Page 7 of Sundown Somewhere

The life I had planned out with the guy I wasn’t fully in love with. Who apparently thinks I wouldn’t make a good wife.

Damn, this gets more depressing by the second.

Hux takes the paper from me, shoving it in his pocket without reading it. Well, that makes one person who won’t know my shame. The one person who I’m willing to share it with.

“We’ll destroy that later so we can pretend it never existed,” he says, squeezing my knee. The contact feels good—warm and comforting, cutting through the pins and needles pricking at my soul. “How ‘bout we get you out of here?”

“How? To where? There’s a whole church full of very nosy townspeople down there. And my apartment is packed. And I really don’t want to go to my parents’, because you know Aunt Hattie will find her way over there.”

Oh my God, my poor parents. They’re going to be inundated with “condolences.” My great-aunt—chief gossipmonger herself—being front and center. This is the biggest thing to happen in Hickory Hills in years. This might even top country superstar Dustin Wild coming back to town.

I wanted my wedding to rank. But not like this.

“I’ve got my family running interference. Once they get everyone out of here, we can go back to my place. Margeaux and Gus can go to Hayes House, and Jace can spend the night at Magnolia Manor with Miss Belle and Auggie so we can have the place to ourselves. That way you don’t have to see anyone.”

My insides ease, tension I didn’t realize had taken over releasing from my body. Leave it to Hux to have a plan. In so many ways he’s the stereotypical middle child—stubborn, nonconforming, and complicated—but he’s also steady and unflappable. The perfect yang to my often lead-with-my-emotions yin.

As much as I hate the idea of displacing the brothers he lives with from their own home, the idea of being able to hole up in a place where I know no one will find me is entirely too appealing. And the Hayes family complex is about as good as it gets.

Because on top of everything else, I now have to figure out what comes next. It’s certainly not going to be leaving on my honeymoon tomorrow like I thought. Nope, I’m going to need to see if I can cancel that. The Indigo Royal Resort is probably nonrefundable too. Which means I just flushed I don’t even know how much money down the drain on a luxury, all-inclusive tropical vacation I’m not going to take.

I’m also going to need to open up Dolly’s, the diner my grandmother started and named after herself, then ran up until she passed away, leaving it to me. I’ve put a very large dent in my savings to help pay for this wedding and honeymoon. Something I was happy to do, since it was the start of our life together. Or was supposed to be.

“Do you want to get changed?” Hux asks, his voice soft and gentle, a tone that he uses only with me. I know this, because he barks at everyone else. Even his sister, Willa.

My eyes sweep up and down his crouched form, drinking in how good he looks in his tux once more. It’s a rare occasion that we get him dressed up, and damn, does he look good. There’s just something about the ear gauges and scruffy beard paired with the tailored look that does something to a girl. Then again, I do think I prefer him in his jeans and tee, those tatted arms showing off. The bad-boy look suits him.

“Yeah, should probably get out of this getup,” I answer, gesturing to my dress. “No need to hang out in it. It’s no longer got a job to do. And to think, I haven’t had carbs since Christmas so that I would fit in this thing.”

“Tell you what, we can send one of my brothers over to Ming Garden to pick up takeout and have it waiting back at the house for us. How about that?”

Fuck, I adore this man. He knows all my vices and caters to every last one of them.

“I want dumplings and crab rangoon. Double order.”

“You got it. Let me see if Anton started back this way, and if he has, make him turn around. Then I’ll call in our order. The works, coming right up. You get changed.”

He pops up, winking at me, then pulls out his phone to make his calls, the loss of him paralyzing me. I didn’t realize how much energy I was drawing from him sitting here with me. Energy I need to stand up and make myself get the fuck out of this dress. Because it is not going to take itself off.

Pushing to my feet, I shuffle over to my bag, pulling out the sweats I’d worn over here. Sweats that I didn’t plan on putting on again for more than a week, once I was back in Georgia after a gorgeous honeymoon where I wore nothing but bikinis, sundresses, and the cute lingerie I’d picked out online. Which I think still has the tags on it so I can probably return.

“I, ummmm…getting out of this thing is a two-person job,” I say over my shoulder.

“Right,” Hux says with a wry laugh. “On my way.”

He crosses the room in record time, and I feel his presence in an instant, the closeness of him easing the ache. As if somehow him being near me makes the pain of all this a little less powerful.

“Where do I even start?” His hands hold on to my shoulders as he examines my backside. I laugh, knowing the exact look of perplexity on his face without even looking. “You’re trussed up like the Christmas turkey.”

“It’s called a corset.”

“I don’t care what it’s called. How the fuck do I get you out?”

I laugh again. So much for steady and unflappable. At least until he’s met with a corset.

“Just above my tailbone, tug on the strings, they’ll come free and then you can start to unlace them.”

Hux mutters something under his breath that I don’t catch, and it’s probably better that I don’t. There’s no telling what kind of curses he’s inventing as he unravels the satin ribbons holding me together, but I’m sure they’re creative.