“Thought you’d never stop.”
I jumped and turned quickly in the direction of the voice – Donovan.
“How long have you been sitting there?” I rooted around in my purse for a napkin or something to mop my face up with, but before I could find anything, Donovan passed me a tissue.
“Long enough.”
He slid down and took a seat beside me in front of the trees.
“Let me guess, Jack.”
I wouldn’t look at him.
“Thalia, I know you don’t know what’s going on and Jack’s probably confused the shit out of you. The fact is this isn’t what he wants, I mean Mia. He can’t stand her much, but there are things you don’t know that he can’t tell anyone. Fuck, I shouldn’t be telling you that.”
“Please Donovan. I need to know, because one minute he’s cancelling the wedding and the next, nothing’s been done and the wedding is still going ahead.”
“I’ve never seen him so screwed up before over a girl. Never. Since you arrived home with Liam, you’re all he can think about... This is hurting him as much as it is you.”
He hardly knew me, but yet he’d given me hope. I couldn’t help but pass slight glances in his direction.
He started to laugh. “Don’t look at me like that. I only told you what I did so you wouldn’t hate Jack. Him and Reece are the only friends I have. More like brothers and I’d do anything for them. You need to talk to Jack and try to get out of him what’s going on.”
I looked back at the lake. “He said he wanted to talk to me.”
“So there you go... Come on let me give you a lift back to the house. This place isn’t safe on your own.”
He held out his hand to me so I placed mine in his and let him pull me up from the ground.
Donovan was a hot guy. Tall, broad shoulders, dark brown hair and his eyes...swoon worthy. Callie would melt on the spot if she got a look of him. I smiled thinking about my best friend. Perhaps if I sent her a picture of him it would give her even more incentive to come to Alabama, although she had already told me she would be here in an instant if I needed her.
“Donovan, can I take your picture?”
He stopped dead and looked at me. Then grinned. “You think I’m hot?”
“Oh please.” I could feel myself blushing.
“Yeah, you do.” He started laughing while he pulled me along with him.
I pulled him to a stop. “Yeah, I think you’re hot, but I wanted to send a picture to my friend in Texas.”
His eyes widened.
“Please...”
He was the one who was embarrassed as I retrieved my phone from my back pocket.
“Say cheese.”
After I quickly snapped the picture I sent it to Callie, telling her Donovan awaited her in Alabama. I decided to keep the fact that Donovan and Reece looked to be players to myself. If anyone could tame Donovan, it would be Callie.
Chapter 35
Jack
––––––––
“So this is where you’re hiding?” Donovan said, taking a seat opposite me.
“I’m not hiding. Skipped breakfast so I needed to fuel up, especially after the beer over at Kix.”
“Beer?”
I’d stunned him into silence. “Yeah, I ended up there, figuring other than you guys no one would know where I was. Ryder kept shoving the beer into my hand, so I drank.”
He shook his head. “I’ve just taken your woman home; in case you were interested.”
I stopped eating and glared at him.
“I saw her dart into the forest, alone, so I followed her and sat and watched her for about twenty minutes while she cried buckets; because of you.”
Fuck, I’d lost my appetite.
Mandy one of the servers was walking by so I passed her my plate. She gave me a quick glance then the plate before she removed it and took it back to the kitchen.
“I don’t know what to say.” I put my head in my hands then looked back to Donovan. “What did you say?”
He leaned back in his seat deep in thought. “I told her she needed to talk to you, because you couldn’t stand Mia.”
“Shit. What did you tell her that for? Hell, I don’t know what I was going to say to her, but I need my parents and Mia’s to believe that the wedding is going ahead for now until it all gets sorted. Hell, for all I know I might end up having to go through with it.”
“So it wouldn’t bother you if she went off with someone else?”
It would kill me to see her with another guy. I sighed, it was the same as what it was doing to her if Donovan was telling me the truth and he had no reason to lie.
“I didn’t think so. Talk to her and tell her the truth. She needs to know what she’s feeling isn’t one sided.”
No matter how much of an ass Donovan...and Reece could be, they always knew the correct thing to say. Unless they wanted to yank my chain, then fists usually flew.
“Was she that upset?
“Yeah, she was. Also on the way back to the house, she told me about Mia. How could you let Mia railroad her into being a bridesmaid at the wedding of the guy she’s in love with? How fucked is that?”