There’s pity in his voice. He’s patting himself on the back for his own generosity when he justdumped meafter months of wedding talk. Jesus Christ.Hewas the one who was pushing to reserve the church before he’d even proposed.
I glance at my watch. “Thanks, but a few of my friends are meeting at this pop-up bar at the Seaport, and if I hustle, I can catch them.”
This is entirely untrue, but Devon Hunt has just spent an entire weekend blowing Thomas up, convincing him he’s a unicorn, so I’m reminding him I might be one too.
A unicorn he caught, then released into the wild when he forgot she was rare.
“Oh, right,” he says, brow furrowed. “If you’re sure you’re, uh, okay.”
“Of course. But since you did dump me, I’m going to let you get the check.” I offer him a cheeky grin and a wink as I grab my purse and walk out.
Ten minutes ago, Thomas thought he had the upper hand. Ten minutes ago, Thomas thought I wanted to marry him and would be brokenhearted when he didn’t propose.
Now, Thomas gets to watch me walk away and wonder if he made a mistake.
He gets to wonder why he hasn’t broken me.
He doesn’t know that Elijah Cabot beat him to the punch.
2
EASTON
I’m in the middle of packing my suitcase for the trip home the next day when Elijah’s sister calls. Kelsey has been my best friend for more than two decades, and the way her brother broke my heart is one of very few things I’ve never told her.
“Let me see the ring!” she squeals.
My chest constricts. It’s weird the way I’ll forget for a couple seconds that I just got dumped and then remember as if it’s happening anew. And it hurts, but not the way it should. I think, mostly, that it’s shock. Shock and my complete inability to believe he meant it.
“I’ve been waiting all morning for a text,” she continues breathlessly. “I didn’t want to call in case you two were having amazing post-engagement intercourse.”
As if Thomas and I would ever stay up all night doing anything.
“So...he actually broke up with me instead,” I say. It hurts, but for some reason I laugh.
It’s just fucking bizarre,still, that it all turned out the way it did.
She sucks in a breath. “Wait...is this a joke?”
I shut my door, so that my roommates don’t overhear. I’ll tell them about the breakup, but not every horrible detail of it.
“Nope,” I reply. “He was off with Devon Hunt all weekend, and Devon convinced him that he’s too young to be getting tied down.” I set a stack of T-shirts in my suitcase then lie down in bed. I have more than my share of absent-minded scientist inside me—if I try to multitask here, I’ll wind up leaving my bridesmaid’s dress behind. Or all my underwear and socks—and God knows I can’t replace them in my hometown. We don’t even have a real grocery store.
“But...but...he bought the ring,” she argues.
I understand her inability to accept this. I’ve made the same arguments all morning myself.He bought the ring, he had it sized, he chose a wedding venue, he reserved a church.
If we lived in medieval times, treatment of this kind would be the gravest insult. One of my brothers would probably need to duel for my honor, and they would, but mostly because they love guns.
“Crazy, right?” I ask. “I felt like such an asshole. And I blew fifty bucks on a blowout too.”
“Easton,honey,” she gasps. “How can you sound so calm? This is terrible.”
She expects me to be destroyed, and maybe I would be if I thought this was real but probably not. You can only break someone badly once. Her brother took care of that ages ago.
“I’m fine,” I reply, surveying the piles of clothing on my bed. God only knows what I’m going to wear down south for the next two weeks. I’ve been in Boston for most of the past nine years.
“This all worked out perfectly. Since I already got the lab covered for that trip to Sweden we’re no longer taking”—Another thing I can’t get over—how quick he was to cancel all our plans without a second thought—"I’m going to come home before the wedding instead and help you with all the last-minute shitbefore you go to New Orleans. I’m just sorry if you’ve already finalized numbers with the caterer.”
