Chapter 39
Guests started filtering into the old barn, decorated from top to bottom. It barely looked like a barn anymore. It resembled a hotel banquet hall, but with haybales instead of chairs.
Tucking myself into the back row, I thought sitting at the back was the perfect place to stay hidden and had the best chances of being left alone.
How wrong I was.
It wasn’t long before the seat beside me became occupied.
“Salut, frère.”
My neck nearly broke with how quickly I turned.
“Olly?” I stared in disbelief. “What are you doing here?”
“I’m here with my date,” he flashed a cheeky grin and nodded to Flynn in the second front row.
“He was supposed to bring Evie, but considering Jax has gone all caveman with her the last couple months and won’t let her get in a car without him, never mind a plane, I offered to be his plus one instead. ”
“Why?”
“Because you know I love weddings, and I’m never going to pass up a chance of free food and drink.”
I rolled my eyes. “No, not that. I meant, why is Jaxon acting like a caveman?”
Olly’s throat bobbed, his care-free boyish charm blinking out like a light.
Something was wrong.
He toyed with the wedding program. “Guessing that means no one’s told you.”
“Told me what?”
“I don’t think it’s my place to say.”
“What the hell is going on, Olly?”
“Evie and Jax have been going through a tough time recently. Not with their marriage, but with, fuck, how do I say this? With starting their own family?” He exhaled slowly. “You should probably talk to Jax about it.”
The day at the hospital came crashing back into my mind.
Evelyn’s tear-ringed eyes. Jaxon’s protectiveness.
Fuck.
I’d been so wrapped up in my own shit that I forgot about them.
I truly was the fucking worst.
Look, we weren’t the closest of families and never had been, but I wanted it to be different. It needed to be different because Frederic was right; we needed to be better for each other.
Rolling my lips together, I watched the last guests take their seats. Music started to play, soft strings of a harp accompanied by the gentle hum of a piano.
The groomsmen and the groom were the first to enter the bar. My eyes tracked Daniel the second he entered. In the last couple of days, he managed to get his tooth fixed, meaning I was stuck looking at his smug shit-eating grin as he walked down the aisle.
“I’ll call him when I get back to New York,” I whispered to my brother.
“If you say so.”
“I will,” I said firmly. “I planned on calling him, and you as well. It’s on the list of endless things I need to do when I fly home.”
“And why exactly were you going to call me?”
“Because I need to speak to both of you about something. There’s something I need to tell you both.”
A question formed between Olly’s brows.
“It can wait.”
“Or how about you finally do yourself a favor and open up to someone for once?”
“It’s not really the time or place.”
My brother scoffed loudly, drawing people’s attention to us.
Olly remained unfazed at the prying eyes. “You don’t think I know already?”
I cracked my neck from side to side. “Frederic told you?”
“Freddie tells me nothing,” Olly laughed without feeling. “Do you think I’m so blind that I didn’t notice you struggling for years? You think I’m that oblivious that I didn’t see what you were trying to hide? The three of you are always underestimating me.”
I swallowed hard. “You never said anything.”
“Because would you have listened to me if I tried to talk to you about it? Or would you have shrugged me off and told me to get lost?”
I remained silent.
“That’s what I thought,” he said matter-of-factly. “Look, all I want to know is, are you okay? And how can I help you?”
“I’ll be okay,” I said truthfully. “I don’t need your help, though.”
Olly’s face fell before he got the chance to stop it.
“But,” I continued, “I do need you as a brother, if you’ll have me?”
He clapped his hand on my shoulder, grinning from ear to ear. “Now that’s something I can happily do.”
The barn doors opened right as the music changed. All heads turned in unison, mine included, as we watched the most serene woman enter.
A vision of lilac, Livi walked down the aisle carrying a bouquet of wildflowers. The same flowers were intertwined with her loose curls, framing her face and deepening the color of her eyes.
Wearing a polite forced smile, she carried herself with such confidence, her hips swaying with each step, that I couldn’t keep my eyes off her even if I wanted to.
Goddammit, she took my breath away, again.
“Christ, put your tongue away,” Olly smirked. “You’re practically drooling right now.”
“Shut up,” I nudged his shoulder with mine. “She’s truly beautiful, isn’t she?”
At the end of the aisle, Livi and the bridesmaids stood on the left side of the makeshift altar.
It turned out it wasn’t only me who couldn’t take their eyes off her.
Daniel stood fixated on the woman he foolishly let go. His jaw worked, his fists curling at his side, as regret settled across his face as clear as the sun in the damn sky.
Livi, on the other hand, seemed oblivious to her ex’s longing looks.
Instead, brown eyes found mine through the sea of guests. The forced pained smile replaced by a beaming grin. A smile meant only for me.
My heart soared.
She didn’t take her eyes off me, dimples piercing her flushed cheeks, as Maya walked down the aisle and committed herself to a man who’d likely break her heart the first chance he got.
After the ceremony, we moved outside the barn into the field next door, where Olly proceeded to abandon me.
We were talking away, with him filling me in on his latest travels to Australia.
However, when Wallace, someone he went to university with, approached him with his fiancée, Olly suddenly went weirdly quiet and declared he needed to make a call.
Thankfully, my loneliness didn’t last too long. Livi spotted me and slipped away from the bride, who looked to be having anything but fun.
If I didn’t know any better, I’d say it wasn’t just Daniel who had regrets.
“I know we never got those lessons in the end.” Livi offered me her hand. “But do you fancy a dance?”
“With you? Always.”
“I’ll try not to step on your toes, though I cannot make any promises wearing these monster high heels.”
“Oh, good, this will be fun.” I chuckled. “You remember that I can’t dance, right?”
“Well, best prepare for some broken toes then, mi amor.”
Walking into the center of the dance floor, it became clear how amazing she was at her job. I mean, a light-up dance floor, a catering gazebo, a fully licensed bar, and making it look like something straight out of a wedding magazine, all in the middle of a field, was impressive.
There was little doubt that whatever she planned to do after quitting, she’d succeed.
Sliding one arm around her waist, I pulled her close. She rested her hand on my chest, right above the very heart that beat for her.
“It’s finally over. I can’t believe it’s finally done,” she exhaled deeply. “Freaking finally.”
I swayed our bodies in time with the string quartet. “You made it.”
“With your help.” She peered up at me. “Seriously, I have no idea how I would have survived these four months without you.”
“You don’t give yourself enough credit, Peaches.”
“Well, starting tomorrow morning, I can go back home and start to live my life for me.”
And I go back to rebuild mine.
The oh-so familiar claws of anxiety threatened to sink deep into my spine.
There wasn’t a chance in hell I was going to keep my job, not when I told Zara the truth.
And what if… what if going to Spring Hope didn’t work? What if I was so broken, so damaged to the core that I was stuck like this forever?
“Looks like our four months are at an end,” she said without warning.
I blinked, cold sweat beading along my hairline.
“Which, according to our rule book, means as of tomorrow morning, I am not your fake girlfriend anymore.”
Was she being serious? This wasn’t happening.
“And you are no longer my fake boyfriend,” she kept talking. Each word a punch in my gut. “So, that means we are technically free to start real dating people again.”
Was this her way of telling me that she didn’t feel the same way about me? Her way of telling me she didn’t want it to be real? And that she didn’t want to break those stupid rules?
Daring a glimpse at her, my entire world felt like it was on the brink of collapsing.
The air in my lungs turned to battery acid.
“Elliott, what’s wrong?” Her eyes went wide.. “Your heart is going a freaking mile a second.”
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
The muscles in my chest tightened. The corners of my vision dampened. Sounds distanced themselves from me.
“Hey, wow, look at me.” She cradled my face. “Take a deep breath for me. Inhale. Exhale. And again.”
A lump the size of my fist made my throat home.
“Elliott, you need to breathe.”
She may as well have asked me to breathe underwater.
“Olivia, I need you.” Maya appeared in the corners of my darkening vision. “Now.”
“I’m busy,” she snapped. “I’ll come find you in a second.”
“No, ahora.” Maya bit back. “Maid of honor duties trump your sex life.” A bony-fingered hand wrapped around Livi’s wrist, and she was yanked away from me without consent.
I didn’t wait for her.
Instead, like a fucking coward, I walked off the dance floor and headed for somewhere safe.
Away from the noise, away from the people.
Away from Livi, who just made it clear that she’d never trust me with her heart, no matter what I did.