Elle bumped her hip against mine. "I already know I'm awesome. I don't need you constantly telling me."
I rolled my eyes. My friend was as modest as ever. "I promise I'll talk to him. It might not be today or even this week, but I promise I will. I just need to wrap my head around things."
She wrapped her arm around my shoulder. "I know I came in here hot demanding you talk to him, but I only want what's best for you. If you need time, then I'll do everything in my power to give that to you."
I tipped my head against my friend’s. "I appreciate it. I don't even know what's holding me back, but until I do, I don't think it's fair to drag Parker into my fucked-up head."
Elle squeezed me. "I don't think you're fucked up."
I chuckled and rolled my eyes. "Yeah, okay. We both know you're thinking it."
Elle held up her other hand and showed me the small space between her two fingers. "Okay, maybe just a little."
We both laughed at that.
"I should probably get back to my own classroom. I have so much to catch up on now that I'm officially back to work."
I don't want to let her go, but eventually I do. "I'm so happy you're back. No offense, your sub was great but nothing beats having you here with me. I thought I was going to die of boredom."
Elle just shook her head. "What you really mean is you didn't have anyone to torture with your science experiments."
"That's exactly what I mean."
Elle, once again, chuckled, but she let me go. "I'll see you at the end of the day. We still walking out together?"
I gave her a small smile. "Of course we are. It's one of the many things I missed while you were gone."
My friend smiled back and hers was just as sad. "Try not to think about things too much. Take your time and I've got your back."
"Love you, Elle."
"Love you too, Molls."
I waited until Elle left my classroom before I went back to my desk and dropped into my seat with a huff. I even went as far as to drop my forehead onto my desk with a soft thwack.
This week was going to suck, and I only had my drunk self to blame.
Well, and maybe a little bit of Parker too. He was in the same boat as me. Too bad they were different boats, and I wasn't ready to jump in his so we could figure this out.
CHAPTER FIVE
PARKER
I sat in the pew at Savannah's christening and thought about how far my friend had come. Just a year ago, he had talked about how he didn't deserve anything good in life, and yet here we were celebrating his daughter.
But it wasn't my friend or his wife or even their beautiful daughter who had my current focus. Nope, it was the caramel-haired beauty to the left of Elle I couldn't keep my eyes off of.
Today she wore a peach-colored sundress that hit her midthigh with a white cardigan on top. At least that was what I thought the thing was called.
Her mocha-colored eyes held unshed tears as she gazed down lovingly at her goddaughter throughout the ceremony. Eyes that I wished were on me instead because God knew I couldn't keep mine off of her.
My wife.
And the woman who wanted nothing to do with me.
It had been one week since I woke up in a Vegas hotel room by myself with a wedding band on my left hand. Two weeks ago, that would've freaked me the fuck out and had me screaming theworld down for an annulment, but that was before I got to spend some alone time with Molly.
I wouldn't say I was the kind of man who believed in love at first sight. Hell, I wasn't even sure I believed in love at all. I didn't exactly have the best example of it growing up. My parents tolerated each other. I never could understand why they stayed together. Maybe it was because they wanted to keep up with theJoneses, and it would look bad to their fake country club friends if they got a divorce. My parents were all about appearances.
