“And how exactly did the two of you meet anyway?” Ellie asks with a tilt of her head, hands braced on her hips. “Sort of a huge coincidence, isn’t it?”
“Maybe it was fate,” I challenge even though now I know it was all Lucy. I’ll be damned if I give Ellie the satisfaction.
Honestly, I have no idea what Lucy’s entire plan was when she sought me out, if she had actually thought I would help her break up Ellie and fuckface or what. But I’m glad we met. I’m not sure what I would’ve done without her these past few weeks. If not for her, I would probably still be a drunken mess who didn’t have any future to look forward to.
No matter what I’ve been going through, Lucy’s had it ten times worse.
Of course, I’m terrified of what will happen next week when we get back to town and I have to go to the police station and answer questions on the murder charges. I deserve whatever punishment I get; there’s no denying that. But at the same time, I’m dreading having to say goodbye to the guys and Lucy.
Once she finds out about the charges, I have no doubt she’ll run for the hills and not want anything to do with me ever again.
And I hate how much it will hurt her when she learns the truth about me. The girl has endured enough pain for ten lifetimes. Here I am, heaping on more. I should’ve come up with another plan to get out of town for a few days.
I guess I’m a selfish bastard for wanting to spend my last days of freedom with her.
Chapter Eighteen
Lucy
* * *
When I woke up to the sound of Nash walking out the door, I quickly got dressed, put in my contacts, ran a brush through my hair and brushed my teeth before going to look for him. Even though his things are still in the room, I was afraid he was up and leaving without saying goodbye.
Instead of finding him downstairs at the breakfast buffet, though, I run into my mother.
“There you are! I’ve been calling you since last night!” she exclaims as she comes hurrying over to me before I can escape without her noticing. Like me, she’s petite, although with a little extra cushion. She has the same pale blonde hair brushing her shoulders and blue eyes.
“Sorry, Mom,” I reply as we hug.
“What were you thinking bringing him here?” she whispers. “What Ellie did to you was horrible, but I can’t believe you would stoop to her level!”
“I didn’t plan to bring Nash, I swear,” I tell her. “It just sort of…happened last minute.”
“Lorraine is losing her mind!” she says about my aunt, her sister and Ellie’s mother. “Apparently, the groom’s family doesn’t know Ellie was married before.”
“Married up until just a few weeks ago,” I mutter. “I’m not obligated to keep her dirty secrets for her.”
“No, but you don’t need to bring them up and cause problems right before the couple’s very expensive wedding while she’s six months pregnant.”
“Again, not my problem,” I seethe. “In fact, I didn’t want to be invited, much less made a ‘substitute bridesmaid’! It’s insulting and embarrassing, which is exactly what Ellie intended to prove she’s better than me!” Even as kids she always had to get her way and was constantly trying to one-up me on everything.
“Then why did you come, sweetheart?”
“Because I couldn’t not come!” I exclaim.
“Calm down,” my mother hisses. “You’re here now, and you need to apologize to Ellie and Barry to try and make things right. Assure them that you aren’t going to air any of their dirty laundry this weekend and you’re not trying to wreck the wedding.”
“I think their dirty laundry went public when he cheated on his girlfriend while she was in the hospital, having surgery and battling cancer.”
“It’s time for you to forgive them,” my mom tells me. “If you ask me, and you better not repeat this to anyone, but Ellie did you a favor by ridding you of that chubby, cheating bastard.”
“I know that now,” I agree. “At the time when it all happened, not so much.”
“What about her ex? Is he going to cause problems?”
“No,” I assure her. “I’m almost certain he doesn’t want anything to do with her.”
“Let’s hope not,” Mom mutters. “Now, go find Ellie and say how sorry you are before this causes an even bigger rift in the family. Lorraine is all the family I have left, and I don’t want to lose her. Ellie should still be in the ballroom getting everything set up for tonight.”
“Okay,” I sullenly agree, even though facing Ellie is the last thing I want to do.
I trudge down the winding hallway, checking every ballroom as I go until I find the one with a dozen uniformed workers, sweating, looking grumpy yet still buzzing around, carrying chairs, pushing tables, etcetera, like worker bees for their queen.
When I finally spot her across the room, she’s not yelling out directions but talking to Nash, the two going toe to toe as they argue. And I would have to be blind to not see how good they look together and not have a heart to feel jealous of the fact that he was once married to her.
What are they talking about so heatedly? Is Nash telling Ellie he wants her back? Is he saying he still loves her even though he also hates her?
Whatever it is, neither of them look very happy. When Nash runs his fingers through his hair in aggravation, he glances around at the people working and his gaze lands on me.
Without breaking eye contact, I watch as his lips barely move like he’s muttering something to Ellie before he starts walking over toward me.
“Hey,” he says when he’s only a few feet away.
“Hey,” I reply. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt. I was just coming to apologize to Ellie.”
“For what?” Nash asks when he’s close enough to touch. “You don’t owe her or anyone else an apology.”
“My mother disagrees,” I grumble. “Give me a few minutes, and then I’ll go pack up my things so we can leave.”
“Leave?” he repeats.
“Yeah. Isn’t that what you wanted to do?”
“It was,” he agrees. “But I’ve changed my mind. I think we should stay.”
“You do?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“You know why,” he says. “And now I’m going to kiss you again, okay?”
“Ah, what?” I ask, but then Nash’s big, warm hands are cupping either side of my face and his lips are meeting mine for one soft, sweet kiss that somehow manages to nearly make me melt into a puddle of goo.
I blink my eyes up at Nash when he pulls away and then removes his hands from me. “I’m going to get breakfast. See you there in a few?”
“Um, yeah. Okay,” I reply even though I only heard every other word he said over my galloping heart. Something about breakfast?
Long after Nash is gone, I’m still standing there frozen, wondering what the hell just happened. I thought he would still be pissed at me. I’m sure he is, but I guess he’s sticking with the story that we’re an actual couple and not just two broken-hearted fools here to watch their exes marry each other.