Sean’s expression instantly closes off. “I’m pretty sure at least one of them knows already. Are you ashamed? Is that what this is about?”
“I’m not ashamed. I just…I don’t want to answer their questions about something that’s never happening again.”
“Never, huh?” Colt crosses his arms over his chest. “Why’s that?”
“Don’t do this. Not now.”
“Do what? Ask you to give us a straight answer? Ask you to make a decision for once?”
“That’s not fair.”
“It’s absolutely fucking fair. You broke my heart when you left me. I’m not going to let you do it again just because you’re afraid of making a choice.”
My lip trembles and hands shake, but I fight the overwhelming emotion. “I’m not having this conversation right now.”
Sean doesn’t say a word. Instead, he nods and walks to the stall where his horse waits.
Goddammit, I’m right back where I was five years ago. Trapped between two men I love, an impossible decision on my hands, and a heart already split in two.
With a click of my tongue and a soft kick of my heels, my horse heads away from them and toward the wedding I’m sure will be a special form of torture.
An hour and a half later, my toes are a soft shade of pink and my nails are longer than I’ve ever had them thanks to my aunt’s insistence I get acrylics done. I’m sitting in a salon chair having my hair curled while a makeup artist paints my face. I won’t be recognizable when this is all over.
“You look like a dream,” my stylist says after she applies one final strategic spray of some kind of mist.
“Good or bad?” I ask.
She only laughs as though I’m the most hilarious person she’s ever met, but doesn’t answer. With a flourish, she whirls the cape off my shoulders and ushers me out of the chair. I’m done. No more pampering.
“All set?” Georgia asks. She’s wrapped in a white robe withBrideembroidered on the back. “You look so pretty.”
I take her in, the perfect hair and face, eyelashes that seem endless, white teeth, a gorgeous smile, and I wonder if I’ve ever looked like her in my life. “You’re perfect.”
“So are you. Look at us, we could be sisters.”
I turn to stare in the mirror and am shocked to see she’s right. “Funny what makeup can do.”
“I really appreciate you doing all this to make mom happy. She just wants it to be perfect, and that means making you do things you don’t want to do.”
“It’s fine.”
She laughs. “I know how much you hate all this stuff. And even though you look amazing, I have to admit, you’re so beautiful without all of it. You’re a natural beauty. I’m worried Porter will stop wanting me if I stop glamming it up every day.”
I take her hand and shake my head. “No. You could be dressed in a garbage bag and he’d think you were the most perfect woman he’d ever seen. You can see it in his eyes.”
Her lower lip trembles and she sniffles. “Don’t make me cry.”
“Sorry. But it’s true.”
“Kind of like the way Sean and Colt look at you.”
My heart twists. “No.”
“Yes. They both love you. So, the question is, who are you going to choose?”
I purse my lips and fight the urge to tell her about last night. “Neither.”
“We’ll see about that.”