The Bromance Book Club - Lyssa Kay Adams Page 0,100
deserved.”
The door to the church opened, and a frantic-looking woman in a red suit emerged, her head darting back and forth.
Dan sighed.
“Is that the wedding planner?”
“Yeah.”
“She looks like she’s afraid the groom got cold feet. You better go in.”
He nodded, lost in thought for a moment. Then he opened his door. “I hope you’ll stay,” he said. “But I’ll understand if you don’t.”
Thea watched him jog across the street. The wedding planner spotted him and threw her hands in the air.
Dan soothed her, apparently reassured her, because they turned and walked up the stairs to the church. At the doors, he looked back.
And then he walked inside.
Thea wiped her hands across her cheeks. Great. Now her makeup would be streaked. Which, actually, was as good an excuse as any for leaving.
She looked at her purse on the floor, where she’d irrationally and impulsively shoved The Annoying Countess when she left this morning.
Thea pulled the book from her purse and opened it to the place where she’d stopped reading last night.
Benedict blinked. Coughed. Tugged on his coat. “I—I will have our coach brought around.”
“You mistake me, my lord. I’m going to the country.”
No. Dear God, no. “Irena, please.”
“I cannot heal a festering wound that you refuse to acknowledge, Benedict, nor will I allow myself to be blamed for it.”
“I haven’t asked you to do either.”
“You may visit when you feel you are ready for an heir, and we can negotiate the terms of—” her voice caught—“of procreation. But I can’t do this.”
“Irena, please. I love you.”
“I thought you’d learned at least that much, my lord. Love isn’t enough.”
What bullshit. What utter molly-coddled bullshit.
Love is enough.
It’s always enough.
Thea got out of the car and jogged in her heels across the street. She walked in with barely five minutes to spare. A woman in a pink suit gave her a program and a dirty look when she quick-stepped through the vestibule. A string quartet played something soft and romantic as Thea walked in. The groomsmen had already lined up along the altar in matching dark gray tuxedos. She didn’t recognize a single man up there, save her father, who stood by the pastor, hands clasped in front and rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet like a nervous, first-time groom.
Thea slid into a seat in the second-to-last pew, earning an annoyed glare from another couple, as the string quartet began to play “Canon in D.” Bridesmaids in emerald green dresses slow-walked down the aisle clutching red roses. Then the congregation rose and turned for the big moment—the bride. Her new stepmother.
Thea couldn’t see her face well behind her veil, but she looked no older than Thea. Her smile shone through the lace netting that otherwise camouflaged her face. She locked eyes with Dan, who never once looked away as she approached on her father’s arm. And when she reached the end of the aisle, Dan took her hand with a look of—holy shit, he was head over heels in love.
This was real for him.
And for Jessica.
And Thea knew it because she knew that look. She knew what it felt like.
Oh, God. What had she been thinking? She should have gone after Gavin, the man who loved her despite the many ways she’d held him at arm’s length. Not drive to Atlanta for a man who didn’t know how to love her. Thea checked the time on her phone every three minutes, earning annoyed glances from the couple sitting next to her. Yeah, yeah. She had come in late and couldn’t wait to get out of there. So what? Didn’t they know this was an emergency? Didn’t they know she had to go save her marriage?
And she was going to. As soon as the bride kissed the groom, she was going to New York to do the thing she thought she’d never do.
She was going to beg her husband to take her back.
CHAPTER THIRTY
“Why are we running?” Mack yelled.
They were all running.
Mack. Del. Yan. The Russian. Gavin. Running up a crooked sidewalk in Atlanta toward the giant church in the distance.
“Because this is grand gesture,” the Russian panted. “You always run for grand gesture.”
“And because you parked seven blocks away!” Gavin yelled.
Mack protested something about the GPS on his phone being wrong, but Gavin didn’t care. He could see the church, and nothing was going to stop him from getting to his wife. So he ran faster. He’d been running since he got off the plane. He ran through the