Page 154 of The Sweetest Devotion

To be honest, I hadn’t thought about my wedding in grave detail. I had a dress, but no color scheme. LeChé had even mentioned finding matching dresses for my bridal party when I’d picked out that plain dress. I couldn’t have been bothered then, and I still very much felt the same way now.

Ideally, if I weren’t marrying Cain and someone I loved instead, I’d have my dream dress, a champagne and cream-colored wedding theme, and of course Jadyn would be my maid of honor. For body count purposes, I’d have Elyse and Stephanie as bridesmaids.

But this marriage to Cain wasn’t that, so I wasn’t interested in ironing out the fine print.

Lazily, I lifted and dropped my shoulder as I chewed on some tuna. “Everything’s been happening so fast I’ve barely had time to think.”

Elyse glanced over at Stephanie who pointed a drenched French fry in my direction. “You should’ve just married Gaius.”

Elyse’s eyes bugged out. “Steph.”

Stephanie went on indignantly. “Oh, come on, that way she would’ve easily had her wedding colors be blue and white.”

Even I gagged at the thought. The Long Beach Sharks’ colors were capri blue, gray, and white. There were some WAGs who’d gone and used their fiancés’ team colors for their weddings, but I didn’t like the colors that much to ever do that. I also wasn’t atruesports girl. I’d feel like a fraud.

Just like I did as I endured more of my lunch with the girls.

Elyse and Stephanie were about the aesthetic. As long as I looked good amongst my fellow upper crust in Hampton Hills, that was all that mattered.

I needed to cut them off. After the theatrics of my wedding, I would become “too busy” for them. The mere idea left me smiling and half paying attention to whatever it was that Stephanie was saying.

I stopped by the bookstore after lunch and bought copies ofNight Changesand the firstMisterbook.

At home I curled up in a chair and began readingMister. It was about Simone, a young woman who gets her first serious job being an assistant for successful entrepreneur Isaiah Keller. Unlike Dixie and Darius’s lightly dramatic romance inNight Changes, something told meMisterwould tug at my emotions with the dynamic of Simone and Isaiah.

I got caught up in my reading, focusing on page after page until well after night had fallen.

Knocking at my door pulled me away from my book, where I’d read my way to the middle, too engrossed to miss a second. I dog-eared my page and set the book aside as I stood and stretched before going and answering the door.

Keith.

He was standing there under a baseball cap slung low, a denim jacket, T-shirt, and jeans. Head to toe in blue.

My first thought was to jump on him and hug him, but then I thought better and politely stepped to the side so he could enter my suite.

Keith did so and looked around, his dark eyes lingering on every corner and piece of furniture I owned. I’d kept the color scheme the same, but I added a little touch of me to every room to make my suite a home.

“Make sure yourself comfortable,” I insisted as I tried to take his jacket.

Keith moved away from me, shaking his head. “Can’t stay too long, Kenny.”

He was distant and I hated it.

Threading my fingers together, I got down to it. “My dad called and wanted me to stop over. So, I did. That didn’t really go too well and when I was leaving my mother mentioned she’d ordered food. She wanted to have a nice family dinner to celebrate my engagement.”

“Have fun?” Keith asked, arching a brow.

“No. Cain took my phone and refused to give it back. I had to lie and say I had plans with Jadyn to explain why I was so desperate to go, and then Cain invited her to our dinner,” I said. “I got stuck there and I didn’t know your number to sneak and call you.”

Keith stood there, unaffected by anything I’d said.

“Keith, I would never stand you up,” I swore.

He removed his baseball cap and ran his hand over his waves. “I know that. I figured something came up when you didn’t show or get ahold of me.”

“Okay then,” I said. “Please don’t take it out on me.”

Keith fixed his gaze my way. “I’m not mad.”

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