She’d thought nothing could surprise her as much as seeing him standing in front of her, but the way Brie’s stomach dropped in response to his words proved otherwise. “You...you’re...getting married?”
He sent her a look that she couldn’t begin to decipher. “I’m not the groom. I’m the best man.”
“Oh,” she said, and exhaled the breath she hadn’t realized she was holding.
“We’re definitely going to find out from Brie if that’s true,” Grace teased.
Caleb grinned, appreciating her friend’s flirtatious humor.
It was the same familiar cocky grin that had always made Brielle’s heart pound and her knees weak. And it was frustrating to discover that, seven years later, its effect on her was undiminished.
“Joe Bishop’s getting married,” he said to her now.
She knew Joe, because he’d been friends with Caleb for as long as she’d known him, prompting her to ask, “Is the bride anyone I know?”
“The bride isn’t anyone he knows,” Caleb remarked dryly. “They met online seven months ago and in-person—” he glanced at the watch on his wrist “—about nine hours ago.”
“I never thought Joe was the impulsive type.”
“A lot of things can change in seven years,” he said, holding her gaze. “Then again, some things never do.”
“I’m so glad you wanted to come to Vegas.” Lily’s comment to Grace cut through the heavy silence.
“I just wanted to get drunk and lose some money at the tables,” Grace replied. “This live show is so much better than anything I could have anticipated.”
“Show’s over, ladies,” Caleb said apologetically. “I’ve got Joe’s grandmother’s ring, so I can’t be late.”
“Maybe we could just consider this an intermission?” Lily said hopefully.
He chuckled at that, but his expression grew serious when he turned to Brie again. “Will you meet me for a drink later?”
She shook her head. “I can’t. We’re here to celebrate Grace’s birthday and—”
“Just one drink. Six o’clock?” He glanced at her friends, as if to enlist their cooperation. “I’m sure Grace and Lily can manage to occupy themselves for an hour or so.”
“It doesn’t matter whether they can or can’t,” Brie said. “I’m here with my friends and we’ve got plans for dinner.”
“Plans but no reservations,” Grace piped up helpfully. “So we’re not on any particular schedule. And if we’re not still here after the happy couple say their ‘I do’s,’ we’ll be in room 1268.”
He nodded to Brie. “I’ll find you there later, then.”
Of course, she watched him walk away. She couldn’t help herself. And she couldn’t deny that he looked as good now as he’d looked the last time she saw him, seven years earlier. Maybe even better.
She suspected that her friends were watching him walk away, too, because it was only when he’d disappeared through the doors and back into the hotel that they turned to her.
“Oh. My. God.” It was Lily who spoke first. “I can’t believe you were married.”
“And didn’t tell us,” Grace added.
“Because it was for a very short while a very long time ago,” she said again.
“I don’t care how short it was or how long ago,” Grace said. “That’s not the kind of secret you keep from your best friends.”
“So maybe we’re not her best friends,” Lily suggested, sounding hurt.
“You know you are,” Brie assured them sincerely.
“And yet, you didn’t tell us about your hunky husband,” Grace remarked. “Not a single word.”
“Actually, she said a few words,” Lily noted. “But only after you told us about this trip. And there was definitely no mention of a wedding or a husband.”
Brie sighed, resigned to the imminent interrogation—and maybe a little relieved that she’d finally have the opportunity to unburden herself of the secrets she’d held on to for so long. But aware that her emotions were already running high, she’d prefer not to do so in public. “Can we continue this conversation upstairs?”
“Stalling for seven years wasn’t long enough?” Lily challenged.
“I’m not trying to stall,” Brie denied.
But she wouldn’t have minded a few minutes under the spray of the shower to clear her head and organize her thoughts. Except that after unlocking the door to their suite, Grace pointed to a chair, a wordless command to her to sit.
Her dark-haired, dark-eyed friend with the take-charge personality had always been the unspoken leader of their little group. The other two women sometimes teased her for being bossy, but they were mostly content to follow her lead.
And because Brie accepted that she owed her friends an explanation, she sat. Lily and Grace settled side by side on the sofa, facing her.
“So...you were married,” Grace prompted, when Brie remained silent.
“I was married,” she confirmed.
“Before you moved to New York?” Lily asked, seeking clarification.
She answered with a slow nod.
“Which means you were barely eighteen.”
Brie nodded again. “I was eighteen and—” her voice wavered and her eyes filled with tears “—pregnant.”
* * *
The silence that followed her announcement was so complete, she could almost hear her friends’ jaws drop.
Grace recovered first and asked, “You had a baby?”
Now Brie shook her head and pressed a hand to her chest, as if to assuage the ache that had never quite gone away. “No, I... I lost the baby.”
“Oh, sweetie.” Grace breached the distance to embrace her.
If anyone had asked, Brie would have said that she’d finished crying for her unborn baby years earlier—but the tears that spilled onto her cheeks now proved otherwise.
“Oh, crap.” That remark came from Lily, because any outpouring of emotion inevitably brought on her own tears of empathy. “We didn’t know...we didn’t mean... Oh, Brie, we’re so sorry. Oh, please don’t cry.” She shoved a box of tissues into Brie’s lap, after plucking a couple out for her own use.
She managed a
