The doctor’s expression became serious. “Cara, your father was ill for months. David ignored the symptoms, refusing to let me do any tests. By the time he agreed it had progressed too far. He was stubborn, and because of that, there wasn’t enough time.” His face sagged. “David was my friend. If I thought someone was hurting him, I would have done something about it. Hell, he would have said something to the doctors at the hospital. If he believed it was Courtney, why would he protect her? She has had her struggles in life, bringing up two boys on her own, without all the privileges your siblings and their mothers enjoyed. She hasn’t always made the best choices, but I’ve only ever known her to be fiercely protective of those that she loves.”
“Courtney never loved my father, and whether or not you believe it, I know she killed him,” Cara insisted.
“I know her.”
“Do you?”
Dr. Keller stared at her, and then silently walked away, leaving Cara staring at the plate of food she had forgotten she was holding.
CHAPTERFORTY-FIVE
The ceremony was beautiful.The bright Italian sun shone on the couple under the arbor dripping with flowers, the rolling hills of Tuscany covered in new green vines, as their backdrop. Wes couldn’t tear his eyes from where the sun glinted off of Cara’s hair.
Just after dawn, he had awoken to her breath against his chest. In her sleep, Cara had curled towards him with her hands tucked under her chin. Every molecule in his body called for him to hold her close and forget about the world beyond the door, but he hadn’t. A lifetime of determination warred with his heart.
At some point, he had fallen back asleep, and when he woke again, she was gone. A quick survey of the room found she had taken the dress she was supposed to wear and her makeup. Wes hadn’t seen her again until she was standing with her mother. Her smile seemed happy, but he wondered what she was thinking.
Wes knew how Cara felt about her mother’s marriage habit… But even someone with a heart of stone would have found themselves moved by the couple’s open adoration. Wes hadn’t understood a good part of the ceremony conducted in Italian, but the devotion on the faces of Corinne and Alessandro, as they faced each other, was easy to read.
His heart flipped in his chest. There was nothing safe in their expressions. Wes’s eyes strayed again to Cara, where she stood with the bride and groom’s close friends and family, waiting her turn for pictures.
Wes chose a seat at one of the outdoor tables with Melody and Luca. A corner of his mind realized that the clock was ticking on the time left to talk to Melody, but his thoughts returned to Cara again and again.
He had tried to catch her before the ceremony to talk about what she had said the night before. But Cara avoided him with an expertise he hadn’t expected. When Wes stopped at her side while she spoke to Colin, she had refused to speak to him alone. Instead, she had laid her hand on Colin’s forearm to stop him from leaving with a laugh. Her message was unmistakable. Wes had his chance, and now it was gone.
Speaking of which—she was still touching Colin. He knew they were just friends, but he didn’t like how Cara was touching the man more and more. It seemed like every time Wes looked over, they were standing even closer.
“What’s wrong with you?” Melody asked.
Wes rearranged his scowl into a neutral expression. “Nothing at all.” He smiled and lifted his glass of wine saluting the view. “How could someone be unhappy here?”
“You seem off.”
“Do I? Maybe it’s just the beautiful surroundings.” He winked at her. “This is my first time in Italy. Not all of us can be world-traveling models.”
“Are you going to Rome while you’re here?” Her words focused Wes’s attention.
“I hadn’t planned on it, but maybe I should take a few more days off to travel.”
“Ahh, come visit us in Milan!” Luca exclaimed. “We have plenty of room. Don’t we, Bella?”
A slight twitch marred Melody’s perfect forehead.
“Do you remember when we dressed up as Romans for Halloween?” Wes asked Melody. “Everyone said we were too old to go out, but we didn’t care, and when we came back with all that candy the other kids were jealous.”
Melody’s face clouded and then cleared, “Oh, yeah! I forgot about that.” She laughed. “We were such dorks.” She raised her hand to hide her eyes. “I can’t believe I let you talk me into that. Talk about embarrassing! Then again,” Melody smirked at her fiancé, “we ended up at a party with a keg of beer. That, plus the skimpy sheet that made up my toga, got that football player to ask me out. And, he paid for all new makeup at the mall, so I guess it wasn’t for nothing.” Luca and their friends laughed, but Wes didn’t hide his dismay.
“We had fun that night,” he insisted, but her mention of the party created a wrinkle in his memory. Somehow, when he replayed that night in his mind, he had blocked out the keg party.
“Oh, yeah. I’m sure we did,” she agreed. “You were always a great sidekick. Without you, I never would have gotten Josh Bernard to ask me out!”
Her reaction rankled. Wes had told her, that night so many years ago, that it was his first Halloween, and later as an adult, how he looked forward to doing it with his kids someday. His grandparents had never let him trick-or-treat because they viewed Halloween as an anti-Christian holiday. Wes frowned and wracked his mind for a detailed memory of the night. The more he thought about it, he recalled Melody hadn’t gone home with him.
Wes had been ready to leave. Everyone was drinking, and he had a test that week. He needed to get home, but she insisted on staying….
“We had a great time, Wes! I remember,” she said, and Wes realized his thoughts must have played across his face.
“Yeah.” The conversation continued around him, but he felt something massive shift inside him.
