Her arm reached, beckoning, grasping, ripping everything away. “Be withme,James. I can give you everything you’ve dreamed of, everything we dreamed oftogether.We can build a life thatwewant, that we’ve talked about for years. Chooseme.”
CHAPTER 5
never
LEXI BYRNE
The ice brokein my throat first, a crack like a gunshot ripping down my neck and chest to my heart, and I yelled,“No!Jimmy, Inevertold you that I was pregnant.”
Mutters disturbed the air, harsh tones becoming angrier by the second.
Jimmy’s eyelids retracted until I could see white all the way around his pale brown irises. He stumbled one step backward from where I stood at the altar as the bride at my own wedding. “Youliedto me about being pregnant?”
I’dnevertold him I was pregnant. I’dsavedmyself all these years because that’s what Jimmy wanted, a wedding night with a virgin, in a grand suite, at a destination wedding.“No!Who is this woman? Why is she evenhere?”
Jimmy stumbled back another step, his hand on his heart as if he were swearing something.“I believed you.”
The trembling in my hands crawled through my body, rattling my knees and shivering in my voice. “Believedwhat?Inevertold you I was pregnant. I would neverdothat! YouknowI’m not pregnant because we’venever—I’venever even?—”
“Who was it?” Jimmy demanded, stricken creases around his eyes. “Was it Mark, the FedEx guy? My mom says you always talk to him longer than you need to when he delivers the packages. Was it that guy you secretly met with on Saturdays at the coffee shop? I saw you with him when I came home for Christmas!”
“Saturday mornings at the Java House? That’s Kathleen. She’s agirl!We have a cup of coffee on Saturday mornings and talk about books!”
“She’s awfully tall to be a girl.”
“Some girls are tall!And if you were so worried, why didn’t you come over and say hi, and I would’ve introduced you toher!”
Jimmy shook his head. “I can’t believe it’s come to this, Lexi. I can’t believeyou,ofallpeople, wouldbetrayme like this, wouldlieto me about something so sacred. I can’t believe it’s ending likethis.”
Everybody in the crowd was talking now, not arguing but accusing.
I shouted above all those stupid voices who had an opinion about the insanity that was ripping through the wedding that I had been planningfor four years.“What theheckis going on? We’re here to getmarried!Iloveyou, and you said you loveme! And I never, ever told you that I was pregnant or ever lied to you!”
Jimmy shook his head.
No,no,he wasshakinghis head.
I couldn’t let this happen. “Some random woman comes in and accuses me of something crazy that I never did,and you justagreewith her and believeherand suddenly it’sover?We’ve been planning this wedding for four years, and Inevertold you I was pregnant because I’mnotandnever have been!”
“You admit that you lied about being pregnant.” He shook his head, his maple-syrup brown hair flopping like a mushroom where it was long on top. “How can I believe you when you used to be an actress in high school? Are you acting now?”
The fist clenched around my heart.“I have never lied to you!”
“My trust in you is broken, Lexi.” He turned to the crowd who’d gathered to watch us get married. “Friends and family,myfriends and family, the wedding isoff.”
Jimmy Johnson walked down the three steps into the aisle between the pews, and he left me where I stood, trembling, at the altar.
My fingernails dug into my bouquet of peach carnations and baby’s breath.
He strode down the center aisle to the double doors at the back of the Las Vegas chapel, shoved the doors open to the afternoon sunlight, and was swallowed by the blinding glare outside.
The minister sauntered after him.
My bridesmaids, Jimmy’s sisters and cousins, followed him away from me.
Everyonestreamed out of the pews and turned their backs on me as they exited the chapel.
Includingher,who pushed through the crowd and ran after Jimmy.
