Page 44 of Coming Home Country
Her sad eyes peered back at me. The regret written in them was like a punch to the gut, the air whooshing from my lungs from the impact.
Was this the end for us?
Anger simmered beneath my skin as I hit the number on speed dial.
“Hey, buddy. Miss me already?” Mac’s cheerful voice only served to stoke the fire burning within me.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I barked, clutching my cell so hard it was a wonder it didn’t break.
“Um.” His confusion was audible. “Gonna need a little more than that. You sound pissed, and if I didn’t know any better, I’d say your fury is aimed in my direction. But since I haven’t done anything wrong, I’m gonna give you the benefit of the doubt and ask what’s got you soriled up.”
I huffed in disbelief. “Didn’t do anything wrong? You were all about me winning Bex back, pushing me to fight for her.”
“Yeah . . . Still not seeing the problem. You two looked super cozy this morning when she was using you as her own personal body pillow.”
Fuck, that felt like a lifetime ago now instead of only a few hours.
“Why didn’t you tell me?!” I screamed, the pain of learning she was engaged leaking into my voice.
There was a beat of silence on the other end of the line. “Tucker, you’re not making any sense, man. What am I supposed to have told you?”
“Are you serious? You didn’t think it was important to warn me that she’s marrying that asshole?”
“Whoa, back up. Are we talking about Bex?”
I scoffed. “Who else?”
“What makes you think she’s getting married, and why does it sound like you’ve gotten a read on Aaron?”
Humorless laughter fell from my lips. “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe because he fucking showed up on Main Street this afternoon, and I ran into him on my way to have lunch with Bex. Only to have her pop up so he could berate her for not wearing makeup, breaking her wrist, and culminating in him dressing her down for losing her engagement ring because she wasn’t wearing it. And the worst part? Watching as she completely kowtowed to him, apologizing and promising to put it back on.”
Mac sucked in a sharp breath. “Shit. I had no idea, I swear. Aspen didn’t mention it.”
Some of the fire seeped out of me, and I dragged a hand over my face. “Something about this seems off. If Bex were engaged, Aspen would have been her first call. They don’t keep secrets.”
“You think she’s having second thoughts and didn’t want to say anything because she wasn’t planning to go through with it?”
“Then why is he down here?” I challenged. “If she were gonna break things off, she wouldn’t bring him to her best friend’s wedding.” A rumble sounded from my chest. “Don’t pretend you didn’t know anything aboutthat. A little warning would have been nice.”
“Yeah, that’s my bad,” he agreed. “But you were already halfway to throwing in the towel when you learned she had a boyfriend. If you knew he was gonna show up, you’d have backed off completely. And now you can see why I couldn’t let that happen. You said it yourself, he’s an asshole.”
My temper flared back to life. “How could you and Aspen sit idly by and watch him treat her badly? You’re supposed to be her friends!”
“Don’t get me wrong, the guy’s always given me a bad vibe, but I’ve never seen him be verbally abusive to her. Trust me, if I had, I would have stepped in.”
A primal cry born of pure frustration clawed up my throat.
“Tucker?” Concern leaked into Mac’s voice.
“He calls her Rebecca.” My nose wrinkled, the memory of him using her legal name leaving a bad taste in my mouth.
A heavy exhale came through the line. “Yeah, I know. Pretentious as fuck.”
Squeezing my eyes shut, I swallowed roughly. “Aspen said something about him using her to check off a box on his list.”
“Okay, I’m gonna need you to not freak out when I tell you this.”
Hot lava churned in my gut, and I gritted out, “No promises when you start off with a statement like that.”
