Chapter 4

BEA

Law was really there, at the opposite end of the aisle from where he should have been all along. I wondered for a moment if he’d seen the whole thing. Had he stood there and watched as I married my best friend? Was this all some game to him? Was I supposed to say ‘no’ to Kylan? No. That couldn’t be true. I had Law’s letter folded and tucked into the bodice of my wedding dress.

It was a reminder of what I needed to do once I got up here. Though, I thought Ky would have magically produced Law to stand there waiting for me. I had planned to tell him, in front of everyone, what he could do with his wedding. I had planned to read the letter to everyone to let them know what a callous asshole he had been. They all deserved to know what a coward he had been to leave me there to dispense the news on my own before my best friend stepped in. I had planned on leaving with Ky and throwing Law’s letter back in his own face. I never thought I’d be married to Ky when we left though. That part had been a shocker.

Law ran down the aisle toward us as my father started ushering some of the guests out of the church. “Bea! Please, I made a mistake!” Law yelled as he continued his journey.

“You sure did,” I scolded him. Then when he stopped an arm’s length away as I stood there, unwilling to remove myself from Kylan’s arms, the scents clinging to Law hit me like a ton of bricks. The man smelled like whiskey and another woman’s perfume.

“You smell like a whole affair right now, despite your letter’s assurances that you never cheated on me. You know the absolute crap you wrote in that letter about how you were just leaving me on our wedding day because you were interested in another woman?”

I spat the words out and ignored the gasps that came from the audience. Both sides of the audience were apparently shocked to hear that Law had been the cause of the groom swap. I’m sure Law would hear it from his mother later. He had scandalized her, and after she already didn’t approve of me to begin with.

“What?” Law finally asked, looking a little confused.

“You smell like whiskey and someone else’s perfume,” Ky informed him, taking the words right from my own mouth.

Law scoffed at him. “And you look like you just stole my girl.”

“Can’t steal what someone else gave away,” Ky informed him.

“Can we not do this here, in front of God and everyone?” I asked. The pastor was the one who directed us to a small room off to the back of the church that was supposed to have been used by Law for any last-minute things he needed prior to the ceremony.

As soon as the door shut behind us, Law asked, “Bea, how could you?”

“How could I? Are you serious right now? You left me a note! A freaking NOTE, Law! You didn’t even have the courage to say it to my face - preferably before our wedding day. My parents paid for everything here and you couldn’t even respect them enough to tell me you were having doubts whenever you first started having them.”

“I’m sorry, Bea. I was just confused.”

“Clearly,” I admonished.

“But I’m here now. It was a momentary lapse before I realized how wrong I was.”

“Yeah?” I asked, growing angrier by the second. “Where were you then?” The look of guilt on his face revealed the truth that he was trying to dance around. “Let me guess, whoever she is, you went to see her, and she rejected you.” I laughed because the picture was painted clearer as I spoke and watched as the guilt wrote the truth he was afraid to tell all over his face. “Suddenly, you came to your senses and made your way back here to me. I guess, at the very least, you got a parting hug from her since you smell like another woman. Then, you went and drowned your sorrows in whiskey before you decided to settle on the one you were supposed to marry today. Does that sound about right?”

“Bea, it’s not like that,” he cried and there were actual tears, too. Part of me wanted to hold and comfort him because it seemed like what his fiancee should do. Then, I remembered why I’d just married my best friend instead of him. I moved away from Law and back into Ky’s arms. My best friend - husband - didn’t even hesitate to pull me against the warmth of his body and offer whatever comfort and strength I needed. That was how it was supposed to be, right?

“I only had a case of nerves, Bea. You literally married someone else. I thought you were both ‘just friends’ all this time. That’s been your party line all along whenever I questioned how close the two of you were. Maybe I should ask how long you’ve been together behind my back?”

“A few minutes ago, on the altar, was the first time my lips have ever touched Kylan’s. We have always, only, ever been friends - until today when you wrote me a cowardly note and Ky stepped in to save my day.”

It was the truth. My best friend was a handsome man, no doubt. There had been moments throughout our friendship where I thought there could have been more between us, but I always shied away, afraid of losing the amazing friendship we had if we screwed it up with a relationship.

“So, just like that, you go from me to marrying my replacement? It was really that easy?”

“You think any part of this day has been easy?” He stood and stared at me cluelessly as I whisper-hissed those words. “And what would have happened if that woman had said ‘yes’ to you? Would you have even cared that I married my best friend today when my fiancé didn’t show up to do it?”

“Bea, that’s not fair.” He argued. It only caused me to laugh at him again.

“None of this seems to be fair, but it all stems from your actions. Stop blaming me, and you can stop blaming Ky, too. You set all of this in motion with that stupid letter that you didn’t even have the guts to give me yourself.”

“And he just happened to have rings on him to trade with you today?” Law scoffed as he slid narrowed, judging eyes on Kylan.

“Law, our grandmothers gave me their rings when they noticed you weren’t going to be here to marry Bea today.”

Law’s jaw dropped. It was one thing to think that Kylan and I had just married, but it was another for him to know that my family was behind making it happen. Law thought my family adored him. They did - to a point. They adored the fact that he seemed to love and respect me. That adoration stopped the minute he decided not to show up for our wedding. That was before they knew it was because of another woman. I couldn’t imagine what they were all thinking now that they’d heard me call him out on what he’d done.

“Bea,” Law pleaded again.

I shook my head. “Even if I hadn’t married Ky just now, we would have been over the minute I read your note. You were right. If you were interested enough in someone else to call off our wedding, on the day of the event no less, then we weren’t meant to be together anyway.”

“I just got nervous!” Law yelled at me.

“You will not yell or scream at her,” Ky growled as he stepped up and tucked me further behind his body. “Bea has been through enough, and she’s right. You knew when you wrote those words how Bea would take them. You had to have known that once you put those words in her hands it would be completely over. If you didn’t factor that into what you did here today, then you have never really known the woman you supposedly wanted to marry.”

I don’t know if it was adrenaline starting to wane, heartbreak setting in, or just the numbness finally leaving me and allowing my feelings to return, but my legs started to shake just as my father and brother entered the room.

“Come on, Law” My dad called out to him as he and Flynn helped to pluck Law up from where he’d just fallen to his knees. “Take a few days, think things through, and then try talking again if you guys need to say anything else to one another.” We watched as my family dragged Law from the room, and for the first time since Ky told me to meet him at the altar, we were alone.

“Why?” I asked him.

Ky was still faced away from me, as he watched Law being escorted out. His shoulders moved up and down once before he swiveled around to look me in the eyes. “I don’t want you to hate me if I tell you the truth.”

“I could never hate you.”

“The thought of you marrying him made me sick, Bea. I went along with it because you seemed happy, and that’s all I ever wanted for you, but…”

“What does that mean?”

“I don’t know when I first fell in love with you,” he admitted, and that admission took my breath away. Still, he continued. “I could pinpoint a thousand moments that could have been it, but the truth is they all just added up to me falling deeper for you through the years.”

“You never said anything,” I accused.

“I never really had the chance.” He chuckled before the rest of his explanation came tumbling out. “I planned to take you to dinner and tell you, but then you never showed up. It was the day your car broke down and you met Law.”

“Oh, Ky!” I gasped as understanding dawned. I remembered gushing about my ‘knight in shining armor’ the next day and how he had asked me out and of course, I’d agreed after the handsome do-gooder and his friend Todd had saved me from the side of the road. I dug into my memories of that moment and the reality of the situation hit me hard. My dearest friend had seemed sad about something, instead of excited for me. “When I asked you why you were upset, you said you’d just been dumped by a girl who you liked a lot.”

“Yeah, Bea, because that’s what it felt like - knowing I had just lost my shot with you again.”

“Why didn’t you just tell me?”

“It was clear, by how excited you were over Law, that you never felt the same way about me.”

I sighed as I moved into his arms, and wrapped my own around his waist as I rested my head against his chest. “You should have told me. I was excited about Law because he was new, interested, and someone to take my mind off you and the women who were in and out of your life.” I looked up to my friend, my new husband for all intents and purposes. “If I had known that date with Law would have never happened.”

It was as close to the truth as I could get, because Ky was so far off the mark by saying I wasn’t interested, that it was insane. I had always thought the reverse was true, that he had never been interested in me beyond friendship.

“Are you serious?” He asked.

“Yes. It’s not that I’ve never felt attracted to you, Ky. I’ve just always valued our friendship. Neither of us ever had a lasting relationship before, and I didn’t want to lose you if we didn’t work out romantically.”

“I guess we kind of have to see it through now, huh?” He teased, but I wasn’t so sure that was true either. We’d said our vows, exchanged rings, and kissed, but marriage had legalities mixed up in it, too. My marriage license had Law’s name on the paperwork, not Ky’s.

“Are you sure you want this, Ky?”

“Are you?” Ky took hold of my hands and rubbed his finger over my ring. “He might have gotten cold feet and wrote a stupid letter, but he came back for you.”

I rolled my eyes. “He only came back after he supposedly wrote twenty-two variations of that letter and had it delivered by someone else. Let’s not forget that he also ran off to see another woman, started drinking after she rejected him, and only then did he show up again. You were right. The moment I received that letter, there was no going back to him. I won’t be his fallback plan because what he really wanted didn’t pan out.”

“What does that make me then?” He asked.

“My best friend – always. My husband – maybe.”

“Maybe?” Ky questioned as a deep frown marred his handsome face.

“You do realize that what we did out there isn’t legal, right?” He didn’t seem surprised by that question, which meant he’d already thought about it to some extent. “There’s paperwork involved, a license to obtain, and…”

“Do you want it to be legal?” Ky asked as he pushed one of my curls that had fallen down around my face back behind my ear.

“Do you?”

“Of course, I do, Bea. This was a lot for you today though, so maybe you should think about it first.” I smiled at him then.

“Well, it’s Friday, any paperwork would have to wait until Monday anyway.”

“What now?”

“There’s the reception,” I answered hollowly, not sure I wanted to face everyone after marrying a different man than they originally came to see.

“I won’t leave your side, if you want to go.”

“I appreciate that, but what are we supposed to tell people?”

“That you realized I was the real man of your dreams all along?” I don’t know why, but his playful suggestion started a chain reaction. First, the tears fell hot and wet down my face, and then the sobbing began. “Did I do the wrong thing here, Bea?” Ky’s voice was soft and unsure as he asked. I hated it because it was so unlike him.

“No, Ky. I just need a minute to fall apart. No matter what, Law and I were together for two and a half years. It’s just that…” I couldn’t put into words what I was feeling. Maybe, the shock was finally wearing off and it was just dawning on me what everything meant. Law was no longer mine, and I was certainly no longer his. And then there was Ky and what it might mean if our impromptu nuptials didn’t work out. I couldn’t lose him, too.