She eyeballs me hard. “You look like hell.”
“Everyone’s saying such nice things to me today.” I prop my chin in my hand and give her a dreamy look, batting my eyelashes.
Bean shakes her head, sending her light brown hair bouncing around her shoulders, and laughs at me. “Come on, let’s get your shit out of my car.” When we step outside, she asks, “How are you feeling?”
“Super. Absolutely fantastic,” I deadpan.
“Great. Want to come help me do some wedding stuff with Mom and Stephanie?” She pops open the trunk and pulls out one of my bags.
Reaching for another, I groan. “Less than I want to deal with my own current issues.”
“That’s valid.” She sighs and shrugs. “It’s stuff I can handle. I wasn’t planning on you being here for it anyway.”
“Tomorrow and beyond, put me to work, okay? Whatever I can do to make shit easier for you, even if it means dealing with the shrew and her clone.” I’m going to need distractions, and something tells me Bean’s going to need help.
“Beyond? Yes. Tomorrow?” She shakes her head. “We’re not doing wedding stuff tomorrow.”
“Why not?”
“Because there’s a Barbecue Bash tomorrow.”
“Oh my god, really?” I clap my hands together in excitement like a kid. Our friend Haven’s family has been throwing monthly get-togethers in their backyard for twenty years. They started off small, but now they’re huge, all-day events. Sun, rain, snow: we’ve bashed our way through just about everything. But I haven’t been to one in too long.
“I hatewhyyou came home early, but maybe getting to hang out with most of our people will help. And if not, there’s always shooting Grant with a water gun.”
After helping me bring everything upstairs, she leaves, and I nap in front of the TV, because between the hangover and jet lag, I can barely keep my eyes open.
A few hours later, Bean stomps into my room.
“I should have made you my maid of honor,” she whines, flinging herself onto my bed, fucking up the piles of laundry I just sorted. “Stephanie’s a nightmare. Why did I let Mom talk me into it?”
“Because you let that woman talk you into anything.”
“Ugh, I really do, don’t I? Unless you’re there to tell her off for me. But at least I stood my ground on the roses.”
“I’m proud of you for that, by the way.”
Bean gives me a rundown of the to-do list. Almost everything that has been given to Stephanie to do has either been done wrong or not at all.
At least I won’t be bored this week.
Chapter 14
Okay, I get it—I’m a grumpy asshole
Alex
“You’reimpossibleto deal with,” Katie gripes as she storms into my office. “Worse than you’ve ever been. And you look like hell.”
She sets a food container down on my desk with a plop.
It’s been almost a week since I fucked everything up. Each day, my mood has gotten worse and worse. When I’m at work, people avoid me. They turn in the opposite direction when they see me stalk down the halls. I’m surly and mean. On more than one occasion, Katie has called to bitch me out for scaring employees. She also calls and yells at me to go the fuck home at midnight every night.
“Whatever you did to make Amelia run, you need to undo it, Alexander. She’s not answering my emails, texts, or calls.”
I absent-mindedly run my hand over the beard I haven’t trimmed in days. “She won’t answer me, either, Katherine. I don’t know where she is. If I did, I would be there right now begging her to come back.”
Katie drops into the chair across from me. “Fuck. How the hell did you mess it up? She’s been in love with you just as long as you’ve been in love with her.”
