3. Ashley
ASHLEY
“ Y ou’re the best man, Fox. You had one job ,” I said with another husk of a laugh, but this one caught like a fish bone in my throat. A huge block of ice was forming in my chest.
Because Fox wasn’t smiling. He flinched .
He looked like a crust of bread that was starting to mold. His brown skin wore tones of gray as he leaned on the wall, shoulders hunched. His expression was ill with regret or remorse or some other emotion that was very not good .
My stomach clenched so hard, I couldn’t draw a full breath. I searched his hazel eyes for the teasing light I’d seen there a thousand times. I liked Fox. A lot. I had from the moment Izzy had dragged him across the bar in Sydney and said, “This is Fox. He said we should come meet his friends.”
Fox had a subtler personality than Shane’s outgoing Aussie charisma, but he had a wicked sense of humor and his rock-solid demeanor was always reassuring. After Izzy had flown home, I spent the rest of my three-month holiday living with Shane in the house he owned with his best friend and business partner. Fox and I had often bonded over being fish out of water, him the Yank and me the Canuck. He razzed me all the time .
But he was never mean.
I looked toward the doors again. Doors that had stopped opening because everyone on his flight had come through and moved on.
“Is he alive ?” I blurted.
“Yes.” His head jerked slightly.
“He texted me that he was on his way.”
“When?” He narrowed his eyes.
“When you were getting in the taxi.” I scrolled to show him the handful of texts I’d received from Shane last night.
Looking forward to sleeping on the plane. See you soon.
“What happened? Was he too sick to fly?” I looked toward the interior of the terminal, wondering when the next flight to Sydney would leave. Could I book Shane on a different one?
Fox lifted a helpless hand. His sigh was pained. “He told me he doesn’t want to get married, Ash.”
My concern for my fiancé fell off its horse. My brain did a few rolling tumbles as I absorbed what Fox was saying, but I didn’t want to hear it.
“At all?” My lips had gone numb.
Fox was wearing a pity face while we both stood here clutching our stomachs.
“Or like, right now?” I tried. “Because I know he didn’t want to do it in Hawaii.”
There were cheaper places to stay and surf, Shane had argued, like Thailand. And the best surf on Oahu was played out by the end of March.
My family would have had to fly a lot further, though. Hawaii had been a stretch, not just financially, but because tropical vacations weren’t ‘us.’ If I wanted an outdoor wedding, Mom had argued, I should hold it in the gazebo at the Riverside Community Park.
“I kept it as small as possible.” I was still at a loss, dimly hearing myself trying to talk Fox into making Shane appear out of thin air. “If he wants to do it in Australia?—”
Fox was shaking his head. “He doesn’t want to marry at all.”
I didn’t want to let it into my head. It was too big. This wasn’t just a humiliation in front of a church full of guests. This was a calling off of the most courageous thing I’d ever done. My few boxes of personal effects were on a ship in the middle of the ocean.
As that hit, I began to grow legit hysterical.
“He can’t just not show up . And send you to tell me. His parents are having breakfast with my family right now. Do they know? No .” I stabbed my phone to call Shane, glaring at Fox. “What did he say? Oh my God. Is he seeing someone?” It had been three months since I’d left, but?—
“No.” Fox’s tone was quiet, but firm.
“Is it cold feet?” I held up a finger to silence Fox as Shane’s voice came on the line.
“G’day. This is Shane at Togs and Boards. I’m not here. Try Fox at...”
I waited for the beep and said, “Shane, what’s going on? Call me.” I ended the call and texted, Call me.
I stared at the screen, waiting for the text to get marked ‘Read’ but it didn’t even say ‘Delivered.’ Had he turned his phone off?
The flutters in my middle grew into a swarm of angry hornets.
“Can you call someone? Gunz or Shwickie? See if he’s with them? Tell them he needs to call me.” I realized I was trembling like someone going into shock. I had to blink to read the signage as I tried to determine the shortest route to the departure level. My passport was in the safe at the hotel. I would have to get it before I could do anything. Then I would have to explain to Mom?—
He couldn’t do this to me. He couldn’t leave me here with nowhere to go.
I touched my chest, trying to calm my racing heart.
Fox texted someone, but the lack of a responding ding and the look on his face told me he didn’t expect much to come of it.
“He’s probably surfing,” he said.
I bit my trembling lip and nodded, doing what I always did when I’d rather be screaming that my hair was fire. I kept my cool and concentrated on solutions.
“Let’s go to the hotel. I’ll check flights, pack, then go find him.”
Fox hesitated. “I don’t think that’ll help, Ash.”
“Well, he can’t call off our wedding without even talking to me! You had a car booked, didn’t you?”
“Yeah.” He pushed off the wall. “Okay, sure. Let’s get the car and go to the hotel. I have to tell his parents. They’ll be worried if he doesn’t check in.”
I yanked the leis off my neck and dropped them in the first garbage can I saw.