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“Who said anythin’ ‘bout gettin’ drunk?” Andrew asked.
“I just want to make sure Michael knows I’m not getting wasted over here, okay?” I asked.
“Uh-huh,” Wyatt said. “Well, if ya want anythin’ different, ya let us know. We’ll hook ya up.”
“Katie, there’s somethin’ in your eyes that ain’t right,” Dylan said. “Talk to us, doll.”
I should’ve known better than to think I could hide this from them.
“I’m not sure I’m making the right choice,” I said.
“Why not?” Wyatt asked. “He done somethin’ to you?”
“I’ll beat his fuckin’ face in,” Andrew said.
“Slow down, guys,” I said.
“Yes. Give Katie some room to breathe and process,” Dylan said. “When she’s got her thoughts together, she’ll talk.”
“Thanks, Dylan. I just—he called me ‘stupid’ earlier.”
“Okay. Where the fuck is he?” Dylan asked.
“You got Dylan cussin’. Shit’s not good,” Andrew said.
“You think he’s getting cold feet like me?” I asked.
“Hun, cold feet’s when you don’t know if you should be walkin’ down the aisle in front of hundreds of people. Callin’ an educated woman ‘stupid’ is straight up abuse,” Caleb said.
“I’m gonna knock his fuckin’ head off,” Wyatt said.
“What else has he done to you, Katie?” Dylan asked.
“It’s little things. He’s distant. Not really talking to me. I don’t think he even realizes I’m not at the table right now,” I said.
“The fuck you wanna marry someone like that for?” Caleb asked.
“It’s not too late to back out,” Dylan said. “Doesn’t sound like you’re happy.”
“Doesn’t look like it, either,” Caleb said, murmuring.
“But he was there through everything. Mom. The treatments. Flying me back and forth—”
“You think you owe him somethin’ for that?” Andrew asked. “That’s what you do for someone you love, not some favor he did you.”
“I’d a done the same damn thing if I’d a been in his position,” Caleb said. “Wouldn’t mean you owed me your future.”
“I don’t know,” I said with a sigh. “I just don’t know.”
“Like I said, if you need anythin’, you ask us, doll,” Dylan said. “No matter what it is.”
His hand came down onto my shoulder as I drew in a deep breath. It was warm and welcoming like I remembered the brothers to be. I threw back the rest of my wine, grimacing as it went down. I hugged them all one last time before I made my way back to my seat.
As I locked my eyes onto Michael, I was begging him to look at me, to pull his gaze away from his friends at the table and acknowledge my presence. That was all I needed to settle my soul and know I was doing the right thing, to know that neither of us was going to waste our lives away with someone we shouldn’t be with.
But instead, I watched a waitress come up alongside him and tap him on his shoulder. I watched him turn around and smile up at her, his eyes sparkling and his smile beaming.
Then I watched his eyes slide down to her chest as he began to stare.
