The Best Man to Trust Read Free

inevitably wanted to share the great idea they’d always had for a series. But he knew Scott wasn’t trying to sell his own idea. His old friend was trying to be helpful, supportive. Instead, all he was doing was reminding Tom of the fact that he was currently unemployed.
    He knew he was luckier than a lot of people. He’d gotten to spend six years doing his dream job, which was more than many people could say in their entire lifetimes. As an on-site producer and cameraman for On the Wild Side, a reality/documentary series that traveled to some of the most spectacular and remotest places on earth, he’d gotten to see and experience things most people never would. But just as they’d been preparing to leave to shoot the new season, the network had informed them they’d been canceled.
    He’d known there was a chance it was coming. The signs were there. But they’d already been renewed, and at the very least he’d thought they’d be able to complete one final season. They’d been ready to go out with a bang. Instead, the journey had come to an abrupt end.
    One of the lone upsides of his sudden unemployment was that he’d been able to make Scott’s wedding after all. And it brought him to an entirely different kind of spectacular and remote place.
    Tom had gotten to see some amazing locales, but he’d certainly never seen anything like Sutton Hall, at least not in person. He hadn’t been able to get much of an impression of the outside of the building through the snow—only enough to tell that it was massive, the immense stone structure towering several stories high and seeming to stretch the full length of the mountain it sat upon. But the inside was even more incredible, far more elegant and lavish than any hotel he’d ever been in. It was so impressive it was almost possible to forget what had happened here so recently.
    Almost.
    “And it really doesn’t make you nervous getting married here?” he had to ask.
    “I’m trying not to think about...all of that,” Scott admitted. “The only thing I care about is marrying Rachel. This is what she wants, and as long as I can do it for her, I will.”
    Tom wasn’t surprised. Rachel had always been someone who wanted her own way, and Scott had always been willing to go along with whatever she wanted. Scott also hadn’t grown up with much money, and Tom knew the fact that he could afford to give Rachel this wedding had to be a point of pride for him.
    No, the surprising part was that the wedding was taking place at all. “I still sort of can’t believe you guys are really getting married after all this time.”
    Scott laughed. “Honestly, sometimes I can’t believe it, either. What can I say? I guess it was just meant to be.”
    Maybe it was, Tom agreed silently. Scott and Rachel had been a couple for more than two years in college before breaking up senior year for reasons that had never entirely clear to Tom. Last year they’d run into each other again, discovering they were both still single and the connection was still there between them. Whatever had happened in the past, they appeared to have put it behind them and were now stronger than ever. And now here they were, ready to get married. It was a reassuring example that maybe things did work out sometimes in this crazy world after all.
    Of course, first the wedding had to go off without a hitch. Judging by some of the comments from the rest of the wedding party since they’d met up at the airport, he wasn’t the only one wondering if Scott and Rachel weren’t tempting fate by deciding to come here for their nuptials.
    It wasn’t only the wedding party that was slightly on edge. Tom hadn’t missed the tension on Meredith Sutton’s face beneath her carefully constructed good cheer. Her smile had never wavered, but it was there in the tightness of that smile, the way her expression was so thoroughly locked into place, as though she refused to let anyone see anything other than what she wanted them