Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 75408 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 377(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 251(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75408 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 377(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 251(@300wpm)
“Yeah.” It was all I could say.
Addie must have sensed the tension in the air because she quickly launched into something about the wedding and asked for Sutton’s advice. They soon got lost in conversation.
“You okay?” Gannon asked quietly as the girls continued to talk.
“Perfectly fine.”
Fucking hell. Now I sounded like Sutton.
He nodded. “You never could lie very well, Brody.”
Sutton
Brody and I agreed it would be best to tell our parents together, all at once. I was hoping that being around other people would keep my dad from going off the rails when we told him the reason behind our quickie wedding.
Janet and Ken were more than happy to meet us at my parents’ house for dinner later that evening. We’d told them we had something important to discuss, and I was almost positive they thought it had something to do with Addie and Gannon’s wedding.
We walked up the steps of my parents’ house, and I paused on the top step.
“What’s wrong?” Brody asked.
I closed my eyes and drew in a deep breath. “I’m worried. What are my parents going to think about me when I tell them everything?”
He took my hand in his. “They’re going to love you and trust you. Your dad is going to be fine.”
I looked down at the rings on my finger and tried to ignore the flutter in my chest. Brody had added the engagement ring to the band after we’d left the bakery. It was a beautiful antique cushion cut with a halo of smaller diamonds encompassing the center stone. Additional accent diamonds went down the shank of the ring. The bands were platinum, and I was stunned that they fit me like a glove.
I couldn’t believe Brody had given me these rings. I had assumed he would pick out a plain band for me when he got his own. Instead, I was wearing his family’s heirlooms.
“You ready?” Brody asked.
I nodded. “Yes, let’s get this over with.”
The idea that my parents were about to find out what a complete asshole my ex-husband was and how he had actually treated me was not something I was looking forward to.
“Sutton, Brody, come on in. Your parents are already here, Brody,” my mother said as she opened the door and kissed us both on the cheeks. I kept my left hand in the pocket of the sweater I’d put on. The evenings were beginning to cool off now that fall was officially here.
“Thanks so much for agreeing to have dinner here at the last minute,” Brody said, following my mother to the dining room. “Sorry we’re late.”
She smiled. “No worries. I brought home some lasagna from the restaurant, and Janet brought over the salad. We just took the bread out of the oven.”
The moment we walked into the dining room and I saw my father and Brody’s parents, something in me snapped. I started to panic, even as I tried like hell to act totally normal.
“Do you need help with anything?” Brody asked.
My mother beamed at Brody as she answered, “No, you kids sit down. I’m going to go grab the lasagna.”
Brody pulled a chair out for me, and I sat. He walked around the table and kissed his mother on the cheek. Then he shook his father’s hand, followed by my father’s. I wasn’t sure why those small gestures affected me so much. I pressed my hand to my stomach in an attempt to calm the flutters that were less from nerves and more from watching the man who was now my husband move around the room.
“You look nice tonight, Sutton,” Janet said. “You have a glow about you.”
I let out a nervous laugh. “Thank you, Janet. So do you! I mean, you look nice.”
She laughed.
My mother walked back in and set the lasagna and a serving spoon down in the middle of the table. “Should we dive in?” she said.
“Let’s!” my father agreed.
He reached for the salad—and I don’t know what came over me, but I suddenly pulled my hand out of my sweater, turned it so everyone could see, and blurted out, “Brody and I got married today.”
Everyone paused. Including Brody.
Okay, so that wasn’t how we’d agreed on breaking it to them. We had decided that I was going to tell them about Jack first. The money, the harassment, all of it. But looking at my father…I couldn’t do it. His heart attack had been so scary, and the thought of upsetting him was too much. I couldn’t do it.
“I’m sorry. What did you say?” my mother asked as Janet gasped.
“Are those Marie’s rings?” she said.
Brody looked at my hand, then at his mother. When he didn’t say anything, I jumped in. “Yes. He asked me to marry him, and we didn’t want to wait, but we also didn’t want to rain on Addie and Gannon’s big day.”