CHAPTER 17 KAYLEE
I’m surprised by the transformation in front of me when we get to the bar—although it’s less surprising than Ben’s transformation.
He’s in a suit.
And holy fuck does he look delicious.
I know I just saw him in a tux, but damn. I will never get used to this sight.
He’s wearing boxers with Minions on them, and I can’t help but giggle every time I think about what’s under his navy blue suit, but then my eyes meet his and he’s all freshly shaven and freaking hot as hell and thoughts of Minions and basically everything else in the world just fly out of my head.
On the way to the bar, I couldn’t stop breathing him in. That fresh, clean scent I can’t seem to get enough of is both warming and comforting.
As for the bar, an arch has been set up where Darlene and Jerry will stand to be married, and tables have been pushed out of the way so chairs could be set up to witness the ceremony before the party begins.
It’s non-traditional, but it does seem to work. Ben and I take our seats in the second row, and the place is starting to fill up. Everybody stops by to say hi to the hometown hero sitting beside me, and I’m introduced over and over as his fiancée.
It’s surreal.
He doesn’t tell anybody that we’re getting married a week from today, and in fact, I’m pretty sure nobody from this wedding will actually be invited next weekend…including his mother. Including Craig, the guy who’s supposedly his best friend.
If we were hosting a bigger affair, then maybe. But we’re not. We’re throwing this together quickly to show the world our love—to help stem some of the nasty things that are being said about him. He doesn’t deserve those words, and I hate Eric a little more for what he’s doing.
“Can I talk to you a minute?” Craig asks Ben a few minutes before the ceremony is set to begin.
Ben nods, and he holds a hand out to me to escort me to wherever Craig wants to talk to Ben. Once we move to a semi-private corner, Craig glances at me. “Alone,” he says thickly.
I don’t know what this asshole’s problem is with me, but I don’t really care.
I don’t particularly want to be alone at this shindig, but I’m sure Ben will be quick.
He has to be since the wedding is starting soon.
I simply roll my eyes and stalk away before Ben can stop me, and it must be my lucky day because freaking Tatum moves right in my path as I move back toward the second row.
My stomach twists. I feel like a confrontation’s about to go down and I’m not in the mood to deal with her right now.
“Where are you running off to?” she asks with a sneer.
I draw in a deep breath, determined to maintain my composure. She doesn’t bother me since I know where Ben’s heart is, but it’s still annoying that she just won’t go away. “I’m just heading back to my seat.”
I study her a beat as I await the snide retort I’m sure is coming.
She’s a pretty girl, or she might be if she wasn’t so ugly on the inside.
She wears thick layers of make-up perhaps to hide behind something, and the way her forehead doesn’t move when her face changes expressions tells me she must do something to freeze the hands of time.
“Nobody wants you here,” she says.
I smirk. “Ben does.”
“I know Ben Olson better than anybody, and I know what you have with him isn’t real. I’m going to make sure everybody knows that, too,” she hisses.
“Correction, Tatum,” I say, injecting as much syrupy sweetness into my voice as I can muster. “You knew Ben better than anybody else a decade ago. But then you lied about the paternity of a baby and forced him to mourn something that was never his.”
Her jaw slackens a little and her eyes widen at the fact that I know what she did to him.
“Yeah,” I say, offering a fake smile. “He told me everything. Seems like maybe I know him—who he is today, not who he was a decade ago—better than anybody, don’t you think?”
“I was the first woman he ever loved,” she sputters, like it matters.
“And I’ll be the last. Between you and his mother, he’s just so damn tired of the lies.
I really think I was put in his life to help him learn how to trust women again.
He wants nothing to do with a liar like you, so you can back the hell off right now.
” I turn to head back to my seat, and I run right into Darlene—quite literally—who had to have overheard at least part of our conversation.
Maybe all of it.
I freeze as ice grips my heart, and then my hand flies to my chest in surprise.
Did she hear my words about the baby that was never his to mourn?
According to Ben, she doesn’t know about that little nugget of information. It’s his story to tell, not mine.
A million thoughts race through my head all at once.
I should feel bad if she heard what I just said to Tatum…but she needs to know the truth, too. She scarred her son because of what she did to him, and Tatum only piled on what she started.
“We all make mistakes,” Darlene says quietly, and regret plows through me that I was so careless as to talk about Ben’s feelings regarding his mother right here at her own wedding. My shoulders feel heavy and my chest aches.
Darlene’s gaze falls to Tatum. “Is what Kaylee just said true?”
“Which part?” Tatum asks carefully.
“The baby you lost,” Darlene whispers.
“I…I—I can explain,” she stutters, that facade she carries so well finally starting to crumble.
Is this it? Is this the end?
Somehow I doubt it. It feels more like the beginning of whatever the next chapter might bring with her, and regret takes a turn into fear.
“Get out,” Darlene hisses venomously. “You have forged a friendship with me based on lies, and if I have to choose between you and my son, I will choose him.”
My chest tightens at her words as tears pinch behind my eyes. “I’m so sorry,” I say as Tatum sputters and tries to come up with something to say.
Darlene holds up a hand and moves her gaze to me. “You shouldn’t have been talking about any of this. Not here. Not now. Not on my wedding day. Get out. Both of you.” Her voice is a low hiss.
“Mother!” Ben scolds from behind Darlene. “Don’t you dare talk to Kaylee like that.”
“It’s okay, Ben,” I say quietly. I’ll take this one for the team if it means she finally knows the truth. Maybe she can stop hurting Ben over and over with her obsession with his ex now. “She knows, and it’s my fault.”
The look of pain that passes through Ben’s eyes causes a knife to twist in my stomach.
I can’t believe how raw and real his emotions are where Tatum is concerned after all this time has passed.
Just seeing how hurt he is over this—over what I said today, even though I know he’s hurting because of Tatum’s actions—makes me feel like I’m going to be sick.
“Excuse me,” I say, slapping a hand over my mouth as I bolt for the restroom.
I’m sure it looks like I’m running away from this conversation, but I’d rather not throw up in the middle of a bar moments before a wedding is set to begin.
I manage to hold it down after I heave a few times over a toilet.
I feel like shit. I’m exhausted even though I slept forever last night, and I feel like I could sleep another week.
I draw in a few deep breaths as I try to keep my breakfast down and compose myself, but I’m drawing in deep breaths in a bar bathroom.
The air in here isn’t exactly roses and unicorns.
As I’m exiting the bathroom, I hear voices coming from the men’s room. The door isn’t quite closed all the way when I hear Ben’s name mentioned.
I need to get to my seat so I’m not walking down the aisle as part of the wedding party, but what I hear stops me in my tracks.
It has to be Jerry and Thorne talking in there. They’re talking quietly, but it’s loud enough that I can hear from just outside the door.
“I’ll talk to him tonight, okay?” Jerry says.
“He didn’t seem like he can do anything for me when I talked to him yesterday,” Thorne says.
“You’ll be his brother now. We’ll have access to him whenever we need it, and I keep pushing Darlene to get closer to him.
Even if he can’t get you into the league, we’ll still have him on our side.
He can pay for your college so we can help get you closer.
He can pay for coaches and trainers. And if he can’t get you in, at least we’ll have access to his fortune.
Family first, right?” He lets out a vicious laugh.
God, nobody is thinking with their brains today. I shouldn’t have had that confrontation with Tatum in front of people who might’ve been listening any more than Jerry should be having this conversation with his son in what isn’t really such a private hallway.
Shit.
I need to find Ben. I need to talk to him.
I think we need to figure out how to stop this wedding.
I rush back out to the main area of the bar and scan the crowd, but I don’t see him or Darlene—or Tatum, for that matter.
I run out to the front of the bar, and they’re not out there, either.
I race back in and head toward my seat just as someone switches the music over to that same song you always hear played when the bridal party walks down the aisle. I’ll have to look up what it is and tell Molly I don’t want it because suddenly it feels cursed.
Ben isn’t at his seat, and I don’t know what to do. Jerry walks down the aisle with Thorne by his side, and a few beats later, the front door of the bar flies open and Darlene appears…with her arm tucked into Ben’s.
Tatum is nowhere around, and I can’t help but wonder what the hell I missed when I nearly lost my breakfast in the restroom.