on the other two. Jasper and his uncle are only feet away from me, and because I still can’t look at Jasper, who admittedly looks incredibly handsome in a fitted tux, I look to the older man. “I got here as fast as I could.”

“Good thing you did,” the older man mutters.

I bite my lip. Maybe he’s still angry about the jail thing.

Jasper is passing me as I turn to get back into the driver’s seat, but I keep my head down, so we don’t make eye contact, and I close the driver’s door before he says anything to me. As soon as the two back doors are closed, I put the car in drive and get the hell back on the road.

“I can’t thank you enough for this,” Carlisle says to me.

I glance at him and try not to take offense to the fact that he’s gripping the handle above the door for dear life. “The only thanks I need is for you to marry my sister.”

He winces. “She all right?”

“Well, I hope her makeup is still perfect by the time we get her down the aisle.”

He shakes his head. “Of all the people who are going to be late.”

I can’t help but laugh. “It’ll make for a great story in the future.”

One more glance at Carlisle tells me that at this moment, this comment doesn’t make him feel better.

We get back to the church in fourteen minutes. I sacrificed two minutes by not running a red light like I would have if Carlisle’s father wasn’t in the car, and then, of all things, I had to stop so a duck and her ducklings could cross the street.

As soon as the car is in park, Carlisle jumps out, and his father follows behind on his heels. Because shotgun and the passenger seat behind it face the church, Carlisle and his father are already running up the stairs as I make to close the driver’s door.

And when I turn around, I come face to face with Jasper King.

We both startle. We’re standing too close. I take a step back but trip on a pebble. These stupid heels.

Jasper glances at my feet. No expression changes, though maybe through the cracks, I think I see amusement. My anxiety makes me doubt it, though.

And then Jasper says, eyes locking with mine, “Driving in heels, huh?”

I hear what he doesn’t say: that maybe it’s not such a good idea.

I can’t help myself. Before I think about what I’m going to say, the words fall out. “Still criticizing my driving skills?”

Two days ago, he might’ve smiled. Even now, I’d like to say that the corners of his eyes crinkle in that maybe-amusement, but his mouth stays pressed into a thin line. In all honesty, he looks unhappy and exhausted.

Without reason, I think back to the conversation I had with Georgia only a half-hour earlier. And deep down, I know she’s right. I proved that I can stand up for myself and be true to who I am when I talked with Melanie yesterday. I can do that even now.

And I must do it before I’m too afraid and change my mind.

“Jasper…” I start.

But before I go on, my mother emerges from the church entrance. “Get in here! The wedding has to start!”

Jasper and I both jump. I’m more scared of my mother than I am of the possibility of an unsalvageable friendship with Jasper. I abandon whatever I’m about to say to him and turn, slamming the driver’s door shut. I pick up the hem of my green dress, and I haul it up the stairs. I don’t even know if Jasper follows behind me.

When I reach my mother, she holds out her hand. Without hesitation, I hand over her keys and purse. “I’m sorry—”

“No,” she interrupts. “You did the right thing, but if you don’t get back to April and get this wedding started, there will be something to be sorry about.”

Right.

I follow her to the room April is in. Before I make it two steps, though, a hand grabs my elbow. It’s Jasper. And once again, we’re standing too close.

He takes a breath, expression still blank and that unhappy look in his eyes. “June, look, I want you to know—”

I want to know, and I truly do want to know, what Jasper is about to say, but I also know that this next hour is not about me or Jasper and our problems. It’s about two people who are about to get married, and that needs to happen first before any conversation between us.

So even though it hurts, I interrupt him. “We don’t have time for this Jasper, I’m sorry.”

His lips purse, but he gives a curt nod. I start to turn away, but he grabs my arm again.

“Jasper—”

“Take this.”

Jasper slides a folded piece of paper into my hands. I glance down, but I have no idea what it could be.

“When you have time, look at it,” he says. Before I respond, he’s turning away himself, almost running in the opposite direction of where I need to be at this moment.

I don’t have a pocket, so I have to run back to April with the folded paper in hand. When I reach the room, everyone is ready, and my mother is giving directions for what’s about to happen.

“June,” my mother says, “You’ll walk down the aisle after Beth. You’ll walk with Jasper, all right?”

It’s not all right, but I’m resigned to it, so I nod my head.

My mother claps her hands once. “Okay, it’s go-time.”

The wedding guests are informed, and the orchestra music starts to play. I give April one hug and tell her she’s beautiful before standing in line before her with a bouquet in hand. Before I realize it, the wedding is starting, and I still have the folded piece of paper in my hand. I glance around for a spot to put it and find nothing but a trashcan.

And well…

I decide I have to at least glance at it before I throw it away because this wedding is way more important than whatever a piece of paper could be.

As discreetly as possible, I unfold the paper and look down at what Jasper’s given me.

I look at it for two seconds. It’s a new drawing, and it startles me.

Then I fold the drawing up, and instead of throwing it away, I tuck it in the band of my bra under my dress. It’s uncomfortable as hell, but I decide in a fraction of a second decision that I can’t throw it away.

Naveah walks down the aisle first, taking the elbow of one of Carlisle’s friends. Then Beth goes, and all too fast, it’s my turn. I walk forward, and Jasper holds up his arm, elbow presented. I loop my arm through it, unable to look at him, and together we walk down the aisle.

My heart races, and I’m not able to focus entirely on the wedding. All I think about is the piece of paper. I see Jasper looking at me from the corner of my eye, but I can’t turn my head. It’s only when we part at the end of the aisle that his eyes finally catch mine.

I have never been able to hide my emotions like he can, even now. He knows immediately that I’ve already looked at the drawing. And, almost imperceptibly, he smiles. The corners of his mouth lift in a tiny grin. His eyes are no longer dull unhappiness. I wouldn’t call them happy, but maybe I see relief and… hope.

My heart beats faster looking at him, so I turn away and take my place. I look up the aisle to see everyone already standing, all eyes on April.

And my sister is beautiful; she truly is. This is the most significant and happiest moment of her life so far, but all I think of is the little folded piece of paper.

Because on that paper, Jasper drew a portrait.

Of me.

And it’s nothing like the one he drew of me long before, with my hands as claws and my eyes akin to a horrible beast. No, in this drawing, I’m… I’m me. Just me. He shaded my hair the exact shade of red it actually is, which is no easy feat, and my eyes are the same light shade of green that they really are. My eyes look directly out, almost like they’re bold and determined, but my mouth tips just slightly upwards, almost shyly.

If possible, Jasper has captured exactly who I am in one drawing. I never would’ve thought it possible.

But, somehow, he did it.