Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 85608 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 428(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85608 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 428(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
Safi took a step back, her hand going to her heart. “It’s not the same.”
“No? You’re not here to ruin my wedding?”
She bit her lip. “I wasn’t going to come, but I heard the worst about him, Whit. He’s a player. He’s slept with half of New York. How do you know he’s the one for you? A year with me and a few months with him? I don’t understand what you’re even doing.”
“Gavin was a player,” I said meeting her dark gaze. “I was actually his wingman for a few years before I ever met you. We were friends. When I came back, things changed. People can change, Saf.”
“Is that what you think? That you’ve changed?” Safi took two long strides, boxing me against the counter.
I glared at her. “What are you doing?”
“You still love me. I know you do.”
“I never told you that I loved you.”
“And you’ve told him?” she demanded.
I turned my face away from her.
She snorted. “Of course not. You’re doing this, and you don’t even love him.” She put two fingers under my chin and tipped my face back up to hers. One I had adored for so long. The girl I’d thought I might have a future with. Only for it to shatter so effortlessly. “You don’t have to do this.”
I jerked my head out of her grasp and pushed myself away from her. “I will not become the thing that I hate,” I snarled at her. “Of course I had feelings for you, Safi. But I don’t go back to mistakes. No matter what I felt for you. You being here is not only cruel, but also insulting.”
Safia nodded, swiping tears from her eyes as she looked away from me. “I see.”
“You should go.”
“I’ll go,” she agreed slowly. “If you tell me you love him.”
“I don’t have to tell you anything. I’m happy. Isn’t that enough for you?”
“As I thought.” She was silent for another few seconds. “It’s not enough for me. It shouldn’t be enough for you either.”
“Then, I can’t help you. If you came here, hoping for another outcome, then you’re going to leave disappointed.”
“Well, at least I tried,” she muttered as she crossed to the door.
“Safi,” I groaned.
She stopped with her hand on the handle. “Maybe you don’t love me, but if you don’t love him either, then you shouldn’t go through with it tomorrow.”
Then, she wrenched open the door and left.
I watched her go, feeling more melancholy than I had in months. And wondering if, in some way, she was right. I hadn’t told Gavin that I loved him. I’d said the words in my head, but that wasn’t the same. If I couldn’t tell Gavin how I felt, was there any way I could get married tomorrow?
30
GAVIN
“I’m cashing out,” I declared to the party.
Strangers at the poker table groaned in relief. My friends began to protest, but I held my hand up to stop them.
“I’m up fifty thousand for the night. I have never had a winning streak like this in my life. I know when to bow out.” I pushed my chips toward the dealer. “Color me up.”
Alcohol and good luck coursed through my veins. I’d won more hands than I’d lost at poker. Something that never happened with my friends. Either Sam was feeding me cards or luck had truly been on my side tonight. I wouldn’t put it past them to have rigged the game so that I won at my bachelor party. But I wasn’t stupid enough to let the game fall out of my hands. I could barely see straight. The cards weren’t going to get any better when I was seeing double.
“Other than the wedding, this might be the smartest thing I’ve ever heard you say,” Court joked. “Get out while you’re still ahead.”
“Worried I’ll take all your money, Kensington?”
Court rolled his eyes. “Good luck with that, King.”
Camden stood from the table and buttoned the top of his suit coat. “I was never worried.”
Court and I exchanged a look. Nothing ever fazed Camden Percy. Well, nothing since everything with him and Katherine had worked out. And even then, he’d really never shown his displeasure with that arrangement.
“I could keep going,” Sam said as he pushed his chips to the dealer next, “but I would like to get home to my wife.”
“I can’t believe you’ll all be fucking married before me,” Court grumbled. He punched me in the arm. “Especially you.”
“Well, it wasn’t exactly in the plan. Then, you had a two-year engagement,” I reminded him.
“It hasn’t been that long,” Court said. “Though, sometimes, it feels like it. I should have gone to the courthouse. The whole elaborate wedding is such a mistake. Penn tried to warn me.”
“Since when have you ever listened to your brother?”
Camden laughed under his breath. Camden and Penn had long been rivals. He probably would have disagreed with him on principle.