Page 228 of Holding On To Good

He couldn’t stand to watch her walk away from him, not again, so he pasted on a sneer, inclined his head like a fucking prick and brushed past her. Didn’t stop until he reached the exit next to the end of the bar.

Couldn’t help but turn and seek her out one last time.

She stood where he’d left her, but she wasn’t alone. Some college-age guy in an actual suit and tie was talking to her.

Chest burning, throat tight, Reed snagged a bottle of Jim Beam from behind the bar and walked out into the warm night. Twisted off the cap and took a long drink as he crossed the parking lot, the memory of her with that guy seared into his mind.

He’d gotten what he’d wanted.

Verity had smiled.

But her smile hadn’t been for him.

She was going to spend the rest of her night smiling and laughing and dancing and flirting with other guys.

He was going to spend it pissed-off and alone, getting shit-faced in the hopes of forgetting her, if only for a few hours.

I promised him I’d always know my worth. And that I’d never settle for less than I deserve.

Tonight, they were both getting what they deserved.

Chapter Forty-Two

Willow stared at the Exit longingly while around her the festivities continued.

It was the wedding that would not end.

Don’t get her wrong. The day had been perfect—how could it be anything otherwise when it’d been planned by her mother and younger sister?

But even perfect days must come to a close.

The sooner the better.

“Who knew Uncle Kenny had such great hip flexion?” Rose murmured.

They were sitting at a table in the corner, a sleeping Nathan in Rose’s arms, Rose’s bare feet on the empty chair next to Willow, while the majority of the remaining seventy or so guests did The Electric Slide.

Willow spotted their father’s younger brother at the front of the crowd. Winced at his gyrating hips—those moves not only went against the dance’s choreography, but also all that was good and pure in the world. “I would’ve liked to have not known about it, but that’s what weddings are for, right? So we can be confronted with the ugly truth of our relatives and their flexibility.”

Rose sent her a bland look. “Yes. Never mind the joining of two hearts as one and celebrating true love and the beginning of what one hopes is a lifetime of coupled bliss.”

Willow waved a hand. “Yeah. Yeah. All that, too.”

Except Lily and Patton’s hearts had been joined hours ago and the celebration was entering its sixth hour. Enough was enough.

“If they stopped serving drinks,” Willow muttered, “people would get the hint and go home.”

Rose shifted Nathan higher onto her chest. He was pink-faced and drooling, his little button mouth pursed. “Careful. Your antisocial side is showing.”

“I’m not antisocial.”

She was tired. And heartbroken. And even though she was surrounded by people, many of whom she knew and loved, she was lonely.

She missed Urban.

Swallowing the tears thickening her throat, she rubbed at a wine stain on the tablecloth. “He didn’t come.”

And she started crying.

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