Page 3 of A Different Husband

Bea shrugged her shoulders. “He also never had to work for her. They’ve been friends their whole lives and started dating early on as well. It has always been a given that they would end up together. My guess is that Beckett can’t appreciate what he didn’t have to work for.”

“That’s fucking dumb,” I groused. “Maybe it isn’t a good idea to go see him. My fist is itching to make contact with his face more than I want to talk sense into him.”

Bea giggled. “He would probably sue you, since Grandpa didn’t even mention him in his Will.”

I grumbled again. “I think everyone forgot that Grandpa might not have mentioned him, or you and Mina, but he did adda stipulation that it was up to me if I chose to share what was handed to me.”

“I don’t want any part of it, so keep it all. I’m pretty sure Mina feels the same.”

“Why?”

Bea shrugged her shoulders. “Money isn’t everything. It might help, but it causes just as many problems as it resolves.” My sister gave me a look that said more than her words did. “Look at what it is doing to Courtney right now.”

“Somehow, I don’t think that has as much to do with money as Beckett would like for everyone to think.” I glanced back down at the text on my phone and re-lived the shock at seeing those words again.

Beckett: Courtney agreed. My wedding is now yours.

I breathed out a heavy sigh and then let my fingers fly across the keyboard on my phone as I responded.

Flynn: We need to meet up.

Beckett: Can’t. Busy at the moment.

I scrolled away from my texts and moved to FlipStack, the social media of choice for people who love putting it all out there. Sure enough, a picture had been uploaded to my cousin’s page showing him at Porter’s Pub. Bea leaned over and noticed what I was looking at.

“I hope Courtney hasn’t seen this.” We both stared down at the image of my cousin with a blonde plastered to his side and some of his buddies cheering him on in the background. “He’s in full-on celebration mode.”

“On second thought, I don’t need to go see our cousin. I’m going to head over to Courtney’s place.”

“Let me know if you need backup.”

“For what?”

“All the emotions,” Bea whispered sadly as she grabbed her purse and got ready to leave my house.

“Hey!” I called out to her. When she turned my way I offered a smile to my sister. “You never mentioned why you stopped by.”

“I just wanted to check on you, with the wedding two weeks away, I figured you’d be stewing in all that unrequited love you had for Courtney. Your player ways never fooled me, Flynn.” She waved her hand as she turned and left my house. I stood there and stared at the door as it closed behind my sister. Sure, she knew about my crush on my cousin’s girl years ago, but I thought everyone bought the fact that I loved my single, no-strings take on dating. There had been women in and out of my life, and my bed, over the years, especially after Court and Beckett announced their engagement, but none of it had been satisfying. It was all a distraction to try to take my mind off the one woman I wished I could have. I guess I hadn’t done that great a job, since my sister saw through it.

Chapter 3

COURTNEY

I swiped at my face,surprised that there weren’t any tears to wipe away. Beckett left a few hours ago, and with him, my heart seemed to freeze over. One day, when it thawed, the tears would come. Until then, I was left to stew in a numb state of disbelief. How could he do this to me - two weeks before our wedding?

A knock at the door startled me out of the loop of never-ending questions that Beckett would never answer. I couldn’t get that look of satisfaction and anticipation out of my mind. He was happy to break things off and shove me off to someone else. When I finally made it to the door, my heart hammered against my chest. Part of me hoped it was my fiancé, back to say it was some awful social media prank for views on FlipStack or something. The other part of me was afraid that it might be someone else, and I would have to face my emotions. As I stood there debating between which inevitability was better, someone knocked on the door again.

I didn’t even bother to look through the peephole. Instead, I opened the door and stepped back in time to see Flynn with his hands stuffed into his pockets as his eyes raked over me. “Courtney,” His voice was soft and filled with understanding as Icrumbled before him. Flynn reached out and pulled me into his arms. He must have closed and locked the door, though I wasn’t aware of it. Before I checked back into reality, we were already seated on my couch with me cuddled up on Flynn’s lap as his hand traced soothingly up and down my back and he quietly murmured nonsense words to calm me.

“How could he?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” Flynn answered. “I thought he was joking when he told me he was going to ask you to do this.”

“I thought he might be joking too, but then…” I cut myself off and sniffled instead of finishing.

“But then?” He encouraged me to get it all out. I leaned back, and realized just how close I was. It was only then I truly registered that I was seated on Flynn’s lap.

“Shit!” I jumped back off his legs and settled in beside him instead. “Beckett looked pleased with himself. I swear, Flynn, it looked like he was a kid who knew all the Christmas presents under the tree were for him and he was ready to dive in.”

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