Page 53 of Wedding Bet

It was the first time I’d ever heard him put it that way. He didn’t say he was “uninterested” in love and commitment, but that he was “afraid” of it.

“I’m sorry,” was all I managed to say before he stood up, letting out a breath.

“You’re right, Jamie. I guess we never would be friends if we’d met in our everyday lives. Because I don’t think you actuallylikeme.”

I furrowed my brow. “What? I think you’re fucking awesome—”

“No,” He shook his head. “You like some things about me, but me as a whole person? I like to show people a good time. It’s not because I pity them. It’s because Icareabout them. The thing you think I’m not capable of.”

“I know you care,” I interjected.

His brief flare of anger had subsided already, but now the look on his face was even more heartbreaking. “Do you really think you know everything about me? About who I would or wouldn’t be with?” he said, his voice sad. “The guy I dated before Parker was recovering from an addiction to pills, and could barely get through a day, let alone pay for a house or a car. Just because Ihavemoney doesn’t mean I’m trying to whisk people away on a magic carpet ride made of hundred dollar bills.”

I felt like my heart was about to lurch up into my throat. “Why are you even saying this?” I asked, my voice feeble. “It doesn’t matter if you’d be with me or not. Because you don’t want to be with anyone at all. And I do want it. I want someone to truly be my partner, and I don’t want to apologize for that. Ever. So if that’s really, truly not something you’d be interestedin, I don’t think we should be ‘friends’ back in California. Why would I hurt myself like that?”

Landry just watched me, frozen in place, like he’d been stunned.

Confused, even. Like he’d maybe never thought about his actions in quite the same way I did.

I clicked my tongue, shaking my head and looking away. “Listen. You’re crazy if you think I don’t like you, Landry,” I said, my voice a little hoarse. I squinted up at him in the sun, wishing I could rewind time to this morning when I’d been cozy in his bed. “I’ve had more fun with you in the last few days than I’ve had with anyone else in the last couple of years, as sad as that sounds.”

He shook his head slowly. “It’s not sad. Or if it is, then we’re both sad, because… I feel the exact same way.”

I hated the tightness in my throat that formed when he told me he felt the same way. I wasn’t sure if I was angry that he could say that and still drop my hand like a hot cake, or if I wished so damn badly that things could be different.

“So let’s enjoy the rest of this trip. The wedding. All of it. We shouldn’t care about whether we’d make good friends, or whatever the hell this is.”

His expression was unchanged. He still seemed like he was behind some kind of wall, not letting out his true emotions. “I need to get back to my hotel and fix up my hair before the wedding starts,” he said, going into the slick, businesslike persona I’d seen him have on his video conference the other day. “I’m sorry. And you’re right. Let’s just go to the wedding, be good guests, and show Chase a good time.”

With a nod he was gone, walking off back toward the hotel alone.

Every fiber of my being wanted to call out to him. To tell him to wait. To make him turn around and to kiss him again, making everything feel right.

But instead I was frozen in place, watching him walk away.

12

LANDRY

My spine pressed up against the rigid, wooden back of the fancy chairs at the wedding ceremony, already making my lower back ache. I knew the exact type of chair Chase and Adam had chosen, because they’d texted me and Emmett to ask for advice six months ago when they’d really started getting deep into wedding planning.

Go for the ones without cushions, I’d told them.The ceremony is only thirty minutes long, and the wooden ones look sleek.

Now as I sat in the very chic, very uncomfortable chair as people started to filter in and sit down for the ceremony, I had one thought and one thought only:screw Past Landry.

In fact, that was the only thought that had been wrapping itself around my chest all day, like a snake slowly constricting around my heart.

Screw. Past. Landry.

I used to think the worst thing about the utter failure of my proposal to Parker was that I’d never be able to have hope for the future again.

Now I knew that was wrong. Dead wrong.

The worst thing about it was that I never could have expected Jamie to fall into my life.

He had finally given me a glimmer of hope again—just a little, so quickly and so unexpectedly—and it had been stamped out before it had any chance to grow.

I had been the one to stamp it out.

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