31. Aidan

CHAPTER 31

Aidan

“Hey Burke,” Wyatt calls as I walk into the common room. “I think your girlfriend just got married.”

I frown at him. He thinks he’s so hilarious. “What are you talking about?” I head for the fridge.

He’s lounging on the couch across the room, but I can see he’s scrolling on his phone.

“Do you know Blake Wilder?” he asks me.

I turned slowly. “Yeah. Why?”

“I’m a huge hockey fan. I follow the Racketeers. And they just shared a social media post from Wilder. I went over to his account and…yeah, he got married this afternoon.”

I feel like a cold fist is suddenly squeezing my heart. What he’s saying doesn’t make sense. But I also have a terrible feeling that it might make a whole lot of sense and I am about to be very upset.

“Okay, so Wilder got married this afternoon. So what?” I open the soda in my hand and take a sip. I don’t even taste it. I have no idea what flavor I pulled out.

“Well, I know I only met Elise briefly, but this woman in the white dress who he’s dipping back and kissing the hell out of looks a lot like her.”

I casually stroll toward him not wanting to let on that the icy fist in my chest is making way for a fiery anger.

What the fuck did these two do?

They wouldn’t have actually gotten married, right? No way.

They've been fake engaged and we’ve all been in on it.

If they did a fake ceremony they should have told us. Especially if they were going to post it all over hell.

But they wouldn’t have really done it, would they?

I hold my hand out and Wyatt places the phone in it. I look at the photo. Yeah, that is most definitely Blake Wilder dipping my girlfriend back and kissing her deeply. That would be bad enough, I suppose, but the dress she’s wearing is absolutely a wedding dress. And if that wasn’t enough, the caption under the photo says skipped the chapel, but still got an I Do, confirms it.

I scroll through the account.

There are a few other photos of them together, a couple of Elise by herself looking fucking insanely gorgeous, and then there’s the first one. It’s just of their two left hands, each with a ring, and the caption there says, did a thing today.

“When was the last time you and Elise talked?” Wyatt jokes. “If she’s been telling you she’s too busy to go out, I think you now know why.”

I congratulate myself on the very mature way I hand his phone back rather than throwing it against the wall.

“Blake and I do know each other,” I tell him. “She’s been dating both of us.”

There’s not a great reason to fill in that information. It makes more sense to tell him something about Elise and I breaking up. But…we fucking didn’t. I figured I’d bring her around the firehouse again, that she’d join me and my crew at our favorite dive bar, that she’d be my plus one to the firefighter’s annual ball.

But now…

What the fuck is going on?

They can’t intend to stay married, right? That they would definitely discuss with me and Simon.

But I’m not so sure. We don’t really have any rules. We haven’t discussed where this is going or how we all feel. Which is obviously a huge mistake.

“Well, I assume you’re not going to keep seeing her now,” another of our firefighter buddies jokes.

His words hit me a little harder than I would’ve expected.

I know this wedding is fake. Or at least the marriage is. They’re doing it for Blake‘s cabin. But the fact that they actually had a ceremony, and the fact that they’re kissing and posting photos on Blake‘s social media, somehow makes this feel far too real.

I feel a stab of jealousy, which is crazy. This man has been seeing Elise longer than I have. He’s fucked her. Without me. With me. This has been an open relationship from the beginning. Her being with Blake is completely fine. What they do is between them.

Except maybe things that make her permanently only his .

I don’t fucking like that at all.

Why didn’t they tell us?

Wait, did they tell Simon? Maybe I’m the only one who doesn’t know. I’ve been at work for fourteen hours. Maybe they just decided to do this, and I wasn’t around.

My face must not have been as calm and collected as I think. Wyatt shoots the other guys a look and says, “Hey, leave Burke alone, you insensitive pricks.” He turns to me. “You okay?”

No. Not even close. But I nod. I take my soda and head toward the bedroom area, thumbing through my phone. But nope. No missed calls or texts from Blake or Elise.

I go into my sleep room and shut the door. I set the soda down, slump onto the edge of the bed, suck in a deep breath, then punch in the first number.

But it rings and then goes to Elise’s voicemail.

I sigh. She probably doesn’t have her phone with her.

So, Blake Wilder has some explaining to do.

I hit his number and wait, anger and hurt churning through my veins.

“Hey,” he answers after three rings.

Just hey. Like it’s just any other day, and I caught him while he was hanging out or running errands.

“Hey,” I say. “Anything interesting happen to you today? And is Elise aware that she doesn’t have her phone with her?”

There’s a long pause and then he says, “I don’t know. I’m not with her right now.”

That also pisses me off. “So you married her and then dropped her off at home? What the fuck ?”

“She has all those dresses to work on!” He sounds annoyed.

Well, he can join the fucking club.

“And I have a game tonight.”

“So you really did just drop her off?” I ask incredulously. “What the hell ?”

“It’s not…” He stops, then starts again. “It was for the cabin. My grandmother changed the rules. She was going to give it to us at our wedding and not before. So…we moved up the timeline and forced her hand.” He pauses. “It was Elise’s idea. For the record. I never would have asked her to do this.”

I suck in a breath, then say, “So, it’s real?”

“Yeah. It’s real. I mean, it’s legal.” He stops again. “Fuck. I don’t know what I mean. It’s legal and all of that until we get it annulled.”

I stand up and pace across the room. “Are you fucking kidding me? What the hell ?”

“You knew we were going to do this,” he says, some of that annoyance coming back.

“We knew you were faking being engaged.”

“Yeah, well, Simon was in London and you were at work and we decided why not just do it this way?”

“Why not?” I ask. My voice rises. “Why not? I’ll tell you why not! Because Elise is my girlfriend!” I exclaim. I realize how dumb that sounds at this point. “Because I’m in love with her! It’s one thing for us to consensually all sleep with her, and for you to date her, and to pretend to be engaged. But you fucking really married her without a word to me? No. That is not okay. And Simon’s in love with her too! Fuck! I mean, she deserves a real damned wedding, Wilder. Not a spur-of-the-moment trip downtown with no friends or family. What the fuck were you thinking?”

He’s quiet for several long seconds. “You’re in love with her? Both of you?”

“Yes!” I practically shout.

“Have you told her that?”

Okay, that trips me up. “Well, no. Not yet.”

“Yeah, well, she overheard you tell Simon that you love him . And vice versa. She’s pretty sure you two are just into each other for the long haul.”

I drag a hand over my face. “Dammit.”

“Yeah.” He blows out a breath. “Fuck, man. If you both love her, then this wedding thing was kind of a dick move on my part.”

I shake my head and almost laugh because…yeah. “You think?”

“I do. Except I can’t read your mind, you know. At any rate, this is all becoming one big damned mess.”

“But you’re not planning on staying married, right?” I ask. “It’s temporary, even if it’s not fake.”

“Well…about that,” he says.

I scowl. And brace myself. “What about that?”

“I’m in love with her too,” Blake says.

“Is she in love with you?”

“I have no idea because I didn’t tell her that I actually want to love, honor, and cherish her as long as we both shall live before I married her.”