Page 11 of Better Off Wed
“Grandma Mars, do you think Cash Bridges is Mr. Titty?” Lola asked, wide-eyed.
“No,” the older woman replied before sliding a soft, wrinkled hand over my elbow. Her grip was surprisingly tight; I wouldn’t escape it. “Let’s go inside,” she said, and turned me toward the side of the church where we could access the basement.
“He’s gloating, Etta,” Betsy said, glaring down the street at where the bikers had disappeared. “Making a show of strength on your eldest grandson’s wedding day. He’s Mr. Titty, and he’s getting more brazen by the day. He’s trying to stop you from cleaning up the town so he can keep running drugs and whatever else he does in that clubhouse of his. You know he’s trying to expand his territory.”
“Petty vandalism is beneath him,” Grandma Mars replied, her grip on my elbow tightening. “Cash Bridges isn’t worth talking about.”
“Except for the fact that the minute he rolled into town four years ago was when everything started going downhill.”
Grandma Mars sighed. “It started going downhill long before that. But we’re changing that now.” She smiled at me. “Aren’t we, dear?”
I gulped and dipped my chin. “Trying to.”
“Good,” she said. “Now let’s go inside. It’s time to cut the cake. Gideon!”
His face was like thunder when he turned in response to his grandmother’s voice. My heart thumped, and even with thepressure of Etta’s hand on my elbow, I remained rooted to the ground, my heels sinking into the soft earth. Gideon’s jaw clenched, and I wondered if he was angry about the motorcycle gang riding by. Or why he’d reacted so intensely, like he wanted to rush into the street and punch Cash Bridges right off his hog when the other man had grinned at me.
Heat circled inside me, concentrated below my navel. We watched each other, a little patch of grass separating us, and I was absolutely sure that Gideon lied about being a one out of ten. There was fire in his gaze. He’d been mad about another man’s lecherous gaze on my body. Hewantedme.
Didn’t he?
Or was I just making another mistake?
GIDEON
I hovered over her like a lovesick fool in the church basement. Every time she moved, I inhaled the scent of her skin, and my want grew. I watched her lick a smear of icing off her lip, my cock a hard bar against the placket of my pants. It was unbearable. Electrifying. Awful. Incredible.
All I had to do was make it through the reception, and then I could take her to my apartment and tuck her into the spare room. Stay away from her for six weeks. Fulfill my end of the bargain with my grandmother, and let Sadie find her happily-ever-after somewhere else, with someone else.
The thought made my stomach curdle.
But how could someone as beautiful as Sadie want someoneas broken and ugly as me? How could I eventhinkto put my scarred hands on her body?
I watched her take a sip of champagne, caught by the movement of her lips. I was sick with wanting her. Wanting what I could never have.
FOUR
SADIE
The wedding reception was a whirlwind of new names and faces. My new husband glared at his plate and occasionally at me. I caught him glancing at his watch for the thousandth time, so I asked, “Anxious about something?”
“It’s almost five o’clock. The oldies will be wanting to go to bed soon, so we’ll be free to leave.”
I pinched my lips, casting an eye over the mostly elderly crowd. They’d picked the food tables bare and were lounging around drinking bucketfuls of coffee. One old man was already snoring in his chair, his mustache hairs fluttering with every breath. “Funny.”
“I wasn’t joking.” Gideon straightened in his chair as two gangly boys approached. He introduced them as Connor and Glenn, brothers of Lola. His younger cousins. I was pretty sure I’d met their mom (Jennifer, maybe?), but I needed a diagram to keep all the family ties straight. There seemed to be an endless supply of cousins to meet.
Gideon nodded at Connor, the taller, dark-haired one. “Report.”
Connor held a tablet in his hands. He turned it around and pressed play on a video. We watched security footage of the front of the church doors. A person darted in, spray-painted a pair of boobs, and snuck out. “Mr. Titty knows our blind spots,” Connor said. “Snuck into the frame and hid his face at exactly the right moment. We’ve got nothing.” He grimaced. His dark hair flopped over his eyes, and his suit looked a couple sizes too big for his gangly body. But he had the steely Mars eyes, and I thought he’d probably grow into a handsome man in another few years. Glenn already had a bit more bulk, but he still had the awkwardness of a teenager.
“It’s not nothing,” Gideon said. “It’s the first time we’ve got him on video. Good work, Connor. Glenn.”
The boys straightened at the praise, a flush darkening their cheeks as they glanced at each other and fought smiles.
“Connor.” Grandma Mars’s voice made me jump. I glanced over my right shoulder in time to see her come to a stop between me and Gideon. “I don’t want to hear any talk about graffiti today. Let your cousins take care of it.”
“But I’m the one who accessed the town’s CCTV feeds?—”
