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There was no doubt that this party would make people wake up scattered around the barn and – once again – without their shoes, from dancing so much! And to top it off, the gentle rain had returned, so dancing under it was something that added to the joy.
Annie was dancing with Katie, when Maddie and Helen hugged the girl's waist on either side, and said to her:
“I don’t know if it’s you or your parents who are more radiant tonight,” Helen says.
“Is it already dark?” Annie asks in surprise, looking outside. Indeed, the darkness of night had already taken over the sky. Seeing that she had lost her partner to her mother and Aunt Helen, Katie goes in search of a new partner.
“Yes, dear! And that’s why we need to talk to you!” Maddie begins.
“You’re already quite big and you know what wedding night means or something like that...” Helen continues.
“Please! Stop!” Annie closes her eyes, trying to forget the images of the day she arrived home and found her parents on the couch.
“It’s okay, we don’t need details Miss Decatur ” Maddie saves Annie from more information that would come from the lawyer.
“Okay! Whatever! I won’t be the one to lead you down the wrong path!” Annie’s godmother jokes and stops in front of her. “But look, my love, you know more than anyone what your parents went through and the path that brought them here! So...” she looks at Maddie who was still hugging Annie and continues “We thought it would be good for them to be able to enjoy some time together. Alone. At home.”
The three of them laugh.
“Your parents love you more than anything my dear” Maddie says “Don’t get us wrong...”
“No, no! I understand, Aunt Maddie! And I support your idea!” She said happily. Annie really believed that. “But where would I go?”
“Well...” Helen begins pompously, but Maddie screams first.
“To my place! Movie night like Margarita Night. You guys don’t do that anymore...”
“But Cece is now living in my house with me! You can take Lily too and have Girls’ Night Out!” Helen also enters the race for Annie.
“You always take her! This time she’s going with me!” Maddie hugs Annie even tighter, who starts laughing.
“We made plans the other day, Aunt Helen! Today I’m going with Aunt Maddie!”
“HAHA! And the redhead team wins again!” Maddie celebrates dizzily.
“Wait a minute, what about Cal? You guys want to enjoy the night together, don’t you?” Helen still tries to use her last arguments to reverse the defeat.
“Cal is already asleep in the chair. Forget Helen Decatur . You lost Annie today!” Maddie whispers, “Maybe you won’t enjoy the night? Since you caught the bouquet!”
Helen looks at her in disbelief and Annie laughs even harder.
“Come on Annie! Let’s call the boys! And you, just tell Dana Sue that she’s with me today!”
Even with the competition for Annie, they don't stop hugging each other and celebrating how well everything went, in a short time and on a low budget.
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The trip to Maddie 's house was crazy! When she heard that Annie was going to sleep over, Katie was so happy she couldn't contain herself and sang the whole way there. Kyle tried to put together a list of movies for them to vote on when they got there, but he couldn't beat the noise of the child next to him. And Tyler, who was driving the car, tried not to show how happy and nervous Annie was about to sleep over at his house.
For Kyle and Katie, going was an adventure. She was like a big sister. It was fun, movie night, setting up tents in the living room and making popcorn with hot chocolate and whipped cream.
But for Tyler, let's say, it was scary!
Now he understood that he was completely in love with her! And her sleeping under the same roof as him would be a challenge. He would never try anything with her, he would never even think about professing himself or anything like that. First, because she had recently broken up with Jackson. And second, she didn't like him in the same way. And she was too precious to him for him to do anything to push her away. He would never hurt her!
But with her sitting there next to him in the front seat, laughing and turning to talk to Kyle and Katie, it was torture not being able to hold her hand.
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At Maddie 's house , Katie only went in for a shower after choosing clothes for Annie to sleep in from her mother's closet. Even though Maddie insisted, she was the one who put together the look: a t-shirt from her college days in Charleston and shorts from her high school days.
“Look... I organized my entire closet after I got Bill's stuff out and I didn't remember these clothes...” Maddie comments.
Annie changed while Maddie put her clothes away in the closet. The three girls were in Maddie 's suite , while the boys took turns using the bathroom down the hall.
“And it was perfect, Aunt Maddie!” says Annie coming out of the bathroom.
“See! I told you I knew how to combine pieces!” Katie said as she rummaged through her mother’s jewelry drawer in the dresser.
They laugh at the girl, but the redhead says:
“Now show Annie that you know how to take a bath.”
“Let’s go!” She shouts and enters the bathroom in the room.
“Aunt Maddie , do you happen to have any styling cream? My hair is really tangled because of the bun.”
“Of course!” She sits Annie in the armchair in front of the mirror and begins to comb her hair and apply the cream.
“Don’t worry Aunt Maddie, I’ll do it!”
“Don’t you dare!” She teased as she massaged Annie’s brown hair smiling.
“Didn’t my coming here ruin your night with Cal?”
“No, not at all! He’s so tired working with your dad and Skeeter that he doesn’t think he had such a heavy routine even when he was a player!” Annie laughs. “Besides... my dad gave me the opportunity to steal you for myself a little bit. I remember when you were kids, I had trouble getting Ty and Kyle off the street to take a shower and get ready for dinner. Soon, they were back on the street for the last round. They would go to your house to pick you up, but your mom was combing your hair. You would get mad because you wanted to go outside but it took you a while to finish combing and applying the cream to take care of your curls.” Maddie calmly combs her hair “You’re so special! I’m glad Katie is inspired by you!”
Annie's cheeks turn red at the compliment.
“And I still can't believe you designed your outfit!”
“Did you like it?” The girl asks.
“Do I like it?” They continue to look at each other through the mirror. “I love it! Annie, you designed a suit for a special occasion!” Maddie squeezes her shoulders tightly. “You have talent!”
Suddenly, someone knocks on the door.
“Who is it?” Maddie shouts asking.
“Me!” Tyler replies “What do you want for dinner? We don’t have Wharton’s or Sullivan’s” he says amusedly.
Maddie realizes that the owners of the best restaurants in town were busy with the after-party. That is, if they weren't already enjoying themselves at the barn .
“Oh! Oh!” Annie laughs at Maddie.
The owner of the room goes to the door and opens it.
“Are you happy with the mother chef?”
“What can you do?” He jokes.
“Annie, can you be any nicer than that?”
The redhead says turning to the girl in the armchair and finally Ty sees her. But she had already seen him and was perplexed.
Annie thought the butterflies in her stomach around Ty were gone, but she was wrong.
He had one elbow resting on the door frame, wearing shorts and a loose shirt; you could see his strong arms. And to top it all off, his hair was wet and dripping onto his shirt. Which didn't make things any easier for Annie.
“Annie?” Maddie calls her again.
"What?".
“Can I make homemade pizza?”
“Uh... Pizza... You can! Of course you can!”
“Deal!” Maddie turned to leave her room, but now it was Tyler who was mesmerized by Annie’s gaze. She was still sitting in the armchair and wearing her mother’s old clothes. Without makeup and with wet hair, she had never looked so beautiful!
“Tyler!” Maddie calls out to him for the second time.
"Madam?".
“Come on, come to the kitchen with me! Annie will meet us downstairs after Katie gets out of the shower.”
He still can't stop looking at Annie.
"Yes of course!".
She pushes him and goes down the stairs first and then he follows her. Annie takes a deep breath and tries to control her stomach, while Ty tries the same.
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The pizza had been made with much noise from Kyle, Katie, and Maddie ; and extreme silence from Ty and Annie. Their cheeks turned pink when they caught each other's eyes in the kitchen or bumped into each other in it.
Since they were all quite hungry, they all ate around the table while discussing the best moments of the party. In one of the stories, they were graced with Tyler and Kyle telling that before Maddie and Annie arrived with the bride and groom, one of the farm animals had escaped and chased after Max. The aspiring DJ was getting out of the car with the equipment at the moment the escape occurred.
At one point, Katie had started to doze off on her plate and Maddie had decided to put her to bed to sleep.
“Ready for the movie?” Kyle asks when it’s just him, his brother, and Annie in the kitchen.
“Let’s go!” Ty replies.
“What’s it going to be?” Annie asked when they reached the other room.
Since Kyle went first, he lay down on the small couch and took it all for himself, forcing Ty and Annie to share the larger one.
“You guys can decide,” Kyle said as he picked up his phone and texted Lily. A gentle rain was falling again outside. “Since I already picked the couch.” Kyle Townsend giving up on picking the movie was a huge sign of maturity.
“Annie?” Ty does the honors and offers her the controller.
Annie, who was breathing quickly due to Ty's proximity, responds:
“You can choose!”
“You choose the movie or watch...” Ty, who was also nervous, stumbles over his words. He tries to speak again, but nothing comes out. Annie laughs and the sound of her laughter calms him down and he tries to speak again: “You choose the genre and I choose the movie, how about that?”
"Could it be!".
They stare at each other for a moment and start laughing again. Neither had any idea why the other was acting so strangely. But Kyle, who had nothing to do with it, asks:
“Have you decided on the film or not?”
“Adventure!” Annie replies.
“Let’s go with Indiana Jones then!” Ty celebrates by turning on the TV and putting on the movie.
“But...” Kyle goes to contest the movie choice, but Ty intervenes.
“Shut up! You chose the couch! You said so yourself.”
Kyle accepts, feigning frustration, but soon the film begins and the three pay attention to him.
After a while, Maddie brings treats and goes to her room to sleep; leaving the three in the company of Harrison Ford.
However, the focus of the film changes when Kyle's cell phone keeps ringing with message notifications.
“It’s Lily!” He comments as he begins to answer them.
“It would be weird if it wasn’t,” Ty teases him.
“Kyle, can I ask you a question?” Annie asks as she adjusts her body on the couch.
“What’s the second one?” he jokes and Tyler throws a pillow at his face.
“You and Lily! How did it happen?”
“It’s a long story!” He puts the phone down on the table, assumes his theater narrator’s posture, takes a deep breath and begins to say: “It all started after a summer night.”
“Here we go...” Ty jokes about the drama his brother had started to create to tell the story and Kyle throws the pillow back in his face. The drama didn’t leave Kyle.
“After being mutilated and forgotten! Abandoned with a broken heart. Broken into pieces after our first kiss. And last!”
Annie looks at Tyler confused after Kyle's dramatization.
“ Nellie broke up with him after she kissed him and moved to Castlewood!”
“Ah!”.
“Distraught, I was left in misery and loneliness. Until... On a sunny, fragrant and dazzling day; a flower was left at my door. And then another, then another... And my heart was filled with joy and hope in finding my maiden again.”
“He got a secret admirer and he thought it was Nellie.” Ty translates again.
“But... once again she broke my heart. She broke it! She broke into thousands of pieces the pieces that were broken the first time!”
“ Nellie came from Castlewood and said she wasn’t the secret admirer.” Kyle glares at his brother after he says that and Ty adds after understanding that the information contained a missing part: “And that she was dating another guy.”
Annie looks at Kyle in surprise.
“Was the secret admirer Lily?” Annie asks in surprise.
“Don’t ruin the pilot twist by doing me a favor,” Kyle asks, and Annie and Tyler hold back their laughter. He straightens his body to continue the narrative. “And then, one night when I found myself alone and disbelieving in passion... Not knowing who was the maiden who yearned for my passion. I found myself alone in my castle...”
“That’s a lie, you were babysitting Katie...” Tyler says as he eats the treats.
“She was upstairs. As I was saying, alone in my castle with my regrets; another flower was left at my door in response: a lily!” He pauses and then relaxes his posture and finishes the story: “Then Lily came out from behind the bush and I asked her to come out! And now we are together!”
Annie laughs:
“That’s really cool! And Lily is a good person! Fun!”
“And her boyfriend is even better,” Kyle replies to the girl.
“Oh no!” Tyler feigns indignation at his brother’s pompous speech and throws the pillow at him again. “Indiana Jones doesn’t deserve all that ego!”
“Touche” and the youngest throws the pillow at the same speed it came, at his brother.
The three laugh and allow some side conversations before returning their attention to the film.
After a while, the lights in the room were turned off. And the movie was almost over, when Tyler realized that Annie had fallen asleep with her neck on his left shoulder. A thin, calm breathing was felt. He slowly slid his body down the couch, so that she fit her head between his neck and shoulder and became more comfortable.
Tyler didn't notice when he or Kyle fell asleep, but he knew he had fallen asleep smelling the cream his mother used on her hair mixed with Annie's perfume. And now he had his new favorite sound: her breathing as she slept. Just like the night she kissed him.
The next day, when Maddie came downstairs to make breakfast, she found the TV in sleep mode, Kyle nearly falling off the couch, and Annie and Tyler with their heads resting on each other as they slept sitting up on the couch with their bare feet on the small table.