She didn’t know what to do. She felt frozen. Lost. Found. All at once. Maybe it was because of the enormity of it all. The wedding. The intensity. Because dammit all, the man had given her this necklace to wear. He had fulfilled all these traditions; he had shown up for her. In a way she hadn’t expected. In a way she hadn’t thought she might need. That was all.
Suddenly, she found her breath, and took a step back. “Thank you.”
There was another knock on the door and she stiffened. “Oh. I better...” She opened it, and froze. Becausethere was Asher. His sandy brown hair a mess, wearing a white T-shirt and blue jeans, and not a tux. He looked like he hadn’t slept.
“You’re not supposed to see my wedding dress,” she said. Because for some reason it was the first thing she thought of, even though she had a lot of follow-up questions. But it had just come out of her mouth. She hadn’t been able to stop it.
“I... I need to talk to you.”
“Okay,” she said.
“Without him here.”
Justice turned, and there was something in his expression that she couldn’t name. Justice was probably four or five inches taller than Asher, and somehow right then it was more apparent than usual.
And then Justice was just Justice again, an easy smile on his face.
“Howdy,” said Justice.
“I just need a minute,” Asher said.
Normally Justice and Asher got along great, but there was tension in Justice now. The way he looked at her was so sharp she felt it cutting into her.
“Justice,” she said. “I need to talk to my fiancé.”
Because it was silly that he was standing there acting like a bouncer when her almost-husbandwas there.
“All right,” he said.
He turned and walked outside and shut the door behind him.
“What’s going on? Why aren’t you ready?”
“I’m really sorry,” he said, looking wooden and stiff. “I have really fucked this up.”
She didn’t know what she’d been expecting to hear. But it hadn’t beenthat.
“What happened?”
Maybe his suit wasn’t here? Had he forgotten to pick it up? No. She had picked it up. So there weren’t any problems with that. She had made sure that it would all be fine. That it would be perfect.
“Everything’s okay,” she said.
“No, Rue. It’s not. It’s not okay. I... You know I got delayed, and the military called me back and had me stay that extra couple weeks.”
“Yes. I do know that... It’s why I haven’t seen you.”
“I didn’t anticipate it. And...” He scrubbed his hands over his face. “Dammit. Rue, I slept with someone else.”
“What?” The word was hollow. The ground was hollow. She was hollow.
She couldn’t think. Couldn’t speak more beyond that one, devastated word.
She couldn’t reconcile those words coming out of that man’s mouth. That man who knew her so well. Her fears, her hopes, her plans. Who was part of those plans, had made them with her.
And he knew... he knew how much fidelity meant to her. How much sex meant to her.
He knew he was the only man she’d ever slept with.
