“Can we save this conversation for another time, please?” I ask. “We’re just trying to enjoy our wedding reception, which obviously isn’t about Michelle in any way despite her best effort to make it about her.”
I smile sweetly at the group gathered, and I see Nicki stifle a laugh at my harsh words. But you know what? I don’t give a fuck. The only people I care about at this table are my family and Luke. Everyone else can fuck off out of here, and I mean that in the sincerest way possible.
“I ended up the real winner here,” I say, leaning over to kiss Luke on the cheek. “Locked this one into marriage when he said he’d never do it again. I guess he was just with the wrong woman before.” I lift my wineglass haughtily to my lips, and Michelle glares at me from across the table because she knows I’m right.
She couldn’t lock him down, he dumped her, so she showed back up for a bonus night and found a way to claw herself into his life forever.
God, Luke. He really picks some winners.
Thank God I entered the picture when I did. This poor man needed a decent woman in his life to stand up for him, and I will continue to do that—for the next year, at least. Maybe longer if he lets me.
I turn toward Nicki and Josh and ask about their honeymoon, effectively ending the Michelle conversation. Luke and I chat with them and my parents as they fill us in on Fiji—where, incidentally, I wish I was right now rather than at this table with most of these people. We eat, we laugh, we ignore the Daltons, and then it’s time to dance. Luke holds me in his arms as we listen to “Speechless” again, dancing our first dance as husband and wife.
He kisses me, and it feels real.
Josh and Nicki join us for the bridal party song, and I don’t care about the rest of them, but they join us for a few songs, too, before his parents call it a night first. Michelle’s feet are positively aching, so she heads out. Jack and Kaylee leave with her, and I wonder if the Dalton family likes Michelle more than Luke let on.
That leaves the only people who I actually care about, but my parents bow out, then Josh and Nicki decide to call it a night, too. They’re newlyweds, after all, and I don’t even want to know what sort of freaky shit they’re about to get up to.
And then it’s finally time for the conversation I’ve been holding off all night.
It’s time to confront my husband and find out if he has feelings for me.
CHAPTER 3
My hands tremble as we get back to our room. Will he sleep on the couch again tonight after everything that went down today?
Or will he at least give me some courtesy sex since it’s our wedding night?
Yeah, I doubt that one, too.
He settles onto the couch, where he kicks off his shoes, and I settle into the chair across from him, where I take off mine, too. He’s still in his suit. I’m still in my wedding gown.
“Why would Michelle come all this way to stop the wedding?” I ask. “Did she really think you’d choose her?”
He shrugs. “She was already a little unhinged. Pregnancy has made it worse, I think.”
“She was unhinged?” I ask. It sounds like there’s more to that story.
“She’s holding onto something that hasn’t been there a long time for me. I can’t lie when I admit I’m concerned that she’s going to make trouble for me at the office,” he says, air quoting his last two words to indicate his relationship with her father.
A beat of quiet passes between us, and I glance up at him. “What are you thinking?”
He turns toward the window. “I don’t know,” he mutters. “I’m not sure if she’s going to run to Daddy and fuck up my relationship even more with him.”
“Why’d you start dating her in the first place?” I ask. He doesn’t strike me as the kind of guy who would choose to mix business with pleasure. Example one would be how I can’t seem to get him to admit there’s something between us.
Eventually I’ll get to that question.
He huffs out a mirthless chuckle. “We first met at a charity event. I had no idea who she was at the time. I knew Calvin had a daughter, but she’d been overseas studying fashion, so I’d never met her. She approached me and asked me out, and I liked that she had the balls to do that. It was one of the first things that attracted me to her. We went out a couple times and we slept together before I learned who her father is. I was pissed that she kept it a secret, but she had a valid point that I never would’ve dated her if I knew. And then I basically lost two years of my life to her. She treated me like trash, and I didn’t know how to end things without pissing off her dad, so I stayed far longer than I should have while things just got more and more broken between us.”
“I’m so sorry, Luke. You’ve had some pretty bad luck when it comes to women.”
He nods as he presses his lips together. “Pretty much why I swore off marriage. Until I met you.” His face smooths into a smile, and this is my chance. I take a deep breath to ask the question that’s been on my mind since he said those beautiful words earlier, but he wrinkles his nose. “But I don’t want to talk about Michelle anymore.”
“What do you want to talk about?” I breathe. Is this it? Finally?
He shrugs and looks out the window, as if to tell me he doesn’t really have a topic in mind. That’s when I decide I need to get in the driver’s seat.
“I need to ask you something,” I finally say.
He glances over at me before he folds his hands and leans his elbows on his knees. “Go for it.”
I draw in a deep breath. On the other side of this question lies my fate. If I get the answer I’m hoping for, the next year could be a dream come true—and maybe even beyond. And if I don’t...well, I haven’t really considered that possibility yet. But either way, I’ll know.
I let out the breath slowly, and then I finally say the words I’ve been wondering all night. “What you said during the ceremony about how I carry your heart and you count yourself lucky...did you mean that? Or were those just more words for the show we were putting on?”
He tilts his head a little, his eyes lifting to mine from where they’re pinned down toward his hands. “I meant it.”
My chest tightens and my heart races as he stands.
He moves across the small space between us and holds a hand out to me. I set my hand in his, and he helps me up before he pulls me into his arms. I’m pressed against his front, and I take the lapels of the suit jacket he still wears between my hands if nothing else so I have something to grip onto.
“I meant every word,” he says softly. His eyes burn down into mine, and my fingers tighten over his lapels. “I’m tired of living this lie. It’s exhausting pretending like I haven’t fallen in love with you, too.”
He presses a soft kiss to my lips while my ears buzz and I feel a little dizzy.
He feels it too?
“I had to push you away. I had to pretend like this doesn’t mean everything to me, like you don’t mean everything to me.” His voice is full of passion, a rare show of emotion that I very much trust. “And it’s because of Jack. I thought if we got married in front of him, he’d believe me. But he ruins every good thing I have. He can’t come in second, ever, and he will try to tear us apart. I thought if I pretended it wasn’t real, like I didn’t feel anything for you, it would be easier when he succeeded, because Jack always gets what he wants.”