My Favorite Souveni- Penelope Ward , Vi Keeland Page 0,61

all made sense.

The waitress came over and took Milo’s…Duncan’s…Matteo’s drink order.

Matteo.

What a beautiful name. A beautiful name for a beautiful man—one who looked more tormented than I’d ever seen him.

His eyes still seared into mine. “So…what’s going on with you two? Last I heard, the wedding was off. I’m surprised to see you here, Hazel.”

Unable to form words, I looked over at Brady.

“Hazel and I are taking things slowly again. I haven’t had a chance to talk to you since the wedding was called off.”

“Yeah.” He swallowed. “You definitely never mentioned anything.”

“I’m sorry you’d already booked your ticket to Vail,” Brady said. “But I’m glad you got to visit your family anyway, so it wasn’t a waste of a trip.”

“Well, yeah, it was about time I visited the old turf anyway.”

“So, what have you been up to?” Brady asked. “You took some time off from your teaching gig, right?”

“Yeah. Still in the midst of my sabbatical. I ended up staying in Vail for a little while…” He looked at me. “Then randomly ended up taking a road trip from Colorado through the South. Stayed in Atlanta for a while longer than I’d planned, and then decided to go home to Seattle for a week before coming here.”

Brady was still processing. “Wait…you took a road trip alone?”

“No, actually. I met someone in Vail. She and I ended up traveling together.”

“Really.” Brady smirked. “Was she cute?”

Matteo glanced at me. “Very.”

“Where is she now?”

He paused, closing his eyes and looking frustrated, as if he wanted to answer Right fucking here.

“We went our separate ways,” he finally said.

Brady smacked his hand on the table. “This is why I love this guy. Only Dunc could get some random chick to go on a road trip with him. He has balls. While the rest of us sit around working our nine-to-fives, my man here does the things everyone dreams about.”

“Believe me, it’s not as fun as you might think being me.”

That hurt.

“Whatever happened to her—this girl? What’s her name?”

I cringed.

The waitress set a beer in front of him. Matteo took a long swig and slammed the bottle on the table. “Maddie. Her name was Maddie.”

“So, any plans to meet up with her again? Or was it just a one-time deal?”

His eyes darted toward mine. “Pretty sure now that our trip was the end of the line.”

That message reached me loud and clear. My heart was breaking. There was an undertone of anger in his voice that was unfamiliar to me. I hoped he wasn’t mad at me. How could I have known this was going to happen? This was like some kind of nightmare.

While it now made sense why he’d been in Vail—for my wedding that never happened—I still had so many questions.

Did he ever suspect who I was?

If not, how did he not put two and two together after I told him I’d been dumped by my fiancé? It never occurred to him that I could have been Brady’s ex? Something was missing.

Then again, we never did exchange names.

Matteo.

Matteo Duncan.

I had to get used to that name.

What killed me about this whole experience was that I could tell Matteo was really hurting, and I couldn’t comfort him. His body was rigid. His fists were closed. That told me he never saw this coming and very likely had no inkling who I was.

We were both the apparent victims of bad luck.

Very back luck.

He downed the rest of his beer in one long drink and shoved his chair back before standing up. “I’m gonna let you guys have a romantic evening. I’m pretty tired anyway. Gonna go check into my hotel and call it a night.”

Brady’s forehead wrinkled. He was definitely confused by his friend’s behavior. “I thought you were staying with me?”

“Yeah…that was the original plan, but I decided to get a hotel at the last minute.”

“Are you sure?”

“Positive, yeah.” He lifted his bag off the ground and threw it over his shoulder.

“Maybe we can hang tomorrow night?” Brady said.

“Yeah. Sure.” Matteo looked over at me. “Hazel, it was a pleasure.” He reached out his hand, and when I took it this time, he squeezed even harder than before.

Then he turned around and never looked back as he disappeared out the door.

I stared blankly at the exit for what seemed like minutes on end, and Brady finally turned to me.

“Duncan seemed a little off. Something must be up with him.”

My heart still reeling, I exhaled. “Yeah…”

“He’s fun as all hell, but he’s been through his share