Page 96 of Four Times Forever

Matt smiled and sent my heartbeat skyrocketing. He turned to walk toward me and the 'tha-dunk' of my heart racked my body. He was mine. All mine.

"Isn't it bad luck to see the groom in his suit before the wedding?" He brought his full brows together.

You would have thought that I was sitting front row at the show of the funniest person in the world the way I laughed hard. No, not laugh. Giggle, like a nervous inexperienced forty-year-old virgin, but the woman version. I am not shy. And not at all inexperienced. The fuck? Yet, I reveled in the burst of butterflies fluttering in my stomach.

Flushed, my fingers yearned to reach across the feet of distance between us and pull him in closer. Not to worry, he closed the distance. I reached up and smoothed my hands over the smooth, expensive fabric, not wanting to wrinkle it.

"I think that only applies to the bride." I was breathless in my response.

He pulled me into his embrace, but I needed to capture this moment of perfection before I ended up ruining the suit by climbing up his body like a tree.

"Wait there." I stepped out of his embrace and smoothed the material again.

He grinned and turned on his heels. "What are you doing?"

"Capturing the moment, silly." I grinned back, patting my pockets and remembering Marco. Right, no phone.

Matt was checking himself out in the mirror. As he should. I could barely keep my eyes off him even as I searched through the discarded clothes for his phone.

"Ah, there it is." I picked it up, happy enough to shove the reawakened memory of Marco's attempt to ruin my happiness to the back of my mind.

"Wait, what are you doing?" The low and slow tease of Matt's flirty tone had left the room. I looked up at the alarm in his voice.

Confused, I grinned. "I just told you."

As I tapped open the camera app, he launched forward. "No, it's bad luck!"

"Woah! Take a chill pill!" I laughed, hopping over the opened shoe box and running away with the phone.

He chased me.

"No, Lily. Seriously, give me my phone." He was begging now.

"Relax. I didn't know you took superstitions so seriously. Fine. I'll just google it." I lied, raising the phone to snap the picture of him going super crazy so we could laugh at it later.

But in the game of hopscotch and dodgeball, my finger slipped and opened his previously recorded videos. I saw my handsome man looking distressed. This was filmed a couple of days ago.

"Is this what you didn't want me to see?" I asked, turning the phone around to him. "Are you getting cold feet?" I teased and pressed play.

"Lily, no! Give me back my phone!" He all but wailed.

Opening the balcony door, I stepped outside and locked it, grinning.

I started regretting taking it too far as he tapped on the glass, panic turning his pupils into stony onyx. Damn, I didn't want my man to have a heart attack.

'I know lying to Lily is wrong. The guilt is eating me up.'

Wh-what? I glitched. My eyes left his and locked onto the phone. Heat wrapped itself around me. Tiny sweat beads turned into droplets. Yet, I was frozen, unable to do anything but continue to listen.

The Matt in the video let out a heavy sigh, rubbed at his forehead and brushed his hand over his hair.

'Every day I wrestle with the truth. I force it to the back of my head, pretending it isn't weighing heavily on my chest. But I can't tell her this. I'll lose her forever.'

The phone was weightless against my fingertips, my chest was tight and the lump in my chest swelled to a concerning limit. Tell me what?

''Fuck! How can I enter into this marriage, look her in the eyes, promise to love her and not lie to her, when I'm hiding the biggest secret of all...'

I already knew what was coming and I started to shut down, needing him not to say it, needing to keep it buried.

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