“You shut your mouth!” Zane’s voice boomed.
My cheeks turned red-hot. If only I could have seen past the spots swirling in my vision, I might have been able to lob what was left of my cake at the guy.
A crowd of wedding guests pressed in, drawn to the commotion. Zane’s teammates crowded between us and the uninvited guests. Bri’s voice came from somewhere in the crowd to my left. “This is not a public space. Get out or I’m calling the police and having you removed.”
The group started to move off, but not before one of them asked Zane for a comment. “Does the King of the Icehave anything to say about his Queen of Icing?”
I looked down at my wrecked gown, mortified as another series of flashes went off.
I heard a scuffle but couldn’t tell what was happening through the press of bodies as I still struggled to reclaim my vision. Blinking several times, I pulled Percy close, hiding my cake-smeared dress behind him.
“I feel sorry for her,” a woman said behind me.
“It’s classic Zane”—came another woman’s voice—“kissing for the cameras.”
I felt like I was going to be sick.
A mix of bridesmaids and other young women gathered around me, pity oozing from their pores. “Don’t feel too bad,” one of them said. “A few of us have fallen for his lines at one point or another. It’s like they say, you can’t find your prince without kissing a few toads.” After a few sympatheticpats, the girls drifted off, and I was left standing there—frosted in icing, dripping punch, and wearing my heart on my sleeve.
My gut twisted.
I had to get out of there. I clutched Percy’s leash and dashed toward the shadows. Not only did I have to get away, I had to do it without being seen. I wasn’t built for a life in the tabloids.
I made it to my car unseen and shut Percy and myself in. I wiped the tears from my cheeks with the back of my arm before clutching the steering wheel with trembling hands. I rested my forehead against it, taking deep breaths to calm my nerves.
“Wren!” Zane called out.
I turned on the ignition, but Zane made it to my window before I could pull away.
“Wren, don’t go.”
I put my window down. “This was a mistake.”
“What? No, it was just those guys?—”
“Zane, please. I need to go.”
“Not like this.” The pleading tone in his voice tugged on my heart, but I didn’t know what to think.
Maybe he was genuine, maybe he wasn’t. I wanted to believe him, but I didn’t know if my heart could take it.
“Wren,” he said, his voice strained and his knuckles white as he clung to my door, “you can’t believe anything those people say. They don’t know me.”
I looked up at him, blinking back my tears. “Honestly, Zane,” my voice cracked, “neither do I.” Percy whined in the backseat when I put the car in gear. “I’m sorry, but I’ve got to go.”
“Don’t go like this,” he said again, his Adam’s apple bobbing with pent-up emotion.
My lips quivered, still burning from the way he’d kissed me. “Good luck on your new team. You’re going to do amazing things.” I swallowed the knot in my throat as I rolled up my window and placed a hand onmy gearshift.
Zane stepped back, pain pinching his brows.
I backed out of my parking space and took off down the road. At the stop sign, I checked my rearview mirror. Zane stood in the middle of the street, silhouetted by the light of an antique lamppost. My chest tightened when his shoulders rounded, and he turned to walk back to the park alone.
That stupid fantasy that Zane could be my Prince Charming sent hot, angry tears to my eyes. The only similarities my life had with a storybook fairy tale was that I was Cinderella, and the clock had just struck twelve. But I hadn’t left behind a glass slipperora phone number.
Vacation was over, and this Cinderella was done.
EIGHT
