The Right Groom

by Jen Talty

  “You can all think whatever you want.” Spencer lifted his dirty dish.

  “Yo, Spencer,” Captain Nash called from the lobby. “You’ve got a visitor.”

  “I’ll be right there.” He waved to Troy. “I’ll see you later.” Spencer made a beeline for the kitchen and angrily rinsed his dish before setting it in the dishwasher. If Andy cheated on Echo and that was his reason for calling off the wedding, then he was a bigger asshole than Spencer had first given him credit for.

  He strolled into the lobby. Tristan leaned against the counter, chatting with Captain Cade Nash.

  “Hey, man.” Spencer stretched out his arm. “I didn’t expect you’d be dropping by.”

  “I had to get out of the house. Brooke is making me nuts,” Tristan said.

  Cade laughed. “Been there. Done that. When Heather was pregnant, especially near the end, she was so uncomfortable that she had me jumping out of my skin trying to make things better for her.”

  “That sounds about right,” Tristan said. “She knows she’s being unreasonable half the time, but she can’t help herself. I think I’ve said ‘yes, dear’ ten times already today.”

  “My dad says those two words are the key to a successful marriage,” Spencer said.

  “Your father is a smart man.” Cade collected a few folders from the counter. “I’ll be in my office if anyone needs me.”

  “Let’s go outside.” Spencer didn’t want to include Troy in the conversation. Not just yet anyway.

  Spencer made his way to the picnic table in the back of the station house and straddled one of the benches. “I just had an interesting conversation with one of Echo’s brothers.”

  “And?” Tristan asked.

  “Candy, Noah’s ex and Echo’s best friend, thinks Andy might be cheating on Echo.”

  “They might be right about that.” Tristan pulled out his phone and tapped the screen. “My buddy Reese, the one that owns the Heritage Inn, he’s ex-military and he’s got a friend who owns a PI firm in Knoxville. He called in a favor for me.”

  Spencer took the cell and scrolled through images of Andy and a very attractive young blond woman at a bar. “What am I looking at?”

  “Those were taken last night. The woman is a twenty-three-year-old up-and-coming actress. She’s part of this case that Andy was working on.”

  “Not to defend the asshole, but so far, none of the pictures point to an affair. They are with a group of other people and nothing looks strange.”

  Tristan reached over and swiped a few times, stopping at images of Andy with his arm around the woman and his lips on her cheek while he escorted her into a lavish home. “That’s his house, and if you keep scrolling, you’ll see pictures of them eating breakfast on the patio the next morning in next to nothing and a lot of face sucking. All the pictures are time stamped.”

  Spencer set the phone down and rubbed his temple. His heart broke for Echo. It was bad enough to be jilted. “What else did you find out?”

  “He’s got a thing for younger women,” Tristan said. “He’s never been married, though my buddy learned he’s been engaged three other times, and all three times he’s called it off.”

  “So, he’s a player.”

  “Pretty much. But this case he handled was for her manager’s firm. It didn’t make the national news, but she’s going to have a movie coming out soon, and it’s supposed to be her big break, and it will put her and her love life front and center.”

  “Fuck,” Spencer mumbled. “When does this movie come out?”

  “Not for a few months, but my buddy said the buzz is starting, and photographers are on the lookout for her and whoever she heads out with. Even if the pictures of her, her manager, and their law team did get out, that wouldn’t mean anything. But the longer this actress stays in Atlanta, the more talk there will be on why she’s there since the lawsuit has wrapped up.”

  “What jerk lets one woman plan a wedding while he’s fucking someone else?” Spencer slammed his fist on the tabletop.

  “Sorry to bring such bad news,” Tristan said.

  “Can you send me all the pictures?”

  “I’ll send you the entire report. I just wanted to do this in person.” Tristan stood. “I need to go get fried chicken and ice cream.”

  “I don’t understand how Brooke has stayed so trim during this pregnancy with the way she eats.”

  Tristan laughed. “She’s always been able to eat twice as much as anyone else. It’s annoying.”

  Spencer let out a long breath. He knew he was going to need to tell Echo; he just wasn’t sure if he wanted to do it before or after they spent a day together.

  4

  Echo sat on Spencer’s stoop with two mugs of coffee and a box of his favorite doughnuts. The sun had just started to rise behind the mountains and brighten the morning sky. The last forty-eight hours had been difficult to say the least with her father’s fall and subsequent visit to the ER, but it bought Echo a few more days to come up with a story about why she was calling off the wedding.

  Spencer’s pickup came into view.

  Butterflies formed in her stomach. Seeing him again stirred too many emotions she’d thought had died; only, all she’d done was push them into a corner and pretend they didn’t exist.

  For the last few years, she told herself that she was living the dream, and she really did love being a travel nurse, but she’d been lying to herself about Spencer.

  And about Lake George and what it meant.

  And what this wedding meant.

  But no matter how much she tried to make Andy fit a mold she desperately wanted in order to protect her heart from breaking completely, it just wouldn’t work.

  She really had no one to blame but herself for her current predicament.

  “Good morning,” Spencer said as he slipped from the cab of his truck. “I thought we agreed I’d pick you up at ten.”

  “We did.” She handed him a mug and opened the box.

  “Uh-oh.” He reached in and snagged a chocolate-covered fried cake with sprinkles. “A half dozen, eh? I guess I should sit down for this conversation.”

  Echo pulled out a custard-filled one, sticking her finger inside and licking the tasty cream. “I think I have to accept the fact that Andy isn’t going to change his mind.”

  “You don’t say.” He sat on the stoop next to her and stretched out his legs. “What brought you to that conclusion?”

  “Because he’s not responding to me at all.” She rolled her neck, working out the kinks. She hadn’t slept well since she returned to her hometown, and she wished she could say it was over her breakup.

  Or at least the current one.

  “And when I called the office, his secretary told me he was out and she wasn’t sure when he would be returning.”

  “I’m really sorry about what you’re going through.”

  “It sucks and my parents have been so worried about me.”

  “It’s their job to worry,” he said.

  “They have always thought I made a mistake by becoming a traveling nurse.”

  “And what do you say about that?”

  She stared into his dark-blue eyes for a long moment, searching for an answer that would make sense. The honest truth hurt her heart in ways she hadn’t expected. “No. It wasn’t a mistake. I’ve loved every second of it, but it’s time to settle into one place.”

  “And Atlanta is that place for you.”

  “God, no. I hate it there,” she said with a sarcastic laugh. “But Andy’s life is there, so I decided to make it my home.”

  “Ouch.” Spencer tapped his chest. “You were in love with me, and you chose to leave.”

  “We were twenty years old when we broke up. What the hell did we know?”

  “Technically, we were close to twenty-two when we stopped seeing each other for the last time.”

  “Your dad always likes to tell everyone that even if he hadn’t been injured, he wouldn’t have stayed in the NFL for mo
re than five years. That it was something he needed to try, but then he always knew he’d come home.”

  “Is that what you’re saying? That you’re coming home?”

  She chuckled. “I honestly don’t know, but I will be looking for a job in New York. There is no reason for me to stay in Atlanta.”

  “That will make your parents happy.”

  “I’m going to tell them that I’m calling off the wedding.” She stiffened her spine.

  He narrowed his eyes. “I take it that you’re not going to be honest with them about the reason why.”

  “I’m going to say it was my decision. That it was all me.” She shook her head. “I don’t want them to know what a mess I’ve made of my life.”

  He reached out and took her chin in his thumb and index finger. “You’ve done no such thing. You’re a successful nurse, and you’ll be able to get a job anywhere.”

  “I know, but I’ve lost sight of myself in the last few months.”

  “I understand that feeling,” he said. “So, what do you plan on telling them, exactly?”

  “That I couldn’t stand to be that far away from home any longer and that Andy wouldn’t even consider relocating, so I called it off.”

  “You’re kidding, right?” He glared at her.

  “I can’t think of anything better.”

  “The irony won’t be lost on either of our parents.”

  “What are you talking about?” she asked, but the moment the question left her lips, she realized her mistake. “Oh.”

  “Oh is right. I mean basically, that was the root cause of our demise. I wouldn’t consider relocating and tried long distance for a while, and we tried taking a break, and we just ended up resenting each other.”

  “Maybe they will take it as I’ve learned from my mistakes.”

  He laughed. “Tell them whatever you need to. Your secret is safe with me.”

  “I appreciate that.”

  “When do you plan on telling them?”

  “That’s what I wanted to talk to you about.” She lifted the lid to the doughnuts. “Want another one?”

  “I’m not telling them for you.” This time he took a glazed one and ate half in one bite before taking a good swig of his coffee.

  “I don’t expect you to. However, I think I need to tell them today. The only problem with that is if I do it before we go out, they will read into that and give us a hard time, and if I do it after, they might wonder if something happened between us and that’s why I called it off.”

  “I’ve come to the conclusion that any time we are in the same state and one of us is single, our parents will be pushing us together.” When he leaned closer, the heat from his forearm jumped to hers and traveled across her skin. “I say you wait until after, and if you want, I’ll be there with you to not hold your hand so they know I’m not the reason.”

  “That’s cute.” She bit into her doughnut, and half the cream dropped out on her lap. “Shit.”

  He reached out and curled his index finger in the custard before plopping it on her nose.

  “That was mature.”

  He bent over and kissed it off, licking his lips. “Tasty.” His lips hovered over hers for a long moment. His gaze tore through her like a bolt of lightning. He took the fried cake from her hand and set it back in the box, without breaking eye contact.

  She tried to swallow, but her throat went dry. She wanted to beg him to kiss her, but as he tilted his head and moved closer, she realized she wouldn’t need to.

  A million memories peppered her mind. Their first kiss. First official date. The first time they made love and how awkwardly beautiful it was. Their relationship had come easy at first. It wasn’t until she got the travel bug that things changed.

  But it was more than that.

  She’d gotten scared that there was this entire world out there that she’d never get the chance to experience. And it wasn’t that she wanted to know what it was like to be with another man, but Spencer had been all she’d ever known. Up until she’d turned twenty-one, she never even kissed another man.

  He brushed his mouth across hers as his arms came around her body, tugging her closer. His tongue parted her lips, circling inside her mouth, teasing and probing. He tasted like a combination of sugar, cream, and bitter coffee.

  A deep moan built in her belly and rumbled to her throat. She clutched at his T-shirt, unsure if she wanted to push him away or climb on top of him. If she were being completely honest with herself, there hadn’t been a moment in the last four years where she hadn’t thought about what it would have been like if she and Spencer had never broken up. Even when she started planning out the wedding, she couldn’t help but picture Spencer.

  She’d pulled out that old scrapbook, not for ideas so much, but to take a trip down memory lane. It had been that decision that sent her on a downward spiral of taking a sideways comment and making it her reality.

  “Take me inside,” she whispered.

  He cocked his head back, licking his lips. “I’m not sure I should have done that or us taking it further is a good idea.”

  She stood, yanking him to his feet. “Are you saying you don’t want me?”

  “No.”

  “Then it’s not a bad idea.”

  A slow smile spread across his face. He dug into his pockets, pulled out his key, and tugged open the door. “I’m still not the neatest guy in the world.”

  “We’ll be too busy to notice.” She tossed her purse on the kitchen table and glanced around. He had a laundry basket on top of the sofa in the family room and some fishing gear leaning up against the wall. Clean dishes sat in a rack on the side of the sink, next to a box of chocolate chip cookies.

  He took her by the hand and led her toward the front of the house and into the bedroom that had a wicked view of the lake.

  “Wow. You must get some great sunrises.” Back in the day, they loved to sleep out on the boat, under the stars, and watch the night sky brighten as the sun took over. Nothing better than being woken up by natural light.

  “I love them.” He tucked a piece of hair behind her ear. “Almost as much as the way the sun makes your eyes turn a greenish-blue.” He pressed his tender lips against her cheek, kissing his way across her neck to the spot under her earlobe as he reached around and slid his hands under her shirt.

  She arched into him, digging her fingernails into his shoulder blades. Her body responded to him with a fiery passion she hadn’t felt in a long time. The way he touched her sent a hot shiver across her skin.

  They shed their clothes quickly, tossing them about the bedroom like a couple of horny teenagers who had only a short amount of time before they might get caught in the act.

  Standing before him naked, a sudden flash of insecurity washed over her. They’d both been with other people.

  What if she wasn’t what he desired anymore? What if the kind of woman he bedded these days did things that she never had and probably never would? Not that she was a prude or anything, but there were a lot of things she just wasn’t into.

  “You’re staring at me,” she said softly.

  “Because you’re so beautiful.” He closed the gap, taking her into his arms and kissing her, hard. There was nothing tender about it. He pushed her back on the king-size bed that took up most of the room. He moved his attention down to her breasts, cupping one with his hand and taking a nipple into his mouth.

  She groaned, enjoying the way his tongue swirled over the hard nub.

  He reached between them, gliding his fingers between their bodies, sliding them inside her slowly but deeply. He repeated the motion in steady, torturous strokes. Heat raced through her body from her toes to her head. Her muscles trembled with delight. Her breath came in short, choppy pants.

  Instinctively, he knew how to bring her to the edge. He created the kind of excitement and anticipation that made her vision blur. She found it difficult to suck in a deep breath.

  He kissed his way down her midriff. />
  Shamelessly, she spread her legs wider, needing to feel his mouth intimately on her. She lifted her hips, almost begging.

  He glanced up and smiled. “This was always your favorite.” He dipped his head. His tongue flicked out over her hard nub.

  “Oh, my God. Why do you have to be so good at that?”

  “Might be because the girl who helped me learn the right—”

  “It was a rhetorical question.”

  He chuckled, sending his hot breath across her skin.

  She rolled her hips in sync with his motions. Running her hand over the top of his head, she watched as he brought her to new heights.

  He dipped his fingers and tongue inside her, teasing and taking her to brink of exploding.

  “Kiss me,” she managed between heavy breaths.

  He brought his mouth to hers, shoving his tongue deep inside while his thumb rubbed over her hard nub like a soft feather.

  She reached for him, curling her fingers around his hard shaft and squeezing.

  He groaned, increasing the pressure and sliding in three fingers.

  Digging her heels into the mattress, she swallowed his deep moans and let her orgasm take over her body. She ran her hand up and down his length, letting her thumb flick over of the top as her body jerked and quivered under his touch.

  He broke off the kiss and stared into her eyes with what could only be described as devotion.

  Love.

  Settling between her legs, he thrust into her, creating the perfect storm for a second orgasm to rip through her body.

  He smiled. “I’m so glad you still do that.”

  “Only for you.” She bit down on her lower lip, letting the second wave wash through her like an out-of-control freight train. She wrapped her legs around him, encouraging him to go deeper. Harder. Faster.

  And he didn’t want to disappoint.

  He rolled over to his back and gripped her hips, pushing her back and forth while he thrust deep inside her. He reached up, tugging and twisting at her nipping with one hand and finding her hard nub with the other, almost desperate to bring her to climax again before he allowed himself his own release.