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I meet his eyes, and the softness there brings tears again. I feel like such a fool. He’s looking at me with such gentleness, but I know that will change when I tell him what I did.
“Aren’t you going to ask me why I’m here?”
Liam gently pushes my hair behind my ear. “You’ll tell me eventually.”
I look away from him and laugh sardonically. “I left my wedding to come here.”
Liam cocks his head, not fully understanding the gravity of what I just said. “You left?” He questions. “Does your husband know you’re here?”
“What husband?” I bite my lip, meeting his gaze.
He narrows his eyes at me. “What do you mean?”
“I left Andrew at the altar,” I say softly.
Liam’s mouth falls open. “You left…” he falters. “Oh wow. What happened?”
“I ran away.”
Liam’s eyes widen with shock, and he stumbles back, taking me with him. “I’m sorry. What?”
Chapter 5
Liam
Shock rolls through my body in waves, and I stare at Penny, waiting for her to laugh and tell me she’s joking. But she doesn’t do any of that. Instead, she simply holds my gaze.
“Penny?”
My body is still shuddering with the fear of almost losing her, and yet, she just dropped this bombshell on me. I walk with Penny back to the tree and help her sit. I then sit back on my haunches to try and decipher what I just heard.
“Penny?” I ask. “You left Andrew at the altar?”
“Yes.” She nods. Fresh tears slip down her face, and she refuses to meet my eyes. “Everyone was at the church; it was time for me to walk down the aisle, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t go through with it.”
She starts to cry, and I’m torn between pulling her into my arms and just letting her cry until she stops. “So no one knows where you’ve gone?” I ask, and she shakes her head.
“No one saw me leave,” she says, wringing her hands.
“Do you think it was your nerves?” I probe, wanting to know the root cause of the problem. “Maybe you were anxious?”
“I was anxious,” she says. “But that’s not the reason I left. This morning, I realized that I’m not in love with him. It wasn’t fair to either one of us for me to marry him.”
Hope flares in my chest, spreading through my body like a flame until I’m warmed from the inside out. Just this morning, I was devastated, believing Penny had fallen in love with another man and would soon be his wife. But that’s not the case at all. She left him at the altar because she wasn’t in love with him.
Tears continue to fall down Penny's face as these thoughts race through my mind. Leaving a man at the altar is a brave decision that can only be fully understood by the person leaving. I don't understand it, even though I love her. She’s had plenty of time to think about her decision. What was it about today that made her change her mind?
I’m pretty sure no one will understand. Andrew, Penny’s mother, I’m sure they’re both devastated. I don’t know how Penny intends to face them after this. And then, there’s Stacy, her sister, and everyone else who attended the wedding. She’s got a lot of cleaning up to do.
“Do you hate me?” Penny asks. “I hate myself. I feel terrible. How could I do this to someone? I didn’t use him, and yet I did. I am a horrible person. I—”
“Penny.” I whisper her name. My hands, of their own accord, go to either side of her face and I wipe her tears away with my thumbs. I wait until she meets my gaze. “I don’t hate you. I’m sure you did what you felt was the right thing to do.”
As I stare down at her face, hope surges again. Is this my chance? Before it takes root in my mind, I crush it. I have a lot of healing to do before dragging a woman I love into this dark life with me.
Besides, she just left a man at the altar. This is not the moment for new beginnings.
I drop my hands from her face, and the flicker of hope extinguishes. I force a smile on my face.
