Page 40 of Silver Brewer

“I can’t talk about him. Not this week.” I’ve already told Marcus everything. Well, minus a few graphic details. Don’t want to get his knickers in a twist. He listened and sighed and held my hand. He sounds like a good man, Marcus said.

For the most part, Giant Harrington is a good man. He just didn’t understand I would never consider sleeping with someone to score a deal. Something happened to me on that mountain…with him. It was no longer about the land after that first night, and it wasn’t just the assistive hand during my self-soothing moment. I’d never done anything like what I’d done with Giant, and it made my feelings all the more real. To me.

“So ax throwing,” Marcus states, perking up. “Gonna chop some wood.” Marcus makes karate-chopping motions over his lap. He’s so inappropriate.

“Marcus.” I chuckle. “I can’t handle your sharp wit. Get it, handle? Sharp?”

“Oh, oh, good one. You’re quite the cutup.” He winks at me, lifting his chocolate martini to his lips.

“That was a good one,” I admit with a giggle. “How did you hatchet?”

He laughs, and then claps once, holding his clasped hands before his chest. “It was an ax-cident.”

I laugh in earnest. “How about he axed her to marry him after I tossed him over.” I nod in the direction of my sister and former fiancé, trying to be clever, which isn’t my strong suit.

Marcus gives a triple clap-clap-clap. “He axed for it.”

Tears roll down my face as I guffaw even harder. “I wasn’t cut out for him.” But somehow, this isn’t a joke, and the tears shift from humor to hurt as my thoughts wander. I’m no longer referencing Hudson.

“Oh, honey.” Being my best friend, he practically reads my thoughts and hands me two paper napkins. “He’s an ax-hole if he doesn’t realize how wonderful you are.”

I giggle with sadness because I don’t consider Giant an asshole. Not even close.

“I did this to myself,” I mutter.

“After the way you said he did you, honey, I think you’re mistaken. He wanted you as much as you wanted him,” Marcus tries to reassure me.

The land. He believed I wanted it more than him, and for a few hours, I did, but then I got to know him. The man. And nothing made sense anymore. Can you fall in love with a stranger in three nights? I don’t have to ax my heart because it’s all chopped up.

+ + +

The ceremony is held on a Friday evening because Dayna wanted a night wedding. Also, Friday night weddings are cheaper, but considering the money between Hudson and Dayna, the expense was not spared. Not to mention, my uncle has chipped in to make this a real business affair. Dayna also wanted October for her wedding, but the dresses we wear scream July. Despite the mild weather of Chicago, the breeze briskly blows as the day dips to nightfall, and we shiver in our ludicrous attire while taking pictures down by Lake Michigan. A trolley drives us up and down Lake Shore Drive before returning us to the hotel for the wedding dinner.

Marcus is my plus one even though he was already an invited guest. I didn’t have a date and didn’t feel the need to find one weeks before the wedding. I only want to sip wine, give my toast, and get the hell out of here. Yes, I need to give a speech congratulating my sister on marrying my ex-lover. It’s going to be short and sweet.

May you deserve one another.

The end.

The ballroom is dripping in yellow, and I feel as if I’ve entered a cream puff. I hate custard. I saunter up to the bar. Skipping the celebratory champagne, I decide wine will be my comfort.

“You doing okay?” Marcus asks me for the millionth time. I’m on the verge of making him into a cream puff if he asks me one more time.

“I’m fine,” I grumble, reaching for the glass the bartender hands me and guzzling heartily the crisp liquid. It isn’t as sharp and tangy as the beer I drank on a mountain ridge under the stars, but it will have to do. It’s a weak substitute, I realize and sigh. Marcus notices.

“Remind me why you can’t call him?” I made that absurdly stupid phone call to Giant’s brother, the mayor brother, and included all kinds of details in my long-winded explanation. Then I left my phone number—could I have been more desperately obvious that I wanted him to call me? I decided it had to be up to Giant to reach out to me. If he wanted to talk, he had to come to me. Which he didn’t do.

“Because I’d already said too much, and he accused me of sleeping with him…for business…no less.” I exhale, whispering the last part before taking another sip of wine and realizing I’ve finished the glass. Well, that was quick. “Marcus, you know how I am. I talk too much, but it’s normally nonsense. For once, I want someone to listen to me. Really listen.”

Marcus’s eyes widen as he glances over my shoulder.

“And what is it you would want a certain someone to hear?” His voice shifts as he holds his lips in a strange grimace.

“I want someone to listen to my heart. To what I had to say. Hear how I feel.” Jesus, this wedding is making me sappy and sentimental.

“And what does your heart feel?”

“Dammit, Marcus, you know this. I felt something for this man, who was a complete stranger, yet the strangest part was the immediate attraction I had to him. Like he knew me, or saw something in me, or…I don’t even know what I’m saying. It’s the wine talking.”