Taking a step away, I pulled up her message.
Cindy: I’m not coming. Please don’t hate me. It’s for the best. Mom and Dad will take care of everything.
My knees buckled and I steadied myself on a metal pole holding up the tent. Was this a joke? I glanced to Foster for confirmation. Surely if this was some big charade to pull one over on me and get me riled up, he was in on it. He stared back at me with a blank expression.
“Tell Pastor Smith to skip the reading.”
“But—”
“No stupid reading,” I said more sternly as I tapped on Cindy’s name and put the phone to my ear.
He shrugged and took off.
“Everything alright?” Chance asked.
I didn’t dare look at him as the phone rang. No answer. I called back.
“You’ve reached Cindy—” Her chipper voicemail kicked in again. I hung up and then pressed the damn call button harder, as though sheer force and persistence would make her answer.
Chance watched me while I paced back and forth. My palms tingled and the weight of the diamond bracelet still in my hand grew heavy.
The line connected to silence and I froze waiting for her to say something. One, two long seconds passed.
“Cindy?”
“Yeah, sorry, I’m here.” Her voice sounded small and far away.
“Oh, thank God.” My lungs filled with air. “Where are you? And what do you mean you’re not coming?”
Chance made a little choking sound, but I ignored him.
“I can’t do this, Finn.”
“Do what, exactly?”
“Get married.”
I smiled, a little manic perhaps like this was still some big practical joke. “Little late for cold feet.”
“I’m so sorry. My parents should be arriving any minute and they’ll take care of everything. I’ve already contacted the PR office and your agent to give them a heads up.”
Christ, she was serious. The thought of telling all these people that there wouldn’t be a wedding, that I’d been left at the freaking altar like a cautionary tale, had a prickling warmth spreading over my entire body.
This wedding was two months and two party planners working full time in the making. When I’d proposed, Cindy said she wanted to get married as soon as possible. It took a small miracle to pull off this kind of extravagance in that amount of time. Two hundred guests were taking their seats as we spoke. The photographer from People was around somewhere right now snapping pictures. Pictures that would now be evidence of the most humiliating day of my life.
She sighed. “I’m sorry, Finnie. I wanted to tell you in person, but Mikey thought it’d make a bigger scene.”
“Mikey? As in Martins? My teammate?”
“Yes, Finn. Don’t be dense. We’ve been spending time together since he was traded to the team and we… we have a connection. I’m sorry. I should have talked to you last night, but then the team threw that surprise party for us and well, it didn’t seem quite right.”
“Didn’t seem quite right?” I barked out a laugh. “What about…” I trailed off unsure what exactly I wanted to ask. What about the commitment we’d made? What about our apartment? Our joint charities? And when exactly had things changed? I thought we were good. No, better than good. I thought we were untouchable. She was sewn into my life so tight.
Spots dotted my vision. The reality of what was happening washed over me.
“Mikey and I are going to Bora Bora. It’ll give you time to get your stuff out of the apartment and when I get back, we can figure everything else out. We’ll need to make a statement to the media.”
The woman was taking him on our honeymoon. Jesus. How had I not seen this coming? My pathetic face would be splashed about with sad headlines and assumptions about why she hadn’t wanted to marry me. Was I bad in bed? Was I a controlling arsehole? And everywhere I went, she’d be there, and on freaking Martins’ arm apparently.
Foster reappeared, set the cat carrier on the ground in front of me, and then pulled out the kitten and offered it to me totally unaware of the situation.
“Finn? Finnie?” Cindy’s voice echoed through the phone. I missed whatever she’d said before, but it didn’t matter. I’d heard enough.
I stared at the kitten, sweat dripping at my temples. It meowed, eyes big, like it wasn’t too impressed with what was happening either. I took her, cradled her to my chest with one hand, then hung up the phone. Cindy’s parents came into view walking up the aisle with matching grim expressions.
“Everything okay?” Chance asked. “You look a little pale.”
I shoved the cat at him and then heaved next to the fancy white tent. But when I stood up straight to tell my hero that I’d just been left at the altar, I didn’t get that rush of calm I got on game day and I didn’t feel like I could dominate anything except maybe a bottle of Macallan.
Adele
I breathed in the top of CJ’s head. A sweet mixture of dirt, sweat, and innocence made my heart squeeze in my chest. Mouth open like a baby bird, my nephew was sprawled out on top of me fast asleep. Finally.
I was contemplating how to get him from the couch to bed without waking him and had almost worked up the courage to lean forward, when the sound of keys jingling in the front door made him squirm. As quickly as I could without jarring him, I eased us to a standing position, clutching him tightly to my chest. CJ’s limp body seemed to weigh twice as much as I carried him to his room and put him down in his bed. I let out a sigh of relief when his eyes stayed closed.
Aubrey’s voice filtered through the house as I quietly shut CJ’s bedroom door behind me. “Easy. Oh, watch the… well, it’s just the floor. You tripped over your own feet.”
I laughed softly and smiled. It was impossible to be around my brother and his wife without either turning to goo at how perfect they were together or being completely annoyed…again at how perfect they were together. I was squarely in the first camp. Their love made me insanely happy. They were proof that love could prevail even through hard times and years apart.
I walked down the hallway toward them, but then halted abruptly when they came into view. I swallowed my laughter and my breath caught in my throat. My gaze was held captive by the scene. Chance and Aubrey had gone out for a date night to a wedding in LA, but it wasn’t Chance that Aubrey was helping into the house now and my brother was nowhere to be seen.
The guy stumbling beside her was unbelievably handsome. Disheveled and obviously drunk, swaying from side to side.
Hello bad boy fantasy of my youth. Five years ago, this was exactly the type of guy I would have fallen for at first sight and then convinced myself he was perfect for me regardless of what I found when I got to know him. Which was usually some major red flags. If there was one good thing that came from hitting rock bottom, it was the wisdom and scars that kept me from repeating those mistakes. Sadly, it didn’t stop my body from reacting.
“Oh, thank God,” Aubrey said and audibly exhaled. “Can you help me get him to the couch?”
I moved to action and not a moment too soon because as I reached him, he fell into me. I managed to get my arms around him and stabilize us so we didn’t crash to the floor, but the position left his lips inches from my own and his blue eyes so close to mine I could pick out the exact shade in relation to the paint colors I’d been trying as an accent on my living room wall. Hyper blue.