I should have been on top of the world.
Now, it’s five in the morning, and we’ve just cleared security. What a shit time to be at an airport. Our plane doesn’t even leave for another four hours but I’m so ready to be home.
Despite one massive fuckup, I have enjoyed my birthday trip.
The most enjoyable parts, I can’t lie, involved Wren. As does the worst part. I don’t know what that means. Probably nothing.
Emma is still seething. Every time she looks at me, her jaw clenches, and I’m sure she’s about to stab me in the face. Felicity takes every opportunity to tell me what a massive dickhead I am, like I don’t already know.
“Let’s eat,” Mase says, stretching his arms over his head. My brother always wants to eat.
The airport is bustling despite staff looking tired and small children half-asleep and cranky.
“I can’t eat,” Wren mumbles beside me.
She’s been quiet the last few days, ever since she told Emma and Felicity, and she’s kept her distance as if Luke and Mase will guess what’s happened if she gets within five meters of me.
We kill time, eating and spending the last of our dollars in duty free. Wren doesn’t look at anything.
I board the plane last, letting Wren go ahead with Emma. We have ten hours to spend side by side. Hopefully, she’ll sleep. I don’t think I can make awkward small talk for long. That’s what we’ve descended into—awkward half-conversations.
“Do you want me to sit with you?” Emma asks Wren as they stop by our seats.
She shakes her head. “It’s fine.”
I can tell from the tightness around her eyes that she wants to, but she’s scared about how it will look.
Emma glares at me and moves past her, sitting down in the row behind us.
Wren takes the window seat, and I sit next to her.
“Do you want me to move?” I ask.
“It’s all right, Brody.”
No, it’s not.
“What’s going on? You’ve been avoiding me.” I demand, leaning into her personal space.
Her head tilts and her eyes stare right through me. “You know what happened.”
“Yeah, and we were fine before you told Emma and Felicity.”
Fine might be a stretch, but we were getting along.
“I apologised for telling them.”
“I’m not pissed about that,” I hiss quietly.
She scowls. “Then, what are you pissed off about?”
“You!” Shaking my head, I take a long breath. What are you doing? I sit back straight. “I don’t know.”
“You’re not making it easy, Brody.”
“No, you’re not making it easy by ignoring me. Just be normal, Wren.”
She lowers her voice. “Felicity gets this look whenever I’m normal with you.”
“Yeah, I know the one. Forget her, though. She was dropped as a baby.”
“I have no idea how to navigate this situation.”
“You’re not alone there, but we can’t freeze each other out. I’m not letting you pretend that I don’t exist. That’s only going to make people suspicious… and I don’t want to lose you.” I’ve only had her for about a week.
Her lips curl. “Are you admitting that I’m more than Luke’s annoying younger sister to you?”
“Calm down. Let’s not get too carried away.”
Her smile widens, and she shakes her head.
Wren buckles her seat belt and tugs it tight. She takes a breath as the screen comes to life and takes us through the safety video.
“I hate this part of travelling,” she says.
“You worry too much.”
“I worry just enough when we’re about to fly through the sky.”
Wren closes her eyes and doesn’t open them for twenty minutes, not until we’re up high and flying smoothly.
She rolls her head to the side. “Did you look at the menu? Does it sound gross?”
“Oh, you’re back in the room.” I take the menu from my table where I have a beer—I’m still on holiday!—and I hand it to her. “Food won’t win any awards, but it doesn’t sound that bad.”
We’re on board for too long to only eat snacks.
“I need a drink,” she says, glancing at the in-flight menu.
“What do you want? Beer?”
Her beautiful eyes round. “Yes! I can totally drink again.”
Because you were a real teetotaller in Vegas …
Her smile fades into a frown. “I swore off alcohol, though.”
“Being married to me that bad?”
“Being married is that bad.”
“So, you admit that I’m marriage material?”
She deadpans. “No, you were flirting with some woman the day after.”
“I was talking to her. Her friend was all over Luke.” If I’m honest, the only woman I want to talk to is freezing me out.
“And you’re his wingman now?”
“Careful, Wren. You sound jealous.”
“I’m not jealous.” Her sharp response doesn’t help her case.
Wren orders a beer, and I order my second. Apparently, breakfast will be served soon. We both opt for bacon sandwiches and pastries. Seems the safest options.
Wren takes the longest sip of her beer the second it’s handed to her. “That’s good.”
“Don’t get drunk.”
“With you?” She raises her eyebrows. “Never again. Who knows what we’ll end up doing?”
“There isn’t much more trouble we can get into. We’d probably just have sex.”
Pulling her lip between her teeth, she drops her eyes to her beer.
Hold on. “Wait, are you up for that?” I sit straighter.
“Don’t go there, Brody,” she warns.
Oh, I’m going. “Why not?”
“You know why.”
Okay, I do know why. But, my God, do I want to be inside her again. Nothing has ever felt that good.
I grin at her. “It was good going there. Really good.”
Pressing her lips together, she fails miserably to suppress a smile. She turns her head and looks out of the window.
“Can you at least admit that?” I ask. “After everything, the massive fuckup that night, can you at least admit that the sex wasn’t a mistake?”
Her gaze meets mine, and my breath is knocked from my lungs. The fire in her eyes has my heart racing. The air between us sizzles.
She won’t be up for joining the Mile-High Club. Don’t even ask.
“Wren,” I press, my throat thick.
“Okay, fine. The sex was good, Brody.”
“Good?”
“More than good. Amazing. Are you happy now?”
More than happy. “Uh-huh.”
She scoffs. “Stop grinning like that.”
“I’m the best you’ve ever had.”
“Really, Brody?”
“Admit it.”
“You first.”
I shrug. “You’re the best I’ve ever had. Hands down.”
Her eyebrows shoot up.
“Why so surprised? You were there that night.”
“Yeah, well, I was pretty confident that you enjoyed it, too. You were inside me all night, after all. I just didn’t think it meant… that much.”
God, take me back to that night. “We’re compatible when we’re naked. We should take advantage of that at every opportunity.”
“Not sure how appropriate that is since we’re married.”
My heart races. “Wren, I think that’s the most appropriate situation to be naked and sweaty in. Besides, you still need your first quickie.”
She takes a deep breath, her breasts straining against her T-shirt, which does nothing to calm my hormones. “You can’t talk like that.”
Shouldn’t talk like that. I can, and I find it very easy to flirt with her, but I shouldn’t. This is Wren. Luke’s little sister. A girl I’ve known her entire life. Her dad is like a second dad to me, al
ways included me in camping and fishing trips, telling me I can be anything I want. I don’t think that stretched to shagging his daughter.
No one would ever expect something to happen between us. Except for Felicity, of course. For some reason, she sees way more than anyone else.
“I can’t go back to how things were. Not when I’ll always know how you feel,” I admit.
“You have to.”
“Hey, you’re the one who walked over to me in a tiny bikini, asking to come to Vegas. How am I supposed to only see you as Luke’s sister now?”
The marriage thing is irrelevant—or as irrelevant as a lifelong commitment gets. The sex is what changed things. Hell, who am I kidding? The balloon ride, the physical contact, and the way she looked up at me that day changed everything. Now, I’m not saying that we’re going to fall in love and live happily ever after, but I fancy her like crazy, and I’ll never be able to forget the way she feels. Wren has gone from a friend’s sister to a starring role in my fantasies.
She watches me like I’m a fucking maths problem she doesn’t understand. “You’re making things more complicated.”
“Didn’t realise that was possible.”
It is, of course. Having a thing for your wife is… okay, totally normal for most people. For us, it’s another layer of fuckup that we don’t need. The divorce needs to be clean. My feelings for her have to be purely platonic.
I don’t want to be married, and I don’t want a relationship with her, but I do want to be inside her.
Raising her eyebrow, she picks up her beer.
I hold up my palms in surrender. “All right. I’ll be on my best behaviour, I promise.”
“Can I come to yours one day soon when we get home? We need to file for the… you know what.”
“You can’t even say the word?”
Shaking her head, she replies, “It’s horrible. We failed at something we hadn’t even wanted.”
I frown and take a long swig of beer. “You’re overthinking it.”
“I know, but when you have only seen successful, loving marriages growing up, it feels so much worse.”
Her parents, both sets of her grandparents, and my parents are all happily married. She’s watched them overcome many issues over the years but every time they come out stronger.
We’re getting a divorce after a few days of accidental marriage.
I get it.
“It’ll be okay,” I tell her because I don’t know what else to say.
Her eyes gloss over like she’s trying not to cry, and my stomach tightens. With a sad smile, she turns and looks out the window.
She doesn’t speak to me again until we land.
Twenty
Wren
Brody’s not making it easy.
I got through the ten-hour flight, immigration, and luggage claim but only barely.
Every time he looks at me, I want to curl up and hide.
We’re so fucking stupid that I want to scream. If we were in a scary movie, we’d be the ones tripping over. That’s how dumb we are.
Got drunk and tied the knot in Vegas. Cliché and the epitome of idiotic.
What do I do when I meet someone? How dumb am I going to look when I have to hand my divorce certificate, or whatever you get for that, when I want to get married again? Hopefully, it won’t have any details on it, like how long the marriage lasted.
Won’t I need it when I buy a house, too?
“Wren?” Emma says, touching my arm. “You getting in?”
The minibus is here to take us home from the airport.
“Right, sorry,” I mutter and step up into the back.
Thankfully, Brody is sitting next to Luke so I can get some space from him. When we’re close, I can’t breathe.
“Are you okay?” she whispers, sitting down beside me.
“I don’t know.”
“We’ll sort it, okay? Soon, you’ll be divorced and you can put this behind you.”
I wince.
“What is it?” she asks.
“Just not ideal, is it? I don’t want to be divorced.”
“Well, you can’t stay married.”
“Jesus! I know that, believe me.”
“What has Brody said?”
“We’re getting together at his place to go through everything we need to do,” I tell her.
She turns her body towards me. “I thought he was sorting it?”
“This is my mess, too. I’m not letting him deal with it alone. Besides, it will require some input from me.”
“I just can’t believe it happened.”
“Yeah, well, it did.” I laugh, but I don’t find any humour in the situation. “We had such a good night. As if I didn’t stop to question if it was a good idea, the marriage… after the marriage.”
One of her plucked eyebrows arches. “You mean, sleeping with him?”
“Yep.”
That part of the night I can’t regret. I thought my ex Niall was good in bed but, my God, he wasn’t. There is no comparison. Brody seemed to know me and my body. He touched me in ways I hadn’t even realised I wanted to be touched.
If only we’d stayed in the hotel room and just had sex.
“And you were definitely careful?” Her voice, though a whisper so no one else can hear, is stern.
“Yes, you know I have the injection.” I’ll take a marriage over a baby.
Pursing her lips, she shuffles a little closer. “How was he?”
My mouth drops. Emma has asked me that about Niall before, but I never thought she would in this situation. “Really, Em?”
She shrugs. “Come on. We’ve all wondered about Brody.”
“Wondered what?”
“If he’s as good in bed as it seems like he would be.”
“Who is all?” I ask. I’m pretty sure Felicity hasn’t wondered.
“Me, my friends. Not Fliss, obviously.”
Thank God she’s in the front row of seats with Mase.
I roll my eyes as I feel my cheeks heating up. “You’ll be happy to hear that he’s better than you could ever imagine.”
How are we having this conversation?
I’m so grateful for the noise of the road and the driver’s love for radio, even if it is a shit station.
Emma’s smile grows like the Grinch’s.
“Don’t do that,” I warn her.
“I need to focus on this part, Wren. Whenever I think about you and Brody being legally married, I feel sick.”
“You’re not the only one. I hate the situation we’re in. Mostly, I just feel like the biggest twat for not stopping and thinking. We just…”
Emma’s eyes narrow. “You just what?”
“I don’t know. We were getting on, flirting a lot, and I’ve never had that with Brody. I got totally carried away, and it seemed like a lot of fun to get married with Jayden and Kaci.”
“Well, I won’t pretend to understand, but we all make mistakes. Not quite so spectacularly as you two have, but I’m not going to hold yours against you.”
Emma has made countless mistakes in relationships, mostly giving too many chances and pretending something isn’t happening when, deep down, she knows it is. She trusts too easily.
The ride home is smooth and takes just under an hour. We all get dropped off at the Harris house because they’re doing some buffet food to welcome us back.
I don’t know how I’m going to look my mum in the eye. She’s talked about planning her daughters’ weddings for as long as I can remember. Not that I won’t get married for real one day, but the fact that she wasn’t present for the first time—and I was drunk and not with the guy—kind of casts a dark cloud over the whole affair.
Still, there is nothing I can do now, so I have to get on with it.
Soon enough, Brody and I won’t be married, and we can put this behind us. Maybe we’ll get lucky, and no one else will find out. I don’t care if they find out when I’m older. Like fifty. It’ll be a good story then.
I do feel better having Emma and Felicity to talk to. I think I would go crazy if I had to keep it exclusively to myself. I can’t really talk to Brody since he’s the one I’m divorcing.
The taxi pulls up outside the house, and I see my parents come out with massive grins, ready to welcome their three children home. Brody’s parents are a step behind.
I look away and bite my lip as my heart sinks. I’m going to have to lie to my mum. We’ve always been really close. There has never been something I couldn’t tell her… until now. She wouldn’t take it well. Her relationship with Dad has always been so strong; they weather every storm together. That’s what she wants for me. She doesn’t want failed relationships and divorce. Both my parents have been advocates of really getting to know someone before you commit.
Now, I might have known Brody for eighteen years, but I don’t know him in a romantic capacity, and we’re not even together. We don’t even want to be together.
She definitely wouldn’t take it well.
I get out of the car last since Emma and I were right at the back.
“Hey, Mum,” I say, returning her hug as her arms wind around me and squeeze.
“I’ve missed you. How was Vegas?” She pulls away, holding me at arm’s length. “You look older.”
That’ll be the stress of the marriage.
“I missed you, too,” I tell her.
My greeting with everyone else is brief, but it is so good to see them.
We’re ushered inside with our bags because there is a big buffet waiting for us.
I don’t know what it is about being home, being in my home country, but the divorce doesn’t seem so scary. Nothing is staying in Vegas, but it doesn’t seem as bleak now. I’m home and safe. Everything will be all right.
Brody hangs back with me and Mum.
“Did you enjoy your birthday?” she asks him.
He grins. “It was amazing.”
“I’m glad to hear it. You deserve the best twenty-first. I take it you looked after my baby.”
I turn my head away from her.
Brody swallows. “She didn’t cause too much trouble.”
Mum laughs. “Now, why don’t I believe that?”
“Well, she was manageable,” he teases.
How is he so cool and casual? His posture is loose and smile easy. I feel like I’m so uptight that I could snap.
Waking up in Vegas Page 11