by Elena Aitken
Katie cleared her throat and tried again. “Jeremy, honestly, I didn’t think we were like that. We discussed it, right? I mean…well, anyway, I’m sorry if I misread it, but I don’t have feelings like that for you. I’m married to Damon. I need you to understand that.”
He nodded, but she could see that he didn’t understand. Not really. And he still hadn’t released her from his grip.
Katie moved to slip away but he held her fast. And before she could move away, he kissed her again.
This time there was more urgency behind his kiss, as if he could change the past with the sheer power of his lips. There was nowhere for Katie to go—Jeremy had her pinned.
Vaguely, she heard the kitchen door swing open, the noise of the crowd out in the bar filling the kitchen for a moment and then, “What the actual fuck?”
Damon!
Shit.
With one last effort, Katie managed to get her hands between them and she shoved Jeremy away from her right as Damon grabbed his shoulder and whirled him around.
Jeremy took a stumbling step backward; his hand touched his lips as if he couldn’t even believe he’d just kissed her. And then Jeremy’s face shifted as he looked at Damon. Jeremy held up his hands and took a step backward. “It’s not what you think—”
“Really? Because it looks like you were kissing my wife.”
“I…we…Damon…”
“Damon!” Katie stepped forward to grab his arm, but the look on her husband’s face stopped her.
“I should have known, Katie.” His eyes were narrowed and he looked at her with such disgust it hit her directly in the gut.
“What?” Shocked, she shook her head. “No. You don’t—”
“I see how it is.”
“No! You don’t see anything.” Was he really upset with her?
Damon shook his head and moved to leave. “I’ll just go.”
“Damon!” She grabbed his arm but he shook it off and stormed out of the kitchen.
Her entire body shook as she spun to face Jeremy. “What the actual fuck, Jeremy?” She’d tried to be nice, she’d tried to talk to him and put herself in his shoes, but enough was enough. “You don’t have to like it,” Katie continued, trying but failing to control her voice. “But you are going to have to accept it. I’m married to Damon.” She took a step toward Jeremy, her hand shaking as she pointed at him. “And if you ever touch me without my permission again, you will regret it. Do I make myself clear?”
She didn’t wait for a response, but turned and fled the kitchen. She was furious and hurt and so completely confused. But those feelings were going to have to wait. First, she needed to find her husband.
Chapter Fourteen
Damon only vaguely heard his friends, and Nick, who no doubt was even more confused than the rest of them, call out as he pushed his way through the crowd and out into the parking lot. He pulled his truck keys out of his pocket and immediately shoved them back in. He’d had way too much to drink to get behind the wheel.
Fuck.
He looked around—for what, he didn’t know. But he had to get out of there before—
“Damon!”
Shit.
Katie was both the only person, and the last person, he wanted to see.
“You’re not driving.”
She stormed across the parking lot and put herself between him and the truck. Her face was flushed and with her breath coming in short bursts and her hands on her hips, Damon couldn’t help but think about how sexy she looked, despite the fact that she looked royally pissed off.
And guilty?
He was a little too far over the line of intoxicated to tell the difference. But she should feel guilty. After all, he had just found her getting cozy with another man.
“I know, Katie. I’m not going to—”
“Here.” She held out her hand for the truck keys. “I’ll drive.”
Damon glanced behind him at the bar, but neither of them had any intention of going back inside. That much was clear.
He gave her the keys and walked past her to the passenger side door.
The drive back to ElkView was quiet and tense, the air between them full of everything they probably should have been saying to each other.
He looked out the window and watched the dark landscape pass by in a blur, questioning his choices.
Why had he wanted to come back to Glacier Falls in the first place? Did he make a mistake? Was marrying Katie a mistake? Or was it falling in love with her that had been the mistake?
Love.
The word hit him in the gut. Did he really love her? Like, love her love her?
Was that why he was acting like such an idiot?
It was. He knew it.
Seeing her with another man…it was too much. It had brought out a reaction in him that he couldn’t even begin to explain, let alone contain. Was that love?
Maybe not. But everything else…that was love. He knew it. He felt it.
Didn’t he?
And even if he did…what about her? Did Katie love him?
He knew the answer to that, too.
No.
His head swirled with the combination of the questions and the alcohol that flowed through him. He wasn’t the type of man to give up. He never gave up on what he wanted.
Damon glanced over at Katie behind the wheel of his truck.
Why should it be any different now?
He wanted Katie, and he’d be damned if he was going to give up that easily.
He’d had too much to drink. That was clear.
She needed to talk to him and clear up what had just happened back there. She risked a glance over at him in the passenger seat. Damon stared out the window, a hard line set on his mouth, his forehead wrinkled as if he were in deep thought. And maybe he was. But he was also drunk.
Katie shook her head and focused on the road. She needed to talk to him, desperately. But there was no point in bringing anything up in his condition.
Nothing good would come from that.
Instead, Katie pressed her own lips into a hard line and tried to ignore the tension between them as she drove them home in silence.
The best thing they could do was just get to bed, so Damon could sleep off whatever he’d had to drink and maybe Katie would have a chance to process the swirl of feelings that more and more were consuming her thoughts.
“Okay, Damon.” She finally spoke as she unlocked the front door. “I think maybe if—”
He cut her off by wrapping his arm around her waist and pulling her in through the door into the cottage.
“What are you doing?”
He pressed her up against the wall and it was clear to both of them exactly what he was doing. Her body reacted immediately to him, an instinctual response, but she could smell the whisky on his breath. It reminded her of what had happened and exactly why it was a better idea just to go to bed.
“You know what I’m doing.” He leaned in and breathed heavy against her mouth.
Katie shook her head and turned away. “Damon, I think you should—”
“Kiss you?” He moved to kiss her, but at the last minute, she dodged him.
Katie worked hard to keep her voice neutral and non-confrontational. “You’re drunk, Damon. You need to—”
“What I need is to kiss my wife.” His voice held an edge, but still his eyes danced with mischief, as if he’d forgotten that they’d just had a blow-out in the kitchen of the neighborhood pub.
And she was definitely not going to kiss him. Not now. Not like this.
“No,” Katie said gently. “You really need to go to bed.”
Damon took a step back and assessed her. “I don’t,” he said after a moment. “It’s actually the last thing I need to do.” He shook his head and walked into the small kitchen. He grabbed a half-drunk bottle of wine they’d corked a few nights earlier. “Have a drink with me? I think we should talk.”
“I’m really not in the mood.”
He
ignored her and poured out two glasses, sloshing some of the red onto the floor. “Here.” He thrust a glass in her direction a moment later. “Just a sip. Besides, don’t you think you owe me?”
She grabbed the glass before it spilled everywhere and glared at him. “Owe you? What is it exactly that you think I owe you for?”
Damon drank deeply from his own glass before putting it down hard on the table. “You kissed another man, Katie. That’s adultery.”
He slurred on the last word and Katie clenched her teeth together.
She shook her head and put the glass down next to his. “You’re an asshole and an idiot.”
“I may be the idiot.” Damon stopped her with his words before she could leave. “But you’re the asshole, Katie.”
Her whole body shook, but she didn’t bother replying. With an exhale, she turned away.
“At least I was honest.”
His words slapped her across the back and almost took her out at her knees. Slowly, she turned. “What?” Her voice was incredulous, barely more than a whisper. “You were what?”
“I was honest, Katie.” Damon crossed his arms over his chest. “And that’s more than I can say for you.”
“What are you talking about?” It was ridiculous trying to have a conversation with him, she knew that, but she also knew that alcohol could loosen the tongue, and she needed to know what was going through his head.
“If you were in love with another man, you never should have agreed to marry me.” His words slurred again. “Or at the very least, you never should have agreed to stay married to me.”
“I’m not in—”
“Because I meant it, you know?” He took a step around the table toward her.
“Meant what?” Logically, Katie knew she shouldn’t listen to whatever he was saying, but she couldn’t help herself. She needed to know how he really felt. “What did you mean?”
“I meant it when I said that I thought we could be good together.” He stood so close to her, she could feel the heat of his breath with his every exhale.
Katie released the breath she was holding. Good together. It wasn’t until he actually said the words that Katie realized what she’d been hoping he’d say. Sure, they were good together. And they always would be. But was she naive to think it could be more? That it could be love? She’d been foolish.
“Right.” She nodded and bit her lower lip. She would not lose control of her emotions. Not over this.
“We’re good together.” He said it again, but this time it sounded more as though he were trying to convince himself.
She shook her head sadly. “No, we’re not.”
He looked at her for a moment, his eyes searching hers for something. “We are, Katie,” he said finally. “Tell me you don’t feel it, too.”
What was she supposed to say? That she didn’t think that they were good together, but they were amazing together? And that ever since he’d come back to Glacier Falls, she’d finally felt more at home in her hometown than she’d ever felt? Was she supposed to say that it was more than being good together? It was about the overwhelming, full-body feeling that she was completely and totally in love with him and that she was terrified that her heart was about to shatter because it all became crystal-clear in the worst way?
No. She couldn’t tell him any of that. Not like this.
Katie shook her head, a move Damon interpreted to mean something very different. She saw it the moment that it happened, the moment he registered in his own mind how she felt. Or at least, how he assumed she felt.
Damon’s eyes darkened, his face hardened, and he dropped his hand from her arm. “Okay.” His voice was clipped and controlled, stripped of emotion. “I get it. Message received loud and clear.”
“Damon, I didn’t say anything. I—”
“You didn’t have to. I got it, Katie. This is business. An arrangement.”
No. It wasn’t. It wasn’t like that at all. At least not for her.
“Damon, don’t do this.”
He held up a hand to stop her protests. “I’ll tell you what, Katie. The papers are almost signed. Give me a few days. Two tops.” He held up his fingers. “You can get your money, start your little shop, and go back to your lover. Judging by what I saw earlier, you’re counting the days yourself before you can—”
“Fuck you, Damon.” She slapped him then before he could say anything more. Her palm stung from the contact but she curled her fingers inward both to hold in the heat and stop herself from doing it again. He didn’t deserve that kind of attention.
Instead, she turned on her heel and, with her heart breaking with every step, walked out without another word.
Chapter Fifteen
It was early on Thursday as Faith made her way down Main Street and into the Birchwood restaurant for her meeting with Brody. The overcast morning had the rain clouds looking as if they could spill at any moment. Faith breathed in the fresh air but she wasn’t worried about rain. At least not the way she would be if there were a wedding at Ever After Ranch that weekend. It was still hilarious to her that she was so in tune with the weather forecast now.
But it didn’t matter whether it snowed on Saturday, because she had the weekend off and she planned to enjoy every minute of not thinking about flowers, or wedding cakes, or first dances, or any of it. But she couldn’t start relaxing yet. The weekend was a few days away and she still had a to-do list a mile long, including some details for a promotional campaign she’d been working on, and one last meeting with Brody for an upcoming event.
At least she didn’t have to worry about what was going on at the barn. She’d left Logan in charge of that.
Logan.
She surprised herself by blushing just at the thought of Logan.
Blushing.
Faith didn’t blush.
Except for maybe the night before at the Knot when he slid his hand across the booth to her leg. No one else had seen it, and it hadn’t gone further than a quick squeeze of her thigh. Just enough to get her attention. And maybe that had been the point. After Damon and Katie had rushed out in a flurry of what could be described as drama, Damon’s friend Nick had introduced himself and joined them at the table.
He was attractive, a fact that hadn’t been lost on Faith. But despite how good-looking the newcomer was, her attention was still on Logan. A fact that she’d found more than a little troubling. And despite trying not to think about it, it was all she could focus on.
“So, this is what I have.” Brody dropped a file on the table in front of her, startling her in the present, and away from thoughts of Logan.
Probably a good thing.
No. Definitely a good thing. She didn’t need to be thinking of Logan in any way.
“All I need from you is a final head count next week, and let me know if we have any allergies I should be aware of.”
Faith flipped open her binder to the file for the Glick and Hunter wedding for the following week.
It hadn’t been long that she’d been in charge of Ever After, but much to her surprise, and just a little dismay, she was getting pretty good at the wedding planning business. Never in a million years did she think that would happen. Never mind the idea she had for a little social media marketing. Hope would be so impressed.
For the next few minutes, they discussed final numbers and ironed out the last few details for catering. Brody’s files matched her numbers, just as she knew they would.
“So, do you have any exciting plans for the weekend?” Faith shut her binder, the meeting over. “With no wedding to organize, I myself plan on doing a lot of sleeping.”
Brody laughed. “If by exciting you mean coaching a soccer game before eating burnt burgers, then yes. Very exciting.”
“That does sound exciting.” It didn’t. At least not for Faith, but Brody looked pleased.
“So things are getting pretty serious with you two then?”
Her friend shrugged but his smile dipped a little.
; “It’s not?”
“No,” he said quickly. “We’re just friends.”
Friends. There was that word again. Maybe the two of them couldn’t see what everyone else clearly could. She nodded as if she understood, which she most certainly did not. She didn’t know the first thing about a relationship, having avoided them for her entire life. So far.
She shook her head to clear that random thought. The very last thing she planned to do at this stage in her life was change her entire belief system regarding love because of Logan Langdon. Not in a million years. The idea was so crazy, it was almost laughable. They hadn’t even had sex.
Not that sex was any basis for a relationship.
“What about you?”
The question took her off guard. “What about me?”
“You and Logan—what’s going on there?” Brody’s question was innocent enough. At least, it should have been. There’s no way he could know what it might stir up. “I hear you’re not much for the love thing.”
Okay, maybe he did know what it would stir up.
Faith shook her head. “I see people have been talking.” She raised an eyebrow, but he only shrugged.
“Just Sarah. She mentioned that it was a bit of a worry for your sister, Hope, and that you’ve never really bought into all of this.” He used one arm to encompass the two of them and no doubt, all the wedding stuff in general. “She also said that to her knowledge, you’ve never had a boyfriend.”
“That’s not…okay, I guess that’s true.”
Brody smiled kindly. “What’s that all about? You’re a beautiful, successful woman. I would think that you’d have men knocking down the door.” He nodded and leaned back in his chair. “Hell, you probably do, don’t you? But it’s not for a lack of choice, is it?”
“What is this, a therapy session?” She laughed in an effort to hide her discomfort, but it did nothing to alleviate the uncomfortable sensation building within her. “It’s just not ever something I’ve been interested in.”