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That’s when it hits me: it’s really, truly all over.
Wedding saved. Crisis averted.
I’m not needed.
“I guess I’ll just…” I edge a thumb in the direction of the doorway.
Sonya takes a step toward me. Hanna, too.
“It’s okay,” I say. “I’m fine. It’s better this way.”
The looks on their faces say they don’t believe me. But it’s true. The only thing that could make me feel worse than I feel right now is to have to stand face-to-face with Shane while we lie to the world.
“Ivy,” Sonya says.
“It’s okay,” I say. “I just need to—go.”
Sonya gives me a swift, hard hug. Hanna, too.
And then I go. I walk out the front door of Hott Springs, down the front steps, and into the parking lot.
Just as a BMW convertible pulls in.
My stomach turns over, and that tightness in my chest—which never really left—comes back with a vengeance.
Shane is behind the wheel.
He emerges from the car—tall, golden, and so painfully familiar.
God, he looks good. It hurts to look at him, at the tousled hair and the strong jaw, the full lips, the broad shoulders. The way his sage-green T-shirt clings to the thick muscles of his upper arms, leaving his tapered forearms bare.
But whatever. I’ve seen so many good-looking men who weren’t worth the paper they were printed on. I can steel myself against this one, too.
I’m an actress, after all.
“Ivy,” he says, striding toward me, “we need to talk.”
I shake my head. “No. We don’t. There’s nothing to talk about. It was a fake—the January photo was a fake. The Tobuary wedding’s back on. So we’re off the hook.”
He opens his mouth, but I cut him off. “Look. Let’s not make this any harder than it has to be. You don’t have to say anything. I’m a big girl. I know you’re here to help Hanna. Me, too. And we got lucky. We don’t have to fake it anymore. We’re done.”
He shakes his head, his face clouded with confusion. “Ivy, what are you talking about?”
“The wedding,” I say. “Tobias and January are back on. We’re off. And that’s a good thing. Because I don’t think I could do that again. Go through that again. Let you wreck me again?—”
I have to stop because I’m breathing hard, tears surging to the surface, and the last thing, the very last thing I want is for him to see how very, very much he hurt me?—
But the way he’s looking at me, so tenderly, like he cares…
I turn away, and I’m about to flee to the safety of my car when he grabs my arm and spins me back toward him.
“Ivy,” he says. “You said ‘back on.’ Did something happen to Tobuary’s wedding again?”
I stare at him. “That’s why you’re here, isn’t it? Because Tobias caught January cheating and canceled the wedding. And Hanna called you to fly up and step back in?—”
He’s shaking his head. “No,” he says. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I didn’t fly up here because of Tobias and January.”
“But Hanna. She texted and called last night. About the wedding.”
