Page 175 of From Best Friend to Bride
I turned to my sister. “What are you doing awake at this time?”
“Is that a question you should be asking me?” she drawled. “I got back earlier, and Harry told me everyone had been forbidden from going into your wing of the house tonight. Is something wrong?”
Ah.
I’d forgotten that.
I sat down with a sigh and sipped the whisky, relishing the burn as it went down my throat. “Me and Deli had a fight, that’s all.”
She glanced at the papers on my desk and walked into the room, beelining for them. She snatched them up and stared between them and me, her head jerking back and forth. “Are you—no, Fred. Don’t do it.”
“I’m not.”
“It’s just a fight, and—wait, what?” She blinked at me, clutching the papers so hard that they wrinkled under her touch. “You’re not divorcing her? Then why are you looking at these? Wait, what’s even going on with you two? First it was fake, then I thought it was real, and I can’t make up my mind.”
My sister was an idiot.
“Give them back.” I held out my hand, and she took a step away from me, widening her eyes. I sighed. “You knew thiswasn’t a real marriage from the beginning. What on Earth made you think it was at any point?”
“I don’t know… The way you’re always together, your physical contact, the way you sleep together… Oh, and the fact you look at each other so disgustingly I want to claw my own eyes out.”
That was rich, coming from Little Miss PDA herself.
“What do you mean?”
Mel threw the divorce papers on my desk. “You don’t know? You’re obviously in love with each other.”
I stared at my sister. “You think Deli’s in love with me?”
“Oh, only me and every single person in this house.” She tilted her head to the side. “You’re in love with her, too, right?”
“Yeah.” I rubbed my hand across the back of my neck and looked down. “She told me to let her go earlier.”
“Nooo.” Mel clambered onto the chair on the other side of the desk, crossed her legs in it, and leant forwards. “What did you do, Fred?”
I waved my hand dismissively and sat back up, reaching for my drink. “You don’t need to know that. But the thought that I could lose her…”
“You haven’t told her, have you?”
I stared at my sister. “When have I been able to do that? This all happened so quickly, then Nana got more unwell, then she died, and Deli was grieving, and…”
“You’re a coward, Frederick Wellington.”
I’d been called many things, but never a coward. “Hey—”
“You. Are. A. Coward.” She slapped her knees on the final word. “You haven’t told her because you’re afraid. Aside from the back it’s glaringly obvious that she’s in love with you, Deli wouldneverbe cruel to you for sharing your true feelings, evenif she didn’t feel the same way. You’re just a coward who’s using the events of the last few months to justify why you haven’t told your wife and best friend that you’ve fallen in love with her.”
I pressed my lips together.
I wanted to argue, but her words stung with the essence of truth. “I didn’t want to overwhelm her,” I muttered into my glass. “It might be obvious to you, but I didn’t really consider it until tonight.”
Mel stared at me, saying nothing. Her eyes were full of judgement and screamed out her earlier words: that I was a coward.
“I’m going to tell her, all right?” I put the glass down with a clunk. “I can’t go back to before, Mel.”
“Why aren’t you telling her right now then, scaredy-cat?”
“She’s asleep. I tried to tell her tonight, but it wasn’t that simple.”
