Now he looked confused. “Took what?”
“The exit. You wanted to prove your point. You wanted to be the one who left.”
“I didn’t—” he spoke sharply and stopped. Mac gazed up at the sky, his face working. Then he fixed me in that piercing green stare and said, “I didn’t want to leave.”
My heart stilled as we locked eyes and the weight of his words pressed against me.
I turned away from him and walked quickly toward the resort. I had to get away. Because I knew if I stayed a moment longer, I would have found myself in his arms.
I knew what he was trying to tell me, but I couldn’t believe it. I wouldn’t allow myself to believe it. I didn’t want to get burned. Not again.
But as I headed toward the restaurant, after the others, a shining crystal of hope began to take root inside me. Maybe Mac was different. And not different in the way I’d deluded myself with other guys.
Maybe he actually was.
21
Mac
The rehearsal dinner was held at The Blue Note, the nicest restaurant at the resort.
Sam had reserved a private room off the main floor so we wouldn’t be bothered by wedding guests coming to chat up Sam about real estate. Even so, it took a bit for Sam and Beck to make it into the room as they had to circle the main dining floor, greeting guests who were currently eating.
I watched their bright smiles, their mouths dropping in laughter, and knew Sam was full of shit. I didn’t know Beck that well so I had to assume this massive wedding was her idea. Sam, or at least, the Sam I knew, didn’t go for fancy frills and endless guest lists. And he definitely didn’t enjoy inquiring again and again ‘How was your flight?’ to people he didn’t give a shit about.
Sam was stone-cold, highly practical, a businessman in every sense of the word. Those walls came down around the Knights, and that was exactly what made our bond so special. To the world, we were bastards, but within Club Tempest, we could really be ourselves.
A week ago I would have looked away, disgusted by how much he was changing. But now? I watched him through the door to the private room. I hated to admit it, but I was starting to finally understand.
I wasn’t sure where that confession had come from outside, but it was true. I hadn’t wanted Alice to leave. I’d wanted to turn over and see those brown eyes staring back at me. Because it was exhausting being a bastard sometimes. And there were certain things I would never be able to get from the Knights.
I turned away from the door and sat down at the table. The group was in a heated discussion about the third big event of the evening: the bachelor and bachelorette parties.
“There has to be a stripper. At least one,” Twain insisted. He was talking to Jules. Unsurprisingly, she still wasn’t quite over the incident from the other night.
“There doesn’t have to be anything,” she countered. “Strippers are an antique, outdated, sexist, stupid tradition and I don’t want you having one.”
“That’s not really up to you, babe,” Henry said, pouring a glass of wine.
Jules ignored him and turned to her boyfriend. “Keegan?”
Twain raised an eyebrow and also looked at our friend. “Yeah, Keegan. Are we allowed?”
Keegan shifted in his seat. He looked annoyed at both of them. I didn’t feel sorry for him in the slightest. It was his fault for dating a controlling bitch. And besides, who the hell brings a date to a wedding?
I had a feeling Keegan was asking himself the same question, but they were waiting for an answer. He deflected it. “I’m not in charge of that. Mason organized the damn party.”
“Okay,” Jules said, turning on Mason, who was looking over the menu and seemingly not listening to a word that was being said. “Mason. No strippers.”
“Too late,” Mason said from behind the menu.
“What do you mean ‘too late’?” she demanded.
He lowered the menu and fixed her in his piercing silver-gray stare. “I mean there’s a girl coming from an hour away and she’s probably left already.” To the rest of us, he said mildly, “I hear she’s quite good.” He raised the menu again to continue looking.
Jules looked as if she might blow a valve, but Alice cut in. “We have a stripper too, Jules,” she said.
Jules paused. “You got Beck a stripper?” she asked like Alice had just suggested getting her grandmother a prostitute.
Alice shrugged. “It’s a Bachelorette party. It’s not serious. It’s supposed to be funny.”
“Yeah,” Sarah agreed. “My parents both had strippers and neither of them are into it at all.”
“And how did that go?”
“Apparently, Dad’s was scabby and Mom’s was greasy and kept trying to kiss her on the mouth.”
“Ew,” the table said in unison.
“It’s a funny story now, and according to them, it was then too,” she said, chuckling. “They’ve been married forty-five years so I don’t think it had any affect on their marriage.”
“What had any affect on whose marriage?” Beck was finally back, Sam in tow. He grimaced at me as he entered. My friend looked tired. All the meaningless niceties were starting to wear on him.
“Just debating the value of strippers at the parties tonight,” Kylie said. She changed the subject quickly. “How are the guests? There are a hell of a lot of them, huh?”
“There really are,” Beck agreed. She looked a little winded and held Sam’s hand tightly. “I’m having a hard time with the names.”
“So am I,” Sam admitted. He pulled Beck’s chair out for her and then sat in his own beside her. “I think ninety percent of these people came for the free trip.”
“Well, the important ones are here,” Mason said.
He was right. I glanced across the table again at Alice. She was dressed in a light blue shift, her hair pulled back simply. In the glow of the overhead lights, she looked ethereal.
It was out there now, how I felt. She’d walked away, but I’d felt the hesitation before she left. Alice felt the same way, but she was denying it to herself. Was it fear? Fear of another Daniel? I had been a fantastic ass all week, not to mention the very first time we met. But I felt the potential for us. Last night, I’d gotten the scent of love and after today, after that hesitation, that signal of hope, I had the hunger to chase it.
But first I needed to prove to her that I’d changed. It didn’t take more than a moment to know what I had to do. For better or for worse, I needed to put aside my issues with Sam and Beck. I still wasn’t certain that this wedding wasn’t going to change everything for us, but the longer I held onto my reservations, the further I pushed Alice away.
I stood up, raised my glass. The room stilled at the sight, bewilderment, a hint of tension. Alice raised those beautiful brown eyes to me, and I saw surprise and a dash of hope in them.
I cleared my throat, opened my mouth, and—
The doors to the private room exploded open. I turned around quickly, for some reason expecting to see the kid from Tuzas and his friends, armed with machine guns and ready to kill.
Once I saw who it actually was, I almost wished it was them.