My stomach knots as I spit out the words. “Listen, I did one more thing…”
“It’s fine. No more confessions. I probably deserved whatever it was. Let’s just move on.”
“Are you sure?” I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t relieved.
“I don’t want to hash things out forever. You and I have wronged each other in many ways over the years. The past is a clean slate. Let’s get to more pressing matters, like what happened after the wedding.”
I’m exhausted just thinking about what’s left to talk about. I hold up a finger. “Can you feed me first? I wasn’t hungry earlier, but now I’m pretty sure I could eat a small buffalo.”
He winks. “Your wish is my command.”
23
OLLY
Maggie takes a big bite of her bacon and egg sandwich. I’m relieved to see she has an appetite. We’re sitting outside the Horsey House, an ancient diner that serves killer breakfast around the clock.
“I feel bad that you bailed on Johnny to eat with me,” Maggie says.
“He had pizza before he downed three donuts. Pretty sure he’s fine. He and I have plans tomorrow anyway. We’re good.”
“Are you going to miss him and Ben? They’re your best friends, right?”
I don’t know how she knows this, since she and I have never hung out in college. I’ve only really seen her in passing. “Did Sienna or Ben tell you that?”
“I could tell from watching you talk to them that they mean a lot to you. You have the same camaraderie with them as you do with Sebastian.”
Hearing his name makes the food in my stomach drop like a rock. “Your brother’s gonna be so pissed when he finds out what happened. How I got you pregnant.” Saying those words out loud makes me freeze. How was I that dumb? After my friends had baby scares, you’d think I’d be more careful.
“Let’s hold off on that until you and I have a grasp on everything. If he sees I’m okay with this, he’ll handle it better. He just doesn’t want me to get hurt. Are you planning to hurt me?”
She asks me so earnestly, my chest squeezes. “No. Never.”
After setting down her sandwich, she wipes her hands with a napkin. Fidgets with her straw. Looks away. “As much as I hate to dig into more ugly stuff, we really do have to talk about the wedding. You’re saying you won’t hurt me now, but I heard everything you said to my brother that morning. The walls between our rooms were really thin.”
Fuck. I just cannot catch a break with this woman. “What did you hear? Let’s go through it all. I don’t want us to have secrets.” Didn’t I say back in January that I didn’t want any more drama? And yet it follows me and Magnolia around like a stray after a free meal.
“I heard Sebastian say that Vanessa, your girlfriend, was there, more than once, and you never corrected him.”
No wonder she had Greg tell me to go to hell.
“That was me panicking. It’s stupid, but I figured if Bash thought I was seeing someone else, then he’d never guess I was railing you the night before. Plus, there were condom wrappers everywhere. The headboard was crooked. I just wanted to get him out of my room.”
She laughs, her cheeks an adorable shade of pink. “Shockingly, I get that.” She nibbles her plump bottom lip. “So if I go up to Vanessa right now, she’ll agree you guys haven’t been intimate since then?”
“Mags, she and I have never had sex. We kissed once or twice—weeks before that wedding. I don’t think it did anything for either of us. I guess I thought if I tried harder, I could make that spark happen, so we kept going out. And then I saw you at the wedding and lost my head. But it’s what I needed to realize I didn’t like Vanessa like that, which is why she left after the rehearsal dinner. I couldn’t see us sharing a bed that night.”
“And your parents really slept in the room next to mine on the first night? You swear they’re who I heard?”
“Ted and Wendy have legendary lays. Ask my sister. We’re both planning to get therapy about it at some point.”
She laughs, but it turns into a moan. “Please tell me you had the sheets changed before we, you know…”
“Of course I did.”
“That’s a relief. Okay, what about when Sebastian thanked you for hanging out with me? Was he the reason you talked to me that night?”
“I talked to you because you looked so beautiful in that dress, my head was gonna explode. Sebastian texted me before the reception, hoping to set up a rendezvous with one of the bridesmaids. I don’t think he wanted to leave you alone, but…”
