She just stood staring at me, which made me feel uncomfortable.
“I wanted to apologize. I shouldn’t have gone to Lewis,” she said looking around her.
I heard the words, but I didn’t believe her. She didn’t look sorry at all. I stayed silent to see what she said or did next.
“Mia invited me. She told me I could be a guest providing I apologized to you and Jack, and didn’t cause any more trouble...Jack’s waiting for you by the river.”
“What?”
“I apologized to him, and told him I wanted to apologize to you, so he asked me to point you in that direction,” she said pointing over her shoulder.
I frowned, not sure I believed her.
“Don’t be long. He looked nervous. I think he has something to ask you, so I wouldn’t keep him waiting. He’s across the water.”
With that, she started to walk off. “Wait.” I ran up to her. “Can you give this to Mia?”
“I can do that.”
“Thank you.”
She walked towards everyone, so she obviously hadn’t been lying about the invite to the wedding.
Ugh. Okay. I couldn’t see Jack so perhaps she was being truthful about that as well.
Changing direction, I picked up the front of my dress, and started to quickly walk, nearly running, in the direction that Rebecca had pointed. I still had my doubts, but looking back I could just make her out talking to Mia.
As I walked through the trees towards the river, I started to get a really bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. I could hear the sound of the rapids as I walked closer, but as yet, I hadn’t caught sight of Phoenix.
What did he want to talk about? To ask me? While I was walking I just prayed I didn’t step on any snakes. I shivered at that thought. Then smiled when I remembered what had transpired after the rattler episode.
Not long after I broke through the trees and all I could see was the water swirling and crashing against the rocks and embankment. The noise was deafening. Liam had told me about this part of the river, about how ferocious it really was, but this was the first time I’d seen it. Rebecca had said Jack was across the river, and all I could see to get across was a small bridge that didn’t look too safe.
Could I do this? I moved slightly closer to the bridge and looked down. My heart felt like it was about to beat out of my chest. There was something wrong. Phoenix wouldn’t wait across the water for me when he knew how afraid I was of deep water.
Chapter 65
Jack
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Since I’d watched Thalia walk up to the house, I hadn’t been able to remove the grin from my face.
I’d joined Ryder who was standing on the outskirts of the guests with a beer in hand. It was also the first time I’d seen him in a suit as well, which is what I’d put his annoyance down to. Until I’d stood next to him, that was, and noticed whom his eyes were focused on. Dahlia.
“Ryder, you need to stop with the scowling every time you see Dahlia. It’s going to piss Reece off.”
“If he’s with Dahlia, he shouldn’t have been spending his nights fucking your woman’s friend.”
I took a deep breath to try and calm down. I knew he had a thing for Dahlia, but he’d never touched her. He had it in his head that she was Reece’s, and until recently that’s what Donovan and me had thought, but now I wasn’t too sure.
“What’s going on with you and your girl? Did you finally pull your dick out of your ass and do something about her?”
I roared with laughter. He had a way with words.
“We’re back together, but we’ve not had a chance to talk properly with the wedding and all. I’m going to take her somewhere tonight so we can talk.”
He took a gulp of beer. “Are you sure talking’s a good idea, considering it’s talking that got you in the dog house to begin with?”
“Not this kind of talking.”
He paused with the bottle to his mouth, and raised an eyebrow. “The naked kind?”
“The proposal kind.”
Well, that was a first. The marine was speechless.
“Fuck.”
Maybe not.
“Hey Jack. Where’s Thalia?”
I turned and watched Mia walk towards us.
“She went inside the house to retrieve something for you to tease my brother with or so Mom said,” I said watching Mia blush.
She frowned, looking around her. “She didn’t bring it to me though, Rebecca did.”
I froze when I heard the bitch’s name. “Rebecca,” I managed to spit out.
“She came over to the house to apologize with her mother. My mom, of course, accepted. Eventually I agreed she could come to the wedding with her parents as long as she apologized to you and Thalia, and promised not to cause any more trouble.”
That was so not good. I paced back and forth a couple of times, trying not to panic, but failing miserably. “I need to find Thalia,” I looked directly at Ryder.