His Wedding Date (The Second Chance Love Series, Book 2) Read Free Page B

up."
    "I think it would be safer if I did it," Brian said, but she knelt on the floor with him, anyway.
    She managed to help clean up the mess without making any others. She got to her feet, avoiding his eyes as she backed away from him. She knew he was studying her, and she wondered what he saw when he looked at her. She prayed he didn't see a lovesick little girl who'd turned twenty-six now, but had never gotten over her crush on him.
    "I guess this isn't your day," he said lightly.
    She shook her head, feeling like a clumsy child who'd never measure up to the poised, elegant woman he'd always loved—the woman who was marrying another man. That was so hard to believe.
    "Your arm okay?" he asked as they dumped the last of the ice in the sink.
    She hadn't felt a thing after the initial sting. She looked down at her arm, found the skin reddish, but couldn't tell if that was from the burn or the cold of the ice.
    "I'm sorry—about you and Rebecca."
    He shrugged. "The wedding's this weekend in Tallahassee. I'm surprised you didn't get an invitation."
    Shelly didn't want to tell him she had, though it obviously wasn't an invitation to the wedding she'd expected. She hadn't even sent a gift and a letter declining the invitation. Rebecca's parents must think her incredibly rude.
    "Anyway," Brian continued, "you haven't been home in ages."
    She hadn't, not since her father's death. Tallahassee had nothing for her after that. No one but Brian, who'd never been hers in the first place.
    "The whole town is going to be there," he said. "So you'd have a chance to catch up with some old friends, and my parents would love to see you."
    "You want me to go to Rebecca's wedding with you?" she asked incredulously.
    "Is that so crazy?" he asked, shrugging and trying to smile.
    "Yes," she said. "You know it is. The whole thing is... What happened?"
    "I... Uhh... God, I don't know," he said. He tried to laugh but couldn't quite pull that off.
    "You said you wanted out of your father's firm, that it was a little too much family togetherness, working for him, but she was going to join you here. You said you were engaged."
    "We were," he admitted. "We have been for a long time, and... God, I feel like such an idiot."
    No, not him.
    She was the idiot. Shelly, that is. Maybe Rebecca was, too, if she was marrying someone else.
    Brian was the sane one. The careful one. The logical one. The man who always had a plan, a perfectly sensible one.
    "It just... doesn't make any sense," Shelly blurted out.
    "I know." Brian did laugh at that. "Believe me, I feel the same way. It... she said she wanted to be with me. She said she loved me, but she couldn't quite bring herself to actually marry me."
    He shoved his hands into his pockets and shrugged again, as if to say, What are you gonna do?
    Shelly stayed silent, unable to process the news.
    "Should have been a clue, I guess," he said finally, to break the silence.
    "So, when you moved here... "
    "I guess I was trying to make her follow me, make her show me she really did want to be with me, and then... Well, she showed me. A buddy of mine from college always said, when a woman shows you how she feels, believe it. He said her actions say a lot more than her words. Me, I believed what she said, more than what her actions told me. Although... I think, this time, I finally got the message."
    "I... I'm so sorry," Shelly said.
    He nodded. "I know. Thank you."
    "Wait." Shelly's brain was finally starting to process the news. "What in the world would you be doing at Rebecca's wedding?"
    He wouldn't look at her at first, and when he did, he seemed more than a little embarrassed. "Part of my believe-what-a-woman-does, not-what-she-says plan?"
    Shelly considered that.
    Going to his former fiancé's wedding? Watching her vow to love, honor and cherish another man?
    "You're not going to... I don't know..." It seemed ludicrous, completely out of character for him, but so was everything she'd heard from him in the last few