CHAPTER 1
KARLY
Watching my best friend Hanna’s little six-year-old daughter dance around the reception venue is hilarious. Her cute little blonde hair swings in curls down her back while she runs over every few seconds to take bites of her chicken nuggets.
“Aunt Karly, after the wedding, can we go to your house and watch movies?”
I smile, “I wish, kid, but your daddy is picking you up from the wedding, remember? You are gonna spend a few days with him while mommy and Eric are on their honeymoon.”
“Oh, yeah!” She remembers and continues talking with her mouth full. “Daddy said we are going to paint my bedroom.”
“Yeah?” I question.
“Yeah, he will be really sad, so I’ll have to pick a happy color.”
I knit my brows together, “Why would he be sad?”
She shrugs, taking another bite, “He misses my mommy.”
I try not to say anything and bite my tongue. “Finish eating because we need to hurry back to the bridal suite soon and tell mommy how beautiful she looks.”
Ellie smiles and twirls off to the empty dance floor, leaving me here alone with my irritation.
A frustration I’m not even sure is justified.
Maybe it’s jealousy more than anything. The simple fact is that my best friend has this great guy ready to marry her and one dying to stand up and stop the whole thing, and I can’t even get a halfway decent one to look my way.
For me, it’s always the douchebags.
Case in point, Ashton Slade.
The absolute king of assholes. A complete waste of time and the reason for my insecurities. He tried so hard for so long to fix everything he thought was wrong with me that I started to believe something was, in fact… wrong with me.
In reality, he just wanted someone else. Everyone else, and I was just his place to land when he had nowhere else to go.
Lesson learned.
I clean up the trash from lunch and toss it into the bin across the room, letting Ellie know it’s time to go. She doesn’t skip a beat and twirls the entire way to the entrance and across the courtyard to the bridal suite.
“Aunt Karly, can we stop and see Eric? I want to show him my dress.”
I smile, “Sure, but don’t you want it to be a surprise?”
“No way! He doesn’t like surprises.”
I laugh. Ellie isn’t wrong. Eric has mentioned multiple times he hates being surprised. He’s even sabotaged a few parties that were supposed to be a secret. I wonder why that is? Something must’ve traumatized him to be that way because I love being surprised.
We stop a few rooms short of the bridal suite, and I instantly notice the door is ajar. Eric’s suit jacket is perfectly laid across the bed with a white envelope on top of it, and my heart sinks. The wedding is in thirty minutes, and he should be dressed and probably already be at the ceremony waiting. I feel a lump begin to rise in my throat from sadness, but somehow it isn’t sadness for my best friend that is about to be stood up.
No. It’s for him.
“What’s wrong?” Ellie asks, unaware of the situation.
“Um,” I search the area for a scapegoat, finding Judson, Ellie’s uncle, and his son JC across the lawn in a group with some friends. “Nothing, sweetie. Why don’t you go over there and see if JC needs any help, uh… with the rings.” I blurt.
She nods, and I feel my phone vibrate against my chest, where I have it shoved down in my dress.
“Hanna?”