“She’s in the Carriage House with the bridal party… and three extra ladies that we did not plan on hosting this evening.”
“Oh God.” Anton’s hand went to his brow as he groaned. “I’m sorry. My mother is…” He couldn’t seem to find the words at first. “She’s… persistent.”
“She’s definitely that. She dropped off those extra guests to crash the bachelorette party.”
Anton grimaced, but there was a look of hope in his eyes. “If it makes you feel better, Charlotte and Myrtis will probably keep to themselves and gossip about nonsense back home.”
I gave him a pointed look. “Would they maybe gossip about, I don’t know, you and Bella Rivera?”
Anton’s eye twitched.
“Yep, she’s there right now, making herself comfortable,” I confirmed. “Apparently, Patty wants us to treat her like one of the family, and if I had to guess, I’d say she’s hoping that you’ll trade Lacy in for Bella before the weekend is out.”
Anton grabbed his stomach as if I’d just punched him in the gut before recovering enough to say, “Lacy knows I only want her.”
I frowned at this man. If he truly believed that anyone, even our bold and confident Lacy, could stand up against his mother without any insecurities or vulnerabilities showing, then he didn’t realize the subtle cruelty Patty Swanson could inflict. I’d known her for maybe an hour, and I could already tell she was like a spider with a bite that goes unnoticed until the poison has already set in.
Anton cowered a bit under my disapproval and slumped back against the wall, reminding me of his drunken state two months earlier, when he’d been the one insecure and pining for Lacy after the death of her high school sweetheart. “Bella and I… we… it was never serious, not to me.”
“And to Bella?”
He let out a heavy sigh. “I don’t know. She probably expected… something.”
“Something round and shiny?”
He lifted a shoulder as ifto say,Maybe.
I still couldn’t tell if he was playing dumb or if he was actually this dense, and he seemed to sense as much.
“We grew up together,” Anton said, trying to explain. “Same grade level, same Sunday school classes, same kickball team—the Swanson Swans, if you can believe it. My parents always joked about me and Bella getting married someday, and when I was in my listless phase after college, trying to figure out how to tell them that I didn’t want to run the family business, she was there and… I don’t know, she was familiar.”
“How familiar?” I asked, although I already knew the answer. They’d obviously dated, and she’d hoped it would end in marriage. His mother had hoped for that as well.
“We dated for three years, but I never asked her to marry me. In all that time, I didn’t even bring up the idea.” His expression said he was at a complete loss to explain the appearance of this woman.
“Did Bella talk about marriage?”
Anton nodded as his cheeks reddened. “Mother took her to Houston to look at rings, and she gave me a list of the settings Bella liked.”
My irritation with Anton was growing by the second. “And you didn’t stop either of them then and there?”
“I did,” Anton said, hands outstretched as if to prove his innocence. “Eventually, I broke things off.”
“Eventually?”
“It took me some time.” His face crumpled.
I crossed my arms, waiting for him to continue. There was something he wasn’t saying.
“A year, okay? It took me a year. I wrote her a letter, telling her things were over, then I packed a bag and left for Houston. I stayed on a college friend’s couch. I got a job as a waiter, and a few months later, I met Lacy while she was there for a conference.”
“So, Bella hasn’t seen you since…”
“Since the day I left, I swear.” He cringed at his own words. “That must’ve been almost two and a half years ago now. I know how it sounds, like I’m some kind of…”
“Coward?” I finished for him.
“I’ve never been good at letting people down,” Anton admitted. “It was easier to leave.”
