I parted my lips to lie once more, but I was cut off.
“I’m right here.”
Jason and I both turned around to see Aaliyah. She looked refreshed and well-rested. I assumed a few moments of fresh air had been exactly what she needed to clear her head while spending the night with some of the worst humans on the planet.
“Babe, where were you? I thought you said you’d be back in five minutes, and that was like an hour ago. Where were you that whole time?” Jason repeated, his brows knit with concern.
“Oh, I, uh”—she fumbled with her words—“I was talking to, uh…”
“She was talking to Daniel Price,” I told Jason, covering for Aaliyah. Her eyes locked with mine, and she smiled.
“Oh? Is that so?” Jason asked, perking up a bit. “He’s one of the people I wanted you to meet. That’s great.”
“Oh yeah, totally,” Aaliyah said, her cheeks turning red. It was so clear that she was guilty, though Jason was too wasted to pick up on the clues to that. “Daniel was very nice.”
“Nice?” Jason snickered, stunned. “Never in my life have I heard someone describe him as nice.”
He was right. Daniel was a rat.
“Maybe nice wasn’t the right word. Maybe, um, intriguing?” she corrected.
Jason laughed even more. “Intriguing? Are we talking about the same Daniel Price?”
“I meant, well…” She started to stumble over her words as she rubbed her hand up and down her arm. Her nerves were getting the best of her.
“Knowledgeable,” I spat out. “I’m sure Aaliyah meant he was knowledgeable.”
She nodded. “Yes, that’s what I meant. He knew a lot about…a lot. Like all things. Daniel knew so much about—”
I cleared my throat loudly, catching Aaliyah’s eyes. I shook my head slightly.
Don’t push it.
She stopped talking.
Jason didn’t notice anything at all.
“Perhaps it’s a good time to shut everything down for the night,” I mentioned, patting Jason on the back. “We have a few busy weeks ahead of us.”
Jason nodded. “Perhaps you’re right. I’ll go say good night to a few people, and then we can wrap it all up.” He hurried off, and Aaliyah moved in closer to me.
“Thank you for that, for covering for me,” she said. “I’m a pretty crappy liar. I don’t have much practice with it.” She laughed, combing her hands through her hair.
“Stay in this room long enough, and you can pick up some tips from anyone here.”
“I don’t know if that’s a good thing. So, um…” Aaliyah rocked back and forth on her heels. She was nervous around me. I felt the same around her. “Before I came over here, I ran into Walter, and he said Jason is staying at your place the night before the wedding?”
My insides cringed. “That’s the plan.” Not my plan, but alas.
“Perfect, because, well, you know the rule—the bride can’t see the groom before the wedding and all.”
I nodded once.
A part of me wanted to ask her why Jason. A part of me wanted to know how she’d been and if her dreams had come true. Another part wanted to tell her not to marry the man crashing in my guest room in a few days. I wanted her to run, wanted her to find someone she deserved. I wanted her to fall out of love with him.
Instead, I turned to Aaliyah and said, “You should probably catch up with Jason to say your goodbyes.”
“Oh.” She stood taller, and I wished I could read her thoughts. “Yeah, of course. Okay. It was good seeing you again Ca—Connor.”
I smiled at her almost calling me Captain. Hell, I wanted to call her Red.
It wasn’t my place, and I shouldn’t have said it, but the words left my mouth before I could stop them. “Are you happy?”
She tilted her head, and confusion swirled in her eyes as she tried to comprehend the words that’d left my mouth. I shouldn’t have said anything, but how was I not going to say anything? She was about to tie her life to a loser who didn’t deserve her. Sure, I didn’t know the state of their relationship, and I didn’t know if she was the woman who could magically change a manwhore into a househusband, but the odds were against her on that. No matter how good a woman could be, a bad man would always mistreat her and try to devalue her strengths to make himself feel bigger.
There was nothing big about Jason. He was a small, small man with an unstable mind. There was no way he’d be deserving of Aaliyah’s love.
“Am I happy?” She repeated the question, as if hearing her own voice would make it clearer. She smoothed her hands over her dress, and I watched as she did it because every time her hands moved across her figure, I wanted to see exactly where they’d go.