Page 46 of Axe-identally Married
“I’m okay,” I said firmly, looking her in the eye so she could see that was the truth.
“You marrying Cole is strange. You know? Especially because of how much you disliked him when he and Lila dated. That makes me think there’s more to the story. Is this a blackmail thing? Coercion? Did you lose a bet?”
I huffed. “Jesus, Magnolia. No.”
“Is the mafia involved?” She arched a brow.
“Of course not.”
“Okay.” She sat back a little and dug into her meal. “Because I know people. You know if you need help, all you have to do is ask. I’d do anything for you.”
I didn’t doubt that. Her loyalty ran deep, and her job as a party planner for New York’s elite had garnered her a lot of useful connections.
“What happened?”
“We got drunk and married,” I said, holding my hands up in surrender. “There is no blackmail, kidnapping, or illegal activity at all.”
“And you’ve been secretly dating?” Her face was dubious.
Lips pressed together, I surveyed my friend. The woman who’d hired a private jet to get me from Baltimore to Portland when my dad had his stroke. If she hadn’t done that, I would have spent hours waiting for a flight. She literally sent a plane to get me when I thought I’d lose my father.
I couldn’t lie to her. I was so tired of lying.
“No,” I said softly, deflating. “We were not dating.”
“Of course not,” she scoffed.
My heart pinched at her tone. Yeah, I wasn’t his type, but jeez.
“Cole is a selfish man child,” she went on. “If you were dating him, I’d slap you around. I know pickings up here are slim, but really? You could date a pine tree with more integrity and better conversational skills.”
Anger flashed through me like a lightning strike. I clenched my fists. “Hey. That’s my husband you’re talking about.”
She frowned, her eyes swimming with pity. “If you need an annulment, I’ll call my lawyers. They do shit like this all the time.”
I pulled my shoulders back. “Had many annulments, have you?”
She shook her head and let out a laugh. “We both know I attract the crazy.”
Sure. Magnolia attracted a lot of things.
Six feet tall with bleached blond hair, she looked like a supermodel, lived like a seventy-year-old socialite, and dressed like a club kid from the ’80s. She had a long list of exes, both men and women, and left a lot of broken hearts in her wake.
“It happened,” I admitted. “I went to Vegas feeling sorry for myself and needing a break from my responsibilities. I’ve been feeling trapped and left behind and shitty.”
She hummed. “Nothing wrong with cutting loose.”
“And trust me, I know what I did was stupid. But I’ve spent years waiting for my life to begin in New York. Now, that life no longer exists. It’s not that I don’t want to be here, but I’m still mourning the loss of that version of myself.”
“It wasn’t stupid. You did all the right things, but shitty things happened and plans changed. You’re allowed to grieve the loss of them. The three of us spent years getting ready for our New York era. I get it. We’re all sad.”
“Not Lila.”
“Maybe, maybe not. Just because she’s happy in Boston with Owen doesn’t mean she doesn’t miss what we could have had.” She picked up another bite of pad Thai and assessed me. “We’re growing up. You and I are thirty, and she’s twenty-nine. We’ve all got adult responsibilities. Shit changes. But you’re allowed to be sad about it. You can be pissed. I don’t care. Please don’t fucking lie to me and go off and get married.”
“Sorry. It’s…” I blew out a breath, working out how to explain my marriage to Cole. “He’s not what I expected.”
She rolled her eyes. Her opinion of him, like mine, was mainly based on what we’d learned from Lila over the years.They’d had a long, angsty relationship through most of their twenties, and it had ended badly.
