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You’re the love of my life.
God, this man.
Jay lifts my hand, kisses the underside of my left ring finger, and then pins me with his gaze. It’s time, he says with those heartbreakingly beautiful blue eyes of his.
“How could you?” I whisper loudly, drawing attention from those close to us as I push against Jay’s chest.
His eyes fall shut at the loss. It takes everything in me to keep going. To look away from him. To run from my husband.
“Cat, wait!” he shouts, drawing the attention of a few other guests nearby as we speed walk from the center of the room.
In a voice barely above a whisper, I mutter, “Not today, Jay. Until you give me the answers I want, I have nothing to say to you.”
“It’s not what you think,” he pleads, his voice taking on the desperation that I know he feels down to his core.
I get louder in response. “Then tell me what exactly it is. Why is Vanessa asking you foranothermillion dollars? Why did you pay her the first million? What the fuck aren’t you telling me?”
Cash’s head snaps up, and he pierces Jay with a rage-filled look as he’s surely piecing together our words. I hate watching the moment it all clicks. It’s like the truth finally settles into place for him. The last puzzle piece he couldn’t work out before. He’s always accused Jay of working with Vanessa to set him up. We’ve always denied Jay was involved. Now he knows the truth. He and Grace missed out on so much time—he almost lost her—because of me. Because of what Jay forced Vanessa to do to protectme.
And here we are, doing it again. Making a scene at his wedding so Jay can protect me.
If rage was a picture, it would be the image of my brother in this moment. He’s going to ruin his wedding to kill my husband.
Frank grabs Cash’s shoulder and leans in close, muttering in his ear. When Cash continues shooting daggers and fire at Jay, Frank tugs on him harder. “I got this,” he says loud enough for me to hear. “Go enjoy your wife.”
Frank turns his hard glare on Jay and tilts his head toward the exit.
In my ear, Jay whispers, “You did perfectly, Kitten. Frank will meet you outside. Don’t go anywhere without him.”
My body begs to turn into him. To grab him and never let go. But we’re being watched. This is what I have to do. So I pull my shoulders back and lift my chin without giving him another glance. So that the world only sees me storming away from my husband. But under my breath, I whisper, “Only you.”
75
THE ROSE TATTOO BY DROPKICK MURPHYS
Frank
This really is like a fucking telenovela. When I was a kid, before my father sent me to boarding school, before I met Cash James and my entire life changed, I would spend my afternoons hiding in my best friend’s kitchen, watching telenovelas on her grandmother’s tiny portable television. The woman carried it back and forth between her bedroom, the living room, and the kitchen. She said having more than one television was wasteful.
She had a point.
The scene playing out in front of me now? I’m pretty sure I saw it on that little television.
God, life was simpler then.
I work my jaw and grab my best friend by the shoulder, trying to calm him down so he doesn’t kill Jay in the middle of his own damn wedding reception.
Ellie would find this hysterical. She always had a sick sense of humor. Even when she was twelve.
I grab the back of my neck and squeeze. I need a good dose of calm right now too. I hadn’t thought of Ellie in years. But since seeing a woman with the same electric green eyes as hers in the James building last year, I can’t shake those early memories.
It’s like she’s haunting me.
Are her eyes still as bright as they once were? With baggage like ours, they’ve likely dulled like moss that’s been trampled in the rain.
“I got this. Go enjoy your wife.” I squeeze Cash’s shoulder and press him forward. Once he sets his sights on Grace and Hope, his entire demeanor softens. She literally helps him shrug off his worries. It’s amazing. And something I’ll never have.
I turn to the next pain in the ass and sigh. It’s not that I don’t like Jay. Obviously, I like him well enough. But fuck if it isn’t exhausting watching the people around me screw up constantly and then having to help them pick up the pieces. Or in Jay’s case, obliterating everything we know because the only thing that matters to him is Cat.
