I laughed, waggling my brows at her. “Who knows? You just might be next. At least look like you’re going to try.”
Flexing an arm, she wiggled her fingers and gave me a pretend scowl. “Oh, I’m going to try, alright. No bouquet can escape Emma Fast-fingers.”
Although I felt another pang at the thought of her marrying someone else if she caught the damn bouquet, I smirked and made a show of studying her hands. “You’ll have to show me just how fast those fingers are later.”
She flushed a spectacular shade of crimson and narrowed her eyes at me before rolling them. “Keep dreaming, big-city boy.”
When the DJ gave another shout for all the single ladies to gather, she turned and headed toward her friends. I suspected the game was rigged when Teddy got up on the chair and tossed the flowers straight into Emma’s waiting hands.
I applauded with everyone else, but despite that pang I’d felt a few minutes ago, I couldn’t be too mad about my sister making a point of throwing the bouquet to Emma. I’d been imagining our wedding on and off all night, so it wasn’t like I couldn’t pretend that it wasn’t a bit of a rush seeing that bouquet flying into her hands.
While the girls danced and had more fun, I made a decision that had been a few days in the making. Scott and Teddy would be leaving on their honeymoon tomorrow, so I wouldn’t be crowding their newlywed bliss by staying in town a little while longer.
As Parker had said earlier, I wasn’t under any obligation to get to Europe right away. My team was in place and sending me daily updates. Everything was under control on both sides of the ocean, and no one needed me there urgently.
The few things that required my personal attention could be taken care of remotely, and frankly, I just wasn’t ready to leave yet. Even if they needed me desperately, I’d have found some way to get out of it.
Pulling my phone out of my inside pocket, I fired off an email to my assistant and immediately tucked the phone back in so no one would see me on it. I’d made a real effort while I’d been here not to be seen working. I definitely wasn’t going to let that change at the actual wedding I’d come here for.
Once that was done, something inside me settled back down, happy to know that tonight wouldn’t be my last night in Rockdale. I strode over to the edge of the dance floor, clapping along with the other guys while the girls finished out the song they’d been dancing to.
As they dispersed, Teddy’s arm linked with Emma’s to drag her to the bar. Emma turned slightly to catch my eye. When she saw me watching her, she gave me a soft smile and a wink, and it felt like someone taking jumper cables to my heart.
The thing had been little more than a dead lump in my chest on the romance front after Anna had walked out on me, but somewhere inside it, there had to have been some signs of life because it suddenly started racing like it was excited to be back.
I returned her smile, burning to join them at the bar but holding myself back. All night, I’d been monopolizing her time. Since she was Teddy’s maid of honor, I was sure my sister wanted to spend some actual time with her tonight, too.
Reece was at a table near the bar, guzzling amber liquid that I was pretty sure was whiskey as he stared absently into the distance. Deciding to check in on my friend again while Emma went off with Teddy, I went over and kicked out the chair beside his. Then I sat down and locked my gaze on the side of his face when he didn’t so much as glance at me.
“You can’t let this destroy you,” I said seriously. “I know it sucks, but you need to get a grip on yourself.”
“Tomorrow,” he slurred, sighing before he shut his eyes. “When all this wedding madness is over, it’ll get easier.”
“Well, in my experience, that’s not exactly true. When all this wedding madness is over, you’ll have nothing else to focus on and it might just get worse before it starts getting better.”
He snorted, his glasses slightly askew when he finally turned to me. “Aren’t you just a little ray of sunshine?”
“I’m a realist. It doesn’t help if you leave here believing everything is suddenly going to be fine again and you’re going to feel like nothing ever happened in the first place. This shit doesn’t work that way. I’m worried about you.”
“Don’t be,” he snapped, then exhaled a shuddering breath. “Sorry. I don’t know why I’m so fucking frustrated with everyone. None of you did this.”
“No, but we’re here and she’s not,” I reasoned. “Plus, in her absence, we’re the people closest to you. It’s only natural and we can take it. When are you heading home?”
“Not soon enough. I need to get away from here, man. No offense to your hometown, but everything sucks here. It’s no wonder you couldn’t wait to get out.”
“Yeah,” I said, but I didn’t know if I agreed with the sentiment anymore. I also didn’t quite know why I was so desperate to get away. Well, I did know. It wasn’t like I’d forgotten my reasons for wanting to leave. What I didn’t know was why I’d never considered asking Emma to come with me.
“Parker and Josh are going to hit you up when you get back. Take their calls, would you? See them. Work through this, and not by trying to find answers in the bottom of a bottle.”
“You haven’t really seen us for months. Why should I work through this with them when you didn’t?”
“For starters, I wasn’t trying to drown my sorrows, and also, I was away for work. I saw you guys when I was in town. It just so happened that we got the project for that development in Europe after I got back from Niagara Falls. I had to be there. I wasn’t hiding from you.”
He blew out a heavy breath. “Maybe I should put in for a transfer to one of our offices in Europe. That way, I can get away without anyone thinking I’m hiding, too.”
“Trust me, the baggage remains the same. It’s just the address on it that changes. You can’t run from this, Reece. It’ll follow you wherever you go.”
“You really are a ray of sunshine.” He suddenly focused—as best he could anyway—on something behind me. “It looks like the happy couple is getting ready to leave. You should go wave goodbye before they go off to that ridiculously expensive hotel you found them for the night. I mean, seriously, why check them into a place so far away just because it costs a ton of money?”