Page 15 of Chasing You

“She is going to be my wife,” Caio says. Isla’s cheeks blush at the label. “Did you really think she’d be able to keep the fact that you and her brother were a thing to herself?”

“Not really,” I say. “I just wasn’t planning on having any conversations about my love life with my cousin.” Isla snorts, and the way Caio looks at her has her resolve disappearing.

I put my hands on my hips, trying to stay serious when those two make my insides flare with pride. Even if it’s followed by unwarranted jealousy. “Isla, I’ll be fine. I promise.”

She sighs. “Are you sure? I really just want everyone to feel comfortable, especially you.”

I feel my face heat with embarrassment. I am the last thing Isla should be worrying about right now, yet here she is.

“Your brother will likely be equally as uncomfortable.” Even the thought of saying his name makes me feel sick, like my body at its core knows something isn’t right. So I stick to calling him Isla’s brother, even though he was almost my everything long before I ever met her.

I feel the need to reassure the girl who’s sitting across from me with worry creasing her forehead. “Look, he’ll be there… I’ll be there… We can just pretend we don’t know each other. Sounds perfect to me.”

Even if the thought of seeing him again has been plaguing me for weeks now. She doesn’t need to know that, nobody does.

Isla tips her head. “Yeah,” she mutters. “I don’t blame you for how you feel about him at all, but you’re both going to be a part of the bridal party, and I don’t want… I don’t know, I just?—”

The last time I saw Miles, he was auctioning himself off at the gallery’s charity event. I froze. Then I ran. But this is Isla’s wedding, I can face the man who broke my heart for one night, for the most important night of her life.

I grab a hold of her hand. “You won’t have any drama from me, I promise. We both know each other is going to be there, we can both be civil, I’m sure.”

Miles was always respectful. Until he left, he was probably the best man I’d ever known, so I couldn’t imagine him doing anything to ruin his sister’s wedding.

“How did he, uh…respond?” I ask. I saw Miles the night of the auction, and when he surprised Isla by walking into my bar on her birthday. But he never once saw me. He had no idea his sister and I were so close, and Isla didn’t tell him, not until last week.

Isla hums in response. “He, uh…” She fills her mouth with air before blowing it out in a long sigh. “I think he was fine.”

The change in her tone and the way she scrunched up her nose as she spoke tells me she’s lying. “He freaked out, didn’t he?”

“No!” Isla shakes her head quickly. “Not at all.”

Oh yeah, she’s lying.

“I’m not surprised if he did,” Caio says, shuffling in his seat when both of us look at him. “It’s a big blow.”

I just frown over at him. “You do recall thatheis the one who left, right?”

He holds his hands up in surrender. “I know, I’m just saying,” he rests his arms on the bar top. “No one expects their siblings to be best friends with their ex. I can see how he’d be…shocked.”

I just slide down the other end of the bar, taking a drink order and mixing it up right away to take a second away from the conversation. Just talking about Miles makes me twitchy. I can’t help the way my mind plays me ten different versions of how the wedding night could go. Him trying to talk to me, him ignoring me. I don’t know which scenario is worse.

Caio’s right though, it is an oddly karmic situation. If it wasn’t happening to me, I think I’d be amused by it. But I am far from amused.

The worst part? He looks fucking good in a suit.

I place my classic strawberry margarita down in front of the pretty woman who ordered it and it throws my mind straight to a place I wish it never went to. Is he dating someone else? Someone like this tall, gorgeous blonde woman dressed like she just came from some kind of business meeting? I have no reason to think that way, but I can’t help the way my brain keeps coming up with all of the different things Miles could’ve been doing all these years.

I hope more than anything he’s been on a myriad of shitty dates, even more than I have. I hope someone has thrown a drink at him or pushed him into a pool, or run over his toe in their fancy SUV. And right in the very back of my mind, in the place I don’t visit often, I quietly hope he hasn’t had any luck. Because I think if I saw him at that wedding with a woman on his arm, I might have to play the bolter one last time.

I know I have no right to feel jealous of an imaginary woman, but I do anyway—even if I hate myself for it. This is the guy that broke my heart, the guy that hurt me in a way I wasn’t prepared for, yet I still feel things for him. It makes me hate him even more because even after everything, he still has a hold over me, and that’s exactly why I need to steer clear of him.

I straighten my back, clearing my throat and my mind as I walk back to where Caio and Isla are sitting. “Now do you two want a drink?”

Caio’s face says he can see right through me, but I don’t have anything more to say. Yes, I’m nervous. Yes, I’m scared shitless to see Miles. Yes, I don’t know how I’ll react in the moment, especially because I pulled a Houdini every other time he’s popped up. But I don’t have any other choice than to suck it up. I’m a twenty-six year old woman, I can be mature, I can keep my shit together for the sake of Isla and Caio. They deserve to have the perfect day, and I sure as hell am not going to be the one to ruin it. I just hope Miles thinks the same.

It’s ironic, his name. Because he fled miles away from me, and here he is, about to fly miles back, right into my town.

Only two more days, and I’ll be face to face with the guy I planned my future with. The guy who poured a bucket of cold water over that plan when he never came back for me.

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