Page 58 of Nothing to the Wedding
The bottom lip wobbled, the eyes teared, and…
Jane just couldn’t keep it in.“He doesn’t love me anymore!”
Falling against Toria, she was held up by one friend as the other stroked her back.
“Who doesn’t love her?”Toria asked.“Because I know she’s not talking about Knox.”
“Can’t be.He’s cuckoo for her.”
“He’s not.”Jane pulled back.“Knox doesn’t love me.”
“He does,” Roxie said.
“Did something happen at the bachelor party?I swear to fucking God I will rip his balls off if—”
“No, it didn’t,” Roxie said.“Nothing like that.Nothing shady or shitty.Knox wouldn’t—Z didn’t say anything.”And it was only Jane’s webbed lashes aiming her way that reminded her of the need for misdirection.“On the phone.Z didn’t say anything when he called me on the phone.Yep.On the phone.”
Good save.She pulled that off… only because Jane’s dismay was elsewhere.
Jane wailed.“Do you think he slept with someone else?”
“No!We would never think that—why would he want someone else when he has you?You’re a ten.He wouldn’t do anything to screw up your relationship.He loves you.”
“But he doesn’t, I don’t think he does anymore.He doesn’t.”
It broke her heart how in her head Jane could get.Her overthinking, her anxiety, it had been more controlled since Knox.While two of them knew what lay ahead, the most important person, Jane, was making up all kinds of scenarios in her head.
“Why would you think he doesn’t love you?”she asked, stroking Jane’s hair.
“Last night, he wouldn’t… and I called, today, and he…”
“Is this because he didn’t screw you last night?”
“No!”Jane said, though maybe not totally convincingly.“He’s all distant.Doing that thing guys do, you know, when they’re over you.He’s over me!I know it!I called him today and he was too busy to talk.He’s never busy.”
“We’re your best friends.”Toria clasped Jane’s face.“If we thought for a second he was screwing around on you, we’d be over there kicking his ass.Trust us when we say he adores you.He’s not over you.”
“You don’t know,” Jane said.“He always listens.He’s never busy.He’s been weird all week.Last night he didn’t want to sleep with me, today he can’t talk.What if it’s the wedding?What if all this… wedding stuff has shown him he doesn’t want to get married?He doesn’t want to settle down.And he doesn’t have to.He’s so gorgeous and sweet and—he could have any woman he wants.”
“Yeah, he could, and he picked you.Just like you picked him.”
“What if he never wants to get married?What if he asks me to choose?”
“Choose what?”
“Marriage or him.Maybe he doesn’t want it.Maybe he thought he did and now he’s seen all this activity—”
“That’s a lot of maybes, honey.”
“It’s been all about the wedding, that’s not that I—I love the wedding stuff, your wedding, I think I… I scared him.”
“Because there were magazines or swatches lying around and he’s too much of a dude to care about that stuff?”
“Know what he does care about?”Roxie asked, hoping her smile might inspire Jane’s.“He cares about you, honey.”
“Care doesn’t mean love, does it?Doesn’t mean forever.I think he did love me—used to love me, thought he loved me—all the bachelor parties… What if he remembers what it was like, before me, when he had fun, and loved his life?His life was better before he met me.”
“That’s you saying that.Not him.He loves you, honey.”
