Chapter Twenty-Two Declan
Chapter Twenty-Two
Declan
Three days until the wedding
I wake to the sound of rain on the window. The moment my eyes open, I look over at the chaise lounge to find it empty. I shouldn’t be disappointed by that. Did I expect him to stick around? Have breakfast with me?
He’ll be back in that seat tonight, so I can paint him some more. Is it so wrong that I’ve missed him? He’s my friend. At one point, he was more.
With a groan, I rub my forehead. God, I need to get out of my head.
My phone buzzes relentlessly from the floor next to my bed, where it must have fallen last night. When I pick it up, it’s riddled with notifications.
Anna warned me about today. Apparently, up until three days before the wedding, everything goes smoothly and seems like it will be fine, but it’s the three-day mark at which everything seems to crumble. It takes me fifteen minutes to go through all the messages on my phone.
Due to a sudden summer deluge, there seems to be a rose shortage. The baker in charge of the wedding cake suddenly came down with the summer flu, and Pierce’s best man’s suit came back from the dry cleaners missing a pair of pants.
I have my work cut out for me today.
I take a quick shower, get dressed, and prepare for all the fires that need to be put out to make this goddamn wedding go off without a hitch. The wedding I’m not sure should happen in the first place. But oh well. That part is not up to me.
When I reach the main part of the house, I find it abustle with frantic energy. The staff is running around in a mad rush, and Blaire finds me in the hallway with a bucket of sopping-wet drapery in her arms.
“Freak storm. Came out nowhere,” she says with a roll of her eyes.
“It’s Scotland,” I reply with a laugh.
Ignoring my joke, she doesn’t even stop as she hollers at me in her quick pace toward the laundry to have the wet linens cleaned. “Lunch will be served inside today.”
“Fuck, sorry,” I call after her, although I’m not exactly Mother Nature. Or a weatherman.
On my way to the kitchen, I pass the dining room, where I hear more familiar voices in conversation. So I stop and take a peek.
It’s Pierce’s booming voice first, that loud American accent, that grabs my attention.
From around the corner, I can see them sitting at the large table together.
Pierce is leaning back in his broad chair, steepling his fingers over his chest as he smiles at Colin, whose elbow is sitting on the table, and he’s gazing lovingly at the other man.
Something inside me clenches, and I pause for a moment, searching Colin’s expression for a sign that he truly loves this man. Is he the same way with him that he was with me? Does Pierce treat him like he deserves to be treated?
Colin has always had a way of falling for the wrong guys. He loves attention, and he’ll reward anyone who gives it to him. It used to drive me mad. But now we’re in our thirties, and he’s getting married. It would be futile for me to even bother worrying about this.
Pierce mumbles something I can’t hear, and Colin smiles, almost blushing at the table, as he turns away, and I can’t take my eyes off of them. Then I hear Pierce say, “Come here,” and a protective part of me bristles.
Don’t listen to him, I think.
But Colin rises from the chair anyway and walks over to his fiancé, sitting on his lap and looking down at him with love in his eyes.
I should be happy for him. Colin has found love.
He’s able to be in a relationship, and that must be what I’m so jealous of.
Despite everything, he was able to move on.
Not only that, he was able to commit to somebody.
Be vulnerable. Give his heart away. Trust that it won’t be stomped on.
He was able to do what I never could.
Colin leans down and presses his lips to Pierce’s, and my jaw clenches in response. Why am I watching this? It’s too painful.
Then Pierce whispers something, and I notice the way Colin’s spine straightens and the smile fades from his face.
“I don’t know, Pierce,” he says with uncertainty.
“Why not?” Pierce replies, rubbing his hand up and down Colin’s spine.
“Because I told you that’s not what I want to do. I don’t feel comfortable doing that here.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Pierce responds. “Do you know how special this is?”
Colin responds by standing from his lap, turning his back, and walking away from the man. A moment ago, I didn’t want to watch, and now my attention is rapt as I try to piece together what they’re fighting about.
“Will you please just listen to me this one time?” Colin pleads.
I couldn’t look away if I tried. I’m an interloper, watching another couple’s argument, and I know I shouldn’t, but I can’t help it. When Colin’s eyes drift toward the doorway where I’m standing, I step backward, hiding myself behind the wall.
“Baby, I need you to trust me,” Pierce replies. I hear the chair move as he stands.
“I do trust you,” Colin replies. I know this tone in his voice. I’ve heard it before. This pleading, apologetic tone when he knows that he’s not pleasing the person he’s talking to. And I know how hard that is for him.
From the day I met him, Colin has been a people pleaser to a fault, a habit I’ve tried hard to break him of, although if I’m honest, there were plenty of times I’ve benefited from it too.
“You don’t sound like you trust me,” Pierce says. “You sound like you’re ashamed of me. Baby, this is how I am. If you don’t like it, then I should know now,” Pierce argues.
“Don’t say that,” Colin replies with desperation. “I don’t want you to feel ashamed. I’m just telling you how I feel.”
“Yeah, and you’re telling me that you don’t like the same things I like. And you’re bringing this up now? Is this going to be a problem?”
One of them crosses the room. I can hear the sound of his heels clicking against the floor. I only notice now that my fists are clenched, and I’m holding my breath.
“Of course not,” Colin replies softly. “I don’t want any problems. Can we just have the ceremony and get married? It can be a romantic day. We don’t have to do any of this here. Another time, please?”
There’s a pause of silence. And then, “Is that really what you want?” Pierce asks. The tone of his voice makes it sound as if he’s questioning what Colin is outright saying. It takes everything in me not to storm into the room right now and tell this twit off.
And it’s even worse when Colin lets out a sigh of surrender. “I don’t know,” he mumbles.
No! Fuck him, Colin. Tell him no. Whatever this thing is, stand your ground. Please, baby, stand your ground.
When I peek around the corner, I see Pierce wrap his arms around Colin, pulling him into his chest. I hear the sound of his hands running over the fabric of Colin’s shirt.
“Just trust me, sweetheart, okay? All of our friends will be here. It’s going to be so much fun, and it’s going to be so fucking hot.”
“What if he doesn’t say yes?” Colin replies.
“He’ll say yes. Trust me. This place was famous for these parties.”
Fuck, is he seriously thinking about this?
“Fine,” Colin says, his voice sounding despondent.
“What time will your parents be here today?” Pierce asks, changing the subject.
“I think around noon,” Colin responds.
The reminder that his parents are coming to see the house today makes me instantly uncomfortable.
I’ve only met his mother in passing a couple of times, and I’ve never met his father, but I don’t have to meet him to know that I hate that son of a bitch.
He treated Colin like second-best his entire life.
How anyone could discard their own flesh and blood like that man did baffles me.
But knowing he hurt my best friend, I’ve never hated someone so much in my life.
“Wonderful,” Pierce replies. “We’ll have a perfect day, and then the rehearsal in two days, and party that night… It’s all coming together beautifully, my sexy little Brit.”
The sound of that cocky American getting what he wants makes me sick. With a gnawing uneasy feeling in my stomach, I back away from the doorway and head into the kitchen quietly so the couple doesn’t hear me.
What the fuck did Colin agree to? I know I shouldn’t care.
What he does is none of my business. But he’s been here with his fiancé for the past four days, and I can tell something about him is off.
He might smile and pretend like everything is great, but I know the real Colin.
The affection Pierce shows him doesn’t sit right with me, and I can’t explain why.
This wedding is making me uneasy, but I just have to keep reminding myself to go through with it, do the job, get the house, and move on. That’s all that matters.
Colin is not my responsibility anymore. What he does with his life is up to him, and trying to live in the past isn’t going to do me any good.
* * *
Two hours later, the impending doom of Colin’s parents’ arrival at the house is signaled by the sound of tires on gravel.
It’s been one fucking hell of a morning, and I’m really not in the mood to deal with pompous arseholes today.
Nothing has been managed, and if I don’t get the cake and the tux and the flowers figured out soon, there might not be a wedding after all.
But as Colin used to say when he was in theatre, the fucking show must go on.
Because of the rain, the staff meets Mr. and Mrs. Shelby with umbrellas by their car, ushering them inside where it is dry.
I stand off to the side as they enter, letting them greet Colin and Pierce first. Blaire is by my side, knocking my shoulder playfully with her arm and rolling her eyes to try and make me smile. It works for a moment.
“Please, for the love of God, win that bet,” she whispers under her breath.
I give her a lopsided smile. What a mess this has turned into. A fucking bet. I nearly forgot that’s what this was all about. The stakes seem higher for some reason now. Perhaps I’m just in over my head.
The Shelbys make a big fuss in the entryway, greeting Colin and then Pierce. Seeing Colin’s father for the first time is a bit surreal after all the shit I’ve heard about him.
Colin resembles him far more than he resembles his mother. The man is tall and quite handsome, with fair skin, light hair, and piercing blue eyes. But that’s where the resemblance ends because Colin’s father carries himself with an arrogance that Colin never does.
Colin’s mother affectionately hugs him, kissing his cheek and ruffling his hair in the same way I’ve seen her do it before. It’s how I can tell she loves him very much. He smiles back at her adoringly as she touches his cheek.
Meanwhile, his father shakes Pierce’s hand proudly, and Pierce is eating it all right up. With a big smile and an overdramatic show of excitement, Pierce proves to be quite the actor. Naturally, Colin’s father approves of the attention.
Colin doesn’t get half the enthusiasm when his father greets him. There is no pride. There is no joy. There is no love. It’s almost robotic, the way he acknowledges Colin, clapping him on the shoulder, shaking his hand, and turning away as quickly as he can.
I watch the way this affects Colin, the subtle sadness in his eyes. It shatters something inside of me. I want to drag him away or put myself between him and them. That’s my job. I’m his best friend—the person supposed to look out for him. I’m not supposed to let him feel shite like this.
These must be old feelings preserved from years ago when that’s quite often what I had to do—when he needed me. But he doesn’t need me anymore.
While the four of them make small talk in the entryway, Colin’s eyes drift over to me.
They stay locked with mine for a moment, and I wonder if he notices that I’ve witnessed his pain, as if maybe I was the only one who could see it.
His fiancé is too busy laughing with his father, trying to impress him with his good looks, his money, or his charm.
“Mum, you remember Declan Barclay, don’t you?” Colin asks as he guides his mother over to where I’m standing.
“Of course,” she says excitedly as she reaches out her hands to pull me in for a hug. It takes me by surprise, so I awkwardly tap her back as she hugs me.
“It’s very nice to see you again,” I say.
“You too,” she replies. “How fitting is it that Colin will be getting married in your house? You two really go back so far, old university mates.”
I clear my throat and avert my gaze to the floor.
“Yes, ma’am, it is quite a coincidence,” I say.
“I hope you enjoy the house while you are visiting today. The staff has prepared a lunch for you in the dining room. And I’m sure if the rain lets up, Colin and Pierce would love to show you the gazebo in the back where the ceremony will be. ”
“Oh yes, I would love that,” she replies emphatically.
That enthusiasm does not transfer to Colin.
He appears guarded and uncomfortable as he stands there watching the both of us.
I wish I knew what he was thinking. I wish I knew what that fight was this morning with his fiancé.
I wish I knew for sure if this wedding is really what he wants.