The Lost Groom: Bachelor Billionaire Romance (A Park City Firefighter Companion)

by Taylor Hart

  Luke tried to twist away, but the other one held to his chest. “You’ve been hiding.”

  The first one pouted. “You haven’t come to play with us for a long, long time.”

  Feeling semi-disgusted, Savannah rolled her eyes and began turning away.

  “Wait!”

  Savannah backed up, half watching Luke try to extricate himself from those women. She turned and thought she saw Beth on the dance floor; eager for a distraction, she rushed for the deck stairs.

  His hand was on hers. “Closure, Savannah. We both need it.”

  She noticed Clark heading straight for her up the steps through a crowd of people.

  “Please, Savannah.” Luke held her hand. “Just have one conversation with me. That’s all. Then we can end this.”

  She turned and looked into his clear blue-green eyes, wanting more than anything for the torture that had started at the marina to stop. “Fine.”

  Luke pulled her through the crowd of people toward the kitchen.

  Letting herself be dragged by Luke didn’t suit her; she yanked her hand free, but kept pace. “I’ll let you take me home, but after we talk, I don’t want to see you again.” She couldn’t believe she was doing this.

  He turned, and she saw a smile playing on his lips. She thought he would say some quip, but all he did was nod.

  Rushing through the party, various people tried to stop him, but he politely told each one he was in a rush.

  All she could think of was that this was a big mistake. Still, maybe she needed closure. Maybe she needed something to get him out of her head.

  “This way.” He pointed towards the hall that looked like it led to a garage.

  The kitchen opened up with white granite and stainless steel and she couldn’t help but be impressed. Having a beautiful kitchen she could bake and cook in had always been a dream of hers. She loved to cook fancy cuisine even though it had only been her and Sean.

  “Wait here, I have to check on Nick.” Luke turned down another hallway.

  Looking around for a phone, she wondered, again, if she should really go with him. She couldn’t see any phones on the kitchen walls or counter. Her parents’ home still had a dial phone on the wall they’d inherited from her grandmother. She looked into the crowd of people and didn’t recognize anybody.

  “Okay.” Luke was back. He held a couple of protein bars in his hand and some waters. “I brought you food.”

  It felt like he was too close to her again. “I don’t need food.”

  His eyes looked her up and down. “I think you definitely need food. Or maybe … I do.”

  Butterflies filled her gut and she felt like they weren’t talking about food at all. The smell of him, like fresh rain assaulted her.

  “Let’s go.”

  Broken from her trance, she said, “You can’t leave. This is your party.”

  He dismissed this, reaching for the door and pulling it open. “I’ve shaken hands with everyone at this party. Plus, Damon loves to dance, and he and Sam aren’t leaving until tomorrow for Hawaii. With his firefighter brothers here, the party will pretty much be happening into the morning.”

  Savannah walked out into his large garage, seeing an assortment of expensive-looking cars.

  He motioned to a red convertible Ford Mustang and opened the door for her, then handed her the protein bars and a water. “Eat these and drink this.”

  It was strange, surreal, to be here with him, getting into his car. Over the years, she’d “practiced” Luke out of her brain. It had been hard the first few years because Luke had been such a part of her and Sean, but both she and Sean had agreed without saying it that they would not talk about him.

  It was easier. She supposed that for Sean, it was easier not to think about the way she and Luke had been. She slid into the car, the leather seats surrounding her like her feelings regarding Luke. The most pronounced was guilt.

  Luke got in and opened the garage. As they backed up, there were valets on either side, guiding him out.

  “See you later, Mr. Freestone.”

  “Bye, George.”

  The driveway went on forever. Reluctantly, she opened a protein bar and took a bite, distracting herself with a snicker, suddenly finding this whole scene ridiculous.

  “What?” Luke got to the bottom of the lane and put the car in gear, taking off down the road.

  She took a sip of water. “Don’t you think your driveway is a bit much?”

  Luke glanced at her, the wind blowing his hair into his green eyes. The moon was out and the smell of pine trees and spring still clung to the air. “Why would it be a bit much?”

  “It’s just long.” It felt kind of funny they were even talking about this.

  The side of his lip turned up as he drove. “I like having buildup to the house. It makes people wonder.”

  “Ha.” She wanted to say they had way too much buildup to this conversation, waiting ten years. What did he mean by closure? She guessed she would find out.

  They fell into companionable silence. No, not companionable, but not the weird nervous tension that had been the thing from the past few days.

  “I’m sorry.” Luke faintly broke the silence.

  The admission yanked her to attention. “For what?”

  He let out a light laugh. “You pick.”

  Savannah turned to look at him, wind blowing his hair, the moonlight cascading over his beautiful face. He wore a haunted expression, completely different from the mask she’d seen when he stood up next to Damon at the church or in the line.

  She didn’t respond. This was crazy, being with him.

  They drove a couple more minutes, and instead of taking the turn that would lead to her home, he turned the other way.

  “Where are we going?”

  Luke didn’t answer.

  Her mind was whirling when she saw him turn up the street that would take them to the place. Their place. The place they’d always gone to make out. The place where they had … “I don’t want to go there.”

  He glanced at her and their eyes locked for a moment. She wanted to yell to him to look at the road while he was driving. Finally, he turned back to the road, scowling. “I don’t want to fight with you.”

  Her heart was still pounding, as it always seemed to do when she was with him. Her adrenaline had been put into play in that fight-or-flight way. She exhaled, and it came out shaky. “I haven’t seen you in ten years. How do we even know we’re fighting?”

  He let out a soft snort, then shook his head. “It might be ten years since we’ve seen each other, but I think we still know if we’re fighting.” He pulled under the tree that looked out at the new resort. New to her. It had been here a couple years. He cut the engine. Neither of them turned to each other.

  The moonlight bathed them as all sorts of memories floated back to her. Finally, she asked, “Why did you bring me here?”

  He still didn’t look at her. “Would you believe I haven’t been here since we were here together?”

  She watched his green eyes turn glassy. It was strange how she could see him so well. He looked the same, but different. No longer a boy and no more baby fat on his cheeks. No, everything about him was mature, hard, grown-up, even the way his cheekbones jutted out beautifully. She thought of the last night before he’d left for his internship. The night she tried never to think of.

  He cleared his throat. “Do you remember Sadie Hawkins dance? How you hurt your ankle and I brought you here for the first time?”

  Of course she remembered it. “How you pretended the car wouldn’t start.”

  He laughed. “That’s right.”

  She pointed at him. “You tricked me.”

  Leaning back into his seat, he exhaled. “No, you let me trick you.”

  She sighed, thinking of that night and how magical it had all been then. “I did let you trick me.”

  The side of his lip tugged up. “Man, it was fun, wasn’t it?”

  Her heart ached, an
d all the torture of the last ten years threatened to drown her, so she said what she’d wanted to say for ten years. “I can’t do this.”

  Silence reigned for what felt like forever.

  “I was coming back to you,” he said softly. “I was coming back at the end of the summer.”

  “You broke it off!” She exploded. “You! The day after we’d ….” She couldn’t finish the words. Tears filled her eyes and she wanted to scream.

  “I know.” He was quiet. “I’ve regretted it for ten years.”

  “You’ve regretted it?” This was laughable.

  For a few moments he didn’t speak.

  She fell silent, thinking about all the mixed emotions from that time period in her life. All the emotions of the past ten years felt like they would consume her.

  “Did you ever love me?” He asked.

  Turning to him, she saw the sincerity in his eyes. “That’s not fair.”

  “You married Sean pretty fast.”

  “You dumped me, giving me some crap about your dad.”

  “I was stupid.” He said with repressed anger.

  “Yeah, you were.”

  More silence.

  Then she sighed. “I did love you,” she said quietly, hating herself for it. “But I don’t now.”

  He let out a light laugh. “Okay.”

  She cleared her throat. “On the phone, the day Sean and I told you we were eloping, you said that everything between us must have been a lie … well that wasn’t true.”

  Shifting his body to face her, he threw up his hands. “When you called me on the phone and told me you were eloping, how did you expect me to act?”

  “Once again, you had ended things between us. You.” She said accusingly.

  He let out a long breath. “The news about killed me.”

  She didn’t know why she felt like she had to tell him. “I loved Sean. I did.” Because the past few days had made everything blurry in her mind.

  “I know.” He sucked in a long breath. “For years I was so angry. Angry at you. At Sean … at myself. I told myself it was fake, but after a couple of years I couldn’t do it anymore—deny the truth. I had to face what I had done. I was stupid, I bought into this idea my father sold me that I had to focus on success or I would fail. He was so … ” Luke slammed a hand into the steering wheel. “He was such a jerk and all I wanted to do was make him proud.”

  Everything he said confirmed what Savannah had already known on some level. But … it was nice to hear it.

  His eyes were raw and vulnerable. “I know you loved both Sean and me. I knew that, even when we were together.”

  She nodded and then sniffed, all the emotion coming back. Part of her wanted to tell him about everything … but she’d promised Sean a long time ago she never would. “Is this closure?”

  “I guess.” He gripped the steering wheel. “I know it’s not fair for me to ask this, since I never thought I would even have a chance to ask this when Sean was alive. I wouldn’t have. I didn’t. But since you’ve been … since that kiss the other day, I’ve just felt like there was so much between us. So much …” He ran his hand through his hair and pulled at it. “Why? Why did you elope?”

  9

  “I loved Sean.”

  He didn’t say anything, even though it felt like the fact she kept saying it, over and over, actually made it sound untrue. But he wouldn’t point that out.

  “Sean needed me.” She said quietly.

  Something in her voice made him feel like she was caught. The same feeling he got when he did cross-examination and he had caught the witness in a lie.

  “I get that. But I don’t understand why you eloped?”

  She shrugged. “We were young. It seemed like fun.”

  He frowned. “You just always seemed like you wanted a traditional wedding. In the church.”

  “I didn’t.” She said quickly.

  Which he knew was a lie.

  Both of them just sat there.

  Finally, she wiped beneath her eyes. “Sometimes I still can’t believe he’s gone, ya know? I just think he’s on assignment somewhere. And then it hits me. It’s real. He’s gone.”

  He didn’t even know what to say, but he did know something else he should apologize for. “I never should have told him the only thing he could do with his life was be a soldier.”

  The air chilled between them.. Sean had been dyslexic and learning had been harder for him. Luke knew it … and he’d exploited it.

  “No, you shouldn’t have.” She said.

  Any part of his heart that had been soothed by his apology now burned with regret.

  She sighed. “But Sean loved it. I begged him a few years ago to get out of it, but he wouldn’t it.” She leaned back into her seat. “In the end, the only thing I know is that we are all responsible for the choices we make. We can’t blame anyone else.”

  It was surprising to him how much he still wanted to comfort her. After everything between them.

  “I loved him, but there were things …” Her words held a biting edge, just like the rest of this conversation.

  Luke wanted to know. Couldn’t help but want to discover it all. Their lives. What it had been like. Yet, another part of him didn’t want to know, worried it would be too painful. Even sitting here with her was a tad painful, all that wasn’t, and all that had been.

  “I can’t talk about this,” she told him. “I just need to leave it all in the past. We both should.”

  So they sat there, staring at each other, not knowing what to say.

  He wanted to tell her so much. He wanted to hear everything.

  But she couldn’t. She didn’t want to.

  So he changed the subject. “I saw Kathy at the hospital today,” he said knowing the small talk sounded strange.

  “Really?” She blinked and looked mildly interested.

  “I held baby Lincoln.”

  She smiled. “You did?”

  He nodded. “Kathy said he was being transferred to Primary Children’s.”

  “Beth told me they would keep him for a while.” She sighed. “I can’t believe his parents left him.”

  He nodded, thinking of the baby and wondering what would happen to him.

  She sighed.

  The parents leaving had troubled him, too. “I guess sometimes we don’t know why people do what they do.”

  She turned to him. “Are you talking about me or Lincoln’s parents?”

  Luke didn’t answer.

  She waved her hand into the air. “You know what … let’s not talk about that. Let’s talk about something nice. Hey, I hear you’re on the verge of a deal of a lifetime. Kathy told me about it the other day. Almost a billionaire.” She flashed a smile.

  Luke felt himself relax. He pointed at her. “Almost.”

  “That’s great, Luke.”

  For some reason, it didn’t feel that important at the moment. “Thank you.” He cleared his throat.

  Out of the blue, she let out a light laugh. “Hey, you could help baby Lincoln.”

  “What?” He asked perplexed.

  “Start a fund. Help him get the money he needs for treatment.”

  Luke frowned.

  Savannah shrugged. “I know they have programs for some of it, but I’m not sure on the details. Kathy had mentioned that there were experimental treatments Medicare might not pay for.”

  Luke frowned. “I honestly don’t have time to figure something like that out.”

  Savannah frowned back.

  Then he thought about how a jury would think he sounded—like a total jerk. “I mean—”

  She let out a derisive laugh. “Hey, never mind. It was just a thought.”

  “No, you’re right.” For some reason he didn’t want to appear as he was.

  She sighed. “Hey, you don’t have to explain anything to me.”

  It felt like, the way she said it, the night was on the verge of ending and he didn’t want it to end. “So you’re looking
for clients?”

  “What?” She frowned.

  “Kathy,” was all he said in explanation.

  “Oh,” she said, seeming to come back from another world.

  “I checked out your website, it’s pretty impressive,” he offered, meaning it.

  A slight blush washed over her features. “I really like the idea of happily ever afters.” She shrugged. “Why shouldn’t people be happy?”

  Something about the way she said it felt personal.

  “Why aren’t you married Luke?”

  The question took him by surprise. “Hmm … I guess I never found the right one.” His heart beat rapidly.

  The moonlight hit her face in the perfect way to accentuate her perfect cheekbones. She was a woman now and she was beautiful.

  “So you’re looking for clients here?”

  She swallowed, then released a breath. “I need some clients to get me to California.”

  “California?”

  “Yep. I’m just here to visit for the summer. Then onward and upward.”

  “Annette and Frankie.” He let out a laugh, remembering all those silly movies.

  “What?” She looked confused.

  He pointed at her. “Do. Not. Tell me that your dream doesn’t come from those nineteen-like sixties movies that you made me and Sean watch every time we had nothing to watch on rainy days. Those beach ones.”

  She blushed. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  “Whatever.” He laughed. “You totally had a crush on that old dude.”

  “He wasn’t old in the movie!” She argued back, revealing herself. Then she smiled and let out a laugh. “You always said I had a crush on an old guy. Not true!” She pointed back at him.

  Which made him laugh harder.

  Then she laughed harder.

  And it almost felt … like it had used to be.

  The laughter died down and she let out a sigh. “My mom thinks it’s because of all the 90210 re-runs I watched.”

  It made him laugh. “Man, I’d forgotten about those.” He remembered sneaking into her room with Sean when she was grounded and watching them almost an entire Friday night to Saturday morning. Glancing at her, it felt like she was remembering it too.