“You’re impossible,” she muttered as she stood back up. She kept the coffee table between them, and he didn’t register that he’d crossed his arms until he watched her mimic his stance.
He had the vague sense that he was being an ass, but for the life of him, he couldn’t figure out how to unwind. How to ease the tension, or stifle the sense of dread, or even how to wipe the wariness off her face. Seth just needed to have all the facts, needed people to stop hiding stuff from him and tiptoeing around, and fucking lying.
“Brooke, for God’s sake, just say—”
“Maya and Neil moved up the wedding.”
Seth didn’t move. “They what?”
Brooke licked her lips nervously but didn’t look away from his glare. “The wedding’s going to be in March.”
“March?” His voice came out as a roar. “It’s the fucking end of February.”
“Yes, I’m aware of the date,” she said coolly.
“Shit,” he grumbled. “That fucking bastard is behind this. Did she flip when you told her no? She’ll calm down, just give her a bit of time. I can’t believe this.”
“I didn’t tell her no, Seth.”
His eyes narrowed. “What do you mean? You can’t pull off a wedding in a few weeks.”
“Of course I can.”
“Well, you shouldn’t! Not when it’s this wedding.”
“That’s not your call.”
“It sure as hell is. Did you forget who’s paying for this?”
“No,” she snapped. “Not for one minute, because you can barely go that long without reminding me. But as I’ve told you a million times, my first commitment is to the couple getting married, and if they want to get married in March, it’s my job to give them their happily ever after, on whatever timeline they want.”
He groaned and dropped his arms to his sides before lifting them to link behind his head, turning in a circle as he tried to rein in his spitting emotions. “Are you fucking kidding me with that? The happily ever after shit? Still?”
A little flicker of hurt passed over her face, but it was quickly masked by irritation. “Yes, that shit, still. I know you’re determined to think that all people are crap on the inside, but you’re wrong. People are good, and happy endings are possible.”
“Says the woman who walked down the aisle toward a con man,” he muttered under his breath.
But not all the way under his breath, unfortunately.
Brook gasped, flinching as though he’d struck her.
“Shit. Brooke, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it.”
“Yes, you did,” she said, straightening her spine and resuming her defensive posture, which was now infused with a healthy dose of anger. “You did mean it. Just let it out now, Seth. Get it out of your system. You think that because I made a mistake with Clay that your sister must be making the same mistake with Neil, right? Is that how the cynic’s mind works?”
“Yes!” he exploded. “Yes, that’s exactly how the cynic’s mind works, and damn it, Brooke, this cynic was right.”
She rolled her eyes. “Not this again.”
He took a deep breath and strove for calm. “Look, I know you don’t want to hear this, but I am right on this one, Brooke. Neil Garrett’s real name is Ned Alonzo. He’s got a gambling addiction that has him nearly a million dollars in debt. Maya’s nothing to him but a cushy way to pay off his debts.”
Her lips parted in shock. “How can you know that? Did he confide in you?”
Seth snorted. “That’d be hard, right? Seeing as he’s been hitting the tables in Vegas while you and my sister run all over the city trying on dresses and tasting cakes.”
Her eyes narrowed in warning. “Is that really what you wanted to say to me?”
He sighed. “No. I’m sorry. I just found all this out seconds before you walked in, and I’m still dealing with it.”
“What do you mean you found out? How?”
Well, here went nothing.
“I hired someone,” he said, refusing to let the statement come out as guilty. “I hired someone to look into Neil. Ned. Whatever.”
Brooke’s mouth fell open. “You have got to be kidding me.”
He shook his head and shoved his hands in his pockets.
“Okay,” she said, seeming to take this in. “Okay, at least tell me Maya knows. That you didn’t go behind her back to research her fiancé.”
He stared at her silently.
“Oh my God, Seth,” Brooke breathed. “You know, for all your talk about how clueless Maya and I are, you’re clueless on a whole other level.”
He ignored this. “I did it to protect her. And it’s a damn good thing, because if I hadn’t found this out, she’d have married a man who didn’t love her, who’d have taken all her money and made her miserable.”
“And that would have been her mistake to make,” Brooke said quietly.
“But—”
“No but,” Brooke said, coming around the table so they were face-to-face. “You were right about Neil, apparently, and I’ll give you that. But what you did was wrong on every level. Going behind her back? You’re not God, Seth.”
“And what was the better alternative?” he snapped. “Letting her get hurt?”
“I don’t know,” Brooke said tiredly. “Maybe? I mean, I guess now that we know, we can’t actually let her marry him without knowing the facts, but you interfered in the worst kind of way.”