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“Hey, cupcake,” he said, his voice low. He buried his face in her neck, kissing it gently. “I missed you.”
She snuggled back into him, her face becoming instantly…brighter. There was no other description for it. Steven made her happy, there was no denying that, and for a while, Daisy had had that, too, with William. She’d been stupidly happy. So happy it hurt. And then he’d died.
“It’s only been four hours,” Daisy pointed out logically.
“That’s four hours too long.” He kissed Lauren’s neck one more time, then grinned at Daisy. “Hey. Nice hickey.”
Daisy slapped a hand on her neck, eyes wide? “What?”
“Let me see.” Lauren peeled her hand away and laughed. “He’s right. I don’t know how I missed it, but you totally have a hickey on your neck.”
Inwardly groaning, she pulled her keycard back out and said, “Give me a minute. I need to fix this.” When she was alone in her bathroom, she pulled her makeup out, frowning at the telltale mark on her skin. But, in all honesty, Chris had marked her in more ways than that. He’d gotten his wish. She had a feeling she’d never get in a hotel bed again without thinking of him.
/> And she wasn’t sure how she felt about that yet.
All her feelings were a jumbled mess right now. She was still tingling from all the orgasms Chris had given her last night, but she was never going to see him again, and even though that was for the best, she couldn’t help but feel a little bit sad about that. And, as if that wasn’t enough on the anniversary of William’s death, she was now at a wedding. A wedding she’d never gotten to have.
Because William went and died.
Leaving her all alone with a wedding dress.
She still had it, in the back of her closet, along with his tux. They just hung there, alone for all eternity, never to be worn, or seen, or even touched. She just pretended they didn’t exist.
Most of the time it worked.
“Daisy? You ready?” Lauren called out. “We’re late.”
“Yeah. Hold on.” After she covered the mark up with concealer, she nodded at herself in the mirror. You’ve got this. It’s just a wedding. You’re going to go. You’re going to smile. Maybe you’ll even dance with a cute guy, because that’s something people do at weddings. And you won’t think about William, or how you didn’t get to do this, because it’s time to move on. It’s time to live and be happy, and stop clinging to a memory instead of real, live people.
It was a good speech. An awesome pep talk.
Too bad she didn’t believe a word of it.
Chapter Six
Mark tugged at his tie, watching everyone rush through the narthex of the church in their dresses and suits. He’d just gotten off a FaceTime video with Ginny and his mother, and to be honest, he’d rather be home with them right now, or standing in the hotel lobby secretly hoping to see the bright red hair of the woman he couldn’t stop thinking about.
His Scarlett.
After leaving her room at dawn, he’d crashed for a few hours, and when he woke up, the urge to go back to her room and knock was strong. It wasn’t that he wanted anything real with her. He hadn’t changed his mind on that. And even if he had, she lived in Colorado and he was here. That wouldn’t work. It was just…
He wanted more.
A night. An hour. Whatever.
“Hey, man.” Someone clasped his shoulder in that bro-code way, squeezing. “How’s it going?”
It was Holt Cunningham, one of the men he worked with. Holt was in IT at the Shillings Agency, while Mark did security, like Steven…who was also here somewhere. Mark was a little bit relieved he hadn’t seen him yet. Steven hated him because of a blind date Lydia had set him up on. Lydia had hooked him up with a girl who had turned out to be secretly dating her best friend, who was also Lydia’s brother—none other than Steven Thomas.
Steven still didn’t like him because of that one damn night.
It hadn’t even been Mark’s idea in the first place.
He smiled at Holt. “Good, good. You?”
“Excellent.” Holt grinned, watching his fiancée, Lydia, who was still across the narthex on the phone. “Lydia’s checking home every five minutes because she misses Gabriel, but he’s fine. He’s got the cleanest babysitter in the world—I made sure of it.”
“Full background check?”
