Page 143 of Return to Us
I look around but don’t see her. “I’ll go find her,” I tell him.
As I start to walk over to the tree line, Jessica comes rushing over from across the tented area. “Where are you going?”
“Nowhere. I’m just looking for Stella.”
She peeks around. “Well, she’s not here, we should dance.”
“You said you wanted to sit.”
“I did. I sat. I’m fine. Let’s go. I like this song.”
I look over to the floating dance floor in confusion. “There’s no music playing.”
“We make our own music,” she says a bit too quickly.
“Jessica, what are you talking about?”
She laughs, and then I hear something in the woods. Her hand grabs mine, tugging me away. “Come on, babe. It’s our wedding day.”
“So you’re going to pretend? Like . . . it’s nothing?” Stella’s voice is muffled, but I know it’s her.
There’s a low reply, but I can’t make it out.
“We have to deal with this. We can’t . . . we can’t pretend anymore.” There is a layer of hurt and desperation in Stella’s voice.
I turn to my wife with a brow raised. “Is that why you want to dance?”
She releases a low breath, which is much more of a defeated sound. “Let your sister work this out.”
“You know what’s going on?”
Jess snorts. “I know everything.”
“Then who the hell is at our wedding that she—”
I’ll kill him.
I’ll fucking kill him.
I turn, moving quickly in the direction of where the voices are.
“You still have feelings for me, I know you do!” Stella says, and I pick up the pace.
Still?
“I don’t.” I hear Jack, clear as fucking day. “I do . . . Ican’t.”
“You can’t pretend with me, Jack.”
“We can’t,” he says.
When I get to the clearing where they’re standing, his hands are on her arms and she’s clutching his shirt. My heart is pounding as I stare at my best friend, staring at my sister as though he’s broken. “God, Stella, we can’t.” Then, before I can say anything, he crushes his lips to hers.
Jessica is trying to pull me back, but I see red. How the hell could he do this? He said it over and over again that he didn’t like her. I never imagined theherwould be Stella.
He doesn’t like her? Then allow me to remind him.
“Get your fucking hands off my sister,” I say, my voice sounding foreign to me.
