Meanwhile, my own ending was still painfully fresh. Sarah's voice in my head, telling me I was too safe, that too much security was boring, that she couldn't remember the last time I surprised her.
For just a second, the thought surfaced: Why do some people get chosen, and others only ever get used?
I pushed it away. This wasn't about me. This was Liam and Riley's day. I had no right to poison it with my own bitterness.
The officiant pronounced them husband and wife. The crew erupted in cheers. Liam dipped Riley back and kissed her, showing off, making her laugh against his mouth.
I clapped along with everyone else. Smiled when I was supposed to smile, and did my job.
That's what I was good at—doing my job.
The reception spilled across the ranch.
Champagne flowed freely. Music played from speakers someone had rigged up in the barn. String lights crisscrossed above the dance floor, flickering like earthbound stars. The caterers kept the food coming, and the bar never slowed. Slowly, the formal structure of the ceremony dissolved into something looser and warmer.
Cal had commandeered a table near the dance floor, holding court with stories about Liam that made Riley cover her face and the crew howl with laughter. Something about a training exercise gone wrong, a misplaced ladder, and Liam ending up in a dumpster. I'd heard it before, but it still made me smile.
I nursed a beer at the edge of things, watching, the way I always did.
Lucy caught my eye from across the dance floor and raised her glass. I raised mine back. She tilted her head, a question in the gesture.I'm fine,I mouthed. She didn't look convinced, but she let it go.
My phone buzzed in my pocket.
I almost ignored it. Probably a notification, an email, something that could wait. But I checked anyway.
Grace's name on the screen.
I stepped away from the noise, moving past the barn toward the quieter stretch of fence line. The music faded to a dull thump behind me. I answered on the third ring.
“Grace?”
Silence. Then a breath that shook.
“He left.”
Two words. My chest went tight.
I didn't need to ask who. I knew. I'd known something was wrong since last weekend, since I'd watched Marcus ignore her in her own dining room, since I'd seen the way she flinched when he touched her shoulder.
“Are you okay?” The question felt stupid even as I asked it. Of course, she wasn't okay.
Another shaky breath. “I don't know.”
“Do you need me to come?”
The silence stretched. I could hear her breathing, uneven and rough. I could picture her in that big empty house, surrounded by all those rooms that used to feel like home.
“Can you?” Her voice was so quiet I almost missed it. “I'm sorry. I know it's the wedding. I shouldn't have called. I just?—”
“Don't apologize. I'm coming.”
I found Liam near the dessert table, a beer in hand, Cal beside him, telling him what was probably another embarrassing story. Riley had drifted off toward the pasture fence, watching Mia show off something Honey was doing.
I wove through the crowd. Liam saw me coming, read something in my face, and his smile faded before I even reached him.
“Hey.” I clapped his shoulder, leaned in close. “I have to go. It's Grace. Something happened.”
Liam read it in my face before I finished. He clapped my back once, hard. “Go. We've got this.”
