Chapter 2

LAW

“I need you to take this to Bea.” Todd stared dubiously at the paper I thrust into his hand.

“What is this?” His eyes narrowed on me. He suspected something was up, but I also knew that Todd would never read the letter. He would dutifully deliver it to Bea and then come back to stand up as my best man. I should tell him. He was my best friend, and by giving him the letter to deliver, he would be the messenger who had to deal with the aftermath.

I should have just marched into the church and sent everyone home. It was the right thing to do to tell everyone that it was all my fault, and that I couldn’t marry Bea. Not today. Maybe not ever.

She was the wrong woman for me, or at least that’s what my gut had been telling me for the past month. I should have told everyone, but there was somewhere else I needed to be. Instead, my best friend was going to be the one to deliver the news.

I couldn’t tell any of them though, not even my best friend. There was a reason that I was about to hightail it out of there, and truthfully, I didn’t want anyone to stop me. Besides, if Jackie rejected me, I’d come right back here and marry Bea. I’d tell her the letter was a joke and blame it on Todd. I’d marry her if the woman I was interested in refused me. Yeah, I was a dick. Still, it was better to go find out than to wonder, or to cheat later, right?

“Just make sure she gets it before it’s time for her to walk, but only just before. Leave it to the last minute, otherwise you’ll ruin the surprise.” Maybe ‘surprise’ was the wrong thing to say, but I hoped that things would turn out with Jackie, and if not, I needed a buffer of time to be able to get back and marry Bea.

I sound like such a dick.

Todd reached out and wrapped his hand around my lower arm as I turned to leave. “Where in the hell are you going?”

“I’ll be back,” I quietly reassured him, though I couldn’t turn around and say it to his face. I think we both knew I might be lying. He dropped his hold on me and laughed.

“You’re a fucking prick for doing this.” I sighed, because what could I say? He wasn’t wrong. “If you don’t make it back in time, I might steal your woman. Todd had coveted my relationship with Bea from the very beginning. He had seen her first and demanded we stop to help the woman who was stranded on the side of the road. I had argued against stopping until she stood up and flashed a hopeful smile our way as Todd slowed down. In another completely dickish move, I beat him to the punch when I asked her out. All’s fair in love and friendship, right?

“If you think you can,” I challenged him. Todd only laughed again and then walked out to the lobby. Eventually, he would listen and go deliver the message to my fiancé that I wouldn’t be waiting for her when she walked down the aisle.

If Bea didn’t think Todd was a disgusting horn-dog, I might have to worry that he’d keep to his word and steal my girl. He wasn’t really that bad, but I might have exaggerated a bit about his lively hit ‘em and quit ‘em sex life to keep her from falling for his charms when we first started dating, and then I just never stopped.

Yeah, I was definitely a dick!

“Oh my God! What are you doing here?” Jackie glanced down at the watch on her wrist. It was one of those kinds that links to your cell phone and tells you when to stand, breathe, and whatever else. “Aren’t you supposed to be getting married in like a minute?” The woman was so damn beautiful she left me tongue tied for a moment. A silky sheet of blonde hair swished around her shoulders as she moved closer. Her hands were held outward, not in the ‘I’m so glad you came to your senses and left your fiancee for me’ hug that I was hoping for. No. Jackie looked as if she was ready to catch me because I might suddenly fall on my face. If only she knew that she was the reason that I wasn’t at the church.

“I couldn’t do it.” My words sounded desperate as I said them. Her bright blue eyes widened almost comically as the gorgeous woman stood there waiting on my explanation. Before she could recover from the shock of what I’d just said, I took hold of her still outstretched hands and pulled her into me. It was a connection with her that I needed before explaining myself. Just in case.

“I couldn’t do it because there’s something here.” I stepped back and gestured with my hands indicating the two of us.

“What?” That one word came out as more of a startled gasp than a clear question.

“I’ve been falling for you,” I admitted. “Ever since we worked together on the Carlton Project, you are pretty much all I can think about.”

“No,” Jackie whispered and took a giant step away from me. “Bea is my friend.”

I nodded, knowing that to be true. The girls had met at a work function I’d escorted Bea to, and they got along so well that my fiancee ended up spending more time with Jackie that night than she did by my side. I was busy schmoozing clients most of the night, but still, it hadn’t gone unnoticed by anyone.

“This is just cold feet talking. It’s natural.” Jackie tried to tell me. I shook my head to deny her words. She was wrong and I think we both knew it. The way she nervously chewed on the bottom of her lip as her chest heaved from her labored breaths told me she felt the same, even if she didn’t want to admit to it.

“It’s not that, and you know it.”

“Law.” The way my name sat so sweetly on her berry-colored lips sent a thrill through me. “We would be a horrible fit,” she finally stated after a lengthy pause.

“We would be a perfect fit,” I argued.

“Law, I could never be the reason another woman’s happiest day turned into her own personal nightmare. I can’t believe you would put the weight of your horrible timing on my shoulders.”

I frowned, knowing that I hadn’t thought this all the way through. It never occurred to me that Jackie might be seen as the proverbial bad guy if she agreed to be with me. Mostly, because I knew we’d never crossed a line before now.

“I also can’t be the reason that you regret making the worst decision of your life. You and Bea are beautiful together.” There was a wistfulness to her tone that made me think she had been a bit jealous of Bea.

“We’re not, obviously, or I wouldn’t be here right now.”

Still, Jackie continued to break my heart as she finished speaking. “I could never be with someone who could do this to another woman. You are about to ruin Bea if you go through with this. She will never get over being left at the altar. Do you realize what you’ve left her to do? She has to go out there and discover that you’re not there, in front of everyone that you both know and love.”

I shook my head again. “No, I left a note with my best man. She will know before she’s supposed to walk down the aisle.”

Jackie gasped, as a horrified look slid over her face and her hands flew up to cover her gaping mouth. “No. Tell me you didn’t leave her a note saying you were coming here to me!”

“I didn’t put your name in it.”

“But you left her, on your wedding day, with only a note that you had someone else deliver?” When I nodded slightly in confirmation she shook her head. “That’s awful.” The words were whispered. Then Jackie straightened her back and stood taller, while she glared me down.

“You need to go back. Either you marry that woman - if she’ll still have you, or you take responsibility for your actions and you go tell all those people that you called off the wedding at the last, impossible minute. Bea shouldn’t be stuck with cleaning up your mess after you dumped her on her wedding day.” The disappointment in Jackie’s eyes was what kicked me into gear.

“I really screwed this all up, didn’t I?”

“You really did,” she admitted. “If you had broken things off with her months ago, and then come to me today, I would have said yes. Now, I don’t think I can stand to look at you again. Jesus, Law! What were you thinking?”

Shit! Fuck!

“Dammit, I…” The words were a jumble on my tongue. “I’m sorry,” I told her as I backed up and headed for the door. I could see it in her eyes, though. I’d just fucked up my only shot at ever being with Jackie. Chances were, I’d also just fucked up any hope of getting Bea to walk down that aisle and marry me, but I had to go back and try because Jackie stood there and glared at me like I was a piece of steaming, odoriferous dog shit she’d just stepped in.

Todd had thrown a whiskey-filled flask at me that morning to help with the cold feet. Maybe, I should have drunk it before I fucked everything up. Instead, I downed the whole damn thing as I left my office building on the way back to the church. Even if I had to work to earn Bea’s trust again, Jackie was right, I couldn’t leave her to clean up the mess I made of my life.

It didn’t take long to get back to the church. It was literally one block from the office where I’d gone to see Jackie. I’d been gone long enough that I thought people should have started to flood out of the church by then, though. That’s why it was strange to hear The Wedding March play. Maybe Todd hadn’t given Bea the letter. Hope lifted my spirit, and I ran up the stairs, into the lobby, and then through the door just as the usher was about to shut it.

“What’s going on?” I whispered.

The usher - a kid that Bea had chosen for the position - smirked at me and then his smirk grew into a full-blown grin. “Snooze you lose, asshole!”

He didn’t wait around for my response, instead he moved to take a seat in the back row of pews. It was then that my eyes drifted down the aisle to see Bea - my fiancee - walking arm-in-arm with her father toward the front of the church.

Her silky, cream-colored gown flowed behind her in tiny little ripples, like waves of silk on a gentle breeze. Her curly, dark hair was pulled back from her face with floral pins but left long and draping down the open back portion of her dress. I knew that she would have the face of an angel if I were to see her from the front, but that wasn’t possible since she was walking away from me, down the aisle, toward someone else. How in the hell was that possible?

“What the fuck?” The words were obviously heard from the back pew because the kid turned around again and silently laughed at me while he shook his head.

Color me stunned as fuck when I moved a little to the left, so that I could see who was at the other end of the aisle. There, waiting to wed my fiancee with the dopiest grin known to man on his face, was Bea’s lifelong best friend, Kylan. He had also been known as one of the town’s biggest players. According to Bea, he supposedly had a serious relationship at some point and had been burned by the woman. Ever since, he chose to play the field instead of settling down with anyone. Until now. Now, it looked like he had chosen the woman who was supposed to be my wife.

I don’t know if I was too shocked to do anything, too curious if she would actually go through with it, or what; but I stood there and watched them go through with the entire ceremony. They even exchanged rings, and like fuck if I knew how in the hell they managed to have rings. I glanced over at my best friend who stood there in his position as best man. He looked just as blown away by the change of groom as I had. When they mentioned the rings he held his hand up slightly and caught my eye. He had them. Both rings. That meant the asshole, Ky, must have had a backup plan all along.

I wondered, briefly, if it had been his intention to hijack my wedding for himself, or if there was something else at play. The sad fucking reality was that I had absolutely no one to blame but myself. I set this in motion the minute I left that letter with Todd.