TWO HOURS WITH hair and makeup people working their magic, plenty of champagne and good friends went a long way to restoring Silver’s mood. She knew that Drew was somewhere in the building, no doubt hanging out with Cade and waiting for the party to begin. While she wasn’t looking forward to seeing him, she knew he wouldn’t do or say anything today. He would never embarrass his cousin. Silver figured with a bit of planning on her part, she could easily stay out of his way. As for his parents, well, she barely knew his father and she doubted Irene wanted to spend any time with her, so it was all good.
Liana and Bethany walked out arm in arm, the Bride’s Posse friends behind. There were already at least a hundred people around with more arriving. Music played and the bars were open. She made a conscious effort not to see Drew anywhere. Perhaps an impossible task, but one she was committed to.
Silver found herself with Wynn for a while. A little later, Natalie and Ronan seemed to be shadowing her. It took her a while to figure out that her friends had a plan—for the duration of the party, someone would always be nearby. She spotted Irene and the man she assumed was Drew’s father talking to the king and queen. She felt a moment of disquiet, then reminded herself whatever his parents had going on with the royal family was the least of her problems. She had to get through the rest of the party without having an emotional meltdown.
She stayed strong through the buffet. She found herself seated between Ronan and Mathias, with their respective fiancées nearby. They kept her laughing with ridiculous stories about growing up in Fool’s Gold. Once she looked up and saw Drew talking with Jasper. For a second their eyes met. She felt a combination of pain and desperate longing, then quickly turned away. She didn’t look up from her plate for at least a minute and by then he’d moved on.
After eating, people went outside. The games were a hit and when the band started playing, dozens of couples got up to dance. Silver was enjoying the music, full, a little buzzed and content with the day. She’d done well, she told herself. Maybe getting over Drew wasn’t going to be as hard as she—
“Silver, we have to talk.”
She didn’t have to turn around to know who was speaking. She recognized the voice. Her sense of being okay went poof, leaving her scared and hurting.
“This isn’t the place or time,” she said, refusing to look at him. She kept her attention on the dancers. King Malik and his wife were quite the couple, moving in time with the music and gazing into each other’s eyes. A love that lasted, she thought with a sigh. That must be nice.
“Silver, please.”
She made the mistake of turning around and looking into his eyes. Just being close to him was enough to make her weak. She nodded once, then braced herself for what was to come. He reached for her hand and led her inside.
They ended up in the groom’s room. The smaller space had only one mirror and no big closet, but there was plenty of seating.
She chose one of the chairs rather than the sofa so he couldn’t be too close, then waited while he settled across from her. He leaned toward her, his elbows on his thighs, his hands linked together.
“There’s a lot going on,” he began. “My parents and everything they wanted. You and me, Autumn. I’ve had a lot to consider.”
“And Julie.”
“What?”
“You left out Julie. Your dinner together in Palm Springs.”
“How did you know about that?”
“Your mother forwarded your text. So how was it?”
She knew she sounded bitchy, but she couldn’t help it. If Drew had some big emotional revelation, he would have started with that. He would have begun by telling her he missed her, missed them. That he loved her. But this conversation wasn’t heading that way.
“She was flying home,” he told her. “I drove her to the airport. Her flight wasn’t for a few hours so we went to dinner.”
“I’m sure it was lovely.” She stood. “Drew, there’s nothing to say.”
He stood. “There is and you need to listen. Silver, everything is different now. We’re not kids. This is real. That week with Autumn showed me what I’ve been missing.”
She couldn’t do this, she thought desperately. Couldn’t hear him say he didn’t want her. Yes, she was a coward and she would feel bad about that later, but for now she had to protect herself.
She ran to the door and jerked it open.
“Silver, wait!”
She saw Wynn in the hallway. Her friend made a beeline for her.
“There you are. I’ve been looking for you all over.” Wynn glanced over Silver’s shoulder and saw Drew. “Stay or go?”
“Go,” Silver whispered. “We have to go.”
Wynn led her back to the party. Silver stayed near her friends and tried to find her happy place but it was gone. She slipped out quietly and went home. Once there, she curled up in bed and closed her eyes.
She would be fine, she told herself. Perfectly and completely fine. All she needed was time and a big enough head injury for her to lose her memory. Until then, she was going to have to fake it—even with herself.
* * *
SILVER MUST HAVE fallen asleep because the sound of her phone ringing woke her. She grabbed it and pushed the talk button.
“Hello?”
“Where are you?”
She recognized Renee’s voice. “I’m home. What’s going on?”
“Oh, something you have to see to believe. Seriously, we have a big problem here. Hurry.”
With that, Renee hung up.
Silver got up and looked at her phone. It was close to midnight. The party would have ended hours ago, so what could be going on?
She grabbed her keys and made her way back to Weddings Out of the Box. The whole place was dark and there weren’t any cars except...
She recognized Drew’s car parked near the long fence line. As she got closer, her headlights swept across a man holding a spray paint can. Sloppy letters covered the fence from one end to the other: Drew Loves Silver. There were dozens of crooked hearts, some with arrows piercing them. There were also some stars and an animal of some kind but she wasn’t sure if it was a horse or a dog or what.
She parked and got out, leaving her headlights on to illuminate the scene.
Drew turned and saw her. “Silver!” He sounded delighted—and drunk. “You’re here. Look what I did. I said it all wrong before. I told Julie I loved you and she said she was the wrong person to hear the message. That I had to tell you. But when I tried, you left and it was wrong.” He paused. “Wrong is a really funny word.”
He pointed to the fence. “I love you and I want the world to know. Isn’t it great?”
“It’s your cousin’s business and you’ve just defaced it. No, it’s not great. You don’t love me, Drew. You don’t know what you want but I’m pretty sure it’s not me.”
“You’re wrong.” He grinned. “Wrong, wrong, wrong.”
A car drove up. Silver groaned when she saw it belonged to the Happily Inc police department.
“Garrick,” she said as a familiar officer got out of his vehicle.
“Silver.” He shook his head. “You’re attracting trouble these days. Want to talk about it?”
“Not really.”
“He do this?”
“He’s holding the paint can, Garrick. I would have thought your training covered this sort of thing.”
“I would have thought you’d want to plead his case.”
She was tired of all of it. Of Drew coming and going, of hearing about Julie, of the backhanded “I love you.” She wanted to believe it, but come on, he told her with spray paint? How was she supposed to believe that?
“Okay, then.” Garrick walked over to Drew. “I guess you’re with me.”
“Is Silver coming, too?”
“Not this time.” Garrick looked at the wall. “Pallas is not going to be happy.”
“Drew’s her cousin,” Silver said. “She might not be happy, but she’ll be understanding.”
Silver waited until Garrick drove away, then returned to her truck. She would head home, send Pallas a text about what had happened, then figure out what to do with the rest her life. She was halfway back to her loft apartment when she passed the Sweet Dreams Inn. Involuntarily, she slowed as she saw what looked an awful lot like Wynn and one of the sexy bodyguards heading into the hotel.
“OMG,” Silver said out loud, then started to laugh. No matter how much she hurt, she had to admit her life was never, ever boring.
* * *
DREW DIDN’T REMEMBER being arrested, nor did he recall passing out but as he woke up in a jail cell, he was going to guess both had happened.
He lay on the cot, dealing with his headache, his lack of memory and a sense of having been not only stupid, but really stupid.
It was still dark outside. He had no watch, no cell phone and there wasn’t a clock on any of the walls, but he suspected it was close to three or four in the morning. He was also alone in his cell—a fact for which he was grateful.
He sat up slowly. The world spun a couple of times, then stilled. His stomach wasn’t happy and the pounding in his head was going to take a while to resolve, but he’d survived.
“You’re awake.”
He looked up and saw Garrick walking toward his cell. The officer had a mug in his hand.
“If that’s coffee and it’s for me, I will owe you forever.”
Garrick passed him the mug. “I’ll make a note of that. Want to throw up?”
“Not especially.”
“Good. I don’t want these to go to waste.” He handed over two aspirin and a four-pack of crackers.
“You’re prepared.” Drew took a sip of the coffee.
“It’s a wedding destination town. We don’t have a lot of serious crime. Mostly it’s party-related. People get drunk and do dumb things.”
There was something in the other man’s tone. As if...
Drew swore. “Tell me I didn’t spray-paint the wall at Weddings Out of the Box.”
“The fence.”
His memory started to return. “Did I write Drew Loves Silver over and over again?”
“Yup. And there was some weird animal. I have no idea what it was.”
“Me, either.” He rubbed his temple and swore. “Silver was there, wasn’t she?”
“Uh-huh. For what it’s worth, she let me arrest you.”
“I’m sure she thought I deserved it. Oh crap. We talked about Julie.”
Garrick chuckled. “I knew there was a story. I’ve spoken with Pallas and she’s not pressing charges.”
Drew closed his eyes. “She’s got to be pissed. Jeez, what was I thinking?”
“You weren’t. It happens. I’m going to call someone to come get you. Odds are you’re still too drunk to drive. I don’t want to use a Breathalyzer to be sure, because then I’ll have to write it up and I hate having to write it up.” He held up Drew’s phone. “You get to pick who.”
Cade would be with his bride-to-be. No way Silver would want to rescue him. “Jasper,” he said, motioning to the phone. “His number is in there.”
“I’ll tell him to hurry.”
“Thanks.”
Garrick left to make the call. Drew sank back on the cot and wondered how he was going to fix everything that had gone wrong. Twenty minutes later, he still didn’t have a plan, but it turned out he did have a visitor. Instead of Jasper walking in, Drew saw his father. Because the night just couldn’t get any worse.
Garrick escorted his father into the cell and unlocked the door. Drew looked at the officer.
“What happened to Jasper?”
Drew’s father shrugged out of his jacket and sat on the only chair in the cell. “I’m old friends with the sergeant on duty. He called me when he realized you’d been brought in.”
“He got here first,” Garrick said with a shrug. “I’ve already let Jasper know you have a ride.”
Drew wasn’t happy to know the night could get worse. He sat on the cot and waited for what he was sure was going to be a hell of a lecture. Under other circumstances he would tell his father to go pound sand—that he wasn’t in the mood to listen. But today he thought maybe, just maybe, he’d earned a good talking-to.
“I’ve been thinking a lot about Autumn,” his father said, surprising him with the topic. “How old is she?”
“Eleven.”
“That’s a good age. I meant what I said before. I want to meet her.”
Drew blinked in surprise. “Ah, sure.”
“I’d like that. Your mother...” He leaned back in the chair. “Irene is ambitious, more ambitious than I am. She has always had big dreams and she’s willing to do the work to get there.”
Or walk over anyone who got in her way, Drew thought, but didn’t say.
“Sometimes she forgets not everyone shares her worldview,” his father continued. “Sometimes she lets her determination blind her to what’s important. Like the people we love. Drew, if you don’t want to join the firm, then don’t. You’re blessed—you have enough food to eat and a roof over your head. You have options and so many people don’t. Why be unhappy on purpose?”
“I know, Dad. I’ve told her and told her, but she won’t listen.”
“Maybe because she knows you’re not telling the truth. Or at least not all of it. You can’t just run from something—you have to also be moving toward something else. What is it you want? What’s missing?”
“Silver.” Drew spoke without thinking because no thought was required. She was what he wanted. Her and them together and more children and a life that made them both giddy.
“I know you love her, but—”
“No, Dad. There’s not a but in that sentence. I want to be with Silver. I want to stay in this ridiculous little town. I want to be a part of local businesses and help them grow. I want to fund start-ups and turn AlcoHaul into a franchise and be a good man who is married to the woman of his dreams. That’s what I want.”
His father studied him for a long time. “There’s a lot of your grandfather in you,” he said at last. “That story we all tell about the founding of the town, how your grandfather lied to get people coming here to get married, he didn’t just do it for the bank. There was enough money—the family would have been all right. He did it for the town. Without him, there would be no Happily Inc today.” He smiled at Drew. “Now what?”
“I have no idea. Silver made it clear she doesn’t want to be with me.”
“Did she? Was this before or after you fought for her?”
“There’s no fighting when it comes to Silver.”
“Son, I may not know much about women, but I know this. They want a man willing to walk through fire for them. That goes a long way. If you fight the good fight and lose, then I’ll be on your side, but if you don’t even try, then you deserve what you get.”
He started to say he didn’t have anything, only to realize that was his father’s point. He hadn’t fought for her. She’d even said the same thing. Spray-painted words on the side of a wall didn’t count. She needed to know that he meant it, that she was the best, most important part of his world. She needed to be convinced. Which sounded great, but he genuinely had no idea how to make that happen.
“It’ll come to you in the moment,” his father said. “Trust me. Better yet, trust yourself.”
“I’m not sure I’m a good bet. I haven’t gotten it right yet.”
“Oh, I don’t know. I’ve always been proud of you, son. I still am.”
The words got him a lot more than he would have expected. He had to clear his throat before he could speak. “Thanks, Dad. Any chance you can spring me from jail?”
His father chuckled. “Let me go see what I can do.”