Total pages in book: 62
Estimated words: 61953 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 310(@200wpm)___ 248(@250wpm)___ 207(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 61953 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 310(@200wpm)___ 248(@250wpm)___ 207(@300wpm)
She walked past me down the aisle without even a glance in my direction. Jordan Wright didn’t even need to shoot me a smug look or anything. He’d won long ago. Not that it had been a competition. Her heart was her own. And it was easier to have this closure. She was married. Officially. Time to move on.
The rest of the party filed out after them. More Wrights. More of their dates. All happy as could be.
Then, it was my turn. I stepped into the aisle, and there she was.
I stopped abruptly in my tracks at the sight of the blonde who had been seated in the aisle across from me. I’d caught her looking at me when we first sat down, but I’d been too focused on what was happening in front of me to get more than a glance in her direction. And now…I couldn’t stop looking.
Her black dress swished around her pale, toned thighs. A dress that was more in line with…a funeral than a wedding. A fact that felt oddly appropriate at the moment. But it fit her like a glove with tight boning around her narrow waist and a full skirt and billowy sleeves. Her hair was lighter than mine by only a few degrees, and it hung down past her shoulders in light waves. Her lips were pillowy with a little divot in the middle that made me want to sink my teeth into it. Her face was round and youthful with rosy cheeks, framed by the threads of her honey hair. Then, I landed on her eyes, and my entire world stalled out.
They weren’t the blue of an ocean. But the ice of a glacier right before the boat collided and sank into the depths. Blue and gray and threads of silver that felt like they wrapped around my poor, bruised heart and forced it back to beating.
“Hi,” I said before I could stop myself.
Her cheeks flushed a rosy pink that went straight to my balls. God, I wanted to make her blush again.
I wanted.
I just…wanted.
“Hey,” she said with a quirk of her mouth.
We moved into step together, walking down the wedding aisle, almost touching shoulder to shoulder. The walk was only a few mere feet, and yet it felt like we were walking in slow motion. As if each step were a small eternity and I never wanted to wake up from whatever dream I’d just stumbled into.
“I like your dress.”
Her smile widened. “Thanks. My brother said it looks like it’s for a funeral.”
“What’s wrong with that?”
She liked that. I could see it in the way her eyes lit, and she listed sideways toward me. Our shoulders brushed, and electricity passed in the contact. A soft whoosh of air was sucked between those lush, succulent lips, and I felt my world leaning into that breath. As if she were uttering a siren call that wrapped me in her magic.
“So, you think it looks like a funeral dress?” she asked.
“You don’t?”
“It’s celebratory.” She fluffed the skirt around her thighs. “See? Perfect for dancing.”
“Maybe I’ll find out later.”
She grinned. “If you’re lucky.”
I was not.
Time had proven again and again that the Wrights had siphoned off all of my luck. Their Midas touch had only turned me to tin.
But for her, I’d pray to the god of luck.
“Chase,” I offered, holding my hand out.
She slipped her dainty hand into mine. “Harley.”
“Pleasure.”
“All mine.”
“Harley,” a voice called behind us.
And then we were at the end of the aisle. Our universe expanded back to its original state. So much bigger than the microcosm we’d entered on our brief walk. I might as well have leprosy in this crowd. While our magnetism lingered in the air, something snapped.
“I’ll catch you later,” she said.
I wasn’t sure if it was a promise or not, but I hoped to make her keep it.
She winked at me as she headed toward the person who had called for her. I didn’t recognize them, but I hadn’t been around this crowd much in the last year. They looked like Wrights. Tall, dark hair, broad shoulders. Jordan and Julian could easily pass as their brothers.
Was she dating a Wright? That would be just my luck.
I watched her walk away for another couple seconds before falling into the line of people headed into the Wright Vineyard barn. The room was decorated to the nines. Flowers and candles and some elaborate sheets overhead made the rustic barn look modern and festive. Whoever had designed the thing had a knack for it. I’d gone to my fair share of New England weddings for Yale friends, and even they could hardly compare to the thought put into this. Of course, only the best for the Wrights.
Maybe one day, I wouldn’t look at the whole town they ran with the spite of a conquered people.