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“And since moving to Chicago, you haven’t dated?”
“I’ve dated, but I was saving myself for marriage.”
“You’ve changed your mind on that?”
“I don’t want to wait until my thirties.”
His expression changed. Shit. I was really blowing it here.
“You don’t plan to get married until you’re in your thirties?” he asked.
“No. Yes. I don’t know. I’m so... confused.”
He wasn’t confused, though. He was pulling up his pants, zipping and fastening them. I had to say something to turn this around.
“I thought I knew what I wanted,” I said. “But meeting you has me reconsidering everything. I’m even thinking a move back to Blackbear Bluff might not be so bad.”
His eyes were on the door now. He was planning his big escape. I’d lost him, and I had no idea how to get him back.
“I’ll tell you what,” he said. “You take your time and work things out in your head. When you’ve figured out what to do, you know where to find me.”
And with that, he was gone, leaving me with two mostly eaten pieces of cake and an aching heart.
6
BRODY
Iwas not in the mood for drama. But that was exactly what I got when I returned to the living room. The groom’s father and sister were having some sort of standoff while everyone stood around and watched.
If you asked me, they should handle this business privately. But it seemed like something that had been brewing for a while.
“What’s going on?” I whispered to Tucker.
While Tucker wasn’t the first person I’d choose to speak to about this, he was at the back of the crowd, arms crossed, watching the action with a scowl. I needed a quick answer.
My goal had simply been to say goodbye to the bride and groom and get the hell out of there. Yes, I was running from my problems. I had a tendency to do that. But right now, I just needed to clear my mind and think.
“Old man Phillips is an overbearing father, I guess,” Tucker said with a shrug.
As if on cue, Abbie stormed out, pulling a furious-looking Maverick with her. And then Jasper turned on Abbie’s best friend—and Slade’s new woman—Cheyenne.
I couldn’t help but think about what I’d seen from the room upstairs. They’d certainly gotten cleaned up and inside fast. Looking at them, no one would even suspect anything had happened.
Before I had time to really tune into what they were all saying, Cheyenne was gone too. It looked like Slade was about to come to blows with old man Phillips. Slade wisely chose to get the hell out of there rather than punch a middle-aged man.
“It’s too much.”
All eyes turned to Bo, who was standing with his bride near the window. He moved away from Emerald and started walking toward his dad.
“I’ve watched all my life as you applied double standards to your two kids. I could date at fourteen, but Abbie had to wait until she was sixteen. Even then, only if it was a double date or in groups. You forced her to go to that all-girls school when I went to the regular high school with everyone else. And then, when it was time for college, she couldn’t even pick her own school. You insisted she go to some all-girls college that’s not even accredited.”
Jasper’s frown deepened. “It’s accredited. I checked.”
“It was when you first sent her there.” Bo shook his head. “They lost their accreditation status last year. You know what that means? If Abbie wanted to go to graduate school or work in the academic field, she’d be screwed. And speaking of screwed, you still lecture her about saving herself for marriage and the number of boys who will take advantage of her. She’s twenty-four years old. She hasn’t dated ‘boys’ in years.”
Suddenly, I was filled with anger. I knew very little about Addison’s background, but I hadn’t missed the way her eyes darkened when she talked about her past. Especially her virginity. Someone had no doubt policed her. She had mentioned having a pastor dad, and I was guessing he’doverprotected her the same way Bo’s father had overprotected Abbie.
“Stop policing women’s bodies,” I said.
