Tears slip down my cheeks, hot and fast. “It started out as a stupid, drunken mistake. I didn’t expect it to turn into something real.”
Maddox growls at that, and I can practically see his hackles rising. “Whatwas a drunken mistake? I’m going to need you to stop being cryptic and fucking explain, because the conclusions I’m jumping to are all going to result in my best friend getting his face broken in.”
Pretty sure the truth is worse than whatever my brother is thinking, but I can’t hide this from him or Isla any longer. Especially if I’m asking to stay with them. They deserve to know why. Even as resolve fills me, my body shakes and my lower lip trembles.
“Our marriage.”
Silence. Dead fucking silence meets those two words, and I swear the air grows thick and charged as my brother struggles to digest what I said.
“I must have misheard you,” Maddox says with a slow, measured cadence that belies his internal struggle to remain calm. “I could have sworn I just heard you say the thing that was your drunken mistake was your marriage.”
Swallowing over the lump in my throat isn’t easy, but I manage it and look my brother in the eye as I nod. “You didn’t mishear me. It—it happened in Vegas. We were drunk, which was mostly my fault, and then we were walking around the Strip, and there was a young Elvis and a Dolly Parton, and then I woke up with a ring on my finger and Griffin next to me, and the next thing I know, he’s convinced me to give our marriage a shot, and I didn’t think it would work, but then I fell in love with the stupid idiot, and then he went and fucked it all up today, and I don’t know what I’m supposed to do now.”
Once I start speaking, the words come out in a rush. It’s all one big run-on sentence of my truth, pain, and fears, and by the end, I break down into a sobbing, snotty mess. As Isla gathers me into a hug, I close my eyes while my brother’s form seems to grow and expand beside me.
He pushes up off the couch and shouts, “That motherfucker! I’m going to kick his fucking ass. I warned him to keep his hands off you. Iwarnedhim.” Maddy paces in front of the couch. “Married. You’remarried?”
“We were going to tell you all at dinner this week.”
“Vegas was like three and a half months ago, Mira. You’ve kept this from me for three and a half months, which means my best friend—no, myformerbest friend—has been lying to me for almost four months. Four months!”
My chest tightens at the look of absolute betrayal etched into every line of my brother’s face. This is bad. This is so bad.
“I trusted him. I trusted him, and this is how he repays that? And you”—Maddox turns his ire on me—“you know what he’s like. I thought you were more mature than this. To get so sloppy drunk that you marry the one guy on my team who has never grown up… I don’t fuckin’ get it, Mira.”
Despite Griffin not showing up for me today, despite that damn photo that ripped my heart to shreds, I can’t stop myself from standing up, going chest to chest with my brother, and letting him have it. “Don’t. Don’t you dare, Maddox. You claim he’s your best friend, but you don’t know him at all, do you? If you did, you’d never say something like that about him. Never grown up…” I scoff, enraged for my husband, even now.
“You don’t even realize he’s the glue that holds your stupid hockey team together, do you? Hell, he’s the glue that kept you and Isla together. He’s always there for everyone without having to be asked. He shows up, day after day after day, and encourages you morons, pushes you to be better on and off the ice, and does it all with a smile on his face.
“The minute I said I needed a place to stay, Griffin was there with an offer to help. He never let me pay rent, never asked me for a thing. Hell, he never even lets me pay for groceries. Do you know he had someone remodel the guest room for me? And it’sperfect. It’s cozy and beautiful and exactly what I would have chosen for myself, and he did all of it without being asked or asking for athank youin return.
“No one has been a bigger supporter of my business than Griffin. Not only did he set up the meeting with the University of Michigan this weekend, but do you know what I found out a while back? He’s been telling all his hockey buddies about me and sending them my way when they want to rebrand or set up websites. Never told me he was doing it, either. The only reason I know is because one of the guys spilled the beans.
“And when my stupid, ancient car broke down, he bought me a brand-new one. Did he tell you that? I tried to make him take it back, but he wouldn’t hear of it. All he cared about was that I was safe.
“And what about what he did for you? You almost lost the woman you love because you were too hurt to go after her, so he did that for you. He made sure you didn’t blow up your life because of some dumb understanding. You’re marrying her because your best friend cared too much about both of you to let you blow it all up.”
I’m sobbing now. Each word is a knife that slices off a little piece of my heart and the anger I’ve been feeling toward Griffin. Each truth I recount makes me question the photo and the events of the day. Because with every word I speak, it becomes clearer and clearer that Griffin Wright isn’t just a good man—he’s a great one.
And I am exactly like my brother.
When Maddox overheard Isla talking to her stupid asshole ex, he assumed the worst and walked away without letting her explain. Because we grew up with a dad who walked away. It’s something that, on some level, we must both expect the people we love to do. Abandon us and walk away.
Except, the people you love can’t walk away if you beat them to it.
And at the first test of my love for Griffin—even if it looked bad—I did the same thing. I got on a plane, turned my phone off so he couldn’t reach me, and walked away.
The truth of it all slams into me like a runaway bus, and with a sob, I run to the guestroom and lock myself in. I’m falling apart and don’t want an audience.
What if there was a very logical explanation for what happened today, and I not only didn’t give my husband a chance to explain, but jumped to the most nuclear option? Griffin is one of the most selfless men I know. He’s always rooting for the underdog, always a hopeless romantic. He sees the good in people, and he steps in and steps up for them over and over again. Here I am, assuming the worst about him, when all he ever does is see the best in everyone else. In all our time together, he’s never done a single thing that would make me believe he’d cheat on me.
Not one.
Yet, that’s exactly where my mind went when I saw that photo with the blonde.
Ignoring my brother’s voice through the door, I pull my phone out with shaking hands and turn off airplane mode.
It only takes seconds for notifications to flood my screen, and I suck in a breath as I tap on the texts and scroll to the earliest one.
