Bear Bride (Bear Cove #1)(6)
And to think that she wouldn’t even know about the damned wedding if her aunt didn’t own the only bakery in town! Very few of the Snow Crest people came to the bakery or to any of the other businesses in town besides the furniture and grocery shops, but Aunt Cynthia had a way of making people feel welcome. She was warm and discreet and never nosy, and it seemed like the carpenters valued that about her as they sometimes ventured into her parlor to try her latest sweet inventions. When the order for the wedding cake had been placed, Cynthia had already agreed to do it before she realized whose wedding it was. The news had come as a dagger to Keyla’s heart.
Now, the future looked particularly bleak to Keyla. With a population of no more than five thousand people, Bear Cove wasn’t exactly bustling with eligible bachelors and she felt like she already knew all of them. It had been so refreshing when the carpenter families had moved in the Snow Crescent campsite two years ago. All the new faces suddenly flooding the hallways and classrooms of Bear Cove High had truly revived the sleepy daily routines of the students who had all grown up together.
She had never been up to the camp, though the hills were only a few miles up the main road that passed through Bear Cove, but she had heard stories. The carpenters were a very close-knit group of families who lived as a secluded community, away from the noise and petty intrigues of the small town, always keeping to themselves even on the rare occasions when they visited the local stores and pubs, always in small groups.
The carpenter children behaved similarly in school, sticking together and never participating when it came to school functions, sports or even parties. Keyla had been fascinated by the mystery that surrounded these tall, athletic, beautiful newcomers and longed to be a part of their exclusive company. She herself had few friends and none of the late night secret talks under the blankets or the uncontrollable giggling at something particularly riveting that the other girls shared. She was a loner. And so was Troy.
Keyla noticed her hand was shaking on the pump nozzle’s handle and was glad to hear the click that indicated the tank was full. Getting gas was the last bit of procrastination she could come up with before she headed straight for the hills to complete her mission. Aunt Cynthia had been right as always. This was nowhere near easy. It had seemed all very reasonable when she had played it out in her head this morning. She would go there, looking her best, deliver the cake, steal a quick glance at Corin in her wedding dress, maybe get a chance to say a few quick words to Troy, ask him a few questions.
What? All this had sounded reasonable? She must have been insane. Standing there in her best spring dress in coral tulle, she looked like a psychotic bridesmaid no one had invited, the cake-bearing intruder that would stand out in her ridiculous outfit, more garish than the buttery pink cake itself. She would step into these people’s reclusive home and possibly feel even stupider than walking in the Bear Cove High girls’ bathroom to find a bunch of girls huddled together, sharing a cigarette and whispering, laughter erupting every few moments. And the stares. They were bound to stare, just like the high-school girls, measuring, evaluating, piercing eyes travelling down her body and making her want to shrink into herself and disappear.
What am I doing, she thought, and why didn’t I put on the loose black T-shirt and jeans that would make me blend in? Instead, she had chosen to look like she was actually attending the wedding, like she was intentionally pushing her presence at these quiet and reserved people that had never indicated they wanted anything to do with the townsfolk. Except for Troy who had been the first to speak to her in the library, the first to lend her one of his favorite novels, the first to invite her to discuss it over a coffee once she was done (which she didn’t want to admit was only a few hours after she had received it).
Keyla glanced at her watch. It was too late. She didn’t have time to go back and change. The only thing left to do was deliver the cake as quickly as she could, stay out of the way and jump back into her car to drive back to the safety of her own room. And forget about talking to Troy and demand explanations on his wedding day. Now she couldn’t think of anything more pathetic.
Keyla made the last turn on the narrow dirt road, which was no more than a path through the woods now, and came out into a spacious clearing, neatly tucked among the mountain peaks and shrouded in pine forest all around. A large log gate at the end of the road announced that she was now entering Snow Crest Camp and her heart immediately started thumping in her chest, the blood pulsing against her temples. She had expected that the gate to the camp was at least attended, if not guarded, so she could simply drop off the box with the cake and be on her way, but the lonely gate only stood above the path to greet her and she crawled on slowly between the blackberry bushes.
She was already aware of some commotion ahead and soon the backs of a row of log cabins came into view. Through the gap between two of the cabins, she could already see people setting up for the wedding and some of the guests, all dressed in different hues of green, were already seated in the wooden benches lined up before the ceremonial arch. Great, now the chances of blending in amid the forest, the grass and this convenient group decision to wear green were approaching zero. She surveyed the backseat, but found nothing to cover up the ostensibly wrong coral ruffles and ribbons.
“Ok,” Keyla said aloud as if she was giving herself a private pep talk, “no one cares about the guests at a wedding, all eyes are on the groom and bride, sneak in, sneak out, fast as a lightening.” Then a scene flashed through her head. Herself, sweating and panting and red, crossing the finishing line of the town’s charity half marathon, completely out breath, her T-shirt soaked through… only fifteen minutes later than the last contestant in the group. What was worse was that the audience had actually politely waited for her to finish, all of them sharing the same encouraging look, full of pity for the chubby girl who almost collapsed in the town square, full of understanding and compassion, their applause and cheers for her just a bit overplayed to show their support. She wished she didn’t need support. Fast as a lightening alright.