“Let’s look on the bright side—at least the man I married is hot.”
“Ryan Felicity Bell!” Harper admonishes. “How can you joke at a time like this?”
I lift my shoulders. “What am I supposed to do? Cry about it?”
“Anything would be better than just sitting here stoically like you have been for the past twenty minutes only to have the first thing you say be a damn joke.”
Harper isn’t usually the type to get upset so easily, but I can tell right now that she’s mad.
What I can’t tell is if she’s mad at me or if she’s mad at the situation for me.
When I left Rhodes in his hotel room, I headed straight for my own. I wasn’t the least bit surprised to find Harper waiting outside when I arrived. Collin took one look at me and shook his head. He muttered something about Rhodes being an idiot and took off toward his floor.
He’s been up there at least twenty minutes now, and I have no idea how that’s going for them.
“Can you maybe not yell at me? I’ve kind of had a long night.”
She winces. “I’m sorry, it’s just…I’m worried.”
“You think I’m not? It’s already online. I’m sure everyone and their grandma knows about it by now.”
Except for maybe my grandmother, but that’s only because she doesn’t know a tweet from a Facebook post.
Oh god—how am I going to break this news to her? I got married and she wasn’t even there!
The reason I love love so much is because of her and my grandfather. They got married straight out of high school and were together for sixty years. I spent more time at their house than my own growing up, and watching them together was my favorite thing. Even after so long together, they were still in love like they were on their honeymoon. My grandfather brought home flowers every day and they danced in the kitchen after dinner every night.
They made me a believer in all things good.
When my grandfather passed away two years ago, it broke my grandmother. It was only a month later that she suffered a bad fall, broke her hip, and had a concussion. She wasn’t comfortable living on her own after that and wanted to be around others her age.
She’s been at an assisted living facility since, but she hates it. The nurses are awful and her roommate is intolerable on a good day, but it’s all I can afford.
I don’t want to add to her disappointment when she’s already struggling so much.
“Have you talked to him?” Harper asks, pulling me from my thoughts.
“Not yet.”
“You should.”
“I know. I just…I needed some space. Clear my head, you know?”
“I get that.”
Her phone buzzes in her hand and she looks down. I already know whatever she’s looking at, it has to do with me. She doesn’t frown like that for just anything.
“What is it?” I ask.
She tips the phone away from me. “Just more tweets.”
“Ughhhh.” I rub at my temples, my head pounding from the alcohol and probably a little from the stress of everything too. “All I wanted was one night of fun to forget about all the—”
I clam up, not finishing that sentence.
But Harper isn’t letting me off that easy. “Forget about all the what?” Sharp as ever, her eyes narrow. “What don’t I know, Ryan?”
I scrub a hand over my face, realizing I now have to confess my troubles. “Look, I was going to tell you after the trip, but…” I exhale. “I’m fucked.”
She screws her lips up, confused. “O…kay?”
“I was let go at the salon last week.”
“What?!” she explodes, pacing back and forth in front of me. “Why? What the hell happened?”
I shrug. “I guess the owner of the building came by to negotiate rent and it did not work out well for the salon. Macy needed to make some cuts, and since I’m the only one without any dependents, I was let go.”
“But…but you’re the best one there!”
“I know, but since I’m kind of a one-trick pony with my makeup skills and the other girls can do it all, it just made the most sense.”
She shakes her head. “That’s such bullshit.”
“I get where she’s coming from. Besides, she knows I have my income from my videos and whatever photography I’m able to sell.”
“Still. It sucks.”
“It does, but that’s not even the worst of it. Rent hikes are a big thing this year because the cost of my grandmother’s assisted living is going up too.”
Her face falls. “No.”
“Unfortunately, yes.”
She comes to sit next to me, wrapping an arm around my shoulders. “Oh god, Ryan. I am so sorry. I… What are you going to do?”
“I’m not sure. I guess since I’m not at the salon anymore, I can make more videos.”
“That’s what you wanted to do all along anyway, so maybe this is a good thing?”
“True, but I wanted to get some savings built up a bit first, make a solid plan. You know better than anyone how much a small business can ebb and flow.”
“So true.”
Harper has a very…niche set of skills. She loves anything and everything horror related and decided to turn that into a very profitable business selling handmade items online. She makes home décor, trinkets, and even some props for movie sets that she ships all over the world. The things she makes are super creepy, but she loves it.
I always found it funny that we ended up becoming such great friends since we’re total opposites. She’s obsessed with the horror genre, and I jump at my shadow sometimes.
“Is that why you were drinking so much? Because you were upset?”
I nod. “Yes. It’s dumb, but…between losing my steady income at the salon and the price of my grandmother’s care going up, and then add in the whole Steven thing…well…” I shrug.
“You needed an escape. I get it. But can I just say maybe you went a bit too far?”
I laugh. “I think that’s a fair assessment.”
“What exactly happened? One minute he was tossing you over his shoulder to take you back to your room, and the next thing I know, you’re married. How’d you go from that to the altar?”
“He started to take me back to the hotel but said he didn’t want me to choke on my own puke, so he wanted to sober me up some first. Which I guess is sort of sweet in a Rhodes kind of way.”
She laughs because she knows I’m right. Rhodes and sweet do not go together.
“I kind of broke the news to him about that girl he’s been seeing getting engaged.” I cringe thinking about it. Nobody should find out that kind of thing via social media. “He said he wanted to get a drink and dance and have fun. After that, it’s mostly blurry.”
“Okay, for one thing, I cannot imagine Rhodes dancing. Like at all.”
When he first suggested it, I couldn’t imagine it either. He’s a big, scary-looking guy. No way could I picture him on the dance floor.
But I remember the feel of his hands on my hips as we danced together in the club. The way he held me to him like he never wanted to let me go.
He runs his nose along the exposed column of my neck.
“Are you sniffing me?” I shout.
“Yes. You smell incredible.”
“I do not! I smell like sweat!”
He spins me around, my body crashing into his. He keeps his hands on my waist, pushing his knee in between my legs. My leather skirt rides up my hips and I’m practically exposed.
But I don’t care.
Not when he keeps grinding against me and my clit grazes against his leg.
He drags his nose along my jawline, all the way up to my ear.
“You argue too much, Ryan. Someone ought to spank you for it.”
“Are you offering?”
“Yes.”
Images of Rhodes standing over me and my ass stinging red from his palm flash through my mind. A small noise escapes me, and I pray he didn’t hear it.
I pull back, grinning up at him, trying to mask the fact that he’s making me think some very naughty thoughts right now.
“Don’t tease, Rhodes.”
“Who said I was teasing?”
“You got this faraway look on your face. Were you thinking about Steven again?” Harper asks.
“Don’t pretend you care about Steven.”
“Oh, I don’t. I hate that guy.”
I laugh. I can’t really say I blame her. He wasn’t a great boyfriend. He never called when he said he would, he was always ditching me for his friends, and he always talked to me like he was better than me because he was a published photographer. No matter how hard I tried, I was never enough for him. I guess that’s what I get for dating a self-centered artsy asshole.
“But I care about you, and I am sorry you’re hurting because of him. I’m more than happy to help you bury his body though.” I smile. “Did you ever find out how long they’ve been together?”
“I might have done a little social media stalking and saw on her Instagram that they met at his gallery opening a while back and hit it off.”
Harper’s brows crush together. “His gallery opening? You mean the one last year at the beginning of the season?”
I can’t help but smile. “Look at you, talking all hockey seasons and stuff.”
She blushes. “Stop it. You better not tell anyone I can talk sports now.”
We can laugh about it now, but when Harper and Collin met on a dating app, Collin dropped so many hints about him being a hockey player. Harper being Harper, not knowing a damn thing about sports, didn’t pick up on a single one.
Now I bet she can recite Collin’s stats better than he can.
“Is that the same gallery opening though?” she presses.
I nod. “The same one.”
“But that means…” Her eyes widen. “Does that mean he’s been seeing her this whole time?”
I don’t know, and I’m honestly not sure I want to know.
My gut is telling me yes though.
Based on the way Harper is looking at me, hers is saying the same thing.
She squeezes my hand again. “At least tell me he had a small dick.”
My mind goes straight to the dick I saw this morning, which was definitely not small.
I push the thought away, hoping Harper doesn’t see the blush that is no doubt stealing up my cheeks.
“Average, and there was a weird mole on the inside of his thigh that had more hair than my legs in the winter.”
She wrinkles her nose, and I laugh.
Then somewhere along the way, my laughter turns to tears, and before I know it, I’m full-blown snot crying into Harper’s shoulder.
I have no idea how long it takes for me to gather myself, but when I finally pull away, there is a definitive wet spot on her shirt.
“I snotted on you. I’m sorry.” I wipe at it with a soft laugh, and my eyes instantly drop to the ring sitting snugly on my finger.
Harper notices and drags my hand into her lap, examining the ring Rhodes slipped on last night with a promise to love me forever. It’s a simple slim gold band with a small heart engraved in the middle of it. Nothing fancy and nothing like how I imagined my wedding ring would look.
“It was something they had at the chapel,” I tell her with a shrug. “He got one too.”
“At least you didn’t get it tattooed on,” Harper comments with a laugh. “Or sleep with him.”
Just the mere mention of a naked Rhodes has my mind drifting back to seeing him naked.
On one hand, I’m glad I didn’t sleep with him last night. On the other…damn, what a missed opportunity.
Harper waves her hand around. “Okay, I know your horny face when I see it. What aren’t you telling me?”
Busted.
I wring my hands. “I, uh, might have seen him naked.”
“What! When? I thought you didn’t sleep together.”
“We didn’t, but when I woke up this morning, all I had on were my panties and Rhodes was naked as the day he was born.”
She lifts her brows but doesn’t say anything. Probably because once upon a time—before I knew what a grumpy asshole he is—I thought he was hot.
Then he spoke, and all that flew right out the window.
There’s a knock at my hotel door and I freeze, worried I conjured him up by thinking about his cock. I have this weird wave of wanting it to be Rhodes and simultaneously wanting it to be literally anybody else.
“It’s just me,” Collin says.
I exhale a relieved breath, and Harper gets up to let him in.
They stand in the door whispering for a few moments, glancing over at me from time to time. Subtlety is not their specialty.
Harper nods, then turns back to me. “We’re supposed to meet Lowell and Miller for lunch, but I’m going to stay here with you.”
“No!” I say, almost too quickly. “I mean, no. Go on ahead. I’ll meet you down there.”
Harper’s brows pinch together. “Are you sure? I don’t want to leave you alone.”
“It’s fine. I’m going to take a shower and map out the next big mistake I can make with my life.”
Her face falls, and I laugh.
I laugh because if I don’t laugh about it, I’m going to start crying again, and I don’t want to cry in front of Collin.
Especially not when he’s looking at me like he is. Like I’m some wounded animal.
I’m not wounded. Just stupid.
Really, really stupid.
“I swear, you’re out to give me a heart attack this weekend,” Harper mumbles as she crosses the room. She wraps me in her arms, and I hug her back. “We’ll figure this out,” she promises. “You’re Ryan the Lion. You’ve got this.”
I smile at the nickname she gave me in college. She was always the shy, awkward, quiet one, and I was always the exact opposite of that. She always said I was bold and brave like a lion, and the name kind of stuck.
“I’ll be fine. I’ll meet you down there in thirty,” I tell her, hoping my words sound convincing enough.
She gives me one last long, sad look, then shuffles out the door with Collin. Like the amazing boyfriend he is, he looks equally concerned about my well-being.
The moment the door clicks shut, I fall back on the bed, exhausted from last night and all the emotions of the day so far. I glance over at the clock and note that it’s only eleven. How can it only be eleven?
Twelve hours.
That’s how long I’ve been married. Twelve hours. And I remember this because we made sure to say our vows at 11:11 PM.
I thought it was romantic. Something out of a fairy tale.
I believe in love, and I believe in fairy tales, but this?
This is no fairy tale.
It can’t be. Not when it makes me feel this way, sick to my stomach with dread.
Maybe that’s just the alcohol though. I should probably eat something, but just the thought of food makes me want to hurl.
A bath—that’s what I need. If I’m quick, I can take about a fifteen-minute soak to let all the tension out of my body.
I’m just about to push up from the bed when the sound of a key sliding into the electronic lock stops me in my tracks.
I’m sure it’s just Harper checking in on me. We always make sure to exchange room keys just in case, but this is the first time I’m regretting that choice.
I just want to be left alone. I want to sit in a tub of hot water and think about how the hell I’m going to get out of this mess I’m in. Hell, maybe I’ll order room service and charge it to my husband’s room. I can do that, right? What’s his is mine and all that.
The door opens, and I sigh. “I told you, Harper, I’m fine.”
“Yeah, well, I’m not. We need to talk.”
It’s not Harper. It’s Rhodes.
And he doesn’t look happy.
“Got a moment to chat, wife?”
