His Wedding Date (The Second Chance Love Series, Book 2) (4 page)

"Should have been a clue, I guess," he said finally, to break the silence.

"So, when you moved here... "

"I guess I was trying to make her follow me, make her show me she really did want to be with me, and then... Well, she showed me. A buddy of mine from college always said, when a woman shows you how she feels, believe it. He said her actions say a lot more than her words. Me, I believed what she said, more than what her actions told me. Although... I think, this time, I finally got the message."

"I... I'm so sorry," Shelly said.

He nodded. "I know. Thank you."

"Wait." Shelly's brain was finally starting to process the news. "What in the world would you be doing at Rebecca's wedding?"

He wouldn't look at her at first, and when he did, he seemed more than a little embarrassed. "Part of my believe-what-a-woman-does, not-what-she-says plan?"

Shelly considered that.

Going to his former fiancé's wedding? Watching her vow to love, honor and cherish another man?

"You're not going to... I don't know..." It seemed ludicrous, completely out of character for him, but so was everything she'd heard from him in the last few moments. "You're not going to try to stop the wedding, are you?"

"No. Absolutely not."

"Cause trouble of any kind?" That, too, would be completely unlike him, but this was a very strange day.

"No—"

"You just want to be there? Because just being there is going to... remind her and everybody else that you two were... engaged?" In love, Shelly thought. She would have bet every dime she had that they had been in love.

"I know it doesn't seem to make a lot of sense," he admitted.

"You want to do that? Not cause trouble, but make her uncomfortable? That's really not like you."

He nodded, looking a bit sheepish.

"You do want to cause trouble?"

"No," he insisted. "Not at all. I'm not thinking about her or what she wants or what's going to make her comfortable or uncomfortable."

"Really?"

He was silent, staring at the floor and shaking his head.

"Brian, what are you doing, even thinking of going to this wedding?"

"I have to, Shel. I have to watch her do it," he finally admitted. "I think it's gonna feel like hell, and I'm going to hate every minute of that damned ceremony. But when it's done... Well, it's done. I'll have no choice but to believe it, accept it."

She nodded, understanding all too well. She'd always thought when Brian married Rebecca, she'd make herself watch, too. At least she'd thought that until the invitation arrived, and she found she didn't have the courage to do it.

Closure, psychologists called it, a little word that made it sound so tidy, implying someone could tie up so much emotional baggage into a neat little bundle and toss it away, never to hear from it again. If only it could be that easy.

"And, I guess I was thinking," he said, "that if I'm going to go to the wedding, it would be nice to have a friend by my side."

Friend?

Yes, of course.

His good friend.

Nothing more.

That was the part she had to remember. She had to pay no attention to the part of her that was practically singing with glee, with possibilities.
Rebecca was marrying someone else. She was marrying someone else!

"I don't know, Brian," she hedged, trying to save herself from hope, from all that time alone with him, time in which she'd probably start to hope even more.

Why put herself through that?

Was she really some kind of glutton for punishment?

"Come on," he said. "Charlie would probably loan us the company plane. I could fly us up. We could be there in no time."

"I'm really swamped," she said. "That's why I'm here so early this morning. We're so far behind on the hotel project bid, and the whole thing is due—"

He silenced her quite effectively by touching the fingertips of his right hand to tilt her arm as he looked down into her eyes.

It was a light touch, a familiar one, next to nothing between good friends. She was sure he didn't think anything of touching her this way, but she did. Normally she wouldn't let herself be caught off guard and allow him to get this close.

"Please? I really don't want to go alone," he admitted, quite seriously, although he tried to make light of it.

Oh, he never asked her for favors, never needed them. He was a man perfectly capable of handling anything and handling it well.

The fact that he was even considering going to this wedding was proof he was not handling this well.

"I don't think it's a good idea." The two of them going wasn't any better than him going.

"Probably not, but... Come on, Shelly. Isn't this the way women do it when they get dumped for someone else? Go to the wedding with the most gorgeous man they can find and try to convince everyone they're having a great time?"

Yes.
She had to admit, if she'd gone to his wedding, there was no way she would have gone alone.

"Brian—"

"So I asked myself, where could I find a wonderful woman who'd be interested in spending a weekend in beautiful, exciting Tallahassee, Florida, with me? And naturally I thought of you."

"Naturally." She tried to make light of it, but still felt her cheeks burn.

He had no idea what he was doing to her, how difficult this was for her, because she'd worked so hard to hide all her feelings from him.

"Come on, Shel."

He could have coaxed her off a cliff with that tone of voice. And that's pretty much how she saw this trip—a leap off a very dangerous precipice.

If she went, she'd spin impossible dreams in her head about him putting Rebecca out of his mind and finally turning to her. How could she help it?

And she'd already wasted so much time waiting for him. She felt old just thinking about it. And stupid. She felt so stupid for even wanting to hope again.

"Shelly?"

She made the mistake of looking at him again. She'd never been able to deny him anything. Only problem was, he'd asked so little of her.

And then she started making deals with herself. She would go. She would give herself this time with him, a strange sort of goodbye, and she would let him show her he still saw her as nothing more than a good friend. Because that's what he'd show her, in the same way he was counting on Rebecca to show him she really was in love with another man.

Then, with those feelings fresh in her memory, Shelly would finally move on with her life, without him.

That was her theory, how she convinced herself, even as she called herself ten different kinds of a fool.

"All right," she told him. "I'll go."

Chapter 2

Shelly couldn't get out of the kitchen fast enough after she agreed to go to the wedding with him.

Puzzled, Brian wondered again if he'd done something to offend her. For the life of him, he couldn't figure out what that might have been. They'd been friends forever. More than that, actually. When they were growing up, he'd always thought of her as the sister he never had.

He could still remember the first time he saw her, a skinny little girl with scraped-up knees and big, sad eyes. She'd been only six years old, and she'd just lost her mother to cancer. He'd wanted very much to somehow make things better for her.

Her father was having trouble taking care of a little girl and working. The two of them came to live in what had once been the guesthouse on Brian's parents' ten-acre estate in Tallahassee. Shelly's father had become the grounds keeper and general handyman.

Sometimes Shelly tagged along with her father while he worked. Sometimes she rattled around in the kitchen of Brian's parents' home with the cook/housekeeper. Most of the time she'd been Brian's shadow. He'd been eleven when she'd come to live there, and it seemed she'd been a part of his life forever.

She'd left Tallahassee right after high school to attend college in North Carolina. Because of the scholarship, she'd claimed, but he'd always wondered what drove her away from the place that had been as much her home as his. She'd hardly ever come back to visit after that, and he'd never understood why.

Brian had been happy to find her here in Naples, working for an old friend of his father's. He'd looked forward to spending time with her again. He knew that since her father died several years ago, she was all alone in the world, and he hated thinking of her that way.

It was selfish of him to drag her off to this wedding, but she was a friend, a good one. For so many years when they were younger, he'd felt like he could tell her anything. She knew all about his relationship with Rebecca. If he was going to have anyone by his side this weekend, anyone who might understand, it was Shelly.

He'd been waiting for Shelly to get her invitation to the wedding or hear the news from an old friend and come to him, shocked, wanting to know what had happened. But she hadn't. He'd been relieved at first, thinking she was trying to make it easier on him. Later, he'd wanted to talk about it, but he'd hardly seen her around the office. She was all caught up in getting the hotel bid together.

And yes, he knew it wasn't the smartest thing he could be doing–going to this wedding, given his history with Rebecca. He wasn't being calm or rational or smart. He recognized that, but he hadn't been able to find any of those things within himself on this.

He felt betrayed and stupid, a little reckless and more than a little bit mad, not the kind of emotions he'd ever let rule decisions in his life before.

But he was determined that if Rebecca was determined to go through with this marriage, she was going to have to walk past him on her way to the altar. She was going to have to say her vows with him staring a hole in her back the entire time.

He still couldn't believe she was going through with it. He'd been counting down the days, sure that something would happen before the wedding to show her what a mistake she was making.

It wasn't that his ego was so big he couldn't imagine a woman preferring someone else. It was that he knew Rebecca. He could have sworn he knew her better than anyone, and the two of them were meant to be together, always had been.

And now she was marrying another man. The same man she'd married before, who'd given her a son and then disappeared from both their lives. How did a woman not only forgive that, but take that man back? Brian had been much more of a father to Rebecca's son than the man she was remarrying, which meant he was losing both of them.

It was bizarre. He couldn't understand how he could have been so wrong about Rebecca and the life he was sure they were meant to have together.

He'd loved her even in high school, but he spent some time in the Peace Corps while she was still in college, and while he was away, she'd met and married Tucker Malloy, some slick lawyer who came to work in her father's firm. It was crazy. She hated lawyers.

By the time Brian had come home to Tallahassee, it was apparent her marriage was already on the rocks, even though she was pregnant. And Brian had still loved her.

He'd been there to pick up the pieces after Tucker left, and he'd thought Rebecca needed some time. She'd made a colossal mistake, committed herself to the wrong man, had a child with him and then a failed marriage.

Brian gave her time, stayed there for her and her son, waiting, sure that one day, they'd be together.

Well, that day had never quite come. She'd been willing to be his fiancé, but never to take that final step of becoming his wife. She had come up with one reason after another, until he had to do something. He'd moved here, sure she'd be lonely without him and realize how much she wanted him, sure she'd move here and marry him.

That had to be one of the stupidest ideas he'd ever had, because while he was here in Naples, her ex-husband showed up in her life again, in their son's. And damned if Tucker Malloy hadn't somehow talked Rebecca into taking him back.

It was a mistake. Brian was sure of it, but what the hell did he know? He'd been sure that by now, he and Rebecca would be married and completely happy.