Marrying the Billionaire - Macie St. James Page 0,33

from trying to push him toward the elegant, lovely lady seated next to Charlie, who probably would have been a very suitable date for him.

“You’re right,” Charlie said, nodding to herself. “It’s complicated. I’ll stay out of it.”

“No, I didn’t mean—”

But whatever Nicholas was about to say was drowned out by the groom, who had stood to make a short speech thanking his family for being here. When that was over, Charlie immediately launched into a conversation with Caroline and the woman on the other side of her. Anything to avoid continuing the discussion with Nicholas. She just didn’t want to accept that he wasn’t as interested in her as she was in him. She didn’t want to face the fact that he was just using her.

14

Nicholas squinted at the clock next to his bed. Six twenty-two a.m. Why was he awake?

It wasn’t because he’d turned in early, that was for sure. The bachelor party had gone until well after one a.m. Maybe later. Nicholas had headed to bed around the time one of the groomsmen suggested leaving Nate’s suite to hit the town. He figured the rest of the wedding party would be sleeping until at least ten.

But Nicholas was definitely up.

After a quick shower, Nicholas got dressed and headed down to the lobby. He told himself he was just grabbing some coffee, maybe a muffin. But, deep down, he was hoping to run into Charlie.

Sure enough, she was seated at a table in the dining area next to the breakfast buffet, sipping from a paper cup and staring down at her phone. There was no denying he’d come down here to see her at that point. His heart rate immediately sped up at the sight of her.

But first—coffee.

She didn’t even look up as he veered left and grabbed a cup from the stack next to the coffee dispenser. He quickly loaded sweetener and creamer into it, grabbed a lid, and headed straight for Charlie’s table. It didn’t occur to him until he stood over her that maybe he shouldn’t assume she’d want him to sit with her.

“Hi,” he said as she looked up at him.

They hadn’t spoken last night after things had gotten weird between them. He’d admittedly been a little too defensive over her mention that maybe he should talk to his mom about everything. It was something he immediately regretted when he saw her expression harden slightly and felt an imaginary wall go up between them.

“May I sit down?” he asked with as much humility as he could muster. At the same time, he gauged her expression, looking for signs that she was mad at him. She was one hundred percent unreadable.

“Sure.” She shrugged and returned her attention to her phone. She lifted her coffee cup and sipped.

He pulled his chair back, took a deep breath, and started speaking as he took his seat. “I wanted to apologize. I was rude. I guess I just get a little…weird where my mother is concerned. I know I have some issues I need to address. You’re right about that.”

Now that he’d blurted all that out in one big burst, he decided it was time to be quiet and let her speak. He found himself holding his breath while waiting for her response.

Weird how much it bothered him to think she might be mad at him.

She set her phone down and looked at him. “I get it. I was upset about high school friends, remember? That was silly compared to this. This is family.”

Taking a deep breath, Nicholas nodded. He’d been pretty hard on himself over this, but he loved his mother. The last thing he wanted to do was hurt her, despite the fact that her behavior continually hurt him.

“She means well,” Nicholas finally said after taking a long sip of his coffee. He needed caffeine for this. “My parents divorced when I was in middle school. It was kind of a cliché.” He laughed. “My dad was having an affair with one of his co-workers—a woman who had befriended my mom. The whole thing was ugly, but my mom got a pretty hefty divorce settlement out of it. She turned the pressure on us.”

“Pressure?” Charlie tilted her head, eyeing him curiously.

“She’d set up this image of us as the perfect family. We lived in the perfect house in the perfect gated community and her marriage was, of course, perfect. When all that fell apart, some of her friends wanted nothing more to do with her. To try