Chapter 29
OWEN
I’ve been to a lot of weddings. With a family the size of a football team, there’s always a next event on the horizon. Someone’s wedding or a big anniversary party or first birthday party. I may live six hundred miles away, but the Ellises show up for each other.
But through dozens of weddings, this is the first time I’m excited for a rehearsal.
It hasn’t even been twenty-four hours since Thea left my room, but I’m itching to see her, to maybe sneak her away for a kiss. She shot me a text last night saying she had some things to take care of and couldn’t come out with the family, and I almost canceled and went to her room instead.
I was in the kitchen all morning getting the final coat of buttercream perfect.
I wish Thea could have been with me, even though I knew this wasn’t something she could help with.
Even without her there, it was fun, and I breathed a sigh of relief when I looked over the work.
The cake is going to be perfect. All we’ll have to do tomorrow is assemble and decorate it.
Then I went to Mom. She was still in bed with the curtains drawn when I reached her, exactly as she’d been when I checked on her the night before.
I apologized and pleaded and finally got her to agree to come to the rehearsal.
It’s temporary, a way to get us through the wedding until we can have an honest conversation, but it still feels wrong—a betrayal of myself—in a way it didn’t before.
I can feel the moment Thea steps onto the lawn, and when my eyes find her, the air is sucked from my lungs.
She’s so beautiful it hurts, in a lavender dress that flows down around her knees, swishing with each step as she walks.
Her curls are loose, the wind blowing them away from her face, and I want to gather them up in my hands, to twist one around my finger and tug, just to see it bounce back into place.
Her eyes skate to me, then jump away, back to Addy who is walking by her side, talking animatedly to a couple I don’t recognize.
That’s when I clock the emotion on Thea’s face.
She’s smiling, but the closer she gets, the more I can see the cracks in the facade.
These must be Addy’s adoptive parents—the ones who chose not to keep Thea—and I instantly hate them.
Introductions are made and we run through the rehearsal without any issues, except for the fact that Thea won’t look at me, but I doubt Aunt Dawn would consider that a wedding-related emergency.
When the two of us walk back up the aisle behind Harrison and Addy, I whisper, “Everything okay?”
Thea nods, but it’s stiff. “Just a big day.”
Something’s wrong, but I don’t know what it could be. Yesterday, we were in bed together, talking about the future. I want to pull her away, but Addy stays plastered to her side.
The small group of us from the rehearsal make our way to the ballroom where the party is in full swing. It’s ridiculous. We’re practically having two receptions, but the Ellises never say no to a party.
Cousins and aunts flood Addy and Thea as they walk in, all reaching for a piece of them. I keep my eyes on Thea the whole time, looking for an opportunity to talk. But before I can, Gabriel’s voice rings through the ballroom.
“There’s our star. We’ve been subjecting you all to Roy’s singing for long enough. Thea, get your ass up here.”
Aunt Ximena calls out, “Watch your language, mijo,” and his bandmates tease him while Thea squeezes through the crowd.
I make my way through the buffet line to distract from the overwhelming frustration of not getting Thea alone, then sit at a table near the back, watching her laugh and sing on the stage as they cover song after song.
She doesn’t look at me, like I’m another stranger in the crowd, too unimportant to warrant a glance.
My blood’s boiling in my veins, and I’m fighting against the urge to rush up onto the stage myself and drag her away, to lock her up until I get an explanation.
“Okay, y’all, we’re mixing it up. This one’s for you Swifties,” Gabriel says.
Thea gives him a nod, stepping up to the microphone as the opening bars of “Cruel Summer” ring through the speakers.
They play it in a lower key, and the verse is perfect for Thea’s voice, deep and sultry like the song she sang at the bar that’s forever burned into my memory.
She’s up against the stand, clutching the microphone between both hands as she brings her head close.
There’s something so intimate about the way she sings this one, the straight line of her lips and seriousness in her eyes.
The tune shifts, pushing the top of her range, but she follows the melody as it flows into the chorus.
She owns this crowd. She owns me, but that’s nothing new.
When the bridge hits, her eyes find me, so unflinchingly that I know she knew my location from the start.
The lyrics of the song break through, ones I could have sung before this moment, but that feel new from Thea’s lips.
Her eyes are sad, and when she holds my gaze for the last line of the bridge, I feel like my heart has been ripped out.
Because no, the idea of her loving me is nowhere near the worst thing I’ve ever heard, and I don’t understand why she’d think it was.
By the end of the bridge, she’s looked away, back to performing for the crowd instead of me, and there’s ice in my veins.
The bridge hits even harder the second time. It’s equal parts wistful and angry, and it’s so perfectly Thea that I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to listen to the original again. A tear slips from the corner of Thea’s eye, and she swipes it away like she’s pissed it’s there to begin with.
An eternity passes before the song ends, and Thea laughs into the microphone. “It’s a bop, but damn if it’s not emotional, right?”
She asks the question to the rest of the band, like directing attention to them will make everyone else ignore her obvious reaction.
“Hell yeah, it is,” Gabriel says, smiling at her with a bit of concern in his eyes as his mother once again yells, “Language.” Gabriel just laughs.
“How about we give this gorgeous woman’s vocal cords a break?
It means y’all have to deal with Roy’s pitchiness, but she deserves it after that killer song. ”
Thea steps away from the mic, and Roy immediately takes her place.
Gabriel’s happy-go-lucky mask slips as he meets her at the side of the stage, whispering something to her.
Thea’s face is somber as she nods, then she smiles slightly before slipping off the stage and disappearing through the back of the ballroom.
I’m on her trail in seconds, dodging family left and right until I’m in the hallway. She’s just about to pass the closet where she rewrote every expectation I have for a sexual experience when I catch up, grabbing her arm and tugging her inside with me.
Her face is wet, and it sends a sharp pang through me. I place my hands on either side of her neck and wipe the tears away with my thumbs.
“Talk to me,” I say, meaning it to come out soft, but there’s a harsh desperation in my voice. I know what she’s going to say even before she opens her mouth.
“This has been the most incredible week of my life,” she says, a little hiccup interrupting her sentence and giving me the chance to break in.
“No,” I say, shaking my head. “We’re not doing that.”
She laughs as more tears escape the corners of her dark eyes. “You said to talk to you.”
“But not to say this. We’re not done.”
“We can’t tell your mom—”
“Thea, no.”
“—without making issues for Addy, and I can’t do that,” she finishes like I didn’t speak at all.
“Please. Please don’t do this.”
“She cares so much about what people think about her, and it’s my fault. I was the one who kept ripping her away from home after home and made her terrified of losing people’s approval. It’s the consequences of my own actions. She’ll never be happy if your mom decides she doesn’t approve of her.”
“What about you?” I ask. “Don’t you deserve to be happy?”
Her smile is so sad, and I want to gather her in my arms and make the hurt go away. “I’ll never be happy if I’ve caused her unhappiness.”
I shake my head, my fingers sliding up into her hair. “There has to be a way to make it work.”
“You can’t tell your mom the truth. I need you to promise me you won’t tell her. Please, do this for me?”
This isn’t for her. She’s sacrificing her own desires out of a sense of obligation to Addy, and it’s making me see red. But I won’t betray her, so against every desire and instinct, I nod.
She smirks, and the artificiality of the expression feels like knives dragged down my back.
“You’ll be fine. It’s easy to get caught up when you’re related to every other woman at the wedding.
There’s a beautiful, smart, kind girl waiting for you back home who will take over your mind so completely that you won’t even remember the hot girl you had a wild fling with in North Carolina. ”
I’m already losing her, watching as she slips back into that shell of self-deprecation, and it makes me sick.
My hands tighten in her hair, tugging her another inch closer to me.
“Don’t fucking do that. Don’t dismiss the way I feel about you.
You may walk away from me, but I’ll never stop wanting you.
I’ll spend the rest of my life begging Addy for scraps of your life, praying that you’ll show up at the next family event at her side. You are not replaceable.”
“Owen.”
She says my name like a benediction, but I’m the one who wants to worship her.
It takes only the slightest pressure on the back of her head to bring our lips together.
It’s messy and desperate, and the way she moans into my mouth has me making vows in my mind she doesn’t want to hear.
I don’t care how long it takes. If it’s months or years or decades.
I’ll make sure we find our way back to each other.
She pushes against my body, never taking her lips from mine as she backs me against the shelves.
Her hands come to the buckle of my belt while I grab her leg, hitching it around my waist as I grind into her.
She’s perfect for me, and I slide my hand up her leg until I’m grasping her ass.
She gasps into my mouth as she frees me from my pants, her hand closing around my aching cock.
“I need you,” she whispers against my lips as she slips my wallet from my back pocket, and I’m so relieved I replaced the condom there.
I drop my mouth to her neck, resisting the urge to suck and bite. The idea of sending her back onto that stage with my mark on her neck is almost too tempting, but I won’t back her into a corner, won’t take another choice away from her.
Thea puts the condom package between her teeth, ready to rip it open, when the door behind her swings open.
We both freeze, and Thea turns her head, condom still hanging from her mouth.
My mother is in the doorway, watching us with a manic look in her eyes.
And my dick is still out. Thank god for Thea’s body placement.
“Shit,” Thea says, the condom dropping and landing with a little thwack.
Mom’s eyes home in on the unmistakable foil packet and she titters. “Oh, I didn’t … That is … Excuse me.”
I groan, mortified, as Mom spins and lets the door fall closed behind her. Thea’s immediately off me, straightening her clothes.
“Stop her, Owen. Please.” Thea’s face is terrified as she stares at the closed door. “Please.”
I put my clothes back in order and rush out after my mom, leaving Thea to follow a few steps behind. When we make it to the ballroom, Mom’s already talking to my aunts.
“Mom, can I talk to you?” I ask.
“This is all your grandmother’s manipulation.” She turns to Aunt Dawn. “Did you hear Mom made Camila offer her a job so she’d move here and drag Owen with her?”
“It wasn’t a trick from Nan—”
“And now she has him wrapped around her finger again and is going to steal my son away from me.”
I’m about to scream, or at least drag her away kicking and screaming, when another voice rings through the room. “Thee, I missed you so much.”
Vaughn—whose idea started this mess to begin with—strides across the room before he wraps his arms around her and presses a hard kiss to the top of her head.
My heart stops. I know they’re just friends, but it looks bad, and the last thing we need is an added complication when the walls are falling in on us.
My mom steps forward, pinning Thea with a glare. “So not only are you playing with my son’s heart, but you have a boyfriend?”
The room goes quiet for a few seconds, and then everyone starts talking at once.