Chapter 19 #2
“What’s going on?” A groggy Liv sat up, checking that her bonnet was still in place.
The phone in Ren’s hand shook, quaking in time with her inhale, as she held it out to Fern. “I knew. I knew, but I didn’t want to know.”
“Oh, lovey,” Liv purred, rustling the sheets as she got out of bed.
Ren had texted Scott good morning.
He’d replied with, “Sorry, I’m not going to make it.”
“What the fuck?” Disgust pulled Fern’s tone down an octave.
“Let me see,” Liv said, and Fern handed over the phone before climbing into Ren’s bed and wrapping her in a hug.
Fern’s tears dripped into Renata’s hair, and Ren’s tears dampened Fern’s shirt as they clung to each other. The bed creaked when Liv joined them, kneeling and wrapping them in her arms, too.
“Ren,” Liv murmured, her voice choked, “I’m going to cancel the vendors for you, okay?”
Renata nodded.
“Do you want me to call your parents, too?”
She stiffened before wailing, “Oh, no, they’re going to be so upset.”
“They should be, Scott’s a fucking douche,” Fern said.
“No, at me. They want us to get married so bad. This is my fault!”
“This is not your fault,” she replied harshly. “You better not fucking think it for one second. I’m tough-loving you right now, Ren. You’re beautiful and perfect and you will not let those twats walk all over you.”
“Did you just call my mom and dad twats?”
“Yeah, and Scott too. Want me to call your parents for you?”
“Oh my god, no.” Laughing through her tears, Ren disentangled herself and climbed from the bed. Standing by the foot, she swiped at her eyes. “This is the worst day of my life.”
Fern nodded, blinking quickly to keep from crying again as her heart pinched for Renata.
“I need some air. I’m going to call my family and deal with that and… I’ll be right back, I guess?” She looked at Fern, a fat tear rolling down her cheek. “Will you wait here for me?”
“Of course. I’m not going anywhere.”
Tapping away on her phone, Liv blindly slid her feet into a pair of sandals by the door. “I just let Noa and Fitz know what’s going on. I’m going to call the photographer and DJ and find Able, so he can tell his staff. I’ll be right back.”
Renata wasn’t far behind. Sucking in a breath, she shot Fern a thumbs-up and lifted her phone to her ear as she left the room. The bags holding their unworn bridesmaid’s dresses swayed to a slow stop against the back of the door.
Fern exhaled a stream of air and took in the mess. Little omens dotted the suite: a dick-shaped straw, a blow-up penis, cock chocolates. Once spots of happiness, markers of a fun night, of the big step Ren was about to take, they’d become flaccid symbols of sadness and a shattered future.
She chucked the mess in the trash, pretty sure this was the only time she’d ever cry over sunglasses shaped like ballsacks with a big floppy cock hanging from the front.
It better be.
Her phone buzzed from the side table, and she hurried over, hoping for something positive on the other end.
Elliott
Hey sugar, I got Liv’s text
How are you doing?
And how’s your girl?
“Exhausted” she typed out before deleting it. “Nervous.” She deleted that too. “About to shower.” That didn’t capture her mood. “Scared you’re going to—” Deleting her final attempt, she started a video call and propped her phone up next to the in-room coffee maker.
“Hey,” Elliott answered, the room swirling behind him and his tousled hair as he moved around his kitchen doing the exact same thing as her—if she had to guess. “How are you? I missed you last night.”
She smiled softly, lower lip quivering as she peeled the thin lid from a creamer and set it down to grab a second. “I’m fine.”
“You seem sad for Ren.”
“I am. And I’m scared,” she admitted softly, lining another creamer up as her mug finished brewing.
Elliott carried his coffee out to the back porch. “What about?”
“Us.”
“Do you not want to mate anymore?” he checked, but she had the sneaking suspicion he was being performative with that question. He had to know how she felt about him.
He was everything she’d never dreamed of, the type of man who was so perfect she couldn’t have thought him up in the first place.
“I still do. I absolutely still do, but I’m terrified, Elliott.
I don’t want to get cheated on. I don’t know how Ren’s still standing.
What if it broke her inside, and the wounds aren’t showing yet? ”
Scott made his horrible choice, and Ren had to live with the consequences, with feeling unworthy of love, of happiness, of commitment, of a future with someone who cared for her more than he cared about himself.
It was unfair and terrifying and could happen to anyone.
“Fern?” Her name rolled from Elliott’s mouth, a stern question, and she realized he’d probably been speaking to her.
“Sorry. Scared.”
He sighed sympathetically. “I wish I was with you right now so I could say this in person, but listen to me and believe me, okay?”
She grunted.
“I will never cheat on you. I think it’s reprehensible. I would never want to anyway, and I won’t be able to once we’re mated, so don’t ever worry about it, please. It’ll never happen.”
“You won’t be able to cheat? How?”
“Magic, baby.”
She snorted a sad laugh.
“Seriously, it’s shifter magic. I’ve heard I won’t even be able to get hard for anyone but you—not that I’m planning to try. But if I did try to spend time with someone else, think those sorts of thoughts about anyone but you, it would hurt me and my animal, or so I’ve been told.”
“Someone’s tested it before?”
“I’m assuming so. I don’t plan to.” With his phone in one hand and his handmade mug in the other, Elliott smiled at her before his gaze drifted beyond the camera. She assumed he was watching the birds—maybe a squirrel.
“Thank you,” she whispered, and his eyes snapped back to her.
“Fern, I— I think you’re amazing. I’ll happily start the bonding with you whenever you’re ready.”
Nodding, she admitted, “I think we have to wait a little while. I don’t know when Ren’ll be ready to leave. I can’t abandon her, and I feel so bad, like I shouldn’t be making this commitment when her world just fell apart.”
“I understand. My offer won’t change. Whenever you’re ready, say the word. Better yet, show up naked.”
She laughed, pulling a bright smile from his handsome face as the door beeped and the handle turned.
“Get off the phone,” Liv said, elbowing the door out of the way and barreling in, a box of pastries in her hands. Ren’s red-rimmed eyes peeked over Olivia’s shoulder. “Her family fucking turned around, and we’ve got a wedding to cancel.”
Elliott’s eyes widened, and Fern shrugged.
“Call—or show up—whenever you can,” he said softly, and they said their goodbyes.