Page 104 of On The Rocks

Donny snorted. “Hardly. Took him two point seven seconds to fall in love with his wife. What does that tell ya?” He turned to me and deadpanned. “Those biker bitch boys are the biggest gossips in town. They all blame Tristan for talkin’ outta turn, but at least he deals in facts.”

“Atlas is the worst one.” Abe scraped a hand down his face. “Now I get why Maeve looked so weird yesterday when I mentioned it to her. She must’ve thought I was some weird old gossip?—”

My body locked, my gut clenching painfully. “Wait, what?”

“Yeah,” he reiterated. “I mentioned something to Maeve about your forced marriage. It’s no wonder she looked so confused there for a second.”

My blood whooshed in my ears, and a realization hit me square in the chest.

I never came clean to Maeve about Paddy’s bullshit marriage ultimatum.

Jesus fuck.

I didn’t tell her at first because she may have called it off, and I would’ve lost the bar. In my mind, we weren’t going to be married for long, and I didn’t really know her anyway, so I never took her feelings into account. The asshole I was back then didn’t really care how she felt.

Then, after a while, it became less important. If anything, I looked at what happened as a blessing, but I knew Maeve enough now to realize that if she ever found out why I proposed, she’d understandably feel like I’d lied to her. She usually believed the worst of herself, and I knew this would be a huge blow to her self-confidence. If she thought I’d been forced into our marriage, she’d take that shit on herself.

Maeve asked me outright if there was anything else she needed to know about me or our marriage that might blindside her, and I’d categorically told her no. But as stupid as it sounded, it just didn’t occur to me. It didn’t matter to me how we got together; I didn’t care.

But I knew she would.

A lot.

Jesus, I’d taken money from Patrick for her, too. Fifty K had sealed the deal. If my wife found out what I’d done, she’d fucking flip. If she found out from somebody gossiping, she’d fucking explode. I was already on my last chance... what if…?

Jesus Christ.

I scraped a hand down my face and tried to control the sense of panic filling my lungs.

Why was it suddenly so hard to breathe?

Fuck.

“It’s fine,” Donny assured Abe. “Callum’s been honest since day one.”

“Well...” My voice trailed off.

My brother squinted at me, his head tilting to one side. “You have been honest, right? I told you to lay it all out for her.” He leaned toward me and bit out, “I told you to make sure you discussed everything with her from the get-go.”

“And what if she’d have said no to the wedding?” I demanded. “What then?”

“Then we would’ve sorted something else out, you fucking idiot!” Donovan yelled. “We stood in your office and talked about it. My exact words were, tell her everything and make sure nobody gets hurt.”

I scraped a hand down my face. “I know, I know, but I forgot.”

“You forgot?” Donovan snapped. “What the actual fuck?”

“Look,” Abe interjected, nodding toward the door. “I gotta get back to Iris. I’m sorry I can’t hang around and?—”

I waved his apology off. “It’s cool. Thanks for filling me in.”

Abe gave me a loose-fingered salute and exited the joint like his ass was on fire.

Couldn’t blame the dude. Talk about a drama, though I blamed my biker buddies. Why were those dumb fucks discussing my marriage anyway? Small-town gossip spread likewildfire. Once this got around—and honestly, I was shocked it hadn’t already—some well-meaning busybody would approach my wife and put all kinds of bullshit in her head.

Closing the door behind Abe, I turned to Donovan. “I gotta talk to Maeve.”

His head reared back.“Ya think?”

---