What if, soon after getting married, Reece wants a divorce because you suck at being a wife?
What if he says no at the altar?
What if he doesn’t even show up at the wedding?
What if the wedding was the beginning of your ending?
“Brooke,” Dad said as he gently cupped my face with his hands. I didn’t even notice he had crossed the room, let alone sat down on the floor with me. “Take a deep breath.”
I nodded slowly, trying so hard to breathe in, but it felt like my lungs were boycotting, refusing to let oxygen inside.
My body felt so heavy all of a sudden. Every slight movement took so much effort and used so much of my energy that not moving at all seemed like the best option.
“Everything will be okay,” Dad’s soothing voice cut through to me once more. “You don’t even have a date set yet. There’s plenty of time left to talk about everything. You can plan the day out down to the last second of it. And you know Reece loves you more than anything. He’ll love the day as much as you will.”
He pulled me into his arms, hugging me tightly. The familiar scent of his perfume offered a sense of comfort, tricking my brain into thinking everything was alright.
“Reece is just leaving Colin’s place,” Aaron said, and almost instantly, my head shot up, and my eyes were on the window. “Do you want me to get him?”
“He has a meeting with his agent,” Grey answered before I could.
I watched as Reece rolled his eyes at whatever Colin said. And I still watched when he bumped fists with Kayden to say goodbye. At that, a slim smile tugged on my lips.
Kayden was seven now and way too cool for hugs, so he insisted.
“How doyouknow that?” Luan asked.
Reece exchanged a few more words with his brother before finally turning around to walk to his car. Colin didn’t close the door, though. He was waiting for Reece to drive away as always.
“Because I have ears, baby. Sometimes, I listen when you talk,” Grey replied.
“SOMETIMES?!”
Laughter erupted, but I didn’t join in.
My heart skipped a beat when Reece stood in front of his car, but instead of unlocking it, getting inside, and driving away, he turned around and looked toward my dad’s house.
The air in the living room felt heavy, almost suffocating, and the voices around me were merely a hum in the distance at this point.
Kayden ran back out of the house, and while I couldn’t hear their conversation, I was almost sure Colin told him to come back.
He hugged Reece, causing my fiancé to flinch before he laughed and picked Kayden up.
A smile played on his lips as they talked.
Reece didn’t know I was watching, he couldn’t have seen it either, as Dad and Emory insisted on smart windows way before the plans for this house were even done. Yet when he looked away from Kayden and back at Dad’s house, it was like he was looking right at me without being aware of it.
My heart skipped a beat, and soon after, it was racing as if it was trying to break free from my chest.
I couldn’t explain it, but it was like he found me. As if the house was a crowd and he found me in it. It was as if he possessed some extra sense, attuned only to the rhythm of my heart.
In that moment, time seemed to freeze entirely. The world faded away until there was only him and me, bound together by an invisible thread of love.
It was in the way his eyes softened, and his lips curved up by just a tiny bit. And the way his head tilted sideways as he looked at his own reflection in the window, not knowing I was right there, watching him. Like he could see right through the tinted glass.
Everything will be okay, a voice in my head whispered as I looked at Reece a little longer.
Despite the chaos surrounding us, there was a sense of serenity in his presence.
