Cold Feet in Hot Sand Read Free Page A

deal.”
     
    “Well, not all the decorations and party stuff, no,” he said. “But… it’s still important to me. It’s important to me because it’s the beginning of my marriage. And…” He closed his eyes and exhaled.
     
    “What?”
     
    “I don’t care about all the pomp and circumstance. I’d have been perfectly happy with the justice of the peace, or getting married in someone’s backyard, or just a church wedding. Whatever, I really don’t care.” He looked at her, and Deanna swore there was an extra shine in his eyes. “The one and only thing I wanted, the one thing I really tried to dig my heels in for, got vetoed.”
     
    “And that was…?”
     
    He shifted his gaze back to the bottles behind the bar. “I wanted to get married where my friends and family could actually be there.”
     
    “I thought you both wanted a small wedding, though,” she said. “Not some huge thing.”
     
    “Not some huge thing, no,” he said. “But my parents could barely afford to get here, and Kristina wasn’t happy at all when I paid for my brother’s plane ticket.” He turned to her again. “My brother’s family could n’t be here. Carlos has been my closest friend since grade school for God’s sake, and he couldn’t be here. Quite honestly, I was starting to wonder if it mattered if I was here, and I guess it just got me thinking about whether or not I wanted to be.” He shrugged and brought his beer bottle up to his lips. “And I realized I don’t want to be here, because I don’t want to marry Kristina.”
     
    Deanna put a gentle hand over his. “Why did you wait until the very last minute, though? If you’ve known this was coming…”
     
    He absently turned his beer bottle on the bar. “I guess I got as swept up in everything as Kristina and your mom did. In a different way, though. Like, every time a deposit was made or a contract was signed, I felt more…” He sighed, reaching up to rub his temples. “I guess I felt more and more locked into the whole thing. Like there was too much money and too many commitments involved, so I couldn’t back out.” He slid his fingers from his temples to the back of his neck and worked at some unseen tension. “And during the rehearsal last night, when we ran through the vows…” He trailed off, and when he closed his eyes again, Deanna half-expected him to squeeze a tear free.
     
    She put a hand on his arm. “Tell me, Nick.”
     
    “I realized what we were getting ready to do, and I just kind of freaked out. I panicked.” Opening his eyes, he turned his head toward Deanna. “And I couldn’t go through with it. I couldn’t look Kristina in the eye and tell her we’d be together forever when I knew we’d both be miserable.”
     
    “Wow.” Deanna looked into her drink. “I really had no idea you were that unhappy.”
     
    “Neither did Kristina, apparently,” he muttered. Then he sighed and pushed his beer bottle away. “This place is depressing, and I could use some air. You want to go walk for a bit?”
     
    Deanna eyed her drink. She’d already had more than enough alcohol thanks to that thing, and if she finished it, she’d never be able
     
    to drive back to her hotel.
     
    So she shrugged. “Sure, why not?”
     

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Two
     
     
     
    Nick kicked off his sandals and hooked his fingers in the straps. Deanna did the same, and they carried their shoes as they walked along the sandy beach.
     
    The boardwalk wasn’t all that crowded. It was late enough in the day that the beaches were clearing out, and early enough the bars hadn’t yet filled with people. He didn’t have to look at his watch to know it was well past the time when he was supposed to have said his vows.
     
    For the millionth time today, he silently begged Kristina to forgive him. Maybe once she’d had a chance to cool off and digest everything, they could talk. Face to face, like civil adults, the way they always did after