Page 65 of Catch and Release Groom

Vulnerable, erratic beats echoed through her head, marking the seconds that ticked by in ringing silence.

Then he flattened his lips into a firm line, and did that mean he was still processing, or had he moved to stalling?

Tears blurred his features, and she swallowed, hard. “See? What am I supposed to think when I just put my heart out there, and it doesn’t seem to matter? You’re still racing off to your high school sweetheart, who messaged you at one in the morning onthe day of her wedding, only to call again mere minutes before she’s supposed to walk down the aisle.”

Easton’s expressions flickered through options like one of those colorful gameshow wheels, round and round, and then landing…on…steely anger.

Bold choice.Imogen’s fists curled at her side as she prepared her side of a verbal match he hadn’t a chance at winning.

“How do you know she messaged me at one in the morning, Imogen?”

Well, shit. Slight recalculation, with an added buffer for eating crow, and her totally valid objections slipped through her fingers. She changed course, figuring it’d be easier to get this part of their discussion over and done.Even if it wasn’t the ordershewould’ve preferred. “I saw the alert on your phone, okay? I didn’t mean to look, but it popped up, and I tried not to care or read too much into it, but I guess I care.”

Hey, if he got to be jealous and territorial, so did she.

“Why?” His incredulity fed her indignation and, cocky guy that he was, he probably thought he’d diverted her attention from his failure to reply to her confession. “This thing with Grace, I’m sure it’ll end up being nothing. She’s likely just havin’ cold feet and needs me to remind her this is what she wants.”

“This,as in, this wedding?” Imogen cringed at the shrill pitch but was useless to stop it. “Or this as inyou?”

Bafflement creased his features, as if the implications were previously lost on him. “The last thing I’d ever do is go back to Grace, if that’s what you’re worried about.” He tipped his head toward the seated rows of people and giant gazebo draped with gossamer curtains and twinkle lights. “See that poor fellow standing next to the altar, checking his watch and tugging at his bow tie?”

Imogen swayed forward to get a better peek around the tree trunk.

“A year and a half ago, that was me,” Easton continued. “Do you have any idea what that does to a person?” At long last, his eyes met hers, but he’d shuttered them from her, and the lack of emotions left the golden-brown unfamiliar and cold.“Do you?”he snapped, and Imogen jumped.

Pieces she’d missed before clicked into place, forming a more comprehensive picture. She’d thought it odd he was so upset about her not having a husband the first day they met, and there’d been the brick wall he’d erected after her runaway bride confession.

Yes, he’d mentioned the previous engagement, but she’d been so wrapped up in her mission and the nonstop activities to actually listen. She’d never put together that the situations were so similar.

Even with the rapid blinking of her lashes, she couldn’t keep the tears at bay anymore, and one slipped free and splatted her cheek. “I don’t,” she said with a sniff. “But I know what it’s like to look around and feel like your life is suddenly spinning out of control, and of being terrified I’d live to regret my decision, while also realizing fear wasn’t a good enough reason to say ‘I do.’

“It’s agonizing to know you’ll hurt someone you love.” Her next words came out croaky. “Still not enough to stand at an altar and make vows you can’t keep.”

The moment of truth barreled down on them, and Imogen told herself she could take it, whatever their pasts meant for their future. “Do you think you could ever overlook the fact that I called off my wedding? The truth is, I’m not completely done untangling the mess I made. Say we text and call, and we get through that…” She extended a shaky hand, silently begging Easton to grab hold and calm her inner turmoil. “Do you think you and I have something worth pursuing?”

One second tiptoed into two before pirouetting into three, sashay, and four.

Then splat on the floor, along with her heart.

Decadesspent implementing logic and minimizing risk, and within a week of relinquishing control, she’d done the most illogical, high-stakes thing of all: she’d fallen in love with a man who didn’t love her back.

…

Easton’s phone went off again, and he and Imogen both remained frozen, as if they were in the wild west and the first person to move would get shot. The past few minutes opposite Imogen certainly felt like being on the wrong side of a firing squad.

After a brief and endless eternity, he metaphorically drew first, but his leaden gut made it impossible to feel good about it. “I don’t have time for this. I’ve got to go see what Grace needs.”

Imogen’s face crumpled, the disappointment in her expression resonating in his chest as well. “If that’s what you feel you have to do, I won’t stop you,” she said. “But I’ve given you two giant openings you didn’t take, and here I still stand, practicallybeggingyou to stop me from walking away.”

This stretch of silence was different. Heavier. Definitive.

Imogen shook her head, already pivoting on the ball of her foot.

Anger flared and pumped hot through his veins, and he hated that his emotions were so fucking near the surface today—the setting was too similar, all the stares and whispers triggering multiple flashbacks.

“Let me get this straight.” He flung the words at her retreating backside. “If I don’t answer a distress call, you’ll prove you’ll stick around by fleeing the scene?”

The line of her shoulders snapped tight, and his muscles tensed as well, bracing for the oncoming vitriol. A week in, and she was already telling him how it was and what he was doing wrong.

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