EPILOGUE Ainsley Bradley
The Reunion
Three Weeks Later
“Ainsley!” Drew, the host of Speed to the Altar, says as he introduces me. All the couples are seated together, and he announces Jordan next. “Jordan!”
I got a louder cheer from the crowd than Jordan did. In fact, I think he even got some boos.
It’s a small audience that’s gathered here today, but it’s all people who’ve already previewed the show.
We haven’t seen it yet, though we know how our own story ended.
I didn’t have to show up today since they already pulled my pay, but I definitely wanted to be here. I have a whole hell of a lot to say.
And I’m lucky enough that my husband is sitting in the audience today, here to support me. I suppose I got lucky on that front. Filming is happening in the evening after he happened to finish up at practice, so he’s able to be here.
Drew finishes introductions and makes a little speech about the first season of the show. Instead of starting with the three couples who actually ended up married at the end, he decides to begin with those who didn’t make it.
“We’re going to start today with one of our contestants whose name has been all over the news lately,” he says.
Cheers rise up from the audience, and he continues, “Ainsley. How are you?” he asks, turning to me.
I wave, and I think about his question. How am I?
Well, I’m a hell of a lot better than I was.
Thanks to my husband, I showed up today in a gorgeous—albeit expensive—dress that I’ll donate later.
I was able to get my hair and makeup done, and I don’t just feel great.
I am great. “I’m great. Better than great, actually. ”
“Let’s take a look back at your wedding,” he says, and my face appears on a large screen in front of us. I look happy and hopeful, but even I can see that it’s not quite there in my eyes.
Not the way it is now, anyway.
We watch as I say, “I do,” and then as Jordan says, “I don’t.”
When the clip ends with me running, Drew turns to me again. “Take us through what happened when you ran out of the chapel.”
“I was devastated. I felt like my heart was shattered. But the further I ran from the chapel, the more I started to realize it wasn’t heartbreak. It was embarrassment. I knew this would be aired, and everyone would get to see that rejection.”
“So you married someone else?” Jordan asks. His tone is demanding and rude, and I open my mouth to answer, but he plows forward before I can. “I tried calling her. I tried working things out,” he says.
That little liar! I can’t believe him. “You never called me,” I say, rolling my eyes.
“Were you with Dex before you went on the show?” he asks. “Because it’s only been three months, and you’re already married.”
“I wasn’t. The truth is that he’s my best friend’s older brother. We’d known each other for years, but never in the romantic sense. One thing led to another, and, well…” I hold up the giant rock on my hand, and gasps fill the audience.
“I see him here in the crowd,” Drew says. “Would it be all right with you if we introduced him?”
They asked us ahead of filming if they could mention him by name, and he agreed. After all, this was the whole point of our marriage in the first place even if it shifted into something else entirely.
I nod, and the cameras pan toward the audience.
“I’d like to introduce Dex Bradley!” Drew says. “Dex, come on up.”
He doesn’t smile as he walks up the stage, and he sits down right in between Jordan and me. He slips his arm around my shoulders, and I love how he’s taking up more of the couch than he needs to in order to give Jordan less room. It may be petty, but it’s also hot as hell.
I slip my hand onto his thigh, which is tight with tension since he’s sitting beside someone he hates simply because I do.
“Take us through what happened between the two of you,” Drew says, and Dex nods at me to take the floor.
“When I ran out of the chapel, I ran into Dex. Literally. He was out for a run, and I was running, and we slammed into each other on the street. Once he realized who I was, he took me back to his place. I wasn’t ready to give my final interviews here, but he was gracious enough to listen to me.
He was there for me. He’s the one who helped me see that I never really loved Jordan.
He’s actually the one who taught me what true love really is. ”
“And what is it?” Drew asks, maybe because he wants to know what I think or maybe to educate some of the people here who don’t seem to know—like, for example, Jordan.
“It’s following through. Doing what you say you’re going to do,” I begin.
“It’s not just the cliché of being there for each other because sometimes you physically can’t be.
But it’s really listening and truly working to understand what the other person needs from you and then giving them that.
It’s balancing life but doing it together.
It’s having fun with and relying on the one person you feel like you can’t live without. ”
“And that’s what Dex is for you?” Drew asks.
Dex answers before I do.
“It’s what she is for me. Look, when she asked for a place to lay low after she ran from this show, I opened up my home, no questions asked.
I wasn’t looking for love. Trust me. I was happy with the way my life was.
But when you live with someone day in and day out, you get to know them pretty quickly.
We fell hard and fast, and we both knew it was right.
She came to Vegas with the intention of finding her happily ever after, and she got it.
But sometimes the things we need come about in ways we don’t expect.
That’s what happened for us.” He turns to Jordan.
“So I guess I have to thank you, man. Because if you weren’t such an asshole as to lead this gorgeous woman on, I might’ve missed my chance. ”
Jordan sputters a little, but then Dex kisses me, and the crowd goes wild.
Drew asks Jordan some questions, and Mariah, one of the contestants who didn’t end up at the altar, interrupts to tell Drew that Jordan tried hitting on her at a bar a couple of weeks ago, and it all sounds pretty messy.
I’m just glad I don’t have to worry about that anymore.
Dex is right. Sometimes the things we need come about in ways we don’t expect, and as it turns out, that’s what he is for me just as much as I am for him—and Jack is for both of us.
I may have come to Vegas with the intention to Speed to the Altar, and I did—just not in the way I expected.
And when I did, I ended up with an instant family that turned out to be even better than I ever could have dreamed.
It extends further than just Dex and Jack now, too.
Everleigh moved into our building, and we’ve gotten close over the last couple of weeks.
She was hired by the Vegas Aces to rebrand Maverick Jennings, and so far, it doesn’t sound like it’s going very well.
But as for Dex and me? Now that is going well.
As the saying goes, when one door closes, another opens. I’m just happy that it was Dex Bradley standing at the door that opened for me.
* * *
We’re heading back to Vegas with Everleigh Bradley’s story, RED ZONE! What happens when she’s hired as a brand strategist for the Vegas Aces’ newest bad boy quarterback?
Flip the page to read the first chapter in RED ZONE, the third book in THE brADLEY LEGACY series from Lisa Suzanne.