glancing down at the ornate watch on my arm. “It can’t be my dad yet. He’s nothing if not punctual and he still has a few minutes.”
Ember pushed herself up with her palms on the armrests of her chair and glanced at me. “Stay put. It’s bad luck for anyone to see the bride before the wedding, right?”
“Right.” An uneasy knot formed in my stomach. I wasn’t the most intuitive person, but something had seemed off to me all day.
It wasn’t that I didn’t want to marry Will or wasn’t sure of my decision. It was something else. Something a lot more turbulent.
Shifting in my seat to face the door even though most of my body was still hidden behind the chair, I watched Ember swing it open to reveal our preacher. His cheeks were red and his gray hair messy, like he’d been tugging at it a lot.
His gaze rested on Ember, but I heard the anxiety in his voice. “Have you seen Mr. Cummings? He was due downstairs some time ago, but he’s not there. He’s not in his suite either. There’s no answer there.”
She shot me a look over her shoulder. “Maybe he beat us to the punch on the whole leaving out the back idea.”
“I’m sure there’s a reasonable explanation.” My heart didn’t pick up speed at all, but my hands started shaking. I buried them in the millions of layers of my skirt and, for the first time, was thankful for such a big dress. “I’ll give him a call. We’ll let you know where he is in a minute or two.”
The preacher bowed his head and Ember closed the door, all traces of her joke gone from her expression. “You don’t think he really left, do you?”
“I don’t know.” For all the jokes and teasing and reassurances that we were doing the right thing, even I wasn’t convinced. I couldn’t disregard the possibility that Will might not be, either.
Rummaging through my tiny purse, I found my phone and hit my last dialed number. A tiny sigh of relief flooded me when the call connected. “Will? Hi. Where are you? The preacher’s looking for you. If you guys have gone out for cigars or something, it’s time to come back inside.”
Faint sounds of a moving car hit my ears before he said anything, and my heart sank. “I can’t do it, Lindsay. I tried to, and God knows I wanted to be able to, but I just can’t.”
The phone trembled against my ear and my voice came out thick. “Why not?”
“We’re just not right together. I love you, you know? I do, but you’re like a roommate to me or a friend. I know you feel that way too. I’ve already spoken to my parents about it and they’ve agreed to paying for everything, okay? You don’t have to worry about a thing. I’ve taken care of it.”
My chest just about caved in on itself, but even in that moment, I knew it wasn’t heartbreak causing it. It was just good old-fashioned humiliation. I had been stood up, left at the altar.
Most of the guests down there were his. Only a handful or so were mine, but even then, all of those people would now have a story to tell about a wedding where the groom didn’t show up.
That wasn’t what killed me, though. It was that I should’ve admitted it earlier too. “You’re right. I love you too but not in that way. Be happy, Will. Keep in touch.”
I disconnected the call and tossed the phone down in the layers on my lap. Ember planted her hands on her hips and took a deep breath. She might not have heard what he said, but she sure as heck had gotten the gist of it.
“Right. I’ll go tell everyone the wedding is off. You stay right here and I’ll sneak you out the back in a few minutes.” She bent over to kiss my forehead. “Don’t worry, babe. No one will even know you’re still here.”
Chapter 2
JAXON
Clear blue skies met us as we made our approach into Houston. The city spread out down below like it was one of those toy miniatures at the mall.
Joe, the co-pilot, grinned at me. “I don’t know why it’s always such a rush coming home, but it really is.”
“Yeah, always.” It used to be more of a rush back in the day when I was coming home after fighting and flying in a different country for months at a