AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He rolled his eyes and hooked a finger beneath my chin, tilting it up toward him. He kissed me, simple, easy, as normal as breathing, but it still set every part of my body aflame. As he pulled back, his gaze flicked between my eyes, searching.
“You’re a good actor, Wade,” Jack whispered, and Mandy snickered beside him. “Could’ve fooled me.”
Wade narrowed his gaze at Jack, a slight warning. “I’m not acting.”
I’m not acting.
I lost every ounce of air in my lungs. “What?”
He met my gaze again, his lips pursed. “You heard me.”
“You’re not acting?” I asked. I had to tell him, needed to tell him, that I wasn’t either. I needed to get the words out, somehow, some way.
“No,” he said, the littlest smile tugging his lips up at the corners. “I’m not.”
I opened my mouth to say it, begged my tongue to work, but nothing came out. Please. Please, tell him you’re not either. “I…”
As if the universe took over, music began to play over the speakers as the bridal party filed in. I wanted to beg Chloe to give us five more minutes, but this was her wedding, her day, her night. I should have said it back.
I fucking should have.
————
The family table, a staple at every wedding. I should have considered the possibility that we could be seated with Chloe’s new in-laws for the majority of the evening, but it had been the absolute last thing on my mind.
Glasses clinked and forks scraped on plates. The idle chit-chat of three hundred guests filled the space, squeezed comfortably into one massive ballroom at least four times the size of the one we’d occupied on our first night here. A live band played classical dinner music as question after question was directed at Wade. Chloe and Dominic sat at the head table with the rest of the wedding party so we had little reprieve.
I let him do the majority of the talking. I didn’t trust myself with two glasses of wine into the evening. He’d retold the story of how we met, only tiny, minor changes, and I breathed a sigh of relief when Wade’s mom hadn’t questioned it. Beside her, Wade’s stepfather picked at his food as his son, Zane, watched us. His eyes seemed to hover on us, questioning, reading. Wade’s dad, however, had been seated with the rest of the guests, forgotten and aloof.
Wade answered questions as if lying came to him as easily as breathing. When asked about our first date, he’d stayed truthful, explaining how I wanted to go ice skating and he’d agreed even though he was horrible at it. When asked about our second date, though, the embellishment really kicked into high gear. Apparently, he’d taken me to the Denver Zoo, going so far as to rent out the entire establishment for the day so we could have a private tour. I’d also, surprisingly, held a penguin.
“What do your parents do, Ray?”
I nearly choked on my fork full of lobster. “What?”
Wade’s fingers tightened around my thigh, every muscle in his body locking up. “That’s kind of personal, don’t you think?” he asked, the words coming through gritted teeth as he looked across the table at Alec.
“I’m just curious if they run in the same circles as the rest of us,” Alec shrugged. “It’s not an issue if they don’t.”
“They don’t run at all,” I replied, a small trace of venom to my tone.
Wade’s grip tightened on my thigh, bruising me with his fingertips. “Ray’s father passed away three years ago,” he clarified.
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Dawn, Dominic’s mother, said.
“And her mother has been unwell for several years.” He glanced at me from the corner of his eye, an apology lurking there. “They met when they were in college, right, baby?”
I nodded. I couldn’t remember mentioning it, wasn’t sure when it had slipped out.
“Then married a couple of months later. Had Ray the following year,” he continued, and my stomach dropped, knowing damn well where this was going. This wasn’t another lie. He’d clearly done some research and learned about them. “They just knew they were right for each other and had twenty-six happy years of marriage.”
“Your parents sound lovely, Ray,” Alec said, his smile tight-lipped, a hint of regret in his tone.
“Her father was a bus driver. And before she got sick, her mom taught third grade.” Slowly, finger by finger, he dislodged his grip on me. “So, Alec, to answer your question, no, they didn’t run in the same circles as you. However, that shouldn’t matter.”
I couldn’t breathe, could barely hold my fork. He’d spoken to Alec with such disdain, such disrespect, simply for asking about my parents. For asking if I was one of them. He put his investment at risk for me.
Maybe he really was telling the truth earlier, when he’d said that he wasn’t acting, it wasn’t just another easy lie. My chest ached at the idea. He was putting it all on the line just to stand up for me.
