“What I don’t understand is why. Why do you have to marry the other woman?” Ryder leaned on the bar taking a long drink of his beer.
“Family.” I drained half the bottle and looked at Ryder who was knocking his own back. “Family is the only reason why I’d do something that makes me sick to the stomach.”
“You shouldn’t have to do that. I’ll give you my advice for free, and that is to tell them it’s your life and you’ll live it how the hell you want. Cancel the wedding and grab the woman you love before it’s too late. You’ll regret it for the rest of your life if you don’t.”
That was the most I’d heard Ryder speak in one sentence since I’d known him.
“Was that from experience?”
He paused, chucked the empty bottle into the tub of empties then started walking towards the back of the bar.
“Yeah.”
Nobody knew anything about Ryder other than he was an ex-marine with a bad attitude, although the attitude had stayed hidden during our ‘chat’.
Before noon I’d consumed three beers, so not good. I needed some food to soak it all up otherwise by tonight I’d be in no fit state to get on the stage. It was Saturday night and the crowd at Kix on the weekend was usually standing room only.
The first few gigs we’d done had large crowds, but gradually over the past week or so the crowds had grown and Ryder had started removing the tables from around the room into the back storeroom to fit more bodies in.
Last weekend, he’d even mentioned getting folks to buy tickets so he didn’t exceed the maximum capacity allowed by the fire marshal.
It felt good to know that our music and songs were attracting a larger audience, which kept growing weekly.
“What the fuck you doing here at this time?” Reece asked, sitting his ass on the stool next to me. “And with a beer?”
“I’m drowning.”
He sat silently beside me for all of five seconds.
“Look, I heard what you told me and D the other night after you’d spoken with Liam, but surely, if she goes off with Liam and you go off with Thalia, your dad isn’t going to withhold your tuition. He wouldn’t want the town knowing he refused to pay your fees.”
Reece could be an insensitive jerk at times, but every now and again he said something that made me think.
“You need to call his bluff.”
Standing up, I drained the rest of my beer, ready to leave. “That’s a lot easier said than done.” I stretched and looked around the bar, which had started to fill up some. “I haven’t spoken to Thalia. She was in bed when I arrived home last night. This morning Mia arrived at the crack of dawn in tears. Thalia walked into the kitchen to find Liam and me in there with Mia still in tears.”
His fingers worked the label on the empty bottle, slowly ripping it off. “She had no idea we were pretending the wedding was still going ahead, and I can’t get the look on her face out of my fuckin’ head.” I ran my hands through my hair. “It took all of my strength not to shout from the top of my voice that the wedding wasn’t going to happen, because I was in love with Thalia.”
Reece’s eyes nearly popped out of his head at my announcement.
“Yeah, I love her and I can’t fucking have her. God I nearly lost it when Mia shouted at Thalia. I need to talk to her, to try and explain, because the look on her face nearly tore me in two.”
“Man, I sure as hell don’t envy you, although I wouldn’t mind a woman of my own; someone sweet, someone who hasn’t been around a lot. You know what I mean.”
Stunned, I stared at him. Yeah, I heard the words, but couldn’t believe they’d come out of his mouth.
“What.” He started to laugh. “Yeah, I know what you’re thinking, but the fact is, I’m twenty-six and getting fed up of all the meaningless girls that run through my life. It’d be nice to just have the one...Hell, I’ve been hanging around with you too long.”
“All I can say is that I’m glad I wasn’t drinking when you made that announcement. Wow. On that thought, I’m going to leave and walk into town for something to eat.”
Walking away, I turned back to look at Reece, who was watching me. “You amaze me sometimes.”
“Yeah, I know,” he said grinning.
Chapter 34
Thalia
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All I’d wanted to do as soon as Jack left was run to my room and cry; my heart was shattering into a million pieces. The fact that I’d only known him for a few weeks didn’t matter. He was in my heart and I was dying with jealousy and pain.