“Speechless,” was all I came out with. My mouth hung open in shock and I snapped my teeth together to prevent the denial that was on the tip of my tongue bursting free.
There was no way I could be a bridesmaid, not when she was marrying Jack. No way. Out of the question. No way!
“Jack, why are you looking at Thalia like that?” Mia asked, her gaze darting back and forth between the two of us.
I hadn’t noticed him looking at me at all; I was still in melt down.
“I think...” Jack began slowly.
“That it’s a wonderful idea.” Mia interrupted him, her voice hurried.
“I’ll take you down to the bridal boutique so you can be fitted for the dress.” Mia started wiping the tears from her face. Glancing down at her hands, she must have just realized she was still holding Liam’s hand because she dropped it quickly, as though it stung.
Jack turned to me, “I’m sorry,” he whispered looking so sad. All I wanted to do was walk into his arms and hold him, be held by him, never letting go.
My tears were so close to the surface. I felt a sharp pain in my chest and knew that my heart was breaking. The wedding was going ahead as planned. I knew that with every breath in my body.
“I need to go,” Jack stated, with one last look in my direction he walked out of the kitchen.
“Thalia, hurry and get something to eat so we can go,” she told me over her shoulder as she raced from the kitchen. “I’m just going to find Stephanie.”
I looked across to Liam who looked just as shell shocked. “I can’t...” I closed my mouth and tried to take in some deep breaths. “I can’t be a... you know. Oh God, Liam. Why does this have to happen to me? What’s going on? Jack didn’t look too happy.”
While waiting for Liam to say something, I swiped at my eyes with my fingers.
“I don’t know what’s going on. Until this morning I honestly thought the wedding would be cancelled and Jack would finally make his claim on you.”
He stood up and gripped the edge of the counter, his gaze staring out the window, but I didn’t think he was seeing anything. “And that I’d be able to...” He sighed, turned around and took hold of my hands. “I don’t want to give you hope, but I think there might be more to this; Jack marrying Mia.”
“What?” I squeezed his hands, not letting him go when he started to move away.
“Something isn’t right. Don’t ask, because I don’t know. It just...feels wrong.”
I frowned at him.
“Okay, it feels more wrong than it did before.”
“Let’s go,” Mia said, bursting back into the kitchen.
Chapter 33
Jack
––––––––
I was a bastard. There was no other word for it. Bastard. Fuck!
After talking to Liam a few nights ago I’d gone and let off steam with Donovan and Reece, telling them some of what Liam had said. The only thing wrong with his plan was that Mia was terrified of her father and wanted me to be the one to walk away from her. Two nights ago, I’d gotten her to meet me and refused to let her go until she’d listened to my idiot of a brother. Mia had admitted to agreeing to marry me initially because of what Liam had done to her, but she also admitted that her father was adamant that the marriage would go ahead. She hadn’t a clue about what to do, and had begged Liam and me not to do anything for now. Liam had agreed and I’d gone along with him, but the look on Thalia’s face had nearly torn me in two earlier.
I’d left the woman who’d crept into my heart with the woman I was being forced to marry. How fuckin’ screwed up was that? And what was more screwed up was Mia telling Thalia that she could be her bridesmaid. Fuck! I needed to have a word with her about that, because there’d been no need to say that at all. She knew I had feelings for Thalia.
I slammed the brakes outside Kix and stomped up the front steps. It was early, but I needed to be away from everyone back home and hopefully Ryder with his ‘sunny’ disposition would cheer me up. Ha, as if!
There were only a few people inside, already with a beer in hand at what, eleven in the morning, and I was about to join them.
Ryder walked out from the back as I took a seat at the bar.
“Well, this is a first.”
“Yeah, well. It isn’t everyday you leave the woman you’re falling in love with, alone with the woman you’re being forced to marry... I’ll take a beer.”
Ryder didn’t move and I glanced at his face. He was stunned, standing there, his hand resting on the smooth bar as his other hand rubbed the rough stubble on his chin. “Did I hear you right? You’re in love with one woman, but marrying another because you have to. Is that right?”
“That’s about it.” I downed the beer in one. “Another.”
Ryder passed me another, opening one for himself as well.
“I never drink before ten in the evening, but I think I need this today having talked to you.”
I started to laugh. “Yeah, my fucking screwed up life makes anyone drink.”