Chapter Eight
Will smiled through more photos with his brother and sister and their mates. They were gathered in an outdoor gazebo behind the community center. A blanket of snow had turned the garden into a winter paradise, and he could appreciate the possibilities from a photographer’s perspective. Jackson and Summer would have beautiful photographs to remind them of their wedding day.
Every time the camera flashed, his mind returned to the image of Ellie standing with Nathan Emory, outside the church.
He hadn’t wanted to believe it when Hayley told him, but maybe she and Emory really were together. Their conversation had looked intense. Every moment that she’d stared at Nathan in that way had been another stab of pain through his chest.
And it was nothing less than Will deserved.
“Is this almost over yet?” he muttered to Jackson through gritted teeth.
“If you’d been here on time, we’d be finished already, dickhead,” Jackson said back.
“Don’t say dickhead during our wedding photos, dickhead,” Summer hissed at Jackson before turning her radiant face back toward the photographer and smiling sweetly.
Will might have been on time for photos, if he hadn’t been waiting for Ellie in the parking lot. And then that fucking idiot Emory had shown up.
Will kept his mouth in a smile through the rest of the photos. Group shot after group shot, until finally he was released.
The wedding party made their way back indoors. Hayley came up and linked her arm with Will’s. “Hey, jizz slinger. You look like someone’s torturing you.”
“Someone is,” he said, giving her a pointed look.
“Let’s get some drinks then,” she said, dragging him over to the refreshments counter.
For a small wedding, Jackson and Summer seemed to have gone all out on the booze. Will ordered a whiskey. Hayley wrinkled her nose at him and asked for a beer for herself.
He leaned against the counter, watching Hayley from the corner of his eye. She was all grown up, his little sister. With a mate of her own. Marius wasn’t far away, and as Will watched, Marius’s gaze tracked over to Hayley more than once.
“He seems like an okay guy,” Will said.
Hayley raised her eyebrows. “He’s more than okay. He’s the cat’s pajamas. The bee’s knees. He puts the fuck in fucking awesome.”
Will laughed. “I got it, thanks.”
“When are you going to settle down?” she asked, sipping her beer.
“When I meet my mate, I guess.”
Hayley’s light blue eyes narrowed. “Really.”
Will shrugged. He didn’t want to get into it with her. If she didn’t ask any questions, he wouldn’t have to talk around them in half-truths.
Some kind of unspoken communication happened between Marius and Hayley, and she grinned.
“Gotta go dance with my man,” Hayley said. She patted Will’s shoulder. “I’m pretty sure you’ll meet your mate soon. Maybe a lot sooner than you think.”
Then off she went.
Will turned around to ask for another whiskey. The guy in charge of drinks was busy with a couple of other people huddled close to the table, so Will waited, wondering just what Hayley thought she knew.
And then, someone tapped his shoulder.
All his senses went on high alert. He gave a quick sniff. Cinnamon and hot chocolate—it was Ellie. His Ellie. The scent recognition went straight to his cock, which stiffened in response. Quickly, he reminded himself that Ellie wasn’t his anymore, if she ever really had been. If someone like him could call someone else his own. That calmed his dick down.
He turned around slowly, savoring her scent as he moved.
She was looking up at him, all five feet, two inches of her glorious curvy body turned toward him. Her hair was still piled high on her head, and it looked like the whole unsteady hairdo would come cascading down if he pulled out one of her hairpins.
He’d never been tempted to do something so fucking much in his life.
“Ellie,” he said, unable to stop the smile from growing on his face.
“You, William Jaynes, are an asshole,” she said. “You have some nerve coming here. I would say more, but I don’t want to make a scene at your brother’s wedding.”
He took a faltering step toward her. He lifted his hand as if to touch her, before letting it fall. “We could go somewhere else then, if you want.”
“You—” She stopped. Her lower lip was trembling, as was her chin.
Shit, he didn’t want her to cry. He wanted to pull her into his arms and kiss away her frown.
“You’re not worth it,” she said. “This was a mistake. I said what I needed to say, and now I’m going home.”
She turned around and walked away, her high-heeled boots clipping smartly on the linoleum floor. Will stared after her, aghast. That was it? That was his one chance to talk to Ellie, and he’d screwed it up? He hadn’t said anything to her, not really.
And there she was, walking out the door in her deep blue sweater dress.
He raced after her, not caring that his limp was more pronounced when he rushed. He caught up with her just outside, as she stomped past the gazebo.
“Ellie,” he called.
“Don’t call me that,” she said. “My name is Eleanor. Nobody calls me Ellie.”
He could hear it, the break in her voice. It gutted him, thinking he was the cause of the hurt.
“I just wanted to say I’m sorry,” he said. “For the way I left. For not giving you a real goodbye.”
She turned her nose in the air. “I don’t care about you now and I didn’t care about you then.”
The lie was like a giant brick wall between them. Will could see it. He could practically reach out and touch it.
“I’m still sorry,” he said.
She shrugged and kept going, past the gazebo, out to the parking lot at the edge of the community center. Will waited until she was safely in her car and the engine had started, before going back inside.
Hayley came right over, dragging Marius. “Did you scare away Eleanor?” she asked.
Marius looked extremely uncomfortable.
Will glowered at Hayley. “No, I did not.”
“Good. Maybe she had to get back to Nathan. You know, I saw them kissing at The A-Hole a few weeks ago.”
“What?” Will said loudly, before realizing his mistake.
Hayley’s light blue eyes lit up. “All right, brother, what’s going on between you and Eleanor?”
“Nothing,” he said, truthfully.
Summer and Jackson joined them. The DJ had arrived, and a few couples had started dancing.
Will hugged Jackson and turned to Summer. “Congratulations,” he said to them both. “Thanks for letting me be a part of this.”
“I’m so glad you could make it,” Summer said.
It was the truth, which puzzled Will because he and Summer barely knew each other. Then he realized—Summer was glad Will was there because it was important to Jackson. She cared, because Jackson cared.
Will felt an emotion welling up within him. Gratitude and joy, for the good fortune of his siblings to end up with their perfect mates.
His voice full of emotion, he said, “I should probably hit the road.”
“I don’t think so,” Summer said. “You haven’t danced with the bride, yet.”
“You can’t seriously want to dance with me,” he said.
“Yeah, I seriously do,” she said, eyes twinkling.
Will allowed her to drag him over to the dance floor where a few other people danced to Jimmy Durante’s “A Kiss to Build a Dream On.”
“I feel like you should be out here with your husband,” Will said.
“Nah, I get to dance with that fool every day for the rest of my life if I want to,” she said, holding up her ring finger, which sported a simple gold wedding band. “You, though—I feel like you’re gonna bolt as soon as I let you go.”
“It’s…painful to be here,” Will admitted.
“Because of the piano player you just chased off?”
Will shrugged. He didn’t like lying to humans—it didn’t seem fair. “Doesn’t really matter,” he said. “She won’t have anything to do with me—she hates me.”
“You know, my experience in true love is limited to your brother. But one thing I can tell you is that a woman who really hates a man? She’s not going to go through all the effort of tracking him down just to tell him off. And when that piano player walked into this reception, she went right for you. So maybe she hates you, but I don’t think that’s all there is to it.”
Will shuffled around the dance floor with Summer, thinking over her words. “I wish you were right,” he finally said.
Despite that wish, he couldn’t help fearing the thing he wanted most. Because he knew, he just knew with a gut-deep instinct, that as soon as he tethered himself to the Dark Pines territory again, it would all get yanked out from beneath him.
“It’s my wedding day,” Summer said. “I’m the bride. That makes me right.” She took a step to back out of Will’s arms, and pointed to the door, smiling. “Now go get her.”