Page 9 of Nothing Breaks Like A Heart

"I do believe you. I'll see you tomorrow." I kissed him again and then turned back to my friends as he left.

"We couldn't let you spend this evening alone," Jamie said as she got up from the couch to hand me a glass of champagne. "It's your last night as a single woman."

"This is really special. I appreciate all of you so much," I added, my gaze sweeping the four women in the room, two of whom would be standing up with me tomorrow.

"We feel the same way about you," Jamie said, giving me a hug. "Sorry if I seemed off earlier. Brad was in a pissy mood. I'm not jealous of your wedding, but he's a little annoyed that we can't afford anything so grand. I was angry with him, not you."

"I understand, and we're good. Everything is good," I said, finally feeling the truth of that statement for the first time all day. I might not know everyone at my wedding, but I had the groom and my friends, and that was all that mattered.

"Change out of those clothes and get comfortable," Harper ordered.

"I'll just be a minute," I said, slipping through the living room into the bedroom, which was a white haven of romantic décor. I took off my dress and put on my comfy PJs. As I put on my slippers, I realized the door to the balcony was slightly ajar, which seemed odd. I must have left it open when I'd changed for dinner.

As I moved to close the door, I heard voices on the lawn, and one sounded like Andrew. When I stepped outside, I saw two people walking away from the building toward a thicket of trees. My heart skipped a beat when I realized it was Andrew, and the woman with him had red hair that glinted in the moonlight. He was with Allison McGuire.

I swallowed hard, my earlier doubts rushing back like a freight train intent on wiping me out. I told myself there was nothing to be concerned about. They weren't touching each other, although they were walking very close together, but they were friends. He'd invited her to the wedding. She was a coworker.

But as they disappeared behind the trees, a number of questions ran through my mind.Was Allison the reason Andrew had been happy to spend the night apart? Why hadn't he told me about her before inviting her? And why hadn't he introduced us at some point tonight?I'd seen her looking at us a few times, and Andrew had gazed in her direction as well, but they'd made no move to connect.Had that been deliberate? Or was I making up problems that weren't there?

I decided to go with the latter, but then a gust of cold breeze came off the ocean, sending another chill down my spine. I shook off the foreboding feeling and forced myself to go back inside. I closed the door and locked it, as if that would banish the worrying thoughts from my mind.

Andrew had told me Allison was just a friend, and I had no reason not to believe him. Once we had the pressure of the wedding behind us, our lives would go back to normal, and I was really looking forward to that, which probably wasn't the sentiment a bride should be having the night before the wedding.

I put a smile on my face and went to join my friends, because no one could know that I was anything less than thrilled.

ChapterThree

My wedding day dawned with bright sunshine and a deep blue sky. It was absolutely perfect, and as I ran along a winding seaside path in the hills above the ocean a little before eight, I savored the warmth of the sun on my head, wanting to soak it in, wanting every step to take away the anxiety I'd gone to bed with and that was still haunting my thoughts.

While the fun night with my friends had distracted me for a while, my worries had returned the second I'd gone to bed, and after hours of restless tossing and turning, I'd gotten up with the sun and decided to do what I always did when my emotions were too much—run. I'd started running when I was a kid, when my mom worked late hours to keep a roof over our heads and I worried about money, or when I felt anxiety every time I had to draw a picture of my family and had only my mom and me to put in it.

I never knew my father. He'd died before my mom found out she was pregnant, and she'd only known him for a few weeks, so she knew next to nothing about him. She said I'd saved her life because she'd been sad after he died, and knowing she was going to have a baby was what kept her going. But her father, my grandfather, had not felt like I was a gift but rather a reminder of his daughter's shame. He'd disowned her and hadn't been around while I was growing up. Since my grandmother had died years earlier and my aunt and uncle lived on the other side of the country, it really was just me and my mom, and she had had to make a lot of sacrifices to raise me on her own.

She'd worked in the hotel business, too, starting as a front desk clerk and working her way up to supervisor and night manager. It was a job with often demanding hours and not great pay, but I'd loved hanging out in the back rooms of the hotel with her, sometimes getting to take a dip in the pool late in the evening when no one was around.

My mother had tried to steer me away from following in her footsteps. She'd insisted she wanted more for me: opportunities to grow, to be in charge, to make good money. So, I'd gone into marketing, and I'd stayed away from the hospitality industry until after she'd died. When the marketing job with the Carrington Group had come up, I'd decided to try for it, because it was a good-paying corporate job but also in a hotel and it felt like it would tie me to my mom in some small way.

That thought brought another wave of sadness, and I increased my pace, wondering why it felt like I was running away from something when it should feel like I was running toward something. I was about to enter a new chapter in my life, one that held promise, love, and excitement. That's what I should be thinking about. That's what I should be running toward.

So I turned around and headed back to the resort, adjusting my earbuds and changing my music to a more upbeat song. As I ran, my sneakers crunched softly against the gravel path that wound along the shoreline. I had a better view of the seashore going in this direction, and the sunlight now cast a warm, golden light over the water, which was mostly calm, just a few ripples now and then.

Catalina was different in the early hours. Quieter. The tourists hadn’t yet descended onto the paths that led into the main town of Avalon, and the buzz of activity that usually filled the air later in the day was replaced by the soft sounds of waves and the distant cries of seabirds. The scent of saltwater and wildflowers drifted on the breeze, mingling with the earthy aroma of sun-warmed sand.

As I drew closer to the resort, I couldn't help but admire the grandeur of the Carrington Coastal Retreat. The hotel and villas with their white stucco walls and red-tiled roofs stood out against the rugged cliffs and hills rising up behind the main building where there were more villas currently under construction. Those wouldn't be opening for another three months, but Victor hadn't wanted to wait a second longer before bringing his new resort out into the world. And I had to admit this place was special.

The resort had been built in a previously unincorporated part of the island. While the main ferry stopped at the bigger harbor in Avalon, a mile away, there was also a private boat dock in front of the resort where Victor's large yacht was already bobbing in its slip along with several smaller boats, some with Carrington Coastal Retreat logos that would be used for sunset and sunrise cruises.

The pretty view drove all the worrying thoughts out of my mind. I had a beautiful day ahead of me. Not only would I marry the man of my dreams, but before that, I would be treated to a day of luxury and pampering, followed by a beautiful oceanfront ceremony on the great lawn and a spectacular reception in the indoor/outdoor banquet facility.

At the end of it all, I would be Andrew's wife, and that's what mattered most. I was going to build a new life with Andrew, and hopefully, we would have children one day. That was one thing we had talked about. We wanted our kids to have two parents to love them and care for them. Andrew had been raised by divorced parents who had hated each other and gone on to marry other people. Once he was of age, they'd had no time for him, and he hadn't talked to them in years. And with my mom gone, I was looking forward to building a new family with him.

Ethan Stark had told me his wife had wanted the wedding, not the marriage, but I definitely wanted the marriage more than the wedding. As if I'd conjured Ethan up with my thoughts, my steps slowed as I saw him standing by the railing in front of the dock. He was dressed more casually today in dark slacks and a short-sleeved black polo shirt. When he saw me, he straightened and moved down the path toward me, as if suspecting I was about to make an abrupt turn and dash through the trees, which was what I wanted to do. But that would make me look guilty of something, and I didn't want to give him the wrong impression.

"Morning," he said with a nod. "How was your run?"

"It was good."

"I didn't expect the bride to be out so early."

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