My sister was also still standing at the front, like me, her hand in Scott’s and her upper body half-turned toward the disaster that her rehearsal night was turning into. Her jaw was unhinged and she had a look of absolute disbelief on her face.
What more could happen to screw up the wedding at this point? I squeezed my eyes shut, willing my itchy fist to stay at my side. As much as I wanted to clock Reece for this, it wouldn’t help. In fact, it would only make things worse.
Since I’d promised Teddy I wouldn’t be making things worse anymore, I opened my eyes slowly and counted to ten even as I headed toward the unhappy couple. Caitlin was still screaming and shaking her finger at him. Huge sobs wracked her body while he glared at her like he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
It was more than obvious that there was trouble in paradise.Maybe that’s what has been going on with him lately.
Before he could say another word, I was there, wrapping my hand around his arm and forcefully pulling him away. He tried to shake out of my grip and kept turning to glare at her some more over his shoulder.
“What the hell, man?” I muttered quietly enough that no one else would hear me. They were all staring after us, but at least Reece was moving along with me now. “What the fuck is going on?”
“It’s none of your business,” he growled, turning his rage to me as his feet finally caught up to us and he straightened out, his narrowed eyes firmly focused on mine. “Let me go, Colt. This has nothing to do with you.”
“It has everything to do with me if you’re ruining my sister’s wedding rehearsal, and that’s exactly what you’re doing. Let’s just go somewhere, get a drink, and then we can talk. You can tell me what the fuck that was all about and I’ll do what I can to help.”
“Fuck you.” He yanked his arm out of my grip and watched as Caitlin ran into the reception venue with her hands covering her face and her whole body still shaking with sobs. “Where the hell does she think she’s going? We weren’t done yet.”
“Just calm down, Reece,” I said, my voice a low warning. “I don’t know what’s happening between you two, but you’re not going to settle it when you’re angry and she’s crying so hard that she can barely speak.”
He kept staring at the spot where she’d disappeared into the venue, clearly too distracted to listen to a word I was saying. We caught a glimpse of her through the windows in the tasting room, rushing toward the parking lot, and he muttered a string of curses and stormed away from me.
Sighing heavily, I shoved a hand through my hair and stared at his fast retreating back but I let him go. In a way, he was right. It was none of my business. He was my friend, but she was his fiancée and it was clear they had shit to sort out. I couldn’t get in the middle of that.
Later, when he needed me, I’d be there, but for right now, he didn’t need or want to speak to me. My gaze drifted back to my sister, and I realized that shedidneed me. I’d be there for her first and then I’d call Reece once we got home if I didn’t see him again tonight.
I tightened my grip on my hair, blew out another breath, and rolled my head on my shoulders before I headed back to Teddy. If the universe didn’t seem to be against this wedding, then I didn’t know what the signs looked like. But on the other hand, all had been calm before my own supposed wedding day. Clearly, I’d missed those signs so I must not know what they looked like.
At least neither of these two would be running away from the other. Whatever else went wrong, they were rock solid and looking forward to just getting to say their I-dos. I supposed that was what was important, but what the hell did I know?
Six months ago, I’d been looking forward to saying my own I-dos and that hadn’t turned out well.Maybe I need a different approach.
As I walked back to the confusion, unhappiness, and general air of dread hanging around the rest of the wedding party, I realized I did need a different approach.
That’s it. I need to get everyone to relax a little and I think I know just how to do it.
14
EMMA
Colt tried to save the rehearsal dinner by getting the venue to bring out a wide selection of their wines, and it helped distract everyone a little, but so far, the evening was just about the worst calamity I’d ever seen. We were in the tasting room and the wine was flowing, but it seemed to be making it into some more than others.
After the meltdown during the rehearsal, I’d have thought that Reece and Caitlin would’ve gone their separate ways, but they showed up to the dinner a little while after they’d both stormed away. They were staring daggers at each other and not talking, though. The atmosphere around them was so thick that I’d have been able to slice through it easily with a blunt butter knife, and it was affecting the rest of the party.
Reece was one of those who was drinking too much. He’d snagged a bottle of red for himself and it was literally flowing as he poured it down his throat right from the bottle. Colt was holding court at the other side of the room, trying to keep the attention on him, Teddy, and Scott, while Reece licked his wounds in a corner.
I briefly considered going to get him to talk to his friend, but he was doing a good job of occupying most of the other folks, and I didn’t want to draw the attention back to the drama that was unfolding. Caitlin had her own bottle of wine, white to Reece’s red, but she wasn’t as interested in it as she was her phone.
After Colt had pulled him away, I’d helped her find it where he’d tossed it down on the ground. It had been a bit muddied, but since he’d thrown it onto grass and Colt had dragged him away before he’d been able to stomp on it, it was still working.
There was a trainwreck coming with those two. I could sense it. Especially if Reece kept drinking the way he was. Excusing myself from my conversation, I strode over to him and sat down.
“Hey,” I said softly, waiting for him to move his unfocused gaze to mine. “Are you okay?”
“What do you think?” he mumbled, the words slightly slurred already. “I don’t want to talk about it, Emma. Go make nice somewhere else. You don’t need to worry about me.”
I sighed and motioned at the bottle of wine. “Don’t you think you should slow down a little on that? It’ll be time for the toasts soon and we still need to eat.”
Ignoring me, he lifted the bottle to his lips and took another long swig. As he did, he shifted in his seat to put his back to me, and while my lips pursed in disapproval, I didn’t want to be the cause of another scene. If it had been up to me, I’d have grabbed the bottle right out of his hands and ordered him outside to walk it off, but it wasn’t up to me and he was making it perfectly clear that he knew it, too.