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I slammed the brakes outside Kix and stomped up the front steps. It was early, but I needed to be away from everyone back home and hopefully Ryder with his ‘sunny’ disposition would cheer me up. Ha, as if!
There were only a few people inside, already with a beer in hand at what, eleven in the morning, and I was about to join them.
Ryder walked out from the back as I took a seat at the bar.
“Well, this is a first.”
“Yeah, well. It isn’t everyday you leave the woman you’re falling in love with, alone with the woman you’re being forced to marry… I’ll take a beer.”
Ryder didn’t move and I glanced at his face. He was stunned, standing there, his hand resting on the smooth bar as his other hand rubbed the rough stubble on his chin. “Did I hear you right? You’re in love with one woman, but marrying another because you have to. Is that right?”
“That’s about it.” I downed the beer in one. “Another.”
Ryder passed me another, opening one for himself as well.
“I never drink before ten in the evening, but I think I need this today having talked to you.”
I started to laugh. “Yeah, my fucking screwed up life makes anyone drink.”
“What I don’t understand is why. Why do you have to marry the other woman?” Ryder leaned on the bar taking a long drink of his beer.
“Family.” I drained half the bottle and looked at Ryder who was knocking his own back. “Family is the only reason why I’d do something that makes me sick to the stomach.”
“You shouldn’t have to do that. I’ll give you my advice for free, and that is to tell them it’s your life and you’ll live it how the hell you want. Cancel the wedding and grab the woman you love before it’s too late. You’ll regret it for the rest of your life if you don’t.”
That was the most I’d heard Ryder speak in one sentence since I’d known him.
“Was that from experience?”
He paused, chucked the empty bottle into the tub of empties then started walking towards the back of the bar.
“Yeah.”
Nobody knew anything about Ryder other than he was an ex-marine with a bad attitude, although the attitude had stayed hidden during our ‘chat’.
Before noon I’d consumed three beers, so not good. I needed some food to soak it all up otherwise by tonight I’d be in no fit state to get on the stage. It was Saturday night and the crowd at Kix on the weekend was usually standing room only.
The first few gigs we’d done had large crowds, but gradually over the past week or so the crowds had grown and Ryder had started removing the tables from around the room into the back storeroom to fit more bodies in.
Last weekend, he’d even mentioned getting folks to buy tickets so he didn’t exceed the maximum capacity allowed by the fire marshal.
It felt good to know that our music and songs were attracting a larger audience, which kept growing weekly.
“What the fuck you doing here at this time?” Reece asked, sitting his ass on the stool next to me. “And with a beer?”
“I’m drowning.”
He sat silently beside me for all of five seconds.
“Look, I heard what you told me and D the other night after you’d spoken with Liam, but surely, if she goes off with Liam and you go off with Thalia, your dad isn’t going to withhold your tuition. He wouldn’t want the town knowing he refused to pay your fees.”
Reece could be an insensitive jerk at times, but every now and again he said something that made me think.
“You need to call his bluff.”
Standing up, I drained the rest of my beer, ready to leave. “That’s a lot easier said than done.” I stretched and looked around the bar, which had started to fill up some. “I haven’t spoken to Thalia. She was in bed when I arrived home last night. This morning Mia arrived at the crack of dawn in tears. Thalia walked into the kitchen to find Liam and me in there with Mia still in tears.”
His fingers worked the label on the empty bottle, slowly ripping it off. “She had no idea we were pretending the wedding was still going ahead, and I can’t get the look on her face out of my fuckin’ head.” I ran my hands through my hair. “It took all of my strength not to shout from the top of my voice that the wedding wasn’t going to happen, because I was in love with Thalia.”
