Page 2 of Love in Training
“Uh... Reece? Can I talk to you alone?”
My fist tightens around my bouquet. “No.”
He tugs at his collar, looking past me to Lydia and my mom. Behind him, Anton fills the doorway, a pair of small lines pushed together between his brows.
My heart jumps from a low thud to a stuttering gallop as I realize I’m about to hear something awful. I slept at my mom’s last night. Kyle and I agreed not to call or text in case it was bad luck... but he left a note in my purse. What if he was in an accident? What if he’s hurt? What if—I sway on my feet and close my eyes as the unthinkable crosses my mind.
“Theo, is Kyle?—”
“He’s not coming, Reece,” my brother says quietly. He steps forward, his normally playful demeanor soft and somber.
“Why?” I bring my hand to my chest, trying to breathe, but my lungs are a vacuum. Grief pricks the corners of my eyes. Because the only reason Kyle wouldn’t be here, wouldn’t already be at the altar waiting for me, ready to sayI do—is the very worst reason. The one that, until this moment, had only existed as a distant nightmare in the darkness that sometimes consumes him.
Next to me, my mother whimpers. But then Theo awkwardly shatters my whole conception of worst things.
“Um... I just spoke to him. He was getting on a plane to head back east.”
Air sucks back into my lungs at the realization that Kyle’s alive. But only for a moment before an empty ache squeezes in like a fist.
“Hewhat?” Lydia’s indignation is a shadow of what’s going on inside me. She’s just one hundred percent more capable of speaking.
Theo bows his head. “I’m sorry—I didn’t know, or I would’ve dragged his ass here myself. Maybe I can still?—”
“You think she still wants to marry a guy who abandoned her at the church?” Lydia snaps. Then her face flickers, and she whips her head toward me. “Do you?”
My knees give out. I sink to the floor, champagne silk and lace pooling around me. Aside from some restless noises filtering down the hall from the sanctuary, the room is dead silent. No one around me moves.
I stare at the bouquet still clutched in my hands, the forget-me-nots somehow already more gray than blue as the emptiness in my chest expands, working down into my limbs.
“Did he say why?” I whisper in a voice that doesn’t sound at all like me.
“He just, uh—” My big, fearless Navy SEAL brother chokes. “He said he was trying to protect you? I don’t know. Reece, I’m sorry.”
I look up into Theo’s sorrowful brown eyes. Our mom has moved next to him, clutching her hand to her chest, and as she does, some deeper part of my heart breaks. Kyle hasn’t just hurt me; he’s hurt everyone he loves.
“Trying to protect me?” I murmur.
Theo’s mouth presses into a line. “Look, Caprice, maybe he just got cold feet?—”
“Staff Sergeant Kyle Forbes?” I snarl. “You think a Silver Star-decorated Army Ranger got cold feet about sayingI do?”
“Well, no.” He frowns. “You’re right. But you know, since his injury?—”
“Fuck his injury,” I say, starting to sound more like myself. “He made a full recovery. We worked through his grief over the dog. He helped meplanthis wedding. If he had reservations, he had months to let me know.”
“I’m not defending him.” Theo’s eyes flash. “But I think he’s struggling?—”
“And what am I doing right now?” I smash my bouquet onto the floor, grinding it into the carpet. “Am I supposed to feel bad and forgive him? I’m the one who has to face the people out there.” I gesture toward the sanctuary with my decimated flowers.
“Um, I can handle that...” Anton offers behind me.
“Thank God for a competent man,” I hiss, dragging myself to my feet. I face my tiny wedding party and lift my chin. “Lydia, could you please get me the leggings, sneakers, and hoodie I was wearing this morning? I need out of this dressnow.”
My matron of honor hustles off to find my clothes. Her husband follows her out, on his way to inform my friends and family that I’ve been dumped.
I turn back to my brother, ready to let loose another torrent about Kyle, but when I see his face, I lose my resolve. He looks wrecked. Like he’s been abandoned by a beloved brother, much as I’ve been left by the love of my life.
“Go get changed, Theo. We’re finding the nearest mountain, and I’m not stopping till we’ve climbed to the top.”
