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“Not the details. I need an answer to the burning question. For all these years, I wouldn’t let myself go there. I wouldn’t let myself see the truth, but now that I see it, I need to know for sure.”
Daniel stood there looking at her with brown eyes that held so much emotion—not pity, but a kind of emotion that made her realize that he genuinely cared.
“Look, if it will make you feel better,” she said, “telling me would justify what you did—nudging him at the altar. At least in my eyes—in my heart—it would justify it. Daniel, all these years you let people believe you were the bad guy. You’ve taken the fall for me getting left at the altar. I don’t need details. I need a simple yes or no. Did Roger cheat on me the night before our wedding?”
Daniel took a deep breath and then nodded.
“Thank you for saving me from making the biggest mistake of my life.” She felt herself moving toward him in slow motion, arms lifting, her hands touching his face, fingers threading through his curly brown hair. Her mouth covered his. He tasted achingly familiar and brand-new all at once. It was almost an out-of-body experience—as if she was watching the kiss unfold from above. When his arms closed around her and pulled her flush against his body, her world tipped on its axis and she fell tumbling into the promise conveyed in his kiss.
Chapter Seven
When Daniel awoke alone the next morning in a strange bed that wasn’t his own, it took a minute for him to remember where he was—the guest room of his brother’s house. The next thing he pondered was whether kissing Elle had been a dream. But he could still feel her mouth on his and still taste her on his lips. He knew without a doubt the kiss had happened. What he didn’t know was how Elle would feel about it in the light of day.
She hadn’t lingered afterward, which was probably a good thing because he wanted to keep kissing her. Hell, he hadn’t wanted to stop there. But one kiss was not an all-access pass. Even if she’d wanted more, they both knew it shouldn’t happen with Chloe in the next room.
It had been an awkward goodbye with them making small talk about him bringing Chloe with him to the Forsyth Galloway Inn so he could go to the hospital and she, Zelda and Wiladean could watch Chloe.
But they hadn’t talked any more about the wedding or what transpired before it. Obviously, she didn’t want to hear the gory details of how Roger had awakened on his wedding day with a raging hangover and a stripper he’d met at the club where they’d celebrated his bachelor party.
Daniel had tried to stop him. When Roger started slurring his words and getting a little too cozy with his favorite—a redhead who had invited him on stage to play the submissive in her tribute to Fifty Shades of Grey—Daniel had intervened and told the woman Roger was getting married. He’d gone as far as shepherding Roger to the car and driving home and dumping his drunk ass into his hotel bed. But obviously somewhere during the night, the pair had exchanged contact information. They’d ended up exchanging more than that. When Roger didn’t answer his phone the next morning, Daniel had gone to his hotel, prepared to pour a gallon of coffee down his sorry throat and stuff him under a cold shower and into his wedding tux. That was when he’d found him passed out with the woman in his bed. He was supposed to be getting married in two hours.
Daniel had tried to talk him out of going through with it. He’d tried to persuade him to call Elle and do the right thing by canceling or at least postponing until Roger could work through whatever it was that was compelling him to act this way. Daniel’s argument was that if he wasn’t ready to get married, he shouldn’t get married.
No judgment. Just facts. If he still had a penchant for strippers—a penchant that went beyond casually watching them—then maybe he needed to rethink taking a vow where he’d pledge to forsake all others except for Elle until death did them part.
After the redhead left and Roger showered, he’d dressed in his tux and had insisted on going through with the wedding. Until it came down to the moment when he had to look Elle in the eyes and take his vows.
Thank God for that moment of clarity. Because until Roger bolted, Daniel had thought he was going to go through with it.
