Page 108 of Even if You Fall

Twisting, I looked at the nightstand near where I’d woken, then hurried to look through the tangled sheets. My heart hammered and made my head beat that much fiercer as I tore apart the bed until I went achingly still when I found a second ring under one of the pillows.

Grabbing the ring, I dropped the pillow and sank back to the bed as all the oxygen fled from my lungs.

“What is that?” You would’ve thought we’d just stumbled upon an IED with how worried Monroe sounded.

But I just continued staring at the rings. Trying to figure out how andwhen,when I couldn’t remember anything at all.

Putting them side by side, I noted they were identical in size, then hesitated for so long before sliding one of them onto my ring finger. I would’ve thought the moment a ring went ontothatfinger would’ve felt like something more, something significant. But it just felt like I was pretending, or in some weird dream. Maybe because the ring didn’t fit me at all.

It was loose, so I couldn’t imagine how loose it’d been on Monroe. But that explained why one had been on the desk, and the other had fallen off in bed.

“When did all this happen?” she asked, sounding like she couldn’t imagine anything worse.

Not that I’d wanted this either—at least, not in this way—but my heart twisted at the umpteenth reminder that she wanted nothing to do with me romantically. Then again, I’d never even truly tried anything with her because she’d made it clear how she felt from day one.

My favorites were:“If we were the last two people on earth, you’d die lonely,”and“I’ll become an old cat lady before ever considering you.”

She was insanely allergic to cats.

Clearly, she loved me. And she did...really. Just not in the way I’d always loved her. And now, we were married.

“I dunno,” I finally said just as two different chimes sounded in the room. One that was distinctly my phone.

I stood with a sigh, then glanced over at where she was staring at the floor, looking uncharacteristically vulnerable.

Mallory Monroe was all fierce words, brave actions, and impenetrable walls around her heart. But this Mallory Monroe? She looked terrified in a way I’d never expected to see from her.

“We’ll figure this out,” I told her.

“Reverse it,” she choked out, then cut another accusatory look at me. “Cancel it. Annul it—whatever it’s called. Take it back.”

And that was why I’d never done anything other than jokingly flirt with her because I’d known I wouldn’t survive her.

Curling my hand around the rings, I just barely managed to keep from rubbing my hand over the ache in my chest as I went in search of my phone.

Once I fished it out of the pile of remaining clothes, I read the message that’d been sent to the group chat we had for the wedding—Briggs and Lainey not included.

Cameron Rush

Breakfast by the pool in thirty. Let’s see who’s paying up.

“Do you know what this means?” I asked, then twisted to find Monroe already looking at her own phone, her brow furrowed. When she shook her head, I gestured to where yesterday’s slacks were barely resting on my hips and said, “Well, I...I need to go change.”

“No one can know,” she said on a rush, the words dripping with fear.

I stared at her for long moments, then struggled to swallow when it felt like a jagged rock lodged in my throat. When I wasn’tsure I could speak, I just nodded and turned to search for the rest of my clothes.

Before I left, I dropped one of the rings on top of the signed paper stating we were husband and wife. The other, I clenched tightly in my fist, feeling the weight and pain of it until I let it clatter onto the nightstand in my own room.

After showering and changing, I hurried down to the area we’d all been meeting at ever since we arrived. My heart racing in equal amounts anticipation and dread of seeing Monroe again.

But when I got there, she was already seated, looking as unbothered and hardened as ever.

“So,” Rush began once Lainey’s younger sister, Wren, came dancing up to the table with a scowling Evans trailing behind her, “let’s find out who’s leaving a little richer.”

A bright laugh left Chloe as she looked adoringly at Thatch.

“We already know who it’s gonna be,” Wren said confidently, pointing at herself and ignoring the way Evans rolled his eyes.

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