I dig my heels into the ground and shake my head. “Not right now. They’re busy. Just wave.” I demonstrate this behavior, in case he doesn’t know how to wave, apparently. Only once Alex’s gaze locks on a tall, handsome man beside me, he shoves the camera out of his face and crosses the room. Bethany tags along, peering curiously to see what’s so interesting.
Dammit.
Alex stops in front of me, holding a hand out. “The boyfriend, I presume?”
Since apparently this is happening whether I want it to or not, I say, “Yes, this is Henry. Henry, this is my dad, Alex.”
“Glad to see you could make it,” Alex says mildly as he shakes Henry’s hand.
“Well, what kind of boyfriend would I be if I missed my girlfriend’s father’s wedding?” Henry asks congenially.
“A pretty shitty one,” Alex states, without humor.
Widening my eyes at him in warning, I say, “Don’t you have pictures to take?”
“I’ve had so many fucking pictures taken today, I better see my face on the cover of Rolling Stone.”
Bethany sidles up next to him and thrusts her hand at Henry, grinning. “Hi! I’m Bethany, Nicole’s new step-mom.”
Henry’s eyebrows rise, raking over Bethany briefly. If he’s surprised my dad bagged a hot wife just barely older than me, it is probably my fault for never telling him much about my dad.
Checking over my shoulder, I search the sea of faces for Derek. Seeing no sign of him, I hope like hell he had the decency to sneak out. Then again, Derek and decency are not two words that show up in the same sentence together often, so probably not.
As much as I do not want to think about him, my fool mind keeps dragging me in that direction. Here I am at Alex’s wedding introducing him to my boyfriend for the first time ever, and I’m wondering where Derek is.
This is just like him, isn’t it?
I need to get him out of here. I need to get my shit together, face that fact that part of me is flattered he’s here, part of me is excited, and that is the same stupid part that needed to be eradicated. I learned my lessons years ago, and I will be damned if I invite him to teach me more.
Derek made choices that I cannot live with. He created a life I don’t want to live with him, and that is why I left. It doesn’t matter how many years have passed, it doesn’t matter how nice he looks in that suit, it doesn’t matter what surface-level changes Derek has made; the fact of the matter is he messed up in a way I will not forgive, and I cannot forget. I was willing to do that for him once, for us, so we could move past the mistakes we both made and still have a future together. I spent years lying awake in my bed, imagining the life we could have had. Imagining all the things I was missing out on because the only person who had ever made me feel was the worst person in the world to entrust with my heart.
I should have known. I should have known from the way he came into my life, but I was young and inexperienced in every way that mattered.
I am an adult woman now. I am not the foolish girl he got his claws into.
I am capable of facing down Derek Noble now. I’m going to go find him and tell him to go fuck himself, that’s what I’m going to do.
For the first time since I saw him standing in the church, I feel like I can breathe again. I feel the control coming back to me. My initial reaction was the reaction of the girl he left things off with, but I am not her anymore. I did a hell of a lot of work to make sure I wasn’t, I built myself a great new life, and that asshole is not going to blow it all up on a whim. I don’t even know why he wants to, but it doesn’t matter.
Embracing my anger, I turn to Henry, rub his arm, and tell him, “I need to go deal with something. Just a minor thing. Can you—”
“What are you talking about?” Bethany asks, eyes wide. “It’s time to send us off. You can’t go deal with something right now. It’s time to go to the reception.”
Since I can’t very well tell her I have just built myself a big, brave platform to stand on so I can keep my head above water even though hurricane Derek has come back into my life, I guess it will have to wait. First, I will do what a dutiful daughter should do at this wedding, then I will find Derek and send him back to the past where he belongs.
Chapter Six
Cocktail hour.
Ordinarily, the fact that Henry is with me would bring out responsible Nicole, but responsible Nicole has a lot on her plate right now, and frankly, making sure Nikki doesn’t convince her to finally have sex with her hot lawyer boyfriend is not on that list.
In fact, in this second half of cocktail hour, as I down my fourth drink, I’m looking at Henry in his sharp suit and wondering why I am not hitting that. I decide to go get some more alcohol and keep it coming, ensuring I will still feel this way when I leave tonight.
Leaning over the bar with a happy sigh, I put down my empty glass and smile dreamily at the bartender. “More please.”
He cocks an eyebrow, looking at my lean. “Did you pre-game, or what?”
“I’m a lightweight,” I inform him. “I also never drink. I’m the sluttiest drunk in the world and I like to try to suppress my myriad of horrifying genetic predispositions. It’s a big job and I can’t do it when I drink, because drinking relaxes me and I forget why I care so much. I have to walk around with a stick up my ass a lot of the time. You have no idea.”