Bad Boy's Heart: A Firemen in Love Series Novella (3 page)

“You are blessed, you know that?” Mom sighed, jealousy written on her face. “A multi-million dollar wedding gift, and a beautiful home that you didn't even have to work for. Your father and I had to bust our butts for everything we have, I hope you realize.”

This was supposed to be the happiest day of my life, and here mom was, bitching about money. I could hardly believe it.

No, wait – actually, I could.

Not like it mattered much, anyway. I hadn't really been happy in a long time. I'd hoped getting hitched would change that; I'd always wanted to be a wife and mom.

Could be I was just deluding myself all these years.

“There. Now you look beautiful again.” She nudged me up the stairs. “Go on. Your dad's waiting for you. I'd better take my place, too.”

She left me there alone. For a few seconds, I considered getting in my car and running far, far away from this place. That, or maybe Carter would “kidnap” me if I asked him nice enough. He'd never not come through for me before.

Ten years had gone by, and here I was, still thinking about him like he was my best friend.

More than that, really, as evidenced by my soaked underwear.

“Get a grip on it, slut,” I whispered to myself, cheeks burning.

In the sanctuary, the music swelled. I figured that was my cue to move my ass. Wasn't easy going in these painfully stiff heels mom forced on me, but I made it up the steps somehow.

Dad was hovering in the lobby, peeking out the windows with that anxious look on his face. I knew that look well. He saved it for times when shit was
really
about to hit the fan.

“Dad?”

He jumped and offered me a startled smile. “Oh, honey. You look absolutely lovely.”

“Andy still isn't here.”

“No.” He hung his head. “He's not. But he should be here. Any minute now; I'm sure of it.”

The guests were beginning to whisper among themselves and fidget in their seats. Most of them were from Andy's side of the family. And there, in the back row, was Carter and his friends.

Crap, what was he still doing here?

He must have heard me talking to dad. He turned and offered me a reassuring smile. I wished he hadn't, because now I couldn't stop thinking about him ripping off my clothes.

Not
good.

At the front of the sanctuary stood my bridesmaids and Andy's groomsmen. His best man, Paul, shifted anxiously from foot to foot. Then he felt his pocket.

“My phone,” I heard him whisper. “Uh, you mind? That could be him.”

The pastor nodded his consent. Paul pulled out his phone and scanned the screen. His brow furrowed, and his cheeks turned red.

“Well?” My mother tapped her foot. “Is that him?”

“Yeah.” He swallowed. “It is.”

Andy's mom, Vivian, threw up her hands. “What does it say, then? Go on, don't keep us all waiting any longer.”

The music quieted so he could read. Everyone hushed and waited eagerly for the message. As for me, I thought I might throw up. Whatever it said, it wasn't going to be good.

“I'm sorry,” Paul read. “But I can't go through with the wedding.”

“
What?
”

“He... He's not coming?”

In my heart, I already knew. The worst part was that I didn't really care all that much. In fact, it was kind of a relief.

I felt bad for thinking that way, but it was the truth.

“There's more.” Paul read on. “He says, 'I'm not ready to be a married man. I've packed my things and gone to Thailand for a while to try and find myself. Tell Alicia I love her but I can't be with her anymore.'”

The guests erupted into an uproar of shouting, name calling, and accusations. Dad put his arm around me in a feeble attempt at offering comfort, but I shrugged him off.

Really? Andy was dumping me at the altar via
text message?
Not only that, he was breaking up with me. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

Mom marched over to Vivian, who was trying to calm the sea of angry relatives who'd flown across the country to be here.

“How could your boy do this to my precious daughter? Do you realize she's going to be traumatized by this?”

Vivian huffed and fanned herself. “Well, I'm sure he had a good reason for it. He was raised right, you know. He'd never do this without just cause.”

“Oh? And what would this reason be, pray tell?”

“Maybe it's your daughter's fault,” she suggested. “Perhaps you should ask her what she's done to run him off. Yes, I've seen the way she looks at other men. Truly shameful.”

Mom's face turned scarlet as she launched herself over the pew at Vivian. She tore the hat from her head, pulled her hair, and slapped at her while a few men tried uselessly to pull them apart.

Dad ran up the aisle to help. “Dear, please,” he shouted over the melee. “Stop it! We can't afford another lawsuit.”

Ian, Andy's father, shoved mine away from his wife. My uncle Jared, a big, burly hillbilly with not a lick of class in his body, didn't like that one bit.

“You son of a bitch. Have some damn respect!”

Jared threw the first punch. Ian went down with a howl of pain, crying that he'd knocked out his tooth and he was suing this entire family for every penny they had.

The pastor shouted into the microphone. “Everyone, stop this behavior at once! This is God's house, and I will
not
have it!”

Somebody threw a Bible at him from across the room. The pastor squawked, stumbled, and fell into the table where they'd set the candles – the very ones Andy and I were supposed to light as a symbol of our new life together.

The candles tipped over and caught the tablecloth on fire. There was a lot of shrieking until some guy doused the flames with a bowl of holy water.

Carter's friends were laughing their heads off. Not him, though. He came to me, rested his hand on my shoulder.

“Let's go outside. C'mon.”

I nodded, and he held the door for me. Nobody noticed as we slipped out into the balmy spring evening.

The reality of what just happened struck me as the door closed. I slumped into a bench, dropping my bouquet and not bothering to pick it up.

Carter stood beside me. “You going to be okay?”

In the building, I hadn't even felt much when Paul read that text. Out here, away from the chaos, the meaning of it all struck me, and I cried.

How could this be happening? Three years we'd dated. We planned a future together. We looked at houses to buy after the wedding, and even talked about having kids one day.

Sure, I wasn't head-over-heels for him. Sex wasn't that great, or frequent. And I didn't feel anything when he kissed me. Still, it was a comfortable existence.

Carter sat with me and offered his shoulder to sob on. This wasn't the first time I'd wet his shirt with my tears.

“I'm not real good with this sort of stuff,” he said, a bit weakly.

“You're doing more than enough just by being here.” I looked up at him. “I'm glad you came.”

“So am I.”

His expression was stoic, impossible to read. Even as a dorky teenager, he got this way sometimes, always when something bad happened.

“You have any idea he was planning to leave?”

I played with the ring on my finger. “Obviously not. I just wish if he was plotting to bail on me, he'd have done it before three hundred people came to see me walk down the aisle.”

The ring slid off into my palm. I'd worn it pretty much nonstop since Andy proposed to me a year back.

Removing it was a symbol that our relationship was over. But you know what? I wasn't really that sad about it.

In fact, I felt kind of free.

“Maybe it's just me,” Carter said, “but you don't sound terribly upset about the whole thing.”

“You always were good at picking up on my moods.”

“Not a skill that's transferred to other women, I assure you. Most emotional girls only confuse the hell out of me.”

I let the pleasant memories of Carter crowd out the bad ones of Andy being a total asshole. Back then, he was sensitive to my PMS-induced moments of rage. He'd bring me chocolate at school every month because, he said, that he figured hormonal chicks
loved
chocolate.

“I'm
not
that upset. At least, not for the reasons you'd think. I'm more angry at myself for not seeing the signs earlier.”

The rabble in the church was getting louder and louder. Mom accused Andy of running off on me with another woman.

“I tried to warn my boy about your daughter,” Vivian shouted back. “I knew she was no good for him.”

Carter looked sympathetic. “Don't listen to them.”

The church doors flew open, and out stomped mom with fury in her eyes. She found me on the bench, glared at Carter for a moment, then grabbed me by the sleeve of my dress.

“Let's go, Alicia,” she muttered through gritted teeth. “The reception starts at seven. Best we go get tidied up so we can be there to greet the guests.”

Carter was about to say something, but I shushed him fast. When he got mad enough, he said whatever came to mind. Last thing I needed was mom hating him all over again – like the time she overheard him calling her a bitch for grounding me.

Yeah, I was pretty sure she'd never forgotten that.

“Wait a minute!” I dug the spiky heels of my shoes into the lawn; guess they were useful for something in the end. “What reception? Andy just dumped me. There wasn't even a wedding.”

“The meal and evening's entertainment has already been paid for, and I'll be damned if we let it go to waste just because of this circus.” She tugged me harder.

My bridesmaids spilled out of the church, offering their apologies and many reasons why Andy wasn't such a catch anyway, so it wasn't really that big a loss.

“Let's just go get drunk and forget about him,” Heidi insisted. “Hell, there's lots of cute guys here. Maybe you'll find a new one to take home.”

I glanced at Carter, who met my gaze with a lifted eyebrow. A smile danced on his lips. Suddenly, the image of those lips trailing over my back in the bedroom was seared into my mind.

“Dear, let's
go.
”

But I didn't want to go. I wanted to stay here, with him. Talking with Carter was the only thing keeping me from losing it right now.

Those three friends of his emerged from the lobby, still laughing so hard they had tears in their eyes. Carter shot them a withering look, which got them to shut their mouths, at least.

“Bunch of delinquents,” mom hissed. “I swear if you've ruined this beautiful reception, you'll be speaking to our lawyer.”

“Aw, give it a rest, lady. There's enough food in there to feed a whole army. Surely you can spare a few plates for some of Waco's very best firefighters.”

Mom stammered for a response, but didn't have one. Heidi and the others whispered and giggled over the men. It was easy to see why; every single one of them was movie-star hot.

“Carter,” I said over the noise. “If you're not busy, I'd like you to come to the reception with me.”

The girls cheered for me. Lacey whistled. Though I'd just gotten dumped, already they were urging me to get back in the saddle.

And you know what? A night of drunken, meaningless sex sounded like exactly what I needed.

“Well, I'm on duty, but I'd love to.” He glanced at his buddies. “Though these idiots came with me in the truck, so I'm kinda stuck with them.”

“They're welcome too.”

Mom paled. “W-what? They most certainly are not.”

Out came dad, to the rescue like usual. “Oh, Ellen, Alicia's had a horrid day. Let the poor woman invite whoever she wants.”

Carter nodded at him.”Thanks, Mr. Prescott. It'll be nice to catch up on old times with your daughter.”

“Yes, I'm sure it will.” He eyed him with suspicion. “Just don't you go getting any funny ideas, young man.”

The moment dad turned his back, Carter's friends began to snicker.

Oh, boy. Open bar, here I come.

Chapter 3 - Carter

“Uh, miss? Miss!” The photographer ran after Alicia, camera dangling from his neck. “If we could just get some pictures of you and the groom together...”

She laughed and sipped the margarita her friends had forced into her hands.

“Sorry. There is no groom.”

She left the baffled man behind and went back to greeting family while I kept my eye on her from our table. Lucky for us, even with this many guests, she'd managed to find all four of us seats.

The food was delicious – and probably cost a fortune – but I could hardly taste it. I was more concerned with stifling the x-rated thoughts that raced through my mind.

“What a shit storm,” Brett said with a shake of his head. “Though this chick seems pretty awesome, getting us into this fancy buffet and all.”