Page 75 of The Backup Groom
ChapterSixteen
Amber
“You kissed him?! Are you serious?” Stella yelled and clutched me by the shoulders after I arrived back to work and told her the latest news. “Did you get it on video?”
Highly amused by her reaction, but equally embarrassed by her volume, I placed my hand over her mouth and pushed her into the cubicle. “Shh!” I got on my tip-toes and peeked to see if anybody in the office had heard her outburst.
Of course they heard.
They always did.
My coworkers’ heads were bobbing up and down in their cubicles, looking in our direction. It was par for the course since Stella didn’t understand the concept of aninside voice.
“Conference room—now.” She dragged me down the hallway. After closing the conference room door behind her, she pointed to the chair. “Sit and spit.”
“Are you a dentist now?” I asked. “I think you meanspill. As in spill the beans.”
Stella dragged a chair over and sat next to me. “Whatever.” She waved her hand as if she were swatting a pesky fly. “Spit. Spill. Regurgitate. Tell me everything. Now.”
Before I could answer, she hit me with rapid fire questions I could hardly keep up with. “Did you strangle Maggoty Mercedes? Did she bribe Rectum Ryan? Did you bring me a cake-batter donut? Are you still engaged?” She shook her head and held up her hand. “Screw that, how was the kiss?”
I sighed and tried to remember all the questions. “No. Yes. No. AndNo.” I showed her my ringless finger. “As for the kiss, it literally knocked the wind out of me. Seriously, I almost passed out.”
“Not a surprise. At. All!” Stella bounced up and down in her seat and clapped with elation. “I mean, how could he not be a good kisser with those full, luscious lips of his?”
I crossed my arms, messing around with her. “Uh, excuse me?”
“Oh, come on, any woman with eyesight better than a bat is going to notice that lethal mouth. Anyway, this means you can marry Scotty!”
Feeling almost as giddy as her, I still had some reservations. That’s why I wanted to talk to Stella, she was my sounding board.
I nodded. “If he wants to, yes.”
“If he wants to? What planet are you living on?” she said. “You should have seen his face when you walked out. Believe me, he wants to, and badly.”
While I was glad to hear it, I still winced. “I feel bad about leaving the way I did, but my mind wasn’t in a good place. I was so livid with Maggoty Mercedes I wasn’t thinking straight.”
“Well, don’t worry about her. Scotty will walk down the aisle with you, and there’s no way she’ll be able to change his mind. That man is head-over-heels for you.”
I frowned. “I guess I’m scared because I don’t want to mess this up. The last thing I want is another divorce.”
“Why would you even want to go there? You were looking for someone to marry to get your inheritance, remember? That’s foremost. And isn’t it much better that it’s someone cool, like Scotty?”
“Yeah . . .”
“Now, I have a feeling it’s going to turn out to be much more than a financial arrangement between the two of you, but there’s no reason to fill your head with hypotheticals and what-ifs. You’re smarter and wiser now. Plus, it’s not the same thing. Scotty isn’t anything like Douchey Dennis. You know that. I know that. Scotty certainly doesn’t care about your money. He cares about you.”
Douchey Dennis was Stella’s nickname for my ex-husband. He had the nerve of telling me I was taking way too long to get over my grandparents’ breakup. He capped off his stupidity and lack of compassion by saying, “You’re really bringing me down.” Keep in mind that was exactly one week after my grandparents had told me the news.
I’ll admit my grandparents’ breakup had devastated me, even more than my own parents’ divorce, because at least I had seen my parents’ divorce coming from a mile away. My grandparents’ divorce was like a slap to the face, then two more slaps after they had moved away: Grandma to Arizona, Grandpa to Florida.
They were everything to me.
They were my solid rock when my parents moved to Alaska, then split up.
And my husband had pushed the wrong buttons.
Filing for divorce was an easy decision. Especially after I caught him that same week at our favorite gelato shop with a female coworker when he was supposed to be at poker night with the guys. I signed the divorce papers so quickly I strained a muscle in my right hand.
