Hadley
Justin parked his SUV in front of Riley’s house and turned off the ignition. My stomach was rumbling with nerves and my legs had been bouncing up and down the entire ride over. It was Wednesday night and Riley and Camden had returned from their honeymoon. I was equipped with pizza and wine; an age-old combination.
“Everything is going to be fine,” he said, his hand gently squeezing my thigh, where it had rested since we left the pizza place.
“Easy for you to say. Camden’s going to give you a high five and then you’ll start talking about sports. I, on the other hand, am subjecting myself to an inquisition. Riley’s going to want to know everything and she’s probably going to be pissed I didn’t tell her sooner.”
“That’s ridiculous. She can’t be mad at you for not telling her something you didn’t remember.”
“Well, that’s true, but I didn’t tell her when I found out.”
“Babe, she’s your best friend. She’ll understand. I bet she’ll even be excited for you.”
“Maybe,” I muttered, still not looking forward to having to tell her. We sat there for another minute, but I didn’t move to get out of the car.
“It’s going to be all right.” Justin pressed a kiss against my temple and his lips lingered there for a moment as he took in a deep breath through his nose. “You’ll tell her everything, she’ll ask some questions, but in the end, she’ll see how happy you are and be happy with you. I know it.”
“Okay, but if you’re wrong you’re in trouble.”
He laughed. “All right. Let’s go before your dinner gets too cold.”
Justin took the pizza and I took the wine. He also took my hand and walked me up to the door, kissing me gently before knocking.
I’m going to barf.
The door opened and Riley answered, a blinding smile on her face. She wasted no time before she was pulling me into a hug.
“I’m so glad to see you,” she whispered, hugging me tightly.
I felt Justin pull the wine bottle from my hand, his silent way of telling me to hug my friend, so I did. I wrapped my arms around her and burrowed in. Riley had been my best friend for years and no one in my life had been nearly as Ride or Die for me as she was. There seemed to be no limits to her loyalty. I knew that had to do with her experience in high school and never having great friends before we met in college, but I always knew my gain was other people’s loss. Riley was an amazing friend and I knew I could always count on her.
I was simply hoping she didn’t view all that had happened as a betrayal of that loyalty. And truthfully, I was afraid that was the last hug I’d ever receive from her, so I cherished it. I pulled her close and burrowed in, taking everything she was offering.
“Hi,” she said when I finally let her go.
It was silly and girly, but we both had tears in our eyes.
“Hi,” I squeaked in reply.
“Come in,” she said, stepping back and motioning into her house. We walked toward the kitchen and my eyes went automatically to the French doors that had been broken. For some reason I couldn’t un-see the broken glass and always expected to find the shards all over the floor, not the pristine solid doors that were there now.
“I hope the repair job was up to par,” Justin said, nodding his head toward the same French doors I was thinking about. Apparently, his thoughts were on that night as well.
“Camden and I couldn’t even tell something had happened. If you hadn’t told us, we would’ve never known.”
“Well, if for some reason you need something fixed or find the repair isn’t holding up, just let me know. I have the name and number of the company who repaired the glass. Luckily, the door wasn’t damaged, so the repair was just replacing the glass.” Justin said the words while slowly rubbing his hand in circles on the small of my back.
“I appreciate it,” Riley said, smiling at him.
“Justin, we better get out of here so the women can talk about us behind our backs.” Camden came down the stairs smiling. He kissed me on the cheek as he approached and did the whole manly-back-slapping greeting with Justin. “It’s going to be a long night if we have to stay away long enough for them to cover all the events of the last two weeks.”
“You guys just go find a sports bar and we’ll tell you when it’s safe to return,” Riley said, her eyes trained on her husband.
I watched as he crossed to her and took her face in his hands, kissing her soundly.
“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,” he said, grinning at her.
“Wouldn’t dream of it,” she replied dreamily. “Have fun.”
I turned away when I felt Justin’s hand at my waist and then his lips at my ear, whispering, “Everything’s going to be fine. Promise.”
“Thank you,” I said softly, looking up at him. His lips brushed mine. It was a quick kiss, but it embodied everything I needed in that moment. Silent support. Understanding. Love. It was exactly what I needed.
Louder, so everyone else could hear him, he said, “We’ll come back when the coast is clear, and then we’ll go home. Yeah?”
“Yes,” I whispered, nodding, still staring up at him.
“See you then.” He leaned down and kissed me quickly again, and I wanted so badly to pull him to me, to hold him to me, to take that connection and fortify it.
“Bye.”
Riley and I watched as our men left the house. The door closed behind them and her eyes came back to me.
“We need wine. We need pizza. And then you need to spill.” Her words were said with a smile, but they made my stomach ache nonetheless.
Riley chattered happily about some debacle with their luggage and how Camden’s alpha tendencies surfaced at the airport, which resulted in not only their missing luggage being found in record time, but also a few vouchers for free airfare on future travels. I listened, smiling, even though my belly was rolling the entire time. She plated up pizza and I opened wine, and within minutes we were sitting in her living room, she and I both seated in plush chairs turned toward each other with wine in reach.
“Okay,” she said with a sigh, then took a sip of her wine. “Tell me what the hell is going on with you and Justin.”
I stared at her, mind blank, words stuck in my throat, and the only thing that came from me were the tears that slipped down my cheeks. Once the first tears were free, I couldn’t stop them. Suddenly I was crying uncontrollably and the only thing I could do was drop my face into my hands and give into it.
“Hadley, what in the world is going on?” Riley’s voice was worried and high-pitched. I heard her plate hit the coffee table with a soft thud, then her arms were around me. “Did he hurt you?” Her voice went from soft and concerned to harsh and demanding in just an instant. “I will cut off his testicles and make him watch as I put them in the blender if he made you cry, Had. What did he do?”
“That’s a very specific threat,” I managed to mumble through my tears. I felt her shrug one shoulder and lean her cheek against the top of my head.
“No one messes with my best friend.”
“He didn’t do anything. Well, nothing worth what you’ve got in mind, anyway. But thank you for offering.”
“Tell me what’s up.” She was sitting on the arm of my chair, holding me close, her hand rubbing up and down my arm.
“I’m just overwhelmed.”
“Okay. That’s valid. Tell me what’s overwhelming you. I promise you’ll feel better if you just let me in. I can help.”
“I know. I guess I’m just afraid of what your reaction will be to everything that’s happened.”
She pulled back and we looked at each other. I was most likely a mess, mascara running down my face, eyes red, and generally disheveled. She looked worried. And I hated that I was causing it.
“I think you should sit down for this.”
“I am sitting down.”
“No, I mean in your own chair.”
“You’re starting to freak me out,” she said as she stood slowly and made her way back to her seat.
I took in a deep breath and blew it out. Then I did it two more times until I felt a little calmer and in control of my emotions.
“Okay, so,” I began, trying not to look her in the eye. “In Vegas, after you and Camden disappeared back to your hotel, the rest of us went out. There was a lot of alcohol involved, and I remember everyone eventually pairing off and disappearing. I remember being with Justin in front of the fountain at the Bellagio, then everything gets a little hazy.” I nervously tucked a piece of hair behind my ear and continued, still not brave enough to look her in the eye. “When I woke up the next morning in bed with Justin, I ran. I didn’t even give him a chance to explain or tell me what had happened. My first instinct was just to run away. So, I did.
“After the night here when those men broke in, he took me home with him, and well, we ended up in bed together. I was scared and tired of pretending like I didn’t have feelings for him, and he seemed relieved I was finally coming to him. But, well, after we, uh, had sex, we started talking about that night in Vegas and I mentioned that I didn’t remember pretty much anything after the fountain.”
“Okay,” she said softly.
Finally, I managed to look up and meet her gaze.
“So he got pretty upset that I didn’t remember anything, and I didn’t understand why, until he handed me a piece of paper.”
“A what?”
“A piece of paper. A marriage certificate.”
I watched as realization came across her face. Her eyebrows were furrowed in confusion, and then, as she understood what I was implying, her mouth opened into a large O.
“What?”
“I know, it’s crazy, and I can’t believe I don’t remember my own wedding, but it happened and I was so afraid to tell you.”
“You’re married?”
I nodded, a weak smile on my lips.
“You married Justin in Vegas?”
“Yes.”
“You married Justin in Vegas, and you don’t remember it?”
“Not really. It’s blurry.”
“Hadley, that’s crazy.”
“I know! Trust me! I’m aware. It definitely takes the cake for craziest thing I’ve ever done.”
“Wait, you’re married.”
“That’s what I’m trying to tell you!”
“Holy shit, Hadley.”
I could see her brain trying to process everything and I didn’t want to overwhelm her, so I was quiet for a moment, reaching forward and grabbing my wine glass and taking a healthy swallow.
“So, we got married and then you got married. Wait!” she cried, suddenly excited. “We have the same anniversary?”
“No,” I said, shaking my head. “We got married after midnight.”
“Damn. That would be awesome if we had the same anniversary.”
I blinked at her. “I hadn’t really considered that.”
“Why not? Think of all the fun we could have celebrating every year. Oh,” she said, her face falling from excited to worried again. “Will there be anniversaries? What’s going on now? Are you together?”
“I mean, yeah, we’re together. But it’s all really confusing because we’re married, but we never really dated. So we’re doing that, dating, but it’s heavier. It feels more serious. More permanent.”
“Are you all right with that? With feeling like you skipped that very important step?”
I shrugged. “I don’t have a choice. We’re married. There’s nothing to be done about it.”
“Well, you should have a choice. You should get to decide how involved you are with him, regardless of what happened in Vegas.”
“He’s not forcing me to be with him, if that’s where you’re headed. I think he’s just afraid one day I’m going to end everything. He thought for the first couple days after Vegas that I was ignoring him on purpose because of the wedding. But I really just thought I was avoiding the awkward conversation that comes with a drunken hook-up. I didn’t realize I was running from my husband.”
“It’s weird to think that Justin is the one who wants the commitment the most. I mean, after everything that’s happened, Justin is trying to tie you down. That’s a little hard to wrap my mind around.”
“Believe me, it took me by surprise too.”
Riley let out a breath and picked up her wine and took a sip.
“You’re a married woman.”
“Indeed. As crazy as it sounds.”
“Okay, we’ll come back to the whole married woman business, but right now I really just want to ask about the sex.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “What about it?”
“Shut up! You know what I want to know. How is it? I’ve watched him chase you for months now. The sexual tension between you two was palpable. Did he deliver? Was it good?”
My mind drifted back to all the time we spent trying not to touch each other. Or rather him trying to get to me and me keeping him at arm’s length. In the back of my mind I always knew our chemistry was explosive, but there was no way to know finally being with him would be so, well, amazing.
“I don’t want to sound clichéd, because honestly this is going to sound ridiculous, but he’s the best I’ve ever had. Ever. And I can’t even compare him to anyone else because it’s different with him. It’s not just about the bodies and the orgasms. I mean, it’s definitely about the bodies and the orgasms, but it’s more than that. Sometimes when we’re in bed and in the middle of everything, he’s just looking at me and I feel like I’m the most important thing to him on the planet.” I was surprised by my own words, surprised by the reverence with which I said them, and surprised by the way the memory of Justin looking at me made me feel.
“You’re in love with him,” Riley said softly, grinning wildly at me.
I shrugged. “Yeah.” I nodded and looked down at my wine glass. After a moment I lifted my gaze back to Riley. “I think I’ve been in love with him for a while.”
“I’m so happy for you,” Riley added, her smile even brighter and enthusiastic.
“Thanks, now I just have to try to not fuck it up.”
“Well, there’s that. But honestly, if you love him, it should be easy. Just trust your gut. You’re still learning about each other, right? Just take it slow.”
“I’d love to, but we don’t seem to have a slow setting. We go from not speaking to each other, to married, to dating, to who knows what in the blink of an eye.”
“Do your parents know yet?”
“Oh my God. That’s a story all in itself. We haven’t told mine yet, but his parents know, but only because Justin and his parents came upon me on a business dinner and they all thought it was a date.”
“What?” Riley asked, her mouth full of pizza.
I took the next twenty minutes to explain the whole situation with Aiden Daniels. I told her about the house, about the meeting, about how Aiden showed interest, but I told him I was married, and then how Mrs. Hunter thought I was on a date with him, and how that led to Justin and I having to explain ourselves far sooner than we’d anticipated.
“How did your life become so crazy while I was away?”
“I have no idea, but I won’t argue with life if it wants to calm down now for a little bit.”
“But you still have to tell your parents you’re married.”
“Do we? Can’t Justin and I just date, and then if things get more serious, maybe we’ll talk about telling them.”
“He’s your husband, Hadley.”
“Believe me, I know he’s my husband. And even if I didn’t, he reminds me multiple times a day. I’m just saying, I’m not looking forward to telling my mom and dad that I got so drunk in Vegas that I married someone and don’t remember it. Oh, and by the way, we’re together now, but don’t let our drunken Vegas wedding taint or cheapen our relationship in your eyes, okay?” I rolled my eyes and took another large gulp of wine.
“I guess I see your point.”
“It’s complicated. I don’t want all the expectations to cloud what’s going on between us.”
“And that would be?”
“I don’t know yet, but I want to see where it goes. I’m hoping it goes on forever, ya know? But this is not how functional relationships usually start. We’ve got our work cut out for us.”
“Well, you know I’m here for you. Whatever you need, even if it’s just pizza and wine, I’m here. And I’m glad you told me. You looked petrified when you showed up.”
“I was petrified. I was afraid you’d be upset for not telling you as soon as I found out.”
“I love you, Hadley, and I will always be here for you, but I really enjoyed my drama-free honeymoon.”
“Speaking of honeymoons, I want to hear all about yours.”
“Lucky for you, I’ve been waiting anxiously to tell you all about it.”
“I want all the dirty and sordid details. Spare me nothing.”
“You got it,” she replied with a wink.