who remained traded looks all around. It was Gemma who darted out of the room and followed Lianne without a word to anyone else.
Luke threw up his hands. “I don’t know what to say anymore. Nothing I say…”
Leia cut him off. “Oh, boohoo. You brought this on yourself. When I told Zeb about Tiffany, his first response wasn’t about money. I think you wanted to believe Lianne cheated. You were looking for a loophole out of this wedding, and you found it. Congratulations. You’re not getting married.”
7
After the disastrous blowup, Gemma decided to drive Lianne over to her grandmother’s house on Dolphin Way for safekeeping until Lando could lockup Kirk Ritter.
Sitting in the passenger seat of the Volvo, Lianne seemed edgy. “Are you sure this is okay with Paloma?”
“I told you she’s fine with it. The plan is to sneak you in through the rear of the house using the sliding glass door.”
“Just look for a black truck when you go down the alleyway. What if I see him? What if he comes to Paloma’s?”
Gemma reached over and squeezed Lianne’s hand to calm her down a bit. “Call me. Call Lando. Paloma has my number on speed dial. Right now, I just want to get you settled in. You’re the one I’m worried about. You seem not at all like yourself.”
“Why? Because things have changed, and I won’t be your sister-in-law?”
“Give me some credit, okay? I’m worried you might not want to live in the same town as Luke. You might chuck it all and head back to Portland next week.”
“I wouldn’t do that. However, Coyote Wells has definitely lost some of its allure for me. Where did it all go so wrong, Gemma? How did I lose control of this situation to the degree that it broke up what I once thought was a solid relationship?”
“I’ve been there, remember? Lots of water under that bridge, a bridge I’d rather not go near again. We’ve all had rocky patches. You know that it’s true.”
Lianne let out a full-blown, depressed sigh. “Yes, but now I’m stuck with a six-hundred-dollar wedding gown and no place to wear it. Should I sell it on Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist?”
“Why don’t you keep it? I know you can’t return it.”
“Because every time I look at it…the thing reminds me of Luke and what might’ve been.”
If Gemma had been wondering when Lianne’s waterworks would kick in, she didn’t have to wait much longer. She wasn’t prepared when the tears came swift and in gut-wrenching sobs.
It broke her heart to see her best friend so shattered. Gemma pulled the Volvo to the curb and unfastened her seatbelt. She scooted closer, taking Lianne in her arms. Knowing the woman needed time to pull herself together, Gemma sat there in the front seat, rocking Lianne back and forth, trying to soothe away the tears and calm her down.
But no matter how long Gemma waited for Lianne’s grief to subside, her best friend’s heartbreaking sobs grew louder, deeper.
Lianne couldn’t stop crying. In between the rasping and weeping, she poured out her heart, everything she’d been saving up over the past twenty-four hours. “What am I going to do without him? I loved him more than any man I’ve ever known. We seemed to be so right for each other. And he tossed it all away. Me. He tossed me away for a fishing trip.” She snapped her fingers. “Just like that, we’re finished, no more Dr. Luke Bonner. And for what? Why? Because I didn’t tell him about some stupid, stupid man from a dozen years ago. Is that fair? If he really loved me, why should any of that even matter now?”
Gemma kept hugging, and Lianne kept bawling.
“What will I do now, Gemma? What? Luke was the love of my life, or so I thought. I believed in him. But he didn’t believe in me.”
There wasn’t a lot of reassurances Gemma could provide other than the truth. “Who knows why couples don’t work out? Who knows why love sometimes isn’t enough to keep two people together?”
“Do you think he stopped loving me, and that’s why he reacted the way he did?”
“I don’t know, Lianne. I wish I did. I’m no expert in matters of the heart, least of all relationships.”
The two women sat there for a full half-hour on the side of the road before Lianne had cried herself out. She shifted in her seat. “I’m okay. Well, not really, but I’ll be okay.”