Want an easier way to catch up on Lainey’s List? Read it on Wattpad here!

Lainey

“You’re parents are amazing, Charlie.” I lean over to pin another flower in Charlotte’s hair. “The way your dad looks at your mom—like it’s the first time he’s laid eyes on her, and he can’t bear to look away—is swoon worthy.”

Charlie wrinkles her nose. “They get to be a little much; both them and Nate’s parents. I swear Uncle Noah and Aunt Grace were fooling around in the car before they got to the rehearsal dinner.”

I hide a smirk under the guise of searching for the right-sized sprig to stick into the bride’s bun. Grace Jackson’s lipstick did appear to be smeared when they arrived at the swanky downtown Chicago restaurant but, whereas, my friend and her fiancé might be squirming from embarrassment, I think it’s beyond adorable and inspirational. These two couples have been married over twenty years each. I didn’t know my father, and my mother never remarried. I was raised in a household of bitter women who hated and distrusted men.

Maybe if I’d met Nick’s parents sooner, I would’ve understood what a truly good man he was. Instead, I viewed his playboy behavior through the lens of my past negative experiences. I wish I’d been more open-minded.

“You look gorgeous.” I stick the last of the flowers in Charlie’s hair and bend down to plant my face next to hers. We stare at each other in the mirror. My best friend is marrying her childhood sweetheart today, a boy who needed nine fucking years to get his head on straight. Would I have had the patience for that? “You deserve so much happiness, sweetie.”

Tears glisten in her eyes. “Do I? Sometimes I feel like I have too much in my life, and everything that has happened is some kind of leavening effect.”

“You mean the cancer?”

She nods, the tears slipping down. I dab them carefully away. “No. You’re going to beat it. You did before. We all love you too much to let you go.”

I slip my arms around her slender shoulders and squeeze her tight.

Her head falls down to press against my head. “I love you, Lainey.” She takes a deep calming breath and stands up. “You know that your happily ever after is waiting for you. I hope you don’t wait too long to grab it.”

_______________

The wedding is beautiful—an absolute spectacle, although surprisingly small in scale given the wealth of the two families involved. I’ve never seen Charlotte so happy. The couple recites their own vows. The heartfelt emotions that ring in each word bring tears to the eyes of everyone present. I keep my own gaze locked to the floor, afraid of what others might see in them. From across the aisle, though, the intense stare of Nick bores into me.

It’s impossible to ignore him for long. He corners me during the reception as I take a break from dancing with Cassidy.

“How are you holding up?” He asks, shoving a champagne flute into my empty hand.

“My feet are beginning to hurt.” I lean back against the wall and wiggle my toes in the white satin, red-soled shoes that Charlie insisted on buying—so we matched, she’d said. “But this is the best party I’ve ever been to.” Cassidy is running in a circle with a few other kids at the edge of the dance floor that had been laid on top of the grass. “Your home is beautiful.”

“I actually grew up in the city. Dad bought this place for Mom, and we’d come out here on the weekends, take the boat out onto the lake, roast a few marshmallows on the beach, make huge piles of leaves.” He eyes the magnificent estate with a fond, familiar glance.

“Your mom didn’t mind you tracking all the dirt and stuff into her house?”

“Nah. The dirtier the better. Besides,” he smiles impishly and my heart does a flip, “she had two boys. It was either accept that her home would be a tornado or live every day in despair.”

“Well, she looks amazing so I’m guessing she didn’t spend the last twenty odd years in despair.” I sip on my champagne. “That’s not the face of someone who’s spent much time, if any, dwelling on unhappy things.” We both take in his mother’s beautiful face. Grace isn’t a classic beauty, by any means, but the peace and happiness that is imbued in every atom makes her glow like an angel. Noah can’t keep his eyes off of her.

Nick slouches beside me. “Speaking of unhappy things, how is our girl doing?” He nods toward Cassidy.

“She’s handling it pretty well.” Grandmama had passed away in her sleep a week ago. I’d told Mama but I don’t think she understood. “If Grandma had been a bigger influence in her life, it might have affected her on a deeper level,” I admit. In that, I suppose, there was a small blessing for being kicked out of the house when I’d discovered I was pregnant.

“I take it you haven’t told Charlie yet?”

My gaze swings toward my beautiful friend who is on the other side of the room; one arm linked through her gorgeous, uniformed husband’s while the other clasps the hand of a well-wisher.

“I’ll tell her after the honeymoon.” Charlie is in the midst of cancer treatments, a hospital room kitted out in this very house. The last thing she needed to be concerned about was the death of my grandmother, an unhappy woman who passed on because of old age and bitterness.

“She’ll be upset,” Nick predicts.

“I’ll deal with that when the time comes. Besides, I’m betting Nate will have made her so blissful that any sharp edges will have been worn down by the time she floats her way toward me.”

Nick snorts into his glass. “I talked to my parents. They want to take Cassidy for a while.”

“What for?” My cheeks burn at the thought of Nick talking to his parents about our sex life. As if the things we did were so crazy, she couldn’t be in the same zip code.

Nick tilts his head so I’m forced to look him in the eye. “Lainey,” he says with a hint of impatience, “the only thing that’s keeping us apart is Chip. Let’s have my parents watch Cassidy while we work out the Chip problem. If he goes away, you won’t have any excuses left.”

I push away from the wall in indignation. “That’s not fair. I’m not using Chip as an excuse. He’s a real thing. A real danger to my right to custody of Cassidy.”

Nick drags a hand down his face. “You’re right. That was a stupid word but the point is we need to get rid of him.”

“What are you gonna do? Have you brother’s SEAL team take him out?” He’s silent for so long that I nudge him with my shoe. “Nick!”

“Sorry,” he gives me a crooked grin, “I was indulging in a little fantasy.” He straightens as well, taking my now empty glass and tucking it into his suit pocket. “But you’re right. We can’t actually do that since I can’t win football games from prison. Or maybe I could but not the right ones. So let’s strategize.”

“In the middle of your brother’s wedding reception?” I ask in disbelief. Yet, I trot right behind him until we stop at an abandoned table.

“Yup. You’re not going to leave Cassidy, and my mom would kill me if I left before the wedding party, so let’s use our time wisely.” He pulls out a chair and points at it.

With a huge sigh, I lift up my frothy blue skirt and take a seat. He positions himself next to me so we can both keep an eye on Cassidy.

“The dilemma we have here is that Chip is a bitter dickhole who wants to prevent you from being happy. Why?”

“I don’t think it’s me,” I say. “At first, it was. In the beginning, he didn’t want to be saddled with a groupie and her kid. He paid me off.” I slide my eyes toward Nick who seems completely unperturbed by my admission.

At my pause, he jerks his head around from Cassidy to me. “What? Am I supposed to think less of you for that? The guy had a multi-million dollar contract and wouldn’t step up to raise his own child. You shouldn’t feel one ounce of guilt. I’d have taken that money. I think I’d have less respect for you if you’d turned it down.”

“Oh,” I say in small voice. My heart swells to almost unimaginable proportions.

“Back to your theory…” he prompts.

“Right. My theory.” I pin my eyes on Cassidy’s wild curls because if I look at Nick, I’ll either attack him or completely break down. “After you and Charlie came to town and we got to be close, I think he was worried that I’d make him look bad. He wanted me to keep my mouth shut about our connection and threatened to take Cassidy away from me if I didn’t. He had gone to a lawyer and recorded it. Later, he played the recording for me. Basically, the lawyer said that I could be shown to be unfit and that I’d lose Cassidy.”

“But then he’d be awarded custody, and he can’t want that,” Nick points out.

“True. I guess I wasn’t thinking it through. Now though, I think he wants to punish you. You’ve taken his place. You won where he failed, and if he has any inkling about how you feel,” I blush and my eyes fall to my hands. It sounds so presumptuous when I say it out loud. That Nick has feelings for me.

His larger hand covers mine. “How I love you, Lainey? Is that what Chip believes my feelings are?” His legs shift closer, the black wool of his tuxedo pants coming into my still downcast view. “Because he’d be right. I do love you. And I love Cassidy. I want us to build a life together, and if that means tearing Chip down, sending my brother’s SEAL team after him, or destroying his reputation, then I’m all for it.”

Wetness pools in my eyes. I can’t look at Nick because if I do, I’ll start bawling. I tell him as much. “You can’t say those things to me,” I whisper hoarsely.

“Why?”

“Because I’ve wanted to hear them for so long.” I raise our clasped hands to my mouth. “Because I love you, too. Whatever it takes to remove Chip from our lives, I’m in for.”

His free hand cups my face, a thumb brushing away the tears of joy that I can’t stop. “All right. We’re in this together now, Lainey. No backing out. No running away. If you do, I’m coming after you.”

“Promise?” I say with a watery smile.

His eyes darken. “Promise.”

The post Lainey’s List Chapter Fifty-Two appeared first on Author Jen Frederick.