Clearing her throat, Ellie asks, “And what about Nash? Aren’t you worried he may try and interfere?”
“Nope. Definitely not,” I reply before turning and walking away.
Am I certain Nash won’t cause a scene during the ceremony? Heck no. But I refuse to let her think I have any doubt that he’s over her.
Nash
* * *
I’ve just sat down at an empty table near the breakfast bar to eat my bacon and eggs while I wait for Lucy, when an older woman plops down right across from me. I start to make a comment about her having the wrong table when I notice her blondish-white hair and face is somewhat familiar. She was the woman standing with Ellie and Barry in the lobby yesterday. She must be Lorraine, Ellie’s mom’s sister, Lucy’s mother.
“My daughter hasn’t been thinking clearly lately, obviously,” she starts without even so much as a friendly greeting. “She’s gone through enough with cancer and surgery that left her sterile, a cheating boyfriend and a family member’s betrayal. I don’t think she can handle any more pain, nor does she deserve more.”
Well, fuck. This woman has somehow managed to make me feel even guiltier than I was already feeling in the span of only ten seconds.
“I care about Lucy,” I put my bacon down and wipe my hands on my napkin to tell her truthfully. “And I don’t ever want to hurt her.”
“Then don’t,” she replies, as if it’s that fucking simple.
Without another word, she gets up and joins the small man in a yellow polo and khakis who was waiting for her and sizing me up, and then the two of them walk off.
Only once they’re gone and I have a moment to myself do I replay the conversation I just had with Ellie.
Did I even ask her why the fuck she left me? No, I don’t think so. And it’s not like I don’t already know. Love, or lust, as it was more frequently in our case, just wasn’t enough for her. She needs the finer things in life to be happy, things only rich guys like the chubby bastard can give her.
I’ve been kidding myself because I never really needed a face-to-face conversation to understand that aspect of the woman I married.
And while I’ve only known Lucy for a few weeks, I already know without a doubt that she’s a better human being than Ellie. It sucks that someone so good has been through so much shit.
“There you are!” my little pixie says when she comes around the corner of the breakfast bar and spots me. I’m not sure where that possessiveness came from. She’s not mine. I can’t be hers when a long prison sentence is likely waiting for me back home.
“Hey,” I say in greeting as she slumps down in the seat across from me, the one her mother recently vacated.
“I thought you might be at the bottom of a few bottles by now after talking to Ellie,” Lucy remarks as I eat.
“Nah.”
“You’re okay?” she asks, blue eyes unobstructed by glass widening in surprise. Since when did she decide to wear contacts? How come I didn’t notice how beautiful her eyes were before?
“Yep.”
“And we’re staying?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Could you maybe try to use more than one syllable words please to let me know what you’re thinking?”
“I’m fine,” I assure her. “What about you?” I ask, wondering if she is ever going to tell me about her battle with cancer.
“I’m…great,” she lies with a fake smile that I see right through. Still, I get it. She’s putting on a brave face, and I’ll let her get away with it this time.
“You just missed your parents,” I tell her before sipping my orange juice.
“Oh no,” she mutters with a wince. “Did they say something to you?”
“They were fine,” I reply. “Now I know where you got your height from. How long ago exactly did your mom and dad decide to leave Munchkin Land?”
Lucy gasps and then leans across the table to slap me on my shoulder, but she’s unable to bite back her grin.
“Not everyone is lucky enough to be over six feet tall,” she remarks.
“I may have been blessed with the tall gene, but at least your parents didn’t skip out on you.”
“True. They are great,” Lucy says with a smile. “I think they’re still a little mad at me for up and moving.”
“You needed to do shit on your own. I get it,” I tell her, meaning I understand about more than just her leaving home, and that I also understand why she came looking for me. It was fucked up that she didn’t tell me from the beginning, but I doubt I would’ve wanted to spend even a minute with her if I had found out she was related to Ellie. Or I would’ve constantly annoyed her wanting to know everything about Ellie.
“So, um, what do you want to do today? We’re free until the rehearsal and dinner tonight at six.”
“Why do you have to go to rehearsal?” I ask in confusion.
“Because I’m the backup bridesmaid. And it’ll be good for me to prepare myself for the ceremony before tomorrow, sort of like a practice run.”
“If you say so,” I mutter.
“Until then, we could go swimming or play some tennis,” Lucy offers, and I give her a look that clearly says, Do I look like the type of man that plays tennis? The swimming is also a hell no, because if I see her in a bikini, my self-control is so low that I would have no choice but to take it off of her, probably with my teeth. Tonight, her wearing the red dress will be all the temptation I’ll be able to stand in one day.
“How about we get out of here and go back to the break shit place?” I suggest. “You didn’t really get a chance to destroy much. And it was a decent stress reliever. You could probably use a good dose before tonight’s rehearsal.”
“You liked it?” she says in surprise, joy brightening her face.
“Yeah, I did.”
“Okay, cool. Let me get a shower and then we’ll go!”
And there she was, back to the Lucy I know and love, the one who uses an exclamation in every other sentence.
Wait. Did I just say love?
Chapter Nineteen
Lucy
* * *
Friday afternoon, as I sit in one of the many white chairs facing the decorated gazebo where tomorrow Barry and Ellie will say their vows for real, I can’t help but look at Barry and wonder what I ever saw in him.
I’m pretty sure it was the blind kind of teenage puppy love. His funny, light-hearted personality when we were teenagers is what drew me in. The rest of him I accepted as is, because that’s what you do when you love someone.
But now, I’m trying to see Barry from Ellie’s point of view after she was married to such a rare, sexy as hell man who she could fuck whenever she wanted. If the two men were cars, then she definitely traded down. It doesn’t take a genius to see Barry’s appeal. His family is rich as fuck, profiting from their pharmaceutical company. He obviously knows and doesn’t care that Ellie’s only about his cash because she’ll make a pretty trophy wife on his arm. They already have a kid on the way to continue the Atwater legacy.