Page 19 of Stunner (Whiskey Dolls 3)

Moving toward the back of the studio, I picked up my water bottle and sucked back a few icy gulps before bringing my right leg up on the barre that extended the length of the back wall to stretch my tired, aching muscles out.

Sloane came up beside me, giving my butt a hard smack. “Hey, babe. Good to have you back.”

“Good to be back,” I said as I rubbed at my stinging butt cheek. “It’s nice to finally be out of my apartment and back to real life. It was getting really bad. Not only did I start watching reality dating shows, but I actually found myself getting invested in who was hooking up with who.”

Sloane’s mouth pulled into aneek. “That’s never a good thing.”

“Tell me about it,” I said as I laced my fingers together and lifted my arms up and over my head in another stretch. “Next time I decide to take so much time off, do me a favor and talk me out of it, okay?”

“Hey, I tried to get you to take that honeymoon by yourself.” The look she gave me said loud and clear how stupid she thought I was for passing it up. “The trip was already paid for, after all.Andnonrefundable.”

I let out a snort-laugh. “Yeah, because that’s not pathetic or anything.”

“Hawaii is still Hawaii, babe, whether you’re alone or not. Hell, you probably would have had more fun all by yourself than with Jackson the Jackass, anyway.” She had a point, but there was no purpose in thinking about it now.

Fortunately, I was spared when the other girls came over to join us. “You looked good, Ash,” my friend Alma said, lines forming in the corners of her sultry bedroom eyes as she smiled cheekily. “Especially for a woman who’s been eating her weight in frozen pizzas the past several days.”

I flipped her off amidst a chorus of laughs. “See if I ever tell you anything, asshole.”

“Ignore her.” McKenna, the owner and part-time dancer/choreographer of Whiskey Dolls grinned. “But she’s right, you did look good. Like you haven’t missed a single day ofrehearsals.” Her smile fell, her face washing over with sympathy. “How are you doing?”

“I’m good.” I let out a sigh at the skeptical expressions surrounding me. “I’m serious. I know most women who are abandoned on their wedding day might still be rocking in a corner, curled up in the fetal position, but that’s not the case here. Jackson bailing out that bathroom window was a blessing in disguise.”

The vibe in the room suddenly changed, the air growing thick as several of the girls suddenly averted their eyes, refusing to make eye contact as my gaze darted from one person to another.

“I get the feeling I’m missing something. Are you guys keeping secrets?”

“What?Pfft!No. Of course not!” Sloane said about thirty octaves too high, a tell of hers whenever she was lying, that and uncontrollable manic laughter, which quickly followed.

Another friend, Marin, elbowed Sloane in her side. “Take it down about a thousand notches,” she hissed from the corner of her mouth.

“All right, what’s going on?” I snapped and jammed my hands down on my hips.

It was my girl Layla who spoke up, saying what everyone else was apparently too scared to admit. “None of us liked Jackson, and we thought you marrying him was a huge mistake.”

My stomach bottomed out. “What?” I shrieked loud enough to make my so-called friends wince.

“We didn’t say anything because as long as you were happy, we were happy,” Sloane confessed. “We didn’t see the point in upsetting you.”

“So, youallthought I was making this huge mistake,” I said, waving my arms in a big circle.

I received nods and mumbles in the affirmative as answer.

“And you were just going toletme go through with it?”

Alma, known for being the bluntest out of everyone, shrugged like she didn’t see what the big deal was. “It’s not like we had anything to come to you with. If he’d been cheating or was a criminal or something, sure, we would have said something to you. But from past experience, it usually doesn’t go well when you try to tell your friend you don’t like her boyfriend because he’s a jerk and you think she can do better.”

“She’s right, Ash,” Marin said in a much gentler voice. “None of us wanted to risk our friendship with you. If he really and truly made you happy, we were all prepared to deal with it.”

Lifting my arms, I placed my palms on the sides of my head in an effort to stop the spinning that had just started, thanks to the bomb my friends had just dropped. For a year and a half they’d been keeping something from me, somethinghuge. I could see where they’d been coming from, why they hadn’t wanted to say anything, but that wasn’t what made it feel as though the ground beneath my feet had grown unsteady.

What had I been thinking? That was the question that had been bouncing around in my head at least once an hour every freaking hour for the past week. My friends had started settling down, meeting their forever people and building a life together, and I wasn’t ashamed to admit I’d started feeling a little left behind. I wasn’t old, by any stretch of the imagination, and I was in great health, but I wasn’t getting any younger. I’d always imagined myself as a mother. When I thought about my future, there was a man and the babies we made together, maybe even a couple pets. But that biological clock had begun to tick louder, and I’d started to panic.

Then I met Jackson. He hadn’t been my usual type. If I were being honest, when he and Owen had walked into the bar that night, it had been the taller, broader, inkier man my attention had been snagged by. However, where Jackson was carefree and boisterous, Owen had been somewhat aloof.

He’d been persistent as hell, pulling out all the stops to get me to say yes to a date, until I finally gave in. I’d been dazzled by him at first. In my defense, most woman would have been if a handsome man was showering them with attention, praise, and gifts. Then things shifted without me even realizing. One minute we were dating and the next, he was getting down on one knee in front of his family, with a ring that was bordering on obnoxious, it was so big. How was I supposed to say no or ask for time to think about it when his kin were waiting on bated breath for my answer?

Sure, that voice in the back of my head had spoken up more than a few times. Every time I tried taking a step back, something was there to drop the ride of insanity I was on into a higher gear, then, before I knew it, I blinked and it was my wedding day.

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