Suddenly, Charlie ran up the stage stairs, grinning. Maddie and Maggie were right behind her. Bowen caught his girlfriend around the waist, pressed a kiss to her cheek, and went right back to it. The eight of them danced in perfect synchrony.
But I just stood there scanning the crowd, hoping. Praying…
There she was. Twenty feet back. My stunning wife.
She wore a flowy, floral mini dress, light blue suede cowgirl boots, and her hair in a messy bun. At least five men watched her, mesmerized. But she didn’t even notice. She was too busy watchingme. Her fingers were pressed against her lips, her mouth barely turned up into a smile.
Eyes soft and warm, just like the first night we met.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
GRIFFIN
When the song ended, the look of awe on Jules’s face ended with it—like a spell breaking. She stepped behind a woman and disappeared. The floating feeling vaporized and I crashed back to earth.
At the crowd’s insistence, twenty minutes later, Cash and Charlie were still on stage singing their hit mashup “Hard to Love You / Hard to Leave You.” James, Theo, and I killed time at the dartboard. Maddie and Sophie tore up the dance floor. Maggie, Bowen, and Jules sat in the booth sharing a basket of fries.
Two guys had already stopped by to talk to my wife. She’d sent them both quickly on their way. But I kept glancing over, my stomach in a knot, because the next guy—and as beautiful as my wife was, there would be a next guy—might be the one to convince her to take a turn around the dance floor. And I’d have to stand here watching. The only thing stopping me from going over and standing guard was the fact that she was glancing at me almost as much as I was at her.
“Dude,” James said. “I’m telling you. Let her go.”
“No,” I growled. “I can’t.”
“Good,” Theo said, releasing another dart. Bullseye. Theo was unnervingly good at anything that took aim. He said it was all the video games he’d played. “Juliette is awesome. And she loves you.”
“Did she say that?” I asked.
“No.” He tossed another dart and hit another bullseye. “But she looks at you differently than the rest of us.”
“Yes,” James said. “Like she’s enjoying destroying him, one piece at a time.”
“Would you stop it?” Theo turned to face him, voice tight. “Your incessant woman-hating is nonsensical, and honestly, getting old. Sage didn’t choose to leave you. She adored you, man. She was so excited about the life you were building together. You think she wanted to miss out on raising Willow with you?” He waited, jaw set. “You want to be angry at God, go ahead. I don’t blame you. But leave Sage out of it.”
“Screw you,” James said. “I get to feel however I want to feel.”
“You do,” I said calmly. “But…”
“What?” he snapped. “If you want to say something, say it.”
I shook my head. Obviously, he was struggling. I didn’t need to cause more friction.
Apparently, Theo had no problem causing friction, though. “Willow’s going to feel it,” he said pointedly. “Do you think Sage deserves to be hated by her own daughter? If roles were reversed, Sage wouldn’t be angry at you, and she would do everything in her power to make sure Willow knew all the best parts of you.”
Exactly.
“Whatever.” James stalked to the board to retrieve the darts.
Theo’s gaze flashed over my shoulder. “Incoming.” His lips pressed together like he didn’t have time to say more.
“Oh, my gosh,” a female voice tittered, and I was thirteen again. “I thought that was you.” Kynzleigh Brown stepped in front of me.
Kynzleigh—whose parents had overcorrected with her first name to compensate for her dull last name—was my first crush. A petite blonde around five-foot-three, she looked the same as the day we’d graduated high school. Same hair, same pasted-on smile. She even stood the same, with her hip cocked to one side. The tattoo was new, though. Framed by low-rise jeans and a crop top, the ink circled her belly button—part snowflake, part compass, partplease notice me.
My eyebrow raised as I edged away.
“Griffin Dupree.” She moved in closer, slapping me on the chest. “Wow.” Her gaze traveled up the length of my body, slow and obvious. “Thatwasyou on the wall in Hollister last summer when I went to buy a bikini, wasn’t it?”
Theo just stared at us, no help at all.
