Page 101 of The Backup Bride Proposal

Mae shushed her when he walked into the room. “Hey.”

Erin stood. “Is Jason finished out there?”

“I think so.”

“I’m gonna go tell him I’m ready to go. We need to put JJ to bed.”

“Okay,” Mae said. She got up. “I should—”

“Mae, wait,” Kane said. “Can we talk?”

“I guess.”

“How about we take a walk?”

“Sure. Let me say goodbye to Erin, and then I need to grab a jacket.”

She went out back for a minute, came back and grabbed her jacket by the door. They walked outside. It was a cool, clear night, but no wind. Stars were out, and if this were a date, it would be a great night for it.

But it wasn’t.

“How are you doing?” she asked as they walked down the path through the woods.

“I’m good. I got a lot of rest last night. That helped.”

“I’m happy to hear that.”

He stopped and turned to face her. “Tell me what’s upsetting you.”

“Nothing is upsetting me. I’m just…giving you space.”

“I don’t want space from you, Mae. I want to be with you.I want to spend time with you. Tell me how I fucked up so I can make it better.”

“You didn’t—”

“Mae. Tell me.”

He could tell from the consternation on her face that she had a million thoughts running through her head and he was about to get hit with all of them. He welcomed them because he needed to know why she was upset.

“Okay, fine. You got a raw deal with your parents, and I sympathize, I really do. But instead of sharing your pain with me, you shut me out and got into your own head. And then you yelled at me. I don’t like being yelled at. I mean, sure, you apologized and all, but how can I be sure that you won’t fly off into an angry mood the next time—I don’t know, you have a shitty day of filming?”

He started to laugh, because that just wasn’t who he was. Then again, he hadn’t really shown her who he was the past few days, had he?

“I’m sorry, Mae. You’re right. I did get into my head. My parents’ marriage blew up and I didn’t know anything about it. That’s life-changing news. It’s not ‘Hey, I had a bad day of work’ kind of shit. And you’re right that I should have shared with you, but I didn’t know how to handle all these negative feelings I was having. It was kind of a first for me, ya know?”

“Okay. I can understand that.”

They had made their way to the production area. He led her toward his trailer and paused, asking without words if she was interested in stepping in. She nodded, so they went inside.

“Something to drink?” he asked.

“Just water for me.”

He grabbed waters for both of them and they sat on thesofa. He got close to her, because he wanted to make sure she understood what he was saying.

“It’s obvious I hurt you, and I’m really sorry about that. My feelings were confusing to me. If I’m honest, they still are. I’m constantly pissed off and I don’t know why and I’m not the kind of person who holds anger inside, so I just don’t know what to do with it. If you feel like I keep taking it out on you—I am so sorry about that.”

She took his hand. “I appreciate the apology. And to clarify, you’re not taking it out on me. It was my feelings about the situation that I needed to work through, which you’re helping me with. I wanted to help you and…I don’t know, I guess there was no way I could ease your pain. That’s hard for me.”

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