Page 1 of Scarlett and the Big Bad Billionaire
CHAPTERONE
SECOND WIND
You can’t really appreciate the meaning of the word “alone” until you find yourself standing at the altar in a wedding dress in front of all your friends and family… without a groom.
--Scarlett Hood
Actually, I never made it quite as far as the altar—or in this case, the flower-covered arch embedded in the sand between the Aegean Sea and the thirty-five destination wedding guests all trying their best not to look at me as the tardy minutes ticked on.
I stood to one side of the wedding arbor, huddled with my bridesmaids and matron of honor, my sister Maddie.
Waiting.
Her husband Joey and the other groomsmen milled about on the other side in front of the rows of beribboned white folding chairs, some of the guys looking like they were ready to collapse into one.
Several of them were red-eyed and pale.Must have been some bachelor night.
“It was supposed to start fifteen minutes ago. Where is he?” I whispered, fighting back the tears threatening to ruin my meticulously applied wedding day makeup. “Has Joey heard from him today?”
Part of me was still hoping this was one of those “Hangover” movie situations and my fiancé would show up sunburned and repentant—but eager to stand by my side in front of the clergyman currently shifting from one foot to the other while shading his eyes against the already hot summer morning sun.
The more realistic part of me already knew the truth. Bryce wasn’t coming.
“Joey said he walked him to his room when they got in at three this morning and called to make sure he was awake at eight.”
“Why did they stay out tillthree?”
Maddie gave me a raised brow expression that saidYou really have to ask?
Right. Strippers, vodka, and any other vice he could get his hands on during his last gasp of freedom.
“How did he sound?”
She shrugged. “Like he was hung all the way over. Believe me, I’ve already read Joey the riot act—at threeandat eight. But he said Bryce was up and getting dressed when he called.”
“Do you think he could have fallen back asleep?”
While I hated the idea of my fiancé needing to be shaken awake on what was supposed to be one of the most exciting days of his life, I liked the idea of telling all these people the whole thing was off and they’d flown halfway around the world for nothing even less.
Maddie gripped my trembling hand with her warm, steady one. “I’ll ask Joey to go check on him. You hang tight, sweetie. You’ll be walking down that aisle in no time.”
In a lower voice I’m not sure I was supposed to hear, she added, “Even if I have to drag the selfish prick here myself.”
Before she could step across the aisle and speak to her husband, my four-year-old niece Trina ran up to us and embraced the baby bump that protruded from Maddie’s long dress.
My mother was right on her granddaughter’s heels. The expression she wore, like everyone else in attendance, was tense with worry.
“Mommy, mommy, mommy,” Trina said with breathless excitement.
“What is it honey?” Maddie bent down to level her face with her daughter’s. “Do you need to go potty?”
“No, grandma just took me. We saw Uncle Bryce inside the hotel. He says he needs to talk to Aunt Scarlett.”
Wrinkling her nose dramatically, the little girl added, “He looked raggedy, and he smelled funny.”
My heart plummeted to the soles of my bare, freshly pedicured feet. I closed my eyes and swayed a bit.
Maddie put her hand on my shoulder to steady me. “Want me to go?”
