AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Except right then she had the fleeting feeling that Byron would’ve felteasier. Would have felt...like less of a risk. Even with that simpleI love youthat had come off his lips, she somehow felt more exposed than he did. She still felt peeled. Like there were bits of her that were exposed that had never been meant to be.
She didn’t have the vocabulary to ask why. Why when she said she loved him it felt like more, deeper than when he’d said it back.
“Did you find a wedding dress?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“Can I see?”
“No.” She frowned. “It’s against the rules.”
“I feel certain the best friend of the bride is allowed to see the wedding dress.”
“But you’re also the groom.”
“Damn loopholes.”
“Really,” she said.
“All right,” he said when he finished his chili. “Let’s go to bed.”
She didn’t have the heart to refuse him. Or maybe more accurately, she didn’t have the heart to refuse herself.
SHEWOKEUPat around three o’clock and realized he wasn’t in bed. She drifted back to sleep, assuming he had gone to the bathroom. But she woke up again at four, and he still wasn’t there.
She crept out into the living room and saw him sitting there on the couch, wide-awake. There was a bottle of alcohol on the table in front of him, and the glass half-full.
“Lachlan?”
“Oh hey,” he said, his voice gruff. “Did I wake you?”
“Not really.”
“Just couldn’t sleep. Don’t worry about it. Go back to bed.”
“Okay.”
She was still groggy, not even half-awake, so she didn’t have the capacity to argue with him, or question him too deeply.
But even while she tried to go back to sleep, it was the look on his face that kept flashing back before her eyes. One of utter hopelessness.
She had never seen him look like that before.
The next morning he acted like nothing had happened, and he was back to being completely himself, to the point where she was almost certain she had imagined it. It had just been a sleepless couple of hours. Nobody lookedhappywhen they couldn’t sleep. It sucked. So she let it go and focused on the last-minute details of the wedding. Because in just two days she was going to marry Lachlan McCloud.
And in spite of feeling frightened of change, and feeling a bit overwhelmed by it all, she knew that it was the right decision. She knew that it was the best thing.
She knew that it was going to be the happiest day of her life.
CHAPTER TWENTY
ITWASHISwedding day. Damn.
He hadn’t gotten a tux, but had decided to wear a black suit, a black hat and a black pair of cowboy boots. Which he felt was pretty damn fancy. Especially considering his brothers—with the exception of Brody—had worn jeans at their weddings, he was a damn sight ahead of them.
He was behind the barn where all the lights were strung and set up, and there were different cakes provided by different members of Four Corners, all mismatched and perfect, and the Kings would be bringing barbecue, and the sides would be done potluck style. It was, without a doubt, one of the fancier weddings they’d had at the ranch.
He was glad of that. Because he wanted to give Charity that little extra.
