Chapter 59
Chapter Fifty-Nine
TALLY
The ceremony is over, and now it's time to party. The dive bar, O’Malley’s, is packed with sweaty bodies, neon beer signs casting everyone in a blue-red glow that makes even the Kensington boys look a little rough around the edges.
Cameron and I buy everybody drinks—whiskey shots that burn all the way down and leave my throat feeling scorched.
We play pool on a table with cigarette burns in the felt, and throw darts at a board so worn you can barely see the numbers.
I even get to know his brother Silas, who's been on my shit list since day one.
After all, he was the one who started the whole Willow thing in motion by bringing her to that weekend at the cabin, throwing her together with Cameron right in front of my eyes while I sat there like an idiot.
But he breaks the ice by coming up to me, his designer watch glinting under the bar lights as he apologizes.
"I'm sorry for pushing Cameron and Willow together," he says, his manicured fingers wrapped around a bottle of Heineken—not a Bud Light like the rest of us peasants.
The fact that he's drinking beer from a bottle at all impresses me, because I get the impression that of all the Kensington men, he's the most bougie with his perfectly styled hair and cashmere sweater that probably costs more than my rent.
"But you have to understand one thing. I'm very protective of Cameron.
We all are. And the thing of it is, Cameron deserves everything in life.
And he's been given a really raw deal, losing his wife and daughter in that accident, after suffering from the tragedy of our father leaving for so long and our mother dying so young. "
"Don't worry about it. I get it. You were just trying to play matchmaker because you care."
"Yeah, well, I screwed up. Got too caught up in how perfect they looked together on paper."
"Meanwhile, I'm a walking red flag." I snort, tugging at my sleeve to hide the tattoo that crept up my wrist. "My life's a dumpster fire compared to the Kensington dynasty.
But hearts don't read résumés, do they? Mine's been stuck on Cameron forever, and turns out, his has been stuck on me too.
He was brave enough to admit it. I just kept running. "
Silas laughs, not bothering to contradict me. Cameron's taken to calling me his "beautiful disaster" lately. He knows better than to pretend I'm not chaos incarnate—I'd call bullshit faster than he could blink. But the way he says it makes me believe that maybe my mess is exactly what he wants.
That evening at Indigo, the crowd hushes as Mom takes her place at the piano.
Then Cameron appears on stage—a surprise I hadn't expected.
His calloused fingers stretches across the keys, and when that gravelly voice of his fills the smoky air, my lungs seize up.
Each note seems torn from somewhere deep inside him, raw and unfiltered.
The lyrics wrap around me like they were written in my skin.
His eyes find mine across the room during the chorus, just a flicker, but enough.
When he announces the title—"Beautiful Disaster"—I nearly knock over my drink. If I had any doubt that this gorgeous love song was about me, I don’t anymore.
And, as I clap, tears explode from my eyes like I've been gut-punched by happiness.
My chest heaves. My mascara's probably running down my face like black lightning bolts.
When have I ever lost my shit over being happy?
But Christ, I'm not just happy—I'm obliterated by joy.
Married to the most phenomenal man who's ever drawn breath, mother to a little girl so perfect it makes my teeth ache, and my mother finally clean after drowning in pills and bastards for decades.
Fuck me. So this is what it feels like when life doesn't suck.
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