“Okay. Where the fuck is he?” Dylan asked.
“You got Dylan cussin’. Shit got real,” Andrew said.
“You think he’s getting cold feet like me?” I asked.
“Cold feet is when you don’t know if you should be walkin’ down the aisle in front of hundreds of people. Callin’ an educated woman ‘stupid’ is straight uncalled for,” Caleb said.
“I’m gonna knock his fuckin’ head off,” Wyatt said.
“What else has he done to you, Katie?” Dylan asked.
“Guys really it’s nothing serious. He’s just… being distant. Not really talking to me. I doubt he even realizes I’m not at the table right now,” I said.
“The fuck you wanna marry someone like that for?” Caleb asked.
“It’s not too late to back out,” Dylan said. “Doesn’t sound like you’re happy.”
“Doesn’t look like it, either,” Caleb said, murmuring.
“But he was there through everything. Mom. The treatments. Flying me back and forth—”
“You think you owe him somethin’ for that?” Andrew asked. “That’s what you do for someone you love, not some favor he did you.”
“I’d done the same damn thing if I were in his position,” Caleb said. “Wouldn’t mean you owed me your future.”
“I don’t know,” I said with a sigh. “I just don’t know.”
“Like I said, if you need anythin, you ask us, doll,” Dylan said.
His hand came down onto my shoulder as I drew in a deep breath. It was warm and welcoming like I remembered the brothers to always be. I threw back the rest of my wine, grimacing as it went down. I hugged them all one last time before I made my way back to my seat.
As I locked my eyes onto Michael, I was begging him to look at me, to pull his gaze away from his friends at the table and acknowledge my presence. That was all I needed to settle my soul and know I was doing the right thing, to know that neither of us was going to waste our lives away with someone we shouldn’t be with. I counte
d the seconds in my head.
One.
Two.
Three.
But instead of a glance my way, I saw a waitress come up alongside him and tap him on his shoulder. I watched him turn around and smile up at her, his eyes sparkling and his smile beaming.
Then I watched his eyes slide down to her chest as he began to stare.
I wove my way through the tables. He was smiling up at her in a way he hadn’t looked at me in some time. His hand was on top of her hand as she rested it on his shoulder, and I tried to reason everything away.
Until I saw her slip him a piece of paper into the palm of his hand.
I stood there, frozen in my spot as I looked at him.
He unfolded the note and showed it to his friend, who automatically gave him a thumbs up. Like a fucking teenager in high school. I felt tears crest my eyes as I watched his eyes dance with happiness. His fingertips gracefully folded the piece of paper back up before he tucked it into his pocket.
He was keeping it.
The bastard was keeping the waitress’s number.
Oh... hell to the no.