Ignoring her request, I jogged down the beach. “How long are you here for?”
I couldn’t remember if I’d asked her how long she was staying, where she was staying, or when her flight was heading out. All I remembered was that she’d shown up for moral support after hearing through the grapevine about her friend, Matt Adams, posing as Jacob Adams at the wedding the Miami muckety-mucks would be talking about for months.
“I’m staying as long as you need me,” she said, pausing. “Which hopefully isn’t any longer than three days because I promised work I’d be back by then. They’re a little short-staffed since someone decided to go and take a week vacation for his brother’s wedding.”
I’d taken the week figuring I’d need some “alone time” after watching Cora marry Jacob, not because I’d be playing standin groom. It was almost like I’d planned it. Or some higher power had. “What did I do to deserve such a good friend?”
Maggie snorted. “You’re Matt Adams, you dummy. Everybody likes you. It’s a universal law of the planet or something. Stop acting so surprised that people dig you so much.” She made a clucking sound with her mouth. “Or that a certain someone might just happen to love you.”
That was a dangerous topic. Dangerous for what it meant for Jacob, Cora, and me.
“I’ll check in later with an update. Thanks again for flying in and wrangling my fat elephant ass back to the cabin last night.”
“Yeah, well, I might have groped it as a means of payment, so we’re square.”
After saying good-bye, I stuffed the phone back into my pocket and continued searching. She wasn’t on the beach. She wasn’t anywhere in or close to the hotel. Shit, this was a big island. She could have gone just about anywhere.
Just as I was about to head back toward the lobby to call for a cab, I thought of one more place to look. The same place she’d gone yesterday morning after waking up and discovering who she’d really exchanged 'I dos' with.
The trees and bushes provided a little break from the wind, and it didn’t take me long to remember the path I’d taken yesterday. I found her in the exact same spot, sitting there and staring at the ocean like she had before.
She was in the same blue dress from last night, her hair tied back in a loose braid and her makeup almost totally washed away. She’d been crying. From the dark trails streaking down her cheeks, she’d cried a lot.
My chest ached from seeing her like this, knowing she’d been sad and alone. Knowing she’d been crying and had no one close by to comfort her.
When I continued closer, coming around the side so she could see me, she didn’t flinch.
“There’s a storm coming.” I stuffed my hands in my pockets to keep from reaching out to her. I had no idea what had happened last night or how she felt this morning. I knew that last night I’d felt betrayed that she’d run to Jacob, forgetting all about me, but after my brother’s and my talk this morning, I wasn’t so sure if that’s the way things really were.
“No shit.” A single-noted laugh came from her. “I just slept with my fiancé’s brother, who I might or might not be legally married to. The storm’s already swept us up, Matt.”
My teeth bit into the inside of my cheek. “I wasn’t trying to trick you when I put that ring on your finger.”
“Then what were you trying to do?”
That was the same question I’d been asking myself, and I’d come up with a dozen different answers. “I was trying to help you.” I shifted, rubbing at the back of my head. “I figured Jacob would probably show up shit-faced or something eventually and no one but him and I would have to know what had happened. I wanted to save you the embarrassment of him not standing at your side in front of a crowd of people. Like he used to.”
“Like he used to?” she repeated, curling her feet beneath her. “What does that mean?”
I gave her a moment to take her question back. A moment to move on to something else. When she finally turned her head to look at me, waiting for an answer, I sighed. “During the two years of high school you two were together, he never once walked with you to a class, or sat with you at lunch, or so much as glanced your way while at school.”
Her throat moved when she swallowed. “How could he? We were trying to keep it a secret from your dad.”
“He was trying to keep you a secret from more than just our dad, Cora,” I whispered, ashamed for saying it but unable to help myself. She wasn’t blind. She had to know why.
“You’re an ass.” She glared at me before looking back out at the dark, surging ocean.
“You asked for the truth from me from now on. You didn’t ask for me to be the good guy continuing to feed you lies to protect you. So which way do you want it? Because you can’t have it both ways.”
She was quiet for a minute. “Okay, so you stepped in to help Jacob and me at the wedding. I could maybe wrap my head around that if I tried really, really hard. But why in the hell did you crawl into bed with me that night? Why did you —”
“Because I’m weak,” I said, shifting again. I couldn’t get comfortable.
“Please, Matt, you’ve always been strong. One of the strongest people I’ve ever known.”
Was I? Did she really think that? “I’m weak where you’re concerned. I always have been. And that night, when you put your hands on me, I couldn’t do the right thing like I knew I should have. When I saw what you wanted from me in your eyes, I had to give it to you.”
Her arms curled around herself, a sharp exhale spilling past her lips. “You gave it to me all right. Four separate times. Almost five.”
Almost five. “Yeah, except that fifth time, you knew who I was.”
I chanced a step closer. It only made her scoot away, maintaining the distance between us. I hated watching her slide away from me—I hated myself giving her a reason to do it.
“You knew exactly who I was when you were saying my name and pushing yourself against me. So now who are you going to blame for that?”
“Shut up.” Her voice was small, almost silent.
“No, I won’t. I’ve kept my mouth shut with you too many times. No more. You’re going to hear the truth, and it’s me who’s going to tell it to you.”
“Shut. Up.” Her voice was louder, her expression lethal, but I didn’t back down.
“You picked the wrong guy to marry.”
The look she gave me right then—I’d never forget it. I guessed I’d carry it with me in my next life too, it was that loathsome. “I did not.”
My arm came out at my side. “He didn’t show up to his own fucking wedding. How can you expect him to show up for anything else in life?”
She twisted toward me, glaring up at me like she’d never hated anything more than she did me right then. “Well I guess I’ll never get a chance to know, right? Because I think when I mention the whole ‘letting his brother go down on me after he’d screwed me’ thing, our relationship isn’t going to go so well.”