Chapter Twenty-Three
Brynlee
Rhett tenses beside me, and I know he wants to punch Kevin. As much as I’d love someone finally putting him in his place, Kevin would ruin Rhett. He’d sue him and drag it out so long that Rhett would never recover, and I can’t let that happen.
“I am home, Kevin,” I say, moving to stand between them. “I told you that.”
“Yeah, okay. Sure. Let’s go.”
“I’m not going anywhere with you.”
“Didn’t you like the roses?”
Is he serious right now? Blinking at him, I don’t even know where to begin. All I want to do is yank at my hair and scream. “I prefer wildflowers over roses, so I set them to a nursing home.”
“You sent five hundred long stem red roses to a nursing home?” Kevin asks, his eyes wide and tone unbelieving.
He has the gall to look upset even though the amount he spent is the same as anyone else in here pulling change from between the seats of their car. “You don’t listen when I speak, do you? Like, at all.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I’m not going to be impressed with an obscene number of roses you paid someone else to pick, arrange, and deliver.
That’s not from the heart. That’s from the wallet.
And when we last spoke, like, two hours ago, you should have picked up on that.
I don’t care what you can buy. It’s not what I want. ”
“You’ve made your point, okay? We’re getting married in three months—”
“You might be getting married, but I sure as hell am not.”
Kevin looks around, and I never noticed how much I hate the way his hair doesn’t even move. “Let’s get out of the middle of everyone and talk. Just the two of us.”
He grabs my arm, but I yank it back. Rhett reaches out to push him, but I block him and force him backwards a few steps. “I’ll handle this.”
“Oh, you will?”
My stomach roils, and I close my eyes, willing my body to keep the vomit down rather than making me sick right here in front of everyone. “Kevin, go outside.”
“I’m not—”
“I swear to God, I’m about to lose it. I will meet you outside,” I say, opening my eyes and glaring at him.
I’ve never used this tone with him before, and I certainly have never ordered him around. The amused look he gives me makes me wish I’d let Rhett punch him, but at least he finally turns around and walks out the door.
Turning to Rhett, I want to tell him I don’t want Kevin here, but I’m rendered speechless at the anger in his eyes. Anger I’ve never seen before. “You better get outside to him.”
“I should have just stayed home tonight,” I say with a shake of my head before walking to the door. “This is so stupid.”
Kevin leans against a Porsche, and I put it together. He would never drive his own car all the way to Georgia. No, he flew out here and rented one. Pushing off the car, careful not to scratch the paint, he smiles. “Ready to go?”
“I’m not leaving with you.”
“Why are you being so difficult?”
“Oh my God, Kevin, how many ways do I have to say it? I’m done. I’m not marrying you. We’re not together. We’re never going to be together again.”
He rolls his eyes. The ones that look nothing like the chocolate ones that captured my heart even as it gets stomped on. “Bryn—”
“The way you keep acting stupid baffles me. I gave you the ring, left a note, packed up all my stuff, and moved out. What would make you think I’m still marrying you?”
Kevin snorts, and now I want to punch him. Right in his stupid face. “You just needed to cool off. I screwed up, but we can get back to normal now.”
“It’s been months!” I shout and take a few deep breaths to calm down. “If I just needed to cool off, do you think I’d have returned, I don’t know… before now? Or called you back? Texted? Anything really besides the enormous amount of silence I’ve given you?”
“You should be planning Christmas with my family right now. Buying presents that cost more than every single car in this parking lot. It’s pathetic, really. This really is a working town from the looks of the hunks of junk parked here.”
I sigh and look around to see Tim and Everett leaning against the building with death glares as they smoke.
Great. “I don’t know how else to explain it to you.
I don’t care about money. How much you can spend at any given time doesn’t impress me.
It’s never been about that for me, and I don’t want to ever spend another holiday with your family. ”
“Bryn, come—”
“You know I hate when you call me that. The only reason you’re here now is because your mother doesn’t approve of your mistress.
The one you needed to sleep with while I was supposed to plan our wedding.
I have no interest in helping you save face with your friends and family, and I sure as hell don’t give a damn what they want. ”
His gray eyes stare into mine. “You can’t possibly be happy here.”
“At the moment, no, not so much. In general? Yes, I am. I’m happier here than I’ve ever been anywhere else.”
“How?”
“I have a home and friends who—”
“You have a home and friends in Chicago.”
Shaking my head, it takes everything not to burst into tears. I hate that I’m an angry crier, and nothing I say resonates with him. I’m not sure it’s even worth the effort to try and penetrate his thick skull.
“Now, I had your home. And your friends. Newsflash: Those aren’t real friends, and I don’t actually like any of them. Well, except maybe Jessica. And I don’t like your family. Your father still tried to get me to climb into his bed after our engagement, and it made every get together awkward.”
“He likes to joke—”
“Oh my God, don’t finish that statement.
I don’t want to be surrounded by shallow people whose only real pastime outside of spending ungodly amounts of money and cheating on their partners is putting others down.
Isn’t it enough for you to have more money and power than God?
Do you really need to tear down people just to feel better about yourselves? Because I don’t.”
“Are you dating that lug you were dancing with?”
My hands ball into fists as I actually begin to shake. I don’t know that I’ve ever been this angry before. He can’t defend anything, so he wants to change the subject. “Yes.”
“Who is he?”
“His name is Rhett.”
“Rhett? What kind of a name is that?”
I count to ten, but the trick doesn’t work like it usually does. “The more you open your mouth and let the sounds come out, the more you prove everything I’ve just said to you. Everything you refuse to hear.”
“You’re settling for a man like that. We both know it. Hell, I’m sure he knows it, too!”
I’m in no mood for this. “No, Kevin, going with you and forcing myself into the fake world you call your life would be settling.”
“What would your mother think right now?”
“Mama would be right here with you trying to pull me back by my hair. But guess what? Mama’s gone. She doesn’t get to run my life anymore, and I refuse to let you step into that place. My decisions are finally mine to make.”
Laughing in frustration, he almost runs a hand through his styled hair.
Almost. If he does, the expensive product he uses will lose its efficacy, not to mention how greasy his hands will be.
Then, he risks getting grease on the leather of the car and his expensive suit.
My God, I’ve spent too much time with him.
“My family loves you.”
“Your family loves how I look. They couldn’t care less about me as a person. All I am to you and them is a pretty face, but there is more to me than that. A lot, and I’m finally with people who see that.”
“I can give you everything you could ever want.”
“Except for orgasms every time we have sex,” I snap.
I didn’t mean to say it. I never planned to actually tell him how much I faked it with him, but my patience is nearly nonexistent.
His jaw drops, and the snickers behind me remind me we’re not alone out here. It’s a low blow, even if it is the truth, but I just really want Kevin to leave. He’s done nothing but ruin my life since yesterday.
“You’re sleeping with him?” he growls.
“That’s what people in committed relationships tend to do. The difference is, we only sleep with each other. There are no other partners for either of us.”
“He can’t satisfy you. There’s no way.”
Shrugging, I cross my arms under my chest. “If that’s what you need to believe, that’s fine.”
“Be serious, Brynlee.”
“Every single time. He has yet to see the incredible acting skills I perfected with you to keep your ego in check. But if I’m being honest, it really should have been me stepping out on you considering how dissatisfied I was in the bedroom, but cheating isn’t who I am.
And I have even less of a desire to be a kept woman.
A good little wifey who looks the other way when her husband screws every young woman wearing a skirt because she has his black card to use. I’m not interested in a trade-off.”
“That’s not how it’ll be once we’re married!”
“We’re not getting married!” I scream at him. “And it would be exactly that. You’ll be just like your father, and the last thing I want is to need happy pill prescriptions and drinking myself into a stupor to deal with it. I have more self-respect than that.”
Kevin steps closer to me, and I don’t know why, but I fixate on how smooth his chin is.
There’s not even a hint of stubble on his chin, and I force myself not to shudder remembering how hair-free the rest of his body is.
He really is a walking plastic doll. “You think that hillbilly in there can give you anything I can’t? ”
“I don’t think he can. I know he can. Because he does.”
“You can’t be serious.”
“For the first time in my life, I’ve thought about children without being terrified.
With him, I wouldn’t have to worry about how quickly my body bounces back.
That man would worship me no matter what I looked like.
With you, I’d have to schedule a tummy tuck as I leave the hospital with a baby while you point out how fat I am. ”
“You’re being ridiculous.”