Clover Dreams (Return to Coal Haven #4)

Chapter 1

Chapter One

Clover

For a girl who had dreamed of her wedding since she was a kid, a casino wedding chapel wasn’t in my plans, but that was why I was in Las Vegas now.

My wedding. My family had gathered in town with me, and my future in-laws had just arrived at the hotel.

Tomorrow, the ceremony would be on the third floor.

The only thing I was missing was Elijah Wagner. The groom.

“I know you said you didn’t fly together, but you have his itinerary?” my mom asked.

Magnolia Duke was a smart woman, and she was trying to help me get to the bottom of everything, but there was something in her tone that put me on edge.

I’d always been able to see and hear the difference between how she interacted with him versus how she was with the brothers-in-law and the sister-in-law our family had collected over the years.

Would she be thrilled if something happened to my fiancé? No. My mom had too big a heart to act like that. Did she secretly hope that Elijah stood me up? Probably.

I knew Elijah could be hard to understand.

He lacked confidence, and he made up for it with bluster and an arrogance that was often off-putting.

The first time I met him, he was insufferable.

A friend of a friend had introduced us at a house party shortly after I moved to Omaha.

I was lonely, and I could see some of that in Elijah. So I had kept talking to him.

I’d like to have a talk with him now. Was the plane delayed and he lost signal? Was he stuck on a tarmac in the Vegas heat? I didn’t know, but the growing pit in my stomach was more than the nausea that had been hounding me for a few weeks.

The queasiness surged. I swallowed down the extra saliva pooling in my mouth and nodded. “According to the ticket I bought, he was supposed to land two hours ago. He told me his meeting in Dallas wrapped up, and he was heading straight here.”

He’d been a little aloof, but I had chalked it up to nerves about his new job and the wedding.

Her lips pursed, and my dad’s brow furrowed.

I adored my parents, and I loved their solid relationship.

I thought I was venturing into the same thing.

Today was the start of my new life. Elijah and I would marry.

We each had jobs lined up in Coal Haven, North Dakota, where my grandma had left me a house and a small chunk of land.

There was another new beginning too, one I couldn’t wait to share with everyone. Once my fiancé arrived.

There was a knock at the door. My hopes soared. I might be irritated, but I smothered it. Elijah always had a reason. One of my siblings might claim it was an excuse. “That might be him.”

My oldest sister, Violet, answered before I could get up.

The rest of my family and Elijah’s were in their respective rooms, waiting to hear what our plans for tonight were.

I had wanted a low-key evening. Elijah figured he’d be tired after a week of training in Dallas for his new job.

It would be just us tonight. Tomorrow night, we’d tie the knot, spend our first night as husband and wife together, then head home the next day.

Elijah’s older brother, Sullivan, stepped inside, and I exhaled. No Elijah.

Only a year older than my oldest brother, Alder, Van was a quiet guy who had lived in his parents’ basement for the last few years, something Elijah held severely against him.

“Hey, Van.” I hated how wan I sounded. My mom’s gaze sharpened, and Violet developed a worried crease in her forehead. Elijah had to be okay. I could not be stifled by my family while worrying about him. “Have you heard anything?”

The sharp line of his jaw hardened. His features were more angular than his brother’s, leaner but still muscled. Elijah joked that his own muscles were manufactured, but he still had them while his brother got scrawnier each year. Van had muscles, but I stayed out of that fight.

“Hey, Clover.” There was never an issue mixing up his voice with Elijah’s.

Van’s was much deeper. Surprising, since he seemed to otherwise hide behind a curtain of glossy brown hair.

The length made his angular face that much sharper.

A trait Elijah also hated. Actually, Elijah was never pleasant when it came to Van. “Can I talk to you alone for a minute?”

My heart stuttered. “Oh no. Is something wrong?”

He clenched his jaw again and glanced at Mama and my sister. Their brows furrowed.

Dread lurched in my chest, and the nausea swirled fast in my gut. Would I need the support? How bad is it? “Whatever it is, you can tell me in front of them.”

Van was usually a serious guy, but the intensity rolling off him was unusual.

He finally nodded and crossed the room. His polo shirt was untucked, and at first glance, he seemed like he should be a sloppy guy.

It was his shoulder width that gave the impression.

His top draped over him, but as he walked in front of me, I caught the outline of powerful thighs.

Yes, Van definitely had muscles. But I had more important things to dwell on than the one-sided competition between Elijah and his brother.

He dropped to a chair next to me, rested his arms on his knees, and exhaled. “He sent me a text.”

Delight leaped so high I almost stood. “Really? Did his plane get rerouted?”

There was that jaw tightening again. “Uh…not exactly.”

“Excuse me?”

Van scratched the back of his neck, and his hair shadowed his face. He tucked it behind his ear. He might hide from the world, but he wasn’t hiding from me. “The text he sent was a photo. So I called him.”

“And he answered?” Why not pick up my calls?

He dragged in a deep breath. “He arrived two nights ago.”

“What?” My startled shout mixed with Mom’s quick inhale.

No, that wasn’t right. If he was in town already, I’d have seen him. We were staying in the same room!

Van met my gaze, and the tenderness in his emerald eyes stole my breath. No—it was sympathy. He felt sorry for me, and he didn’t want to hurt my feelings. The sourness in my stomach increased.

He pressed his fingertips together, but he held my attention. “He had second thoughts, Clover. He quit his job, changed his ticket, and came to Vegas early.” He sucked in another breath, and his nostrils flared. “He met a woman, married her, and now he’s on his honeymoon in Cancun.”

“What!” Each tidbit Van dropped got worse. Quit his job? Arrived early? Met a woman?

Honeymoon. The heat of wildfire wicked up my insides.

Pressure rose, and my temples throbbed. I heard wrong.

“How could he have met someone?” It was too soon.

I’d been with Elijah for two years, and while he admitted he hadn’t been ready to marry, he’d changed his mind.

By doing so, we’d get the life we wanted.

“How is any of that possible?” Van was mistaken. Did they have another brother I didn’t know about? “How could he have met someone else?”

Anger not aimed at me flashed in his brown eyes. “She was working.”

“Where? This is Vegas. A hotel and casino. There are slots, and there are— Oh.” Reality slapped me hard, and my head spun.

Acid lurched into my throat, and I swallowed.

I wanted to cry and scream, yet I also wanted to sit quietly and insist that Van must’ve heard wrong.

But I couldn’t reconcile what he said with the way my fiancé had ghosted me.

“That two-timing twat waffle.” I rolled my eyes to the ceiling. I was a cliché. “He ran off with a stripper.”

She was probably leggy, in shape, and more fun than listening to me spout the differences between rubies and sapphires—trick question. They were the same mineral, corundum, but the iron and chromium content determined the color.

I buried my face in my hands. “Two days? He ran off with her after two days? We weren’t even going to go on a honeymoon. Where did he get Cancun money— Oh, shit. That bastard.” I grabbed my phone and fumbled it, my heart racing. The device went flying.

Van caught it deftly in his long fingers and handed it back to me. There was pity in his eyes, but also understanding. He knew just what a jerk Elijah could be. I’d heard the stories, and I’d even witnessed it, but not all brothers and sisters were as close as me and my five siblings.

I took the phone and didn’t bother with a thank-you.

That should bug me, but panic whipped through my blood.

I pulled up my bank information. We had one joint account that we put moving money into.

Thousands of dollars to help us get by until our next paycheck.

Money that would pay for the hotel and the food and to furnish our new place.

The account was now zero. The room tilted, and a strangled cry stuck in my throat.

Elijah used to tell me that I wouldn’t survive without him, that I was too naive. It was why he insisted we pool our funds, so he could help manage them.

“That bastard.” I stood up, got lightheaded, and sat down again. “He drained us dry.”

Sure, some of that was his, but goddammit, he cleaned it out. I could survive without him, no matter how much he’d made me doubt, but it’d be harder to do without money.

I was flat broke and stranded in Las Vegas.

Mom rushed to my side. “Oh, Clover.”

I heaved in a breath and blew it out, getting faster with each cycle, close to hyperventilating. “He took it all. I’ve gotta start my new job in a week, and he took it all.” I had quit the geology position that I loved. I couldn’t return to Omaha. My replacement started today. I trained her!

“Take a nice, big breath,” Mom said, her steady strokes on my back barely breaking through the mental turmoil in my head.