Falling for Mister Wrong (31 page)

“The one you jilted him for.”

Tria swallowed visibly. “Yes. They were best
friends their entire lives and I killed that. I know I don’t
deserve Will’s forgiveness and maybe Andy doesn’t either, but we
would both do anything in the world to earn it.” Tears glistened in
her baby blues. “Will has every right to be angry, but I hate that
what we did turned him into this angry, unforgiving man. He was
never like that before. Will is the warmest, sweetest, most
wonderful guy I’ve ever met and I hate the idea that he’s festering
with bitterness because I was a stupid cow.”

Caitlyn eyed the distance to her car. “I
don’t know what you expect me to do.”

“He won’t even listen to me. I thought maybe
if you talked to him… just sort of gently… the next time you see
him…”

Her pleading his ex’s case. That was bound to
go over well. Tria looked tearful, but determined. A determined
little pixie. “You’re one of those people who has to fix everyone
else’s problems, aren’t you?”

Tria’s grimace was self-effacing. “Guilty. I
can’t stand when things are unresolved.”

Just like Will. How angry he must be to leave
this unsettled. “I’m not going to get in the middle of it, Tria.
Sorry.”

“It isn’t for me. It’s for him. And
Andy.”

“You may be right.” As much as it burned to
admit it. “It may be better for the whole world if we can just
forgive and hug it out. But you can’t force that and I’m not going
to push him. He’s still that warm, sweet guy.”

“Just not with me,” Tria whispered.

“Yeah, well, can you blame him? You broke his
heart.” She didn’t expect Daniel to forgive her. When he finally
realized they were broken up for real. If he ever did.

For all she knew he was still planning the
wedding.

Shit. She needed to tell Will. D-Day was
looming.

“I’ve gotta go, Tria. Good luck.”

The perfect little blonde pixie watched her
walk away.

#

Will’s Jeep was parked in front of the chalet
when she got back from the store. He must have finished up the
Hamilton Family Fun Night early.

Perfect. She would put away the milk, play
the Pathetique, and then confess everything. Nondisclosure be
damned.

It would be fine.

Caitlyn put away the milk. Popped a handful
of Tums. Sat at the piano. Stared at the keys. Flexed her fingers.
Petted the silky ivory. Put her hands back in her lap. Went to the
cupboard for more Tums, grateful she’d sprung for the value sized
container. Back to the piano.

A knock rattled the door in its frame.
“Caitlyn? It’s Will. I know you’re home.”

There was a note to his voice. Brusque. Hard.
She’d only heard him sound like that when he was talking about his
ex.

Oh God. Someone must have seen her talking to
Tria. Trust the Tuller Springs gossip mill to get the news to Will
in less time than it took her to drive home.

Caitlyn rushed to the door, pulling it open,
explanations ready on her lips, when his first words sent her
thoughts scattering to Timbuktu.

“Did you agree to marry him?”

Oh shit
.

Chapter
Thirty-Eight

The way her face fell would have been
comical, if it hadn’t been tragic. It was true. She was engaged.
Will resisted the urge to rub his chest where his heart used to
beat.

“How did you… who told you that?” she
whispered, horror and shock and something that almost looked like
relief all flashing across her face.

“Does it matter? You’re engaged?”

“Not anymore,” she whispered, and the words
seemed to echo in his head, confirming it.

“But you were. When we met…. The veil.”
God, he was such a fucking idiot
. It had all been right
there and he hadn’t seen. He hadn’t wanted to see. “Jesus.”

“Come inside, please.” She ushered him in the
door and his feet moved of their own accord, shuffling numbly
along. “I’ve wanted to tell you. They had me sign all these
nondisclosure agreements, that I won’t leak anything about the
results of the show, but I had to tell you. I’d already decided
that I would risk the lawsuits because I needed you to know.”

“Did he send you flowers? On Valentine’s
Day?” His voice seemed to be coming from far away, some distant
island.

“Yes. I’d broken it off, but he—”

“And you hid them. That’s why you came
downstairs. To keep me from seeing.”

“Will, please…”

“And he came here. To see you.”

“It was weeks ago. Before you and I even
kissed. I gave him back his ring.”

“Did you sleep with him?”

The flicker of guilt on her face was another
mule kick to the gut. “I didn’t even know you then,” she
whispered.

Later he would feel guilty for making her
feel ashamed. Later. Now he wasn’t feeling anything. Just the low
buzzing in the back of his brain like a hive of angry bees.

“I broke it off with him as soon as I
realized there was something real between you and me. It’s
over
, Will.”

“You’re right. It is.”

But he didn’t mean with that guy and from the
look on her face she heard the distinction in his voice.

Horror. Hurt. The glimmer of tears. “Please,
Will, don’t do this.”

And then the words came, the ones that had
been swarming in the back of his brain with the bees. “When Tria
explained that she was leaving me because she’d just fallen in love
with Andy out of the blue and you can’t control your heart, do you
know what I promised myself? I swore I would never be that guy. I
would never do to someone else what they did to me. But you just
went and made me that guy without even telling me.”

“I didn’t mean for it to happen like
this.”

“No. Of course not. No one ever does.”

“I made a mistake when I agreed to marry him
and I made another one when I didn’t tell you sooner, but when was
I supposed to say something? It always felt like it was too late or
too soon. I screwed up. I get that you don’t want to be that guy
and you’re pissed at me for that, but it wasn’t just about you.” A
rosy flush of anger spread across her face and neck. “Would you
rather I made myself miserable for the rest of my life just so I
could always keep my word to someone you’ve never even met? I
wasn’t going to do that. Especially when it was a promise I made in
haste, without thinking things through, swept away in the moment,
completely outside my usual reality. People make mistakes!
Especially on reality TV. But we try to correct them and now you’re
punishing me for figuring out that you’re the one I want? I’m not
Tria!”

“This isn’t about her.”

“Everything is about her with you!” she
shouted. “Do you still love her?”

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

“That isn’t an answer.” Angry tears swelled
in her eyes. “She came to see me today. Did you know that? She’s
worried that you’re turning into a bitter bastard because you can’t
let go of your anger for her.”

“That’s none of your business.”

“That’s what I said. Of course, that was
before you decided I was just like her. You can’t forgive her, so
how can you forgive me, right? But when you hold onto anger like
that, the only person you make miserable is yourself. You don’t
forgive people for them. You do it for you. So you’re not festering
under the weight of all your regrets. I know I screwed up. I’m
sorry
. So damn sorry. I’m sorry for Daniel and for you and
for Elena and Samantha—”

“Caitlyn, calm down.”

Her breath was coming too fast, almost
hyperventilating. “Would you even have let me get this close if I’d
been completely available? If we’d been able to have a normal
relationship and tell people, would you have even wanted me? Did
you like that it was all behind closed doors? You didn’t have to
tell your family about me. It was never real for you, was it? No
commitment if no one knows.”

“You aren’t making any sense. You need to
calm down.”

She went to the piano, bracing her hands on
it, forcing herself to breathe. “I made a mistake.”

“So did I.” He’d fallen completely in love
with another woman who was only going to break his heart.

She looked up, hope in her eyes.

“Goodbye, Caitlyn.”

She flinched as if he’d struck her. He didn’t
stay to see her cry.

#

Caitlyn sank to the floor as soon as the door
clicked softly shut behind Will. It should have slammed. If this
was really the end of their relationship, shouldn’t there have been
a cymbal crash? There had been screaming (hers), hysterics (also
hers), tears (her again). The least he could have added to the
equation was a good door slam.

She sat on the floor and stared at the grain
in the floorboards. Shouldn’t she be sobbing? Shock. That’s what
this was. Disbelief. What had just happened? Was he really
gone?

A little whimper escaped her lips, but she
didn’t have the strength to get up and go after him. What would she
even say?

I love you
.

The words shuddered through her, and then she
did begin to sob. Stupid, gulping sobs.

Ugly crying. Blotchy faced with a freaking
fountain running from her nose.

Of all the regrets she could have, out of
everything she’d stupidly said, the one thing that burned was the
fact that she had never, not once, told him she loved him.

Caitlyn dragged herself over to the phone,
dialing. It only rang once.

“Hello?”

“Mimi?” Her voice quavered, hitching.

“Where are you? What’s wrong? Oh shit, you
told him, didn’t you? Are you home? I’m coming over. Don’t move.
I’m coming.”

Caitlyn whimpered something affirmative and
curled up to wait. It wouldn’t always hurt this much. Time healed.
She told herself that. Over and over.

It won’t always hurt. Heartbreaks fade.

But the words felt like a lie. Will Hamilton
was never going to fade from her heart.

Chapter
Thirty-Nine

Will was righteous and pissed. Then he was
righteous and depressed. Then he was righteous and drunk. Then he
was drunk and depressed. Then he was unconscious.

By the time he hit hungover and stupid, it
was Friday morning. And Caitlyn was gone.

He tracked down her friend Mimi, who glared
at him like he’d taken up seal clubbing, but when he opened with,
“I’m an idiot” Mimi grudgingly informed him that Caitlyn had flown
out to Los Angeles early to clear her head and do a dozen spa
treatments to try to reduce the puffiness of her eyes before she
had to appear on national television.

Will felt like even more of an asswipe with
the confirmation that he’d made her cry.

Even though her friend was all in favor of
his rushing out to Los Angeles to grovel, Mimi didn’t know where
Caitlyn was. The show was intensely secretive about things like
that, so unless she answered her cell phone, he was shit out of
luck.

She didn’t answer her cell phone.

He left messages. He begged. He groveled.

Then he called for the twelfth time and heard
the ringtone seeping through the ceiling of his apartment. She’d
left the phone behind.

The woman he—okay, yes, he was pretty sure he
was ass over ears in love with her—was about to be reunited with
the so called
perfect
guy she had once been engaged to and
Will had completely fucked up the send-off. He couldn’t even
remember half of what he’d said to her. He just remembered the
angry bees in his head and feeling like she had betrayed him and
lied to him—and yes, she’d definitely lied, and not about the
little things, but she hadn’t had a choice and—God, he just needed
to see her. It would all be better if he could just
see
her.

He’d have
I’m sorry, Caitlyn, I love
you
written across the sky in Los Angeles—but that would
probably only get them both slapped with a lawsuit for ruining the
ending of the goddamn show.

He had no freaking idea what to do.

So he went to his sisters.

#

“You ready, hon?”

A strange sense of déjà vu came over Caitlyn
as she looked into the mirror and met the reflected gaze of Miranda
Pierce. Standing over her shoulder, the producer wore a black
headset mashed down over her sleek, razor-sharp platinum bob.

Caitlyn wasn’t wearing a fancy gown this
time. The stylists had agreed on a simple sea-foam green cocktail
dress and heeled sandals. Nothing too bridal.

“Sorry you won’t be getting your
wedding.”

Miranda arched a single sculpted eyebrow.
“Did you want to get married on national television?”

“No,” she said with absolute conviction.

Miranda shrugged. “Well, there you go.
Besides, the occasional dramatic break-up is just as good for
ratings as the sappy happy endings. Marcy and Craig are still going
strong. Jack and Lou are breeding like bunnies—we’re leading with
an ultra-sound photo of the twins. It was about time we had a
romantic failure. We can’t win ‘em all. And it would be boring if
we did.”

Lucky me, the poster-child for romantic
failure.

Miranda glanced down at her ever-present
tablet. “You know the drill. We’ll save you for last. The girls en
masse will get to rip him a new one and then Elena gets her turn
and then we’ll bring you out.”

“Can I speak to Elena? Before the show?”

The producer shrugged. “I don’t have any
objections to that, but ultimately it will be up to her. She might
not want company.”

“That’s fine. I just… can you ask her?”

Miranda smiled, the professional smile that
never made it all the way to her eyes. “Absolutely. You sit
tight.”

Caitlyn sat, her mind blissfully blank. After
the last few days of thinking things over—Will, Daniel, the
show—she felt like she had come to a few decisions. Now she just
had to be brave enough to act on them. No matter what Mimi said, or
how adventurous Will had encouraged her to be, she wasn’t exactly
known for her bravery.