Page 106 of Fireworks & Forehead Kisses

“Mrs. B, that’s great!” I was happy that she was settling into life here.

Neither of us said another word until we pulled into the parking area beside the Mitchell farm. There were over fifty pickup trucks lined up. It was definitely a country wedding.

“Hannah says hi, by the way,” Declan relayed as we pulled to a stop beside Hank’s 4×4.

“Oh, tell her I said hi.” I smiled as I glanced over at him.

His soulful brown eyes were so deep I could easily drown in them. “She loves you.”

“I love her, too.”

“Everyone loves you,” he said with a weight as if it meant something.

Yeah, everyone but you.

A knock sounded on the passenger window, and I jumped. I turned and saw Miss Shaw on the other side of the window.

“What are y’all doin’? Yer gonna miss the I dos!”

“We’re coming,” I assured her.

I started to reach for the door handle, but Declan stopped me. “Wait.”

His commanding voice sent a shiver of tingles through me. It wasn’t just his touch, or his kiss, or his smell, or his eyes, or his body that I would miss; it was his voice. That deep, sexy voice. It did things to me.

Why did everything about the man have to be so sexy?

On the way into the tent, Declan placed his hand on my lower back the way he always did. It felt right, the way it always did. We sat down, and at least half the people in attendance turned to look our way. I knew that people would be talking about who my date was. If they knew the whole story, their tongues would really be wagging. Which, side note, I used to think was ‘tongues wagon,’ like someone pulled a wagon of the tongues of people talking about you.

When I’d initially decided to include Declan as my plus one to the wedding into the agreement, it was because I was tired of not having dates to things, but I hadn’t taken into account the repercussions and aftermath of what it was going to be like answering the questions of what happened when we ‘broke up.’ I would just have to tell them it didn’t work out. Thankfully, I didn’t think anyone would bat an eye that my relationship with a hot billionaire hadn’t worked out.

The ceremony was what Jimmy now referred to as the Sabrina Carpenter version of vows, short and sweet, like her album title of the same name. It might have been even shorter than ours. Unlike our wedding, Daphne and Harlan wrote their own vows. I tried to pay attention and be present, but all I couldthink about was how nice it was to sit beside Declan and have his hand on my knee. It was the most natural thing in the world.

Besides being distracted by his touch, I kept flashing back to our wedding. How real it had felt. Especially when Declan added that he would be the Clyde to my Bonnie. And then, when he’d slipped the ring on my finger, and for just one moment, that may have been the most real moment of all. The ring that I wore almost every night. Something no one, not Skylar, Nadia, or even Declan, knew.

“I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride!”

As the guests erupted in cheers, two tears fell down my face. I lifted my hand and wiped them away as I attempted to sniff back the emotion. Thankfully, a lot of people cried at weddings, so it wasn’t as if anyone knew the real reason for my waterworks. It had nothing to do with the couple coming down the aisle and everything to do with the man seated beside me.

The man who was my husband, who promised to have and to hold me, for better or worse, in sickness and in health, to be faithful to me, to protect, honor, and respect me, to support my dreams, goals, and visions, and to be my partner and confidant.

But not to love me. That was the one thing he couldn’t give me.

Watching Harlan and Daphne exchange vows had made things clear to me. Seeing their love had clarified why I couldn’t stay married to Declan no matter how much I wanted to…it was because I loved him. If I didn’t, then I could maybe be happy in a loveless marriage. But there was no way I could be happy in a marriage where the love I felt wasn’t reciprocated. That kind of constant rejection would destroy me.

So no matter how much it hurt, no matter how tempting it was to stay, in five days, I had to leave; I had to walk away.

40

DECLAN

This was it.The day I’d been waiting for all my life. This was what I’d been born and bred to be. When I laid my head on the pillow tonight, Wolfe Enterprises would be mine.

As I sat behind my desk, waiting for Harry to arrive, I felt…nothing. I wasn’t happy. I wasn’t anxious. I wasn’t anything. I was numb. I wondered if it just hadn’t sunk in yet. Maybe I’d feel something after I signed the papers and it was official.

Right now, all I could think about was what Ashley was doing. I’d seen Skylar post photos on Instagram, so I knew that Ashley was there watching Luna open presents. If I were being honest, I would rather be there with them. I wished I was there to witness the joy on Luna’s face as she unwrapped the dollhouse that Hank made for her. Or the art kit and easel Ashley got her. I sent my own present. I got her a Barbie beauty salon because I knew she loved giving people makeovers. She’d talked to me about these makeovers in the hospital when we were waiting for her brother to be born, and on Thanksgiving, Ashley had sent me a lot of ‘after’ photos when she’d been the recipient of her niece’s makeovers.

I had never been sentimental about the holidays, but this year was different. I just wanted to be wherever Ashley was. It didn’t feel right not being with her. I’d messaged her this morning, just like I had yesterday and the day before that and every morning since we’d said ‘I do.’ Since Harlan and Daphne’s wedding, her response rate has dropped to ten percent, which is a significant decline from the fifty percent it had been prior.

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