“You know why!” she snapped. “You know exactly what you did. Don’t bother denying it.”
“This isn’t my fault.”
“Not your fault?” she scoffed. “Whose fault is it then? I’m sorry, I must have missed the part where you had a discussion with Wynter and came to the same conclusion that the two of you wanted to be together. That happened then?”
Marcus couldn’t help but look away.
“My thoughts exactly. So you blindsided her and what? You thought she’d be all smiles and fall into your arms? I don’t know her as well as you do, and even I know that she wasn’t ready for what you pulled. If I had known what you were planning, I would have?—”
“You wouldn’t have been able to stop me, Izzie. I was going to propose no matter what.”
“But in front of all those people? Come on, Marcus!” she said with exasperation. “How could you do that to her?”
Yeah, that was where he’d gone wrong. He hadn’t been thinking. She was right. He should have pulled her aside and told her how he felt about her. He should have told her that he loved her and that he wasn’t going anywhere. He should have convinced her that she could trust him, and that was exactly the opposite of what he’d done.
He swallowed hard and finally met his sister’s eyes. “I messed up. I get it.”
“Yeah, you did.” She continued to scowl at him. “All that hard work.”
Marcus stared at her with curiosity. “Hard work?”
She ignored him. “How could you have been so selfish? You need to fix this. You need to grovel or something.”
“I don’t regret that I asked her, Izzie. I want to marry her.”
“Well, you could have fooled me. Ugh. Men can be so dense sometimes.”
“Hey, maybe go a little easier on him, Iz.”
Isabelle and Marcus turned to find Jason at her back. They’d been so involved in their argument that neither one of them had heard him coming. As thankful as Marcus was for Jason’s interruption, he knew better than to believe he was sticking up for him because they were on the same side.
Nope. Jason didn’t agree with what Marcus had done, he had made that clear before. But Isabelle thought he was taking Marcus’s side.
“Babe, I’m just saying that the guy is in love. You and I can both see that. He wants Wynter as much as I want you.”
Isabelle gave Marcus a look, and her expression softened. “Yeah, I know.”
“So cut him some slack. The guy just had his heart stomped on. I don’t think you need to finish off the job.”
“Gee, thanks,” Marcus murmured.
Isabelle pointed a finger at him. “You’re not getting off that easy. You still have to fix this.”
“I know. Don’t you think I know? But how am I supposed to fix this when she won’t even speak to me?”
“What have you tried?”
“I tried calling. I texted her.”
Isabelle snorted. “Try harder.”
He glowered at his sister. “If you have any suggestions, I’m all ears.”
Marcus staredat the front door. Wynter’s car wasn’t in the driveway. Chances were really low that she was inside the house. But Nora would be. And Marcus knew he had more than one Delaney to apologize to. Last night Nora had been sympathetic. She’d been willing to give him the space to work through what had happened.
If he were lucky, he’d be able to stay on Nora’s good side and get her advice when it came to winning Wynter over.
Again.
