Chapter 4
CHAPTER FOUR
RORY
It’d been hours since the ball game. Since Finn’s proposal to Will. Since Havenbrook had been thrown into an absolute tizzy, the gossip mill finally churning over something other than me and my divorce and all the women my husband had slept with while we’d been married. Over something other than my sad, pathetic fall from grace straight into a tiny, three-bedroom shack I could only afford thanks to the pity job of working for my daddy at town hall.
Of course, I could afford something more if only I’d accept the money my parents continually offered, almost forcefully. Because heaven forbid one of the Havens be anything less than an ideal specimen. I could also have afforded something nicer if I’d taken Sean to the cleaners like my sisters had begged me to. As tempting as it’d been, my pride wouldn’t allow me to. That pride I wore like armor was a real bitch, but it was something I wasn’t going to bend on.
After being tied to a man who threw me away as easily as last week’s garbage, I was bound and determined to stand on my own two feet this time around. I was never again putting my future in the hands of anyone but myself.
Will and Finn were making googly eyes at each other, totally oblivious to everyone else surrounding them in the Square. And, honestly, it made me a little sick. Sure, I understood they were in love and they wanted to celebrate their exciting news and their future and blah, blah, blah, but Lord in heaven, didn’t they have any decency? If I had to watch Finn grab a handful of Will’s ass one more time, I was going to scream.
Mac elbowed me in the ribs. “Who’s on the end of your death glare? ’Cause I know it’s not our sister and future brother-in-law. That’d be rude. And we both know Rory Haven is never rude.”
I snapped my gaze away from Will and Finn and pasted a serene smile on my face. “Course not. I was glarin’ at Carol Ann over there, pretendin’ to chat with them, while no doubt gettin’ dirt to spread around. Honestly, that woman has no shame.”
“Mhmm.” Mac hooked her arm in mine, tugging me in the opposite direction and out of the mass of people milling about in the Square, awaiting the fireworks. Lowering her voice so only I could hear, she said, “We are happy for her…right?”
“Course we are!” I replied without hesitation. “Why on earth would you ask that?”
Mac raised a single eyebrow and just stared back at me.
This natural ease between us hadn’t always been present, and our relationship was still a little rocky. I’d never been close to any of my sisters, all of them so very different from me, but I’d been working hard to change that. It’d come the easiest with Will, but I was hopeful that things between me and Mac were mending themselves, slowly but surely.
My youngest sister, Natalie, was a whole other issue I wasn’t quite ready to tackle just yet. The two of us weren’t just opposites—it was as if we came from two different universes, despite having grown up in the same house.
But just because I was working toward a better relationship with Mac didn’t mean I had to give away all my secrets. Never mind the fact that Mac definitely saw right through me. I’d been putting up a front my whole life, and I’d gotten very good at it.
“I suppose we’ll have to start plannin’ soon,” I said. “I wonder what color bridesmaid dresses she’ll want.”
Mac groaned and dropped her head back on her shoulders. “Why’d you have to ruin a perfectly good day like that? Point taken, Satan. You don’t wanna talk about it.”
“I’m sure I have no idea what you mean,” I said with a smile.
“Since we’re not talkin’ about that ,” Mac said, tipping her head toward Will and Finn, “maybe we can talk about Sarah Beth.”
I clenched my jaw at the mention of my ex-best friend. As if it weren’t bad enough that Sean had slept with his assistant—and nearly every other single woman in town—he’d also done so with my best friend since kindergarten. The girl I’d grown up with, shared every secret with, and had roomed with in college.
We’d gotten married within months of each other, were in each other’s weddings, and then had gotten pregnant at the same time. We were our daughters’ godmothers, for heaven’s sake, and had raised our girls together to be just as close as the two of us had been. And I’d been the shoulder Sarah Beth had cried on when her own marriage had ended.
But apparently that kind of history meant a lot more to me than it did to my former best friend, because I’d never throw all that away for a little sex. And most certainly not for the barely mediocre sex my ex-husband could provide.
“I’d rather shove toothpicks under my fingernails, but thank you so much for askin’,” I said in a saccharine tone.
Mac snorted. “I don’t blame you. But she asked me about you earlier.”
I jerked to a stop, spinning around to stare at my sister as I gripped her forearm. “She did? What’d you say?”
Mac shrugged. “I told her to fuck off and that if I ever heard your name come out of her mouth again, I’d release a bag full of snakes in her yard.”
I gaped at Mac, both horrified and…absolutely delighted at the idea. “You did not!”
Mac blew out a long-suffering sigh. “You’re right, but I can.” She brightened, a smile sweeping over her mouth. “And I can punch her in the boob while I’m at it if you’d like. Just say the word.”
It hadn’t been that long ago when Mac wouldn’t have poured water over me if I’d been running around on fire. Okay, that wasn’t true. Probably. But the fact that Mac would defend me now without a second thought just reiterated how far we’d come over the past year. And while I would love nothing more than to sic my sister on my backstabbing traitor of an ex-best friend, I had to be an adult about the whole thing. Let bygones be?—
I gasped, my eyes narrowing on the very person we’d just been speaking about. Honestly, how much did the good Lord expect me to handle in one day?
My children were supposed to be with my former mother-in-law, as they usually were on Sean’s days when he was working and the girls weren’t at day camp. That’d been the plan—I would meet Susan just before the fireworks to gather up the girls and enjoy their favorite part of the holiday together. Except my daughters weren’t with Susan. Instead, they trotted along behind their daddy and Sarah Beth, and I saw red.
I shoved Mac in their direction. “Go get my babies.”
“Ow,” Mac said, shooting me a glare over her shoulder. “What the hell? Pushy much?”
“Now, please.” My voice was tight, my fists clenched at my side.
This wasn’t what Sean and I had agreed on, dammit. Though why I expected him to keep his word on that when he couldn’t honor his marriage vows was beyond me. He thought with the head in his pants instead of the one on his shoulders—neither of which were anything to write home about. And for the hundredth time that week, I thanked my lucky stars I didn’t have to put up with either of them any longer.
I had never been more grateful for Mac’s no-nonsense approach than I was in that moment, because as soon as Mac turned to see what I had shoved her toward, she stormed in that direction without another word.
And me? Well, I hid behind a cart full of Uncle Sam hats and red, white, and blue streamer wands. If that made me a chicken, so be it. I’d had enough fanfare for one day, thank you very much, but I couldn’t resist the chance to watch them unawares.
“Never took you for a voyeur, princess.” The low voice rumbled right next to my ear, startling a squeak out of me.
I didn’t need to turn around to know who stood behind me. If the ridiculously irritating nickname didn’t give it away, the scent that enveloped me would have. I could feel Nash’s heat against my back, tightening my nipples to hard points, and I fought the urge to lean back. Just to see how solid he was. To see if he’d be able to hold me up when I got too tired of doing it on my own.
I cleared my throat and smoothed a hand over my hair. “Never took you for a creep lurkin’ in the shadows, and yet here we are.”
He chuckled, moving to stand alongside me, his gaze locked exactly where mine was. His hands were in the pockets of his cargo shorts, his posture carefree to anyone who happened to glance his way. But I had studied Nash over the past several months. A lot . And there was no denying the tension in his shoulders, the harsh cut of his jaw as his teeth clenched. He was…mad. On my behalf?
I ignored the flurry of butterflies that kicked up inside me at that notion. He was no doubt irritated with Sean the same as everyone else in town—simply because he’d crossed one of the town sweethearts. Hell, Edna, Havenbrook’s mail carrier, refused to put Sean’s mail in the mailbox and just left it in a pile on the front steps, rain or shine.
Never mind that my heart hadn’t been invested in my marriage for a long time, if ever. But if Havenbrook did one thing well, it was standing behind their own.
“He’s not worth your anger, princess.”
I huffed. “I know that.” As if knowing would simply make the emotion vanish.
We stood in silence for long moments, my eyes locked on Mac retrieving the girls, but my attention was on the man standing next to me. He’d hardly spoken at all, but somehow…somehow, I knew he stood there simply to offer me support when I needed it.
So much like he’d done that night in The Willow Tree last year. The night I’d never spoken of again. The one I’d tried my damnedest to forget.
I closed my eyes at the flashes of memories—too much vodka and my ridiculously loose-lipped tales from the first time I’d found my husband cheating. Nash had been there. Had sat next to me at the bar, matching me shot for shot, and…listened. Commiserated. Laughed and talked and joked with me until they’d closed down the place. Stared at me with heated eyes when I’d let it slip how attractive I found him. Then he’d made sure I’d gotten safely to my sisters’ home for the night.
And I’d never entertained discussion of it after that.
“For the record,” he said, breaking my trance, “I’m glad you finally kicked his ass to the curb. Someone like you, Rory…” He stared straight ahead, never meeting my eyes. “Someone like you deserves a man who’d cut off his own balls just for the chance to lie next to you each night.”
I blinked, searching his profile for a hint of humor, because certainly— certainly —he had to be joking. Right? “I… What?”
Commotion to my left shifted my attention away from Nash and to the sight of my daughters walking over with their aunts, smiles on all their faces. Ava, my oldest, tittered excitedly with Will about what kind of junior bridesmaid dress she’d get to wear, while my youngest, Ella, stood next to Mac, both of them grumbling the whole way.
The sight filled my heart with happiness, with a lightness I hadn’t felt in far too long. I couldn’t wait to share the fireworks with some of my favorite people in the world.
But first, I needed to find out what the hell Nash had meant when he’d said that. He’d done all he could to push my buttons over the past year-plus since we’d first started working together on The Willow Tree, but this was taking it a bit too far, even for him. He’d never been one to tease me about my failed marriage, but apparently, there was a first time for everything.
Except when I turned around to confront him, he was gone.