Page 10 of Coming Home Country
“What the fuck, Aspen?” I hissed the minute Tucker left us alone in an exam room to gather the supplies to cast my right wrist, having already confirmed via X-ray that it was broken.
A giant hunk of plaster on one arm was going to lookgreatpaired with my bridesmaid dress.
“How could you not tell me?” My voice wavered, reality sinking in that there would be no avoiding the man who’d broken my heart. Worse, we’d be forced together all week.
Aspen sighed, guilt swimming in her blue eyes. “I’m sorry, okay? But in my defense, we’ve been living under the unbreakable rule of not mentioning a single word about him in your presence since we were eighteen. So, how was I supposed to warn you? Can you honestly tell me that if you knew he was the best man, you’d have still agreed to stand by my side?”
I averted my gaze. “I could have sucked it up.”
“Liar.” My best friend had no qualms about calling me out.
“All right. So maybe I would have come down with a mysterious illness at the last minute,” I grudgingly admitted. “But I still don’t understand why. Mac has two insanely hot billionaire cousins. I was kinda hoping to be escorted by one of them.”
She arched an eyebrow. “Did we forget about Aaron already?”
I wasn’t about to admit that since removing that ring weighing down my left hand, I hadn’t thought about him once. That wasn’t a thread that needed to be pulled.
“A little eye candy never hurt anyone,” I countered.
Narrowing her eyes, Aspen studied me for a minute. “Bex, I can tell you right now that my eyes haven’t wandered once since being with Mac. Are you sure you’re okay? Did you break up with Aaron?” She perked up, practically bouncing on the balls of her feet.
“Could you maybe not look so thrilled by the prospect?”
A flash of regret passed over her features, and her nose wrinkled. “Sorry.”
Groaning, I laid back on the exam table, tossing my good arm over my eyes.
It was impossible not to let Aspen’s hope that I’d ended things with Aaron get to me. We’d been best friends since we were five; no one knew me better than her. Could she sense I was settling? That I was tired of being alone and had opted for companionship over love?
The first time I met Mac, I knew he was the one for Aspen. Watching the two of them together—how he cared for her, his eyes tracking her in any room—warmed me from the inside out.
It was glaringly obvious that my relationship with Aaron was nothing like theirs.
“How’s your pain level? On a scale from one to ten?”
The voice that spoke didn’t belong to Aspen. Lost in thought, I must not have heard the door opening, signaling Tucker’s return.
Trying and failing to keep the bitchy tone from my voice, I replied, “Can we just get this over with?”
“Bex.” He said my name so softly that it sliced my heart wide open.
Tears burned behind my eyes as memories rushed to the surface, of him saying it exactly like that as he stared down at me, his gaze filled with love, a split second before he’d kiss me.
He’d ruined me for all other men, and I hated him for it. No one who had come after him had ever made me feel as though being in their presence breathed the air into my lungs, like our souls were intertwined.
I dragged my arm away from my face, my quiet sniffle echoing in the silent room. All eyes were on me.
Aspen grasped my uninjured hand, squeezing it in a show of support.
Blinking furiously, I refused to look at Tucker as he tenderly cast my wrist.
Why hadn’t I been good enough for him? What was so special about her that he was willing to break all of his promises to me? And why didn’t he have the courage to end our relationship before jumping head-first into marriage?
A million questions were begging to be asked, but what good would the answers do me now? It had been over ten years since that fateful day that rocked my world. He’d married someone else and left me alone to pick up the pieces of my life. It didn’t matter that I would never be the same; I had to move on. There was no other option.
“All done.”
On reflex, I attempted to wiggle my wrist, but it was held immobile by the thick plaster.
