He handed the mic off to the wedding coordinator and rushed toward the back of the wedding hall, resuming his place on the fringes once again. His heart pounded hard against his chest, and he chugged the champagne in hopes it would ease his vexation and scorching body. Waiting through toasts made by Dad, Finn, and then Norah’s bridesmaids had been more difficult than he’d imagined. He couldn’t get the image of Harrison kneeling and proposing to Isabella out of his mind.
The wedding coordinator announced that it was time for the bride and groom’s first dance. Leo longed to ditch out on the reception now. But if he did, he would be in very few pictures, and he knew Norah would treasure her wedding photos forever. He could set aside his feelings for a while longer.
Or so he’d thought, until he spotted Isabella weaving through the crowd of guests toward him. His heart felt as if it stalled in his chest. He glanced over both shoulders, searching for a clean escape, but it was too late.
“There you are,” she said. “I was looking everywhere for you.”
“Hey. Sorry, I just needed a breather.” He stuffed his hands into his pockets.
“Can we talk?”
“I don’t really think there’s much to talk about.”
She clutched his arm. “I think there’s plenty.”
“Listen, Izzy.” He tucked his chin to his chest. “The plans we made last night, I’m not gonna hold you to them. Things have changed now. I know that.”
She shook her head. “Nothing has changed.”
Feedback from the microphone screeched through the speakers, followed by the wedding coordinator’s voice, “Alright, maid of honor and best man, it’s your turn for a dance. Then let’s have the wedding party out on the dance floor.”
They stared at one another for a beat. Leo held out his palm to her. As much as it hurt to think about holding her, thinking she might not be anything more to him than a friend, he found himself wanting to. He wanted to pull her in close, cling to her, and breathe in her irresistible scent. He hoped she would tell him something different, that she’d chosen him, but she deserved so much more.
She deserved everything.
They reached the dance floor and he pressed his hands to her back, loosening when he realized they had a mind of their own and nearly grazed her backside. She gripped his shoulders, and he was sorry she hadn’t tried to tether her hands around his neck, sliding into his hair where they always seemed to go.
“When I told you I wanted to try long-distance, it’s because I wanted to be with you. In a relationship. Because I think it’s worth it. We’re worth it.”
He spun them around slowly, regardless that the tempo of the song was faster.
“Long-distance is hard. There’s a lot to consider. And it doesn’t seem fair to you,” he mumbled.
“Fair to me, or fair to you?” She stared up at him, looking pointedly into his eyes. “Because I said I’m willing to put in the work.”
He tore his attention away from her. “You know I will always love you, Izzy. You are it for me…” His words trailed as his focus landed on a certain man standing in the back of the room. “I can’t let you make a mistake because of me.”
She pulled back. “What are you talking about?”
“You deserve better, someone who will perform rom-com-sized gestures to be with you, and maybe that someone is standing right behind you.”
He turned her around and then marched across the dance floor and out the door, not looking back.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Isabella
Isabella turnedto see Harrison standing along the room’s fringes, hands stuffed inside his trouser pockets. He gave her an unsure smile and waved. When she spun back around, Leo was gone. She didn’t know how to feel or what to do. To run for Leo or leave him alone. He wasn’t right. Was he?
Isabella faced Harrison once again, her mind reeling. When he told her a few months back that he wanted to take a break, that he thought it best she moved out, Isabella felt as lost as she did right now. She didn’t know if they’d ever find their way back to one another.
It wasn’t until she returned home that she finally no longer felt untethered. Colorado had always been home to her. A one true north. Here, the fog had cleared. She saw that her life could go on without Harrison. She could finally picture a future without him in it, and it didn’t scare her. And when she opened her heart once again to Leo, the hard layers of the shell cracking, she knew Harrison wasn’t the answer to her future.
She weaved through a sea of dancing couples until she reached Harrison. “Hey.”
He shrugged, sadness tugging at the corners of his eyes. “I couldn’t leave yet,” he said. “Not without knowing for sure.”
Isabella inhaled a deep breath, her throat tight with the words she needed to say. Taking his hands, she looked at him. “Harrison, the last four years with you have been incredible. There are so many things I experienced with you and because of you. But the break we took gave us the time apart we needed. That I know I hadn’t wanted, but I ended up needing.”
