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“Oh!” She pulled away. “My earring.”
“Hmm?” His eyes popped open.
“I think I lost my earring in your bed last night. Can I go look?”
His laptop pinged on the table and his attention rerouted. “You don’t need to ask me, Casey girl.”
She took two steps down the hall and turned, her gaze raking over him. He’d replaced his glasses, and his fingers tapped away at the keyboard as his eyes scoured the screen. Casey shook her head.
Men and their two-second attention spans.
She gripped the knob, pushing the door open to his bedroom. In true Austin fashion, he’d made the bed and had a stack of folded laundry resting near his pillow. She ran her hand across the top blanket.Nothing. Casey sighed, lifting the tower of clothes to the nightstand. The lamp wobbled as an envelope fluttered to the ground, the words,Austin, we’ll get through it togetherreturning her gaze.
“Get through what?” She frowned and squinted at the unfamiliar handwriting. With a quick glance at the door, she bent down and yanked out the glossy cardstock inside. It tumbled to her lap as the loopy cursive reflected the sunlight on the gold inlay.
Dr. Joshua Michael Templeton
&
Mavis Marie Benson
request the honor of your presence
at their wedding
on the ninth of July
at one o’clock in the afternoon
The Templeton Manor
Rosewood, California
Dinner & dancing to follow
Black tie required
A pain seared in her gut, gnawing at her insides. She sank to Austin’s bed and eyed the note scrawled on the back of the invitation. “We’ll get through it together,” she whispered, dragging her index finger along the note. “Lauren?” she whispered. “Why?”
She swallowed, fighting back the bile rising in her throat as more questions danced through her mind.Why would he need help getting through the wedding? Unless...Casey shook her head, stuffing the invitation back in its envelope as the pit in her stomach deepened.What did you tell her, Austin?
Casey dropped her gaze to the bed, the recall of last night settling in her heart, his admission of love pouring into her soul. She ran her hand over his pillow, pulling forth the memories of the love they created no more than twelve hours prior. She heaved out a breath as her eyes caught the red smear on the wall—Mavis’s blood from the night she fainted, the night that set everything in motion.
She dragged her fingers atop the stain. “It always comes back to you, Mavs.” A swell of anger flared in her heart, jealousy roaring through her bloodstream. Her fists clenched, creasing the invitation in her hands.
“Did you find it, Case?” Austin called from the dining room, jarring her back to reality. She jumped from the bed and dropped to her knees, running her hand along the floor beneath the bed. The silver stud caught her palm on the second pass, and she snagged it with half a smile.
“Yeah! It’s here!” she called, rising to her feet. She replaced the envelope on the nightstand and moved the stack of laundry back to the bed. With a sigh, she left Austin’s room and the offending note, tiptoeing back down the hall to her own bedroom.
Casey returned to the mirror and shoved the silver stud back into its home. With a step backward, she surveyed herself once more and frowned at her reflection. Her stomach churned, anxiety swirling in her gut once again.
Do you still have feelings for her, Austin?
“Because if you do... you’re doing a bang-up job hiding it from me.”
––––––––
“When’re you flyingin?” Mavis tied a piece of white lace ribbon into a bow and picked up the hot glue gun.
