If he was surprised by my question, he didn’t show it. Instead, he just turned and looked at me as if he’d been expecting me to ask, which was ridiculous because I barely knew Preston anymore, let alone well enough to talk about such things with him. Yet, somehow, he felt like the safest person to talk to about it.
“Not really.”
His answer surprised me. “Do you really mean that?”
Preston shrugged.
“It’s certainly worked for your brothers.” When I thought about love, I couldn’t help but think of Avery and Reid or Ethan and Delaney, and of course Grayson and Harper, who’d finally come back to each other after way too long apart. It was relationships like theirs that made me second-guess everything about my own.
“That’s true,” he conceded, before looking at me. “But I think maybe they’re the exception, and not the rule, you know?” Before I could answer, he continued. “Some people are lucky, I guess. And the rest of us just get daisies in the dust.”
My head snapped around to stare at him, but if he realized what he said or remembered the time he gave me a bouquet of daisies that I’d thrown in the dirt, his face didn’t give it away. It was so long ago that there was no way he remembered that.
Then again, I did.
I didn’t have a chance to ask before Preston said, “I think for most people the idea of love isn’t very practical.”
“Practical?”
He nodded and stuffed his hands into his pockets before walking off to help a group of kids who couldn’t seem to get their fire to catch.
The word resonated in my head.Practical.
It sounded like something Trevor would have said.
I watched Preston in his element, crouching down in the dirt, stacking the wood as he calmly explained his techniques to the teens. He was steady and focused, and I couldn’t help but wonder whether practicality was really the point after all.
Chapter Nine
Jess
Under almost every other circumstance, Harper’s restaurant, Wander & Whisk, was exactly the place I’d want to spend a Saturday night. Especially when all my girlfriends were there with me. Good food, delicious drinks, and great friends. It was the perfect combination for a good time.
And it would have been, too, if I weren’t currently wearing a white sash withBridebedazzled in sparkling pink rhinestones across my chest.
The sash itched against my skin, a reminder I couldn’t escape. Every smile, every clink of glasses brought me back to right how I’d ended up here in the first place.
I couldn’t stop replaying what had happened after I left the trails that day. When I returned to pick up my car, Trevor was waiting for me on the front step.
This doesn’t have to end, Jess.
He’d said it calmly, like we were negotiating terms instead of talking about our relationship. Like there was no other option worth considering.
Think about the development. We’ll lose too much.
That was it. Nothing about hisfeelingsorlove.It was beyond that now. He’d just folded his arms and reminded me that if I walked away from the marriage, I walked away from the project, too.
And from my investment.
From everything.
He hadn’t needed to spell it out. He knew exactly how much I’d put in. He knew about my parents. And the money they’d trusted me with.
If you’re out of the union,he’d said,you’re out of all of it.
Exhausted and cornered, I didn’t have a choice.
I said yes.
