Total pages in book: 75
Estimated words: 73002 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 365(@200wpm)___ 292(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73002 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 365(@200wpm)___ 292(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
Matty had spent months dying inside without Wells. Ever since he’d allowed him to walk away on Thanksgiving, he’d hated himself. He should have stopped Wells, but he couldn’t. He was too scared. Then months passed, he learned of the engagement, but he told himself Wells wouldn’t do it. He couldn’t. Matty had tried texting him, reaching out, but he never got an answer. When he found himself blocked on Instagram and Facebook, he should have taken the hint.
But he didn’t.
He still loved Wells.
Desperately.
Getting that text, learning about Wells’s intentions to marry that guy… Yeah, it only took a second before a fire had lit under his ass and he was on the next flight to Colorado. He wasn’t sure what he was going to say. He sure as hell wasn’t sure what he was even going to do, but he knew he had to stop the love of his life from marrying someone else. He just had to.
Because Wells belonged with Matty.
Matty had been wrong when he’d let Wells walk out of his life. So damn wrong.
He should have done this months ago. Instead, Matty wallowed, hated himself, and damn it, something had to change.
He had to change.
Or better yet, he had to own the change that had already happened.
Tears burned his eyes, his heart in his throat as he stood in front of the pair of doors that he knew led to the altar. He could hear the pastor, speaking of love and all the usual topics that were spoken about at weddings. Swallowing hard, he pressed his hands to the doors, but he didn’t open them. His hands were shaking too badly; his gut was in knots. What if Wells rejected him? He had every right.
All Wells had wanted was for Matty to come out. To love him freely, but he wouldn’t. He couldn’t. Matty couldn’t look at his family and tell them the truth. What if they hated him? What if they rejected him and banned him from the family? More so than he already was, anyway. His father was the commissioner of the NHL, and open-minded wasn’t the way they were raised. But yet as he stood there, Matty knew it didn’t matter. Because, while he wasn’t sure if he could come out, he knew he didn’t have a choice.
He wouldn’t lose Wells any more than he already had.
Matty had known he was gay from the moment he got a hard-on in the guys’ locker room at the age of thirteen. He was never turned on by girls, but guys, yeah, they did it for him. He kept it under wraps. He was angry, he was difficult, and the way he acted out his torment drove Avery to the point of almost killing herself. He was awful to her because he wasn’t who he wanted to be. It was no excuse, but he’d done it. Laurence and Seth were manly guys who played hockey themselves, and he knew they wouldn’t understand. Nor would his parents. How could they? He sometimes didn’t even understand himself. He loved dudes—no, he loved Wells and only Wells.
But Matty had pushed Wells away.
Would Wells even want him back?
Swallowing hard, he tried to push the door open just as he heard Wells’s baby sister, Wren, talking. He closed his eyes, and he wondered if he should just leave. Matty’s career was just now taking off, and he was playing for the fantastic Rangers. He was in a good place, but he knew he was empty without Wells. He didn’t have a purpose off the ice, and he was beyond lost without his man. Wells was his best friend, his confidant, and damn it, he loved the guy.
But could he really ruin this wedding?
He didn’t have a choice.
As he pushed open the doors, only a few people noticed as the minister went on, “Okay, wonderful. No objection to this beautiful union—”
Even with his heart in his throat, he managed to get out, “Actually, there is.”
His voice was deep. Unsure. He felt the need for flight, but when his eyes landed on Wells, there was nowhere Matty could go unless that man was beside him. Within seconds, a hush fell over the crowd as Wells’s head whipped toward him. Lord, he was beautiful. He looked like a million bucks, his suit tailored just to him, his face clean-shaven and mesmerizing. His eyes shone that brilliant green that starred in all of Matty’s dreams. As Wells’s lips parted, eyes blazing into his, Matty could do nothing more than gasp, “Wells.”
He couldn’t believe it. He had missed him so damn much, everything about him. Matty almost ran down the aisle to him, but he knew he didn’t have a right. No, he had to convince this man to take him back. “I’m sorry, I am. And I don’t mean to do this, but I can’t let you marry him.”