Page 25 of The Promises We Break

Literally.

“Okay, let’s call it a day and meet in the morning. I have a few people to introduce you to before our first client meeting.” We gather a few things from her office and make our way out through the expansive floor to ceiling glass doors.

“Sounds great and thanks again, Elena. I’ll see you—” My words are cut off, certainly by lack of oxygen to my brain, due to a certain broad-shouldered, dark-haired, brown-eyed, Johnny Bravo jaw-lined god, standing in the middle of the lobby.

Myhusband. Who is dressed in a goddamn suit and tie like he owns the goddamn building.

Oh, god. Does he own the building?

He’s mid sentence talking to another man.Shit. The Vegas groom.

Shit. Shit. Shit.

Somehow my body channels Gumby at this exact moment. Everything in my hand falls to the floor, and I falter in my step, tripping over my own heel before my hand finds the leather surface of the lobby couch and I’m able to grow my bones back.

The moment everything hit the floor, both guys looked our way. Hudson’s arm juts out to his side, his palm and forearm landing on the groom’s arm while his other hand flies over his own chest, like he might be having a heart attack.

Hudson is just as shocked to see me.

“What the hell?” comes from someone. The groom, I think.

“What is he doing here?”My voice, a whisper to myself, or so I thought until Elena speaks up.

“You know him?” she asks.

Know him? Barely.

Married to him? Yup.

“Yes.” Another hardly audible whisper.

Gathering myself together, I pick up my binder and iPad off the floor. Fortunately, the case protected it from any damage, which I’m so thankful for, considering it’s only day one. Standing tall, I turn back to Hudson and silently beg, with every form of body language I have, that he doesn’t say anything.

“Hey, honey.” Elena sails past me into the arms of the groom as he plants a kiss to her lips.

You have got to be kidding me.

“Jake and Hudson. This is my new marketing manager, Ember Riley.”

“Ember Byrnes. Her last name is Byrnes,” Hudson says, barely letting Elena finish the introduction. “My wife.”

Elena’s eyes bounce back and forth between the two of us, then back at her husband.

“Oh.” Her lips purse and form a very large “O” as realization hits her.

Wait. His last name is Byrnes? I couldn’t have accidentally married into a worse last name for myself.Ember Byrnes.

“We’ll let you two… catch up,” Jake says, grabbing Elena’s hand as she looks at me with the same facial expression you give a dying dog, and I immediately know she knows everything.

Great. My new amazing boss knows I got drunk-married in Vegas last weekend.

Awesome.

The moment they step away, I shift my gaze to Hudson, who is still in only what can be described as shock.

“What are you doing here?” I whisper-yell at him.

“ME? What areyoudoing here?” he whisper-yells back.

---