Free

Chapter 6

SIX

Nick

I can’t be here. I don’t know why I thought I could. Even Angela said she’d understand if I pulled a no-show and that’s saying something. There isn’t a situation she can’t make the best of.

But…

I mean…

This is Charlie.

She asked me to come to her wedding. So I came.

I thought seeing her happy would counteract the pain of watching her marry someone else. After all, I’m the reason we’re not together.

But, oh, was I ever wrong.

I haven’t taken a full breath since last night. My suit jacket is a straitjacket. My tie a noose. I’m sweating and uncomfortable and…

…I can’t be here.

The walls are too close. The people are too much. Friends, family, strangers—they’re stealing the air, all of them talking at once. Louder and louder and louder still. The sun piercing the stained glass refracts and distorts, hurling color my way. I put my head in my hand to block the light. My knee bounces. My fists tighten. The scars on my back, hip, and torso ache. To make it all worse, I keep seeing her—Charlie, standing at the end of that aisle, saying ‘I do’ to someone who isn’t me. It’s unbearable. I knew it would be hard—harder than it was to save her from me in the first place—but I didn’t realize it would feel like I was coming apart at the seams.

Mom puts a hand on my knee. “You okay?” she asks, brows furrowing with worry she’s trying to hide. I’m so tired of people looking at me like that.

I force a smile and hit her with my mantra for the last year. “I’m fine.”

“Because if you’re not fine, that would be understandable.” That damn look on Mom’s face. The cocked head. The drawn brows. Her eyes bouncing across my features, so concerned, like I’m a bomb primed to go off at any second.

Before I know it, I’m moving. No clue where I’m going, just out of this damn room.

Someone calls after me. Micah or Nathan. Maybe Garrett or my dad. I don’t know and I don’t care. Darkness invades my vision. My lips tingle and my heart thunders.

I gotta get out of here before I pass out.

I push through the doors of the sanctuary and take a blind right toward the exit.

Someone crashes into me.

Someone small.

Someone moving almost as fast as I am.

I instinctively grab hold to keep her from falling. My hands gripping the harsh lace of her dress at her waist. Her eyes lock onto mine, wide and furious, and for a moment, the world tilts.

“Nick.”

Charlie.

She’s trembling, her breath shallow, and I realize—too late—that I’m trembling too. God, it’s been so long since I touched her, since I’ve looked into those autumn eyes.

“Guilty as charged,” I reply, then realize one arm is still wrapped protectively around her waist. I release her and step back out of respect as her fiancé storms down the hallway.

Something in his eyes has me stepping forward again.

“I don’t know what you think you heard,” he hisses at Charlie with barely a glance in my direction, “but running away isn’t going to fix this.”

“I know what I heard.” Her arms are crossed. Her chin lifted. That dress, as expensive as it must be, makes her look even smaller than she is, but the fire in her voice is a fierce reminder that Charlie Cooper is a force of nature.

I watch Davis closely. He’s tall, though not as tall as me. Wiry. The kind of guy who can’t wait to take you to the ground because he’s fine to grapple in the dirt… so he can toss some in your eyes. Sandy hair with a bit of curl and a ton of product. Green eyes flash with intelligence and… cruelty?

That must be my distaste for the guy distorting my perspective. Charlie is too strong to get tangled up with someone who’s cruel.

“Come on, Charlotte.” Davis sneers. “You only know what you think you heard.”

Charlie huffs. “What else don’t I know about myself, Davis? I mean, I’m pretty sure I had oatmeal for breakfast,” she says, with exaggerated wide eyes and a hand to her heart, “but maybe my poor little bitty girl brain isn’t strong enough to process something that complicated without getting confused.”

I laugh and Davis cuts his gaze my way. “Can we go somewhere private and discuss this?” he asks Charlie with his eyes locked on mine.

“What’s there to discuss?” she retorts. “The fact that I obviously misheard you say I’ve been oblivious to you cheating on me? Or that I definitely misunderstood what you meant when you said you talked me into quitting my job so I can become a baby factory to make you, and I quote, promotable at work?”

Davis sneers and steps right into Charlie’s personal space.

I step right into his.

“You’re gonna want to keep a respectful distance,” I say through gritted teeth. This isn’t my place, but I can’t help myself. The man is using his size to intimidate the woman he’s supposed to love. The woman I’ve never stopped loving. Two minutes ago, I was losing control but now, I can’t remember the last time I felt so clear. My hands curl into fists at my sides, the tension that’s been gnawing at me all day sharpening into something fierce and unrelenting. The air clears. The pounding in my head stops. It’s like someone flipped a switch, and suddenly, I’m more focused than I’ve been in months. Charlie needs me. And that’s all that matters.

Davis levels a cool glare in my direction. “This doesn’t concern you.”

I straighten to my full height and stare the man down. “If it concerns Charlie, it concerns me.”

“Not anymore,” Davis growls while Charlie hits me with a questioning glance.

I hold up my hands to concede his point. He’s not wrong.

Or at least he wasn’t, not until he grabs Charlie by the arm, dragging her a few steps away.

She stumbles but yanks free, and he has the audacity to look shocked. “So, what?” he barks at her. “You’re just gonna walk away?”

“Gee, let me think about that...” Charlie pretends to bite her nails and look concerned before dropping her hands and cocking her head. “You’re damn straight I’m gonna walk away. I’ve been going on about how marriage is compromise. Quitting my job. Drowning in this damn dress you love so much. Suffocating in the pastel palace because you wanted a traditional wedding. Only to find out you couldn’t be bothered to break up with even one of the girlfriends I’m not supposed to find out about? I deserve so much better than anything you have to offer.”

Davis scoffs. One look at the guy says it never occurred to him that someone better than him might exist.

Charlie turns to me. “Nick? Will you please get me the hell out of here?”

My chest tightens again. My heart speeds. My fingers are tingling. I haven’t spent time alone with Charlie since the accident and my therapist would be telling me I need to find a quiet space and focus on my breathing rather than abscond with a bride.

But there’s only one right answer to her question.

“It would be an honor.”