Over time, that attraction had grown into something else. He’d gotten to know her reasonably well since they spent a fair bit of time together with their mutual friends. Rylla was smart, funny, tough, and gorgeous. He loved her crazy red hairy, it perfectly fit her personality, she was like a whirlwind of energy and effervescence. He also loved her beautiful green eyes, they hinted at a more serious side that she kept buried away beneath her enthusiastic and carefree attitude.
He could have found out why her eyes were so serious. He could have gotten to know her so much better. He could be dating her right now, perhaps even planning their own wedding instead of preparing to go to a friend’s.
But he wasn't doing any of those things.
Because he was an idiot.
Fifteen months ago, at Sam and Naomi’s wedding—he had been the best man, Rylla had been the maid of honor—Rylla had asked him out and he’d said no.
No.
Some days he still couldn’t believe he had been so stupid.
“What timing?” Sam asked. “What do you have going on that would prevent it from being a good time to date Rylla?”
“Why are you such a busybody since you and Naomi got together?” he asked. Sam had changed so much since he fell in love, it was hard to believe he was the same person Nate had known practically all his life.
Sam just shrugged. “Stop trying to distract me and divert the conversation away from yourself. Why did you say no?”
“Because I was scared.” He didn't want to find himself back in the same hole he was still trying to climb out of.
“But youwantto go out with her, right?”
“Yes.”
“Then tell her you changed your mind.”
He’d tried.
Somany times.
But Rylla wouldn’t talk to him anymore. Whenever they were together with their friends, she ignored him or if she was forced to make conversation with him, she kept it extremely superficial.
Nate didn't know how to fix that.
At first, he’d hoped things would blow over and neither of them would mention it, they’d just go back to the way things had been before, and he would continue to long for her from afar.
However, the more she ignored him, the more he realized how much he wanted her. Some nights he lay in bed staring at his ceiling, unable to sleep for wanting her so badly. He filled those long, dark hours by imagining what it would be like to have her lying beside him. That usually led to a cold shower.
He’d had a lot of cold shower the last fifteen months.
Once he had accepted that he had made a mistake turning her down, he had tried to rectify it. He had apologized, but Rylla had just shot him an icy smile, waved him off, then breezed over to the other side of the room and ignored him for the rest of the night. She did the same thing every time he tried to apologize.
What else could he do?
She wouldn’t listen to his apologies. She wouldn’t even give him the time of day. How was he supposed to fix this? He wanted to date Rylla, he wanted to see if something could develop between them. He knew she liked him too, if she didn't, she would never have asked him out. What he didn't know was why she was being so stubborn about forgiving him. He couldn’t have bruised her egothatmuch with one rejection.
“I've told her I changed my mind,” he told Sam. “She doesn’t want to hear it.”
“Then tell her again.”
Sam was always Mr. Practical. “She doesn’t want to hear it,” he repeated.
“Maybe Luke and Summer’s wedding will change her mind.”
“Maybe,” he agreed half-heartedly. He had hoped that being at another wedding would soften Rylla’s feelings toward him, but they’d attended the wedding of Sam’s sister-in-law a couple of months after Sam and Naomi’s wedding, and Rylla had ignored him just like she did the rest of the time.
He was honestly at a loss about how to bridge the gap that had grown between them.