I twist the ring on my finger, remembering his final promise as I left Owen’s room. My stomach clenches, imagining all the ways I can get him back now that I know how much it bothers him. He treated me like scum for years, so why should I obey?
Without thinking it through, I grab my phone and take a selfie of my hand resting on my chest, ring front and center, and send it to him.
It’s reckless. Ella could see it. He could open it, get angry, and storm over here. Not that I’d mind. And who knows what kind ofsecrets Ella’s hiding? I didn’t get to talk to her earlier, but I’ll find out soon enough.
He texts back immediately.
Remember what happened the last time you pushed me, Thorne?
My breath catches and heat floods through me.
Yeah, I remember.
I close my eyes, and I’m back there. Over two years ago, at Hailey’s wedding.
Chapter 22
Sawyer
The reception was winding down, most of the guests already gone home or back to their hotel rooms. It was past midnight, and I should have left hours ago, but Owen asked me to stay while he helped collect everything from the venue to load up the car for Hailey’s new husband. Groomsman duties and all.
He promptly abandoned me, of course, because I can’t exactly hang around downstairs in the groom’s suite. Not only that, but I had no intention of moving boxes of wedding favors and cases of unopened champagne. Not in these shoes.
So there I was, freezing my ass off in a chiffon dress not suitable at all for the early fall weather, nursing a glass of champagne I didn’t really want and watching Knox across the room.
I wasn’t sorry for staring. He’d been watching me all night. I felt it again and again. The weight of his gaze, like he was assessing my every move and hoarding them to use against me later.
We hadn’t spoken directly in months. Not since the scandal broke. Not since my father was arrested and the Aldrich-Thorne partnership imploded, taking half of Ashford’s economy with it.
Knox made it clear whose side he was on and what he thought of me and my family.
“Fucking embezzlers. Your dad destroyed everything my family built.”
That was the last thing he said to me, six months before his sister’s wedding, at the engagement party. I’d tried to apologize, and explain that I didn’t know what the hell my father was doing, that he should know I had nothing to do with it. But he was so angry and needed an easy outlet. Someone like me.
“Bullshit. You knew. You all knew.”
So yeah. We didn’t talk anymore. It’s probably for the best. Like Mom said to me the other day, Knox has always had the most capability to hurt me, because I cared about him the most.
But I guess talking and watching are two entirely different things, since he had no problem doing the latter.
“Sunny!” Owen came around the corner, his tie loose, his face flushed from a night of dancing and more recently, carrying boxes. “There you are. I’ve been looking for you.”
“Just needed some air.” I gestured around the tent, where a few stragglers remain. “It’s getting late, though. I should probably head out.”
“No, don’t.” His hand found mine, and he played with the tips of my press-on nails. “Stay a little longer? Please? The after party’s moving to the hotel bar. Just the wedding party and close family.”
I hesitated. The wedding party included Knox. That didn’t sound like a good time. At least all day there’s been a hundred other people to buffer whatever this tension is between us…but an intimate gathering? I’d have to pass.
“I don’t know if that’s a good idea.”
“Come on.” He looked at me with puppy dog eyes. “I want you there. We barely got to hang out today.”
That was bound to happen when he was a groomsman, and I was only there because Hailey still looks at me as a little sister.
“Don’t give me that look,” I said.
“Please, Sawyer.” He brought my hand to his lips and pressed a kiss across my knuckles. “I feel like we’ve been drifting lately. I miss you.”
