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1
Cole
How could my ex do this to me?
And where the hell do I go now?
I’m sitting on a stool at the bar in Gem’s Diner, staring vacantly into the middle distance. Outside the window, clouds gather over the Cape Simon beach. The sky is bleached of color, and I can hear the distant rumble of thunder. A storm is coming. It’s normal for the hot Georgia afternoon to turn into sideways rain for a few hours.
I’m sitting all the way at the end of the counter on a sparkly pink stool that has been in place since the Reagan administration. My dark wool suit jacket is thrown over the seat beside me, looking to all the world like a crumpled, discarded napkin.
As I absentmindedly trace the rim of my coffee cup, my thoughts are on my wedding. Or rather, on the event this morning that would have been my wedding if my fiancée, Holly, hadn’t up and disappeared. She’d left me standing at the altar, with three hundred of our closest friends and family looking to me for answers.
She’d also left our son Charlie without a word of goodbye. What kind of mom does that?
A narcissist who was only with me for the money, that’s who. That’s the only answer I can come up with.
But there are no answers to be had today. I shove my hand through my dark hair and shift my coffee mug around.
“Hey there.”
I look up, blinking, at the voice. It belongs to a pretty girl wearing a yellow and white waitress uniform. She’s got a wild mass of curly, dark hair, and dark amber skin, and she clutches a tiny notepad. She scribbles something on the notepad and then smiles at me.
“Have you decided yet?”
I glance outside, trying to catch my brother Rhett’s attention. I rap my knuckles against the window, and he turns, his cell phone pressed to his ear. He’s wearing the same uniform that I wear. Black tux, bow tie stuffed in the pocket, top button of the shirt undone at the collar.
Rhett shakes his head and waves me off. Then he shouts into his phone, looking aggrieved. I shrug a shoulder and look back at the waitress.
“Is there anything that’s fresh here? It’s been a decade since I’ve been back to Cape Simon and I don’t intend to start eating a bunch of frozen, deep-fried junk now.”
The waitress flashes me a funny look.
“Everything is made fresh. We take a lot of pride in that.” Her eyebrows rise and she gives me a curious look. “You’re from the Cape?”
“Yep. I only came back to get married.”
“Oh! Well, congrats!”
“Don’t get too excited. The actual ceremony never took place,” I tell her with a heavy dose of sardonic humor, as if I didn’t just get stood up in front of hundreds of friends, family, and strangers. “The bride took off faster than a rabbit down a rain shaft.” To punctuate my point, I let out a low whistle and quickly bounce two of my fingers along the table, miming a rabbit running away. “I’m pretty sure that this whole damn town is cursed.”
Now the waitress just appears confused. “That happened today?”
I nod and sip my room-temperature coffee. “Do you see any other guys in tuxes sitting here?”
She gives me a pointed look. “No.”
Outside, I spot a shiny red convertible pull up along the length of the building. A figure jumps out and stalks to the diner’s front door, yanking it open. My stomach drops when I see who it is.
My brother Rex enters the restaurant with a steely expression. “There you are!” he calls as he strides over to me.
I spread my hands. “I don’t need my two big brothers to babysit me. I’m perfectly fine on my own.”
“Do me a favor? Stop whining. It’s unbecoming.” Rex gives the waitress a nod. “Hey, Pearl. I’m going to join my brother here for a bite.”
The waitress’s eyes go wide, and her cheeks are smudged with red. “Hi, Rex. Sure thing. Let me get you a menu. Or maybe a cup of coffee?”
“I’ll have both. Thanks, sugar.” Rex touches her arm.
