Chapter One
Two Days Before the Wedding
“Lothario, stop humping the angora,” Marlee Medford—soon-to-be Bishop—stepped onto the patio of her Denver townhome. Her pure-white-haired chihuahua tipped his head to the side, stopped humping her fiancé’s angora sweater that had fallen to the ground, and whined.
Leaves from their two aspen trees rustled beside her—red and orange and ready to break free from their branches in preparation for winter.
She snatched the sweater, brushed a couple of fallen leaves from the sleeve, and hung it over the arm of the empty chair next to Scotty. He was immersed in his phone, apparently oblivious to the defiling of his clothes.
Lothario had a thing for Scotty’s shirts, and it drove Scotty absolutely nuts. Aside from Scotty’s clothing, Lothario literally humped anything that moved. Except Marlee. She’d put a stop to that early on. One would’ve thought that Lothario’s recent unfortunate experience with a moving bicycle tire would’ve stopped the behavior, but all it got him was a cast on his right leg and a rededication to defiling all things.
She turned her focus from the dog to Scotty. He had his serious face on that morning.
“Hey, sweetie.” She squeezed his shoulders and kissed his cheek before sitting next to him with her morning coffee. “I’ve only got a second. I have a bajillion things to do today for the wedding.”
Their wedding.
Their forty-eight-hours-away nuptials.
“Leelee.” He set his phone down beside his coffee mug. “We need to talk about the wedding.”
“Okay.” She squeezed his hands. “What’s up?”
“I don’t want to do it.” He glanced to the side, not meeting her eyes.
That wasn’t exactly a choice anymore. Not with four hundred of their closest friends coming to Denver for their wedding.
“We’re not getting married, Leelee.” He heaved a huge breath. “I’m sorry.”
She dropped his hands.What?
“We’re not getting married?” she asked.
“No.” He shook his head. “I’m so sorry.”
He was sorry?Hewas sorry?
Marlee’s stomach dropped.
“It’s been this way for a while.” Scotty’s eyes were kind as he spoke. “I’ve been thinking we should take a break, but with the wedding planning and your dad, I figured we’d see it through.” He sighed. “It was the wrong decision.”
He’d asked her to sit on their patio with him and have a cup of morning coffee so he could end their relationship? What. The. Hell?
No. This was just cold feet. They’d get through it.
“I know we haven’t exactly been connecting lately, but that’s totally normal. We’re in a committed, long-term relationship. It’s not supposed to be exciting,” Marlee said. It’s not like she hadn’t noticed the lack of spark. “We’re just supposed to stick with it, so we have someone to grow old with, right?”
They’d settled into a routine with each other that was just about as comfortable as lukewarm bathwater. Not awful. Definitely not great. Once they were married, things would heat up again. They’d get back to Jacuzzi level.
“I don’t just want someone to grow old with.” Scotty gulped. “I want someone who lights a fire inside of me. Like we used to do for each other.”
“Look, if you want a fire, I can try to cook something.” Marlee was the queen of burning the shit out of anything she tried to make.
He chuckled. Then his expression broke. “I think we should stop now, while we still like each other. Not wait until we can’t stand to be in the same room together.”
While she waited for her heart to break, she focused on the milky brown liquid in her mug. Her best friends had flown in from all over the country. Her family owned two of Denver’s most prized sports teams, so the wedding had even made headlines in theDenver Post. The breakup would undoubtedly be devastatingly public. The panic she felt wasn’t from all that, though. She felt like she’d been dropped out of a plane but landed on a mountain of soft pillows. What she was feeling was…relief. Relief that was starting to make her panic. And that didn’t even make any sense.
“Marlee?” Scotty kept his focus on her. “Say something.”
