Tara Randel - The Wedding March

“You’re leaving kinda late.”

At the sound of a voice in the darkness, Luke froze, until a figure materialized, stepping into the circle of light provided by the overhead fixture. He recognized his cousin, Dane Peterson, a local hotel owner, decked out in a button-down shirt and pressed slacks, his hair cut in his usual short fashion.

He let out a long breath as he slammed the trunk closed. “You want me to have a heart attack?”

Dane held a hand up. “Sorry. Thought you might have noticed me.”

“No. I was thinking.”

“Yeah, I could tell. With you, that’s never good. Tracy?”

“No, actually, I’m...” He paused a beat. “Hey, what’re you doing here?”

“Picking up Nealy. Her car is in the shop.”

“I saw her a few times tonight. She was running all over the place.”

“She loves being an event planner, but this reception was not her dream job. Angelica kept after her until she gave in.”

Luke glanced around. “Where is she?”

“Forgot something and ran back inside.” Dane leaned back against the car, crossing one ankle over the other. “So, what’s up?”

“I met a woman and—”

“Wait,” Dane interrupted. “Repeat that. You met a woman?”

“Not met, like I want to go out on a date. I talked to the daughter of the groom.”

Dane’s deep chuckle echoed in the still night.

“You already knew?”

His cousin nodded.

“How?”

A besotted expression came over the other man’s face. “Nealy.”

As usual, his cousin’s girlfriend was one step ahead of everyone.

“First thing she said when she walked out the door tonight was, ‘I saw Luke talking to a very lovely young lady.’”

“Why do I even bother to have a personal life?”

“Dude, it’s Cypress Pointe. People notice other people and what they’re doing.”

“I thought I’d left the scrutiny behind when I moved here.” Luke shoved his hands in his pants pockets. “So I was talking to a woman, but it’s not what you think.”

“Let me guess. Brought up bad memories?”

“Big time.”

“So tell me you have a good reason not to ask an attractive woman out,” Dane said, settling into the conversation.

“No good reason. More of a hunch.”

“About?”

Luke shifted uncomfortably. Suddenly his dress shoes pinched way too tight, the collar of his shirt became stifling. “She wanted to talk about music.”

“She knows who you are?”

“Yeah. And she’s a pop singer. Cassie Branford.”

“Nealy plays her music all the time.”

“So you see my dilemma?”

Dane cocked his head to one side. “No, I do not.”

“She’s everything I’ve been staying away from since I moved here.”

“And you’re afraid, what, that talking to her about music will somehow make you face up to the last two years?”

The old stubbornness overwhelmed him. “Maybe I don’t want to forget.”

“Or more like you don’t want to forgive.”

Luke ran a hand through his hair. “I never thought I’d end up here, like this.”

“Yet here you stand, kicking yourself over something you had no control over.”

“It still hurts.”

“I get that. But maybe you should let go. Cut yourself some slack. You can’t be a martyr forever.”

Luke met his cousin’s sharp gaze. “Is that how you see me?”

“When you first got here. Lately, less so.”

“You’re not the only one, are you?”

Dane shrugged. “I don’t discuss you with other people.”

“Nealy?”

“Nealy’s not other people. Besides, she has a good sense about folks.”

“Yeah? What does she think about me?”

Dane pushed away from the car. “Luke, when you first got here, you were a mess. Rightfully so. But we both think you’ve grieved long enough. Tracy doesn’t deserve a second thought and you can’t keep living this way.”

“Believe it or not, I agree. I just can’t seem to move ahead.”

“What about this woman? If she’s caught your interest, maybe this can be the first step to getting on with your life.”

He pictured Cassie. Soft brown hair. Incredible eyes. A little bit of a dimple when she smiled at him. She’d caught his attention, even before he recognized her.

“Not every person in your life is going to hurt you, Luke.”

Neither he nor his cousin came from very stable homes. Dane’s folks fought all the time, leaving him and his brother to do as they pleased, which hadn’t always turned out for the best. Luke’s own parents had been abusive. His father and brother were in and out of jail. His mother? Who knew? He’d wanted to change his life when he married Tracy. Thought they’d had a chance. It made sense why Luke was reluctant to place his hopes too high, only to be knocked down again.

Which meant he wasn’t about to trust his heart to another woman.

Luke broke the silence. “She’s pregnant, you know.”

“Tracy?”

He nodded.

Dane blew out a low whistle.

“After years of promises, of stringing me along, she’s finally expecting with her new husband.”

“Sorry, man.”

That’s what hurt the most, Luke realized. “I get that Tracy was ambitious. We wrote a lot of hits together. I shouldn’t have been surprised when she left me for Andrews or how she talked me into giving her royalties in the divorce for that last song of ours.”

“I never got why you would just hand that song over to her.”

“At that point I just wanted out of the marriage and would do anything to expedite the matter. The paparazzi hounded me, all because Tracy fed them a steady diet of our marital drama.” He ran a hand over the back of his neck to release the tension. “The song hadn’t been released so I figured it didn’t matter much. Major lapse in judgment.” He sighed. Who knew in his haste he’d sign over their top moneymaking hit ever? “But a baby? Talk about a double whammy. She promised we’d have a family. Knew how much I wanted to be a father. Even went so far as to make me think she might actually be pregnant more than once.”

“I never liked her,” Dane said, sounding like something rotten filled his mouth.

Luke appreciated his cousin’s loyalty. “It’s like she ended up with it all while I got the pain.”

“So, change your future. Take some chances. You might—no, you will—get hurt again somewhere along the line. But you gotta get back to living.”

Luke stared out over the deserted golf course. His cousin was right. He would never write another song, but he needed to get his priorities together. He was only thirty-five. Time to stop skulking in the shadows and be open to the possibility of meeting people.

Maybe he should do as Dane suggested. Ask a woman out on a date. Not that he was in a hurry for romance, though. But he did need to start enjoying the present instead of dwelling on bad decisions from the past.

He was about to tell his cousin so when his cell rang. He pulled the phone from his pocket and read the screen. “Gotta run. Trouble down at the pier.”

“One of your kids?”

“Looks like.” Luke slapped his hand on Dane’s shoulder. “Thanks for listening. Tonight threw me.”

“Figured. Listen, we’re family. You may keep your feelings close to the vest, but I always have your back.”

“Same.”

A sly grin curved Dane’s lips. “And so does Nealy.”

“Why does that make me want to run?”

“She wants to see you happy.”

“So do I, but I’ll get there on my own.”

They parted ways. Luke drove through the deserted downtown. All the businesses were locked up tight and safe for the night. A plus to living in a small town. He’d had his share of big cities and found Cypress Pointe suited his temperament.