ChapterThirteen
1500 Words
Later that evening, the rehearsal dinner setup was underway, soft lights strung across the beachside pavilion.
Lucy was reviewing her set list when she felt someone behind her.
“Can we talk?”
Josh.
His voice was calm.
Too calm.
She turned slowly. “Yeah.”
He gestured toward the quieter side of the deck. They walked a few steps away from everyone else.
For a moment, he just looked at the ocean.
Then at her.
“I saw you last night.”
Her stomach dropped.
“Saw me…?”
“With Marcus.”
There it was.
She opened her mouth, but nothing came out immediately.
Josh nodded once, like he already had his answer.
“He was holding your hands,” he continued.
“It looked pretty intense.”
“It wasn’t what you think,” she said quickly.
He left out a soft breath, not a laugh. Not disbelief. Just something tired.
“It never is.”
“That’s not fair.”
“Isn’t it?” His eyes finally met hers, and there it was, hurt. Not anger. Hurt. “You’ve been distant for days. Hard to find. Every time I try to make plans, you’re busy.”
She hesitated.
Wrong move.
His jaw tightened.
“And then I walk outside and see my brother leaning into you like that.”
“It wasn’t like that,” she insisted, stepping closer. “He wasn’t confused. He said something he shouldn’t have said and I shut it down.”
“Confused about what?” Josh asked quietly.
She froze.
Josh studied her face.
And then silence said more than words.
He gave a small nod, like a puzzle piece finally clicked.
“Wow.”
“It doesn’t mean anything,” she said quickly. “ I told him it couldn’t happen again.”
“Again?”
The word hung between them.
Lucy’s heart pounded.
Josh took a step back.
“That’s all I needed to know.”
“It was just a kiss.” She blurted.
The moment the words left her mouth, she wished she could grab them back.
Josh went completely still.
“A kiss.”
She reached for him instinctively. “It was stupid. It shouldn’t have happened.”
“When?”
“Before.”
“How long before?”
She couldn’t answer fast enough.
He laughed once, hollow.
“You kissed my brother.”
“I didn’t plan it…”
“You kissed my brother,” he repeated, this time quieter.
The noise from the pavilion felt far away now.
“You’re right,” he said after a moment. “It’s not what I thought.”
Her chest tightened.
“It’s worse.”
That one cut.
“Josh…”
“I don’t want to do this.” He interrupted. “Not like this. Not where I’m competing with unfinished history.”
“You’re not competing…”
“It doesn’t feel that way.”
Silence.
He looked at her one last time, and for a split second she saw how much he actually cared.”
And that made it worse.
“I think,” he said slowly, “ you need to figure out what you want. And I need to stop pretending that I don’t see what’s right in front of me.”
Then he walked away.
Not storming.
Not slamming anything.
Just…leaving.
Lucy stood there, the weight of everything crashing down at once.
Two brothers.
Two days before a wedding.
And now she had neither.
Josh had barely disappeared into the lights of the pavilion when Lucy’s phone buzzed in her hand.
She almost ignored it.
Almost.
But when she glanced down and saw Marcus on her screen, her stomach twisted.
Marcus: I’m going to tell her tonight. I can’t do this. I’m ending it.
Lucy froze.
Her heart began to pounding so loudly she could barely hear the music drifting from the rehearsal dinner.
Ending it?
Tonight?
Two days before the wedding?
Her fingers trembled as she typed.
What are you talking about?
Three dots appeared instantly.
I can’t marry her when I’m not fully in it. Seeing you made me realize that.
Her breath caught.
No.
No, no, no.
This wasn’t what she wanted.
This wasn’t what she meant when she s**t him down.
Her chest tightened as panic flooded in.
Without thinking, she hit call.
He picked up on the second ring.
“Lucy.”
“What are you doing?” She whispered sharply, moving farther down the deck so no one could hear her. “What do you mean you’re ending it tonight?”
“I can’t go through with it,” Marcus said, voice low but steady. “I’ve been lying to myself. To her. To everyone.”
“Marcus,” she said firmly, trying to steady her breathing, “you don’t get to make life altering decisions in the middle of emotional confusion.”
“It’s not confusion.”
“It is,” she insisted. “You’re overwhelmed. We kissed. It brought back memories. That doesn’t mean you blow up your engagement.”
He exhaled heavily. “It’s more than a kiss.”
“Marcus, look I can’t do this right now,” she said, really getting irritated. “You need to figure this out with Britney.”
She ended the call.
Lucy stood alone on the balcony long after the call ended.
The ocean roared softly in the distance, but her mind was louder.
Josh was gone.
Marcus was spiraling.
And Britney, sweet, unsuspecting Britney had no idea the ground beneath her was cracking.
Lucy pressed her phone to her chest.
After the rehearsal, Marcus paced inside his room.
The air felt tight.
There was a knock on the door which froze him.
He knew that knock.
Soft. Familiar.
He opened it.
Britney stood there still in her dinner wear, her hair down, makeup gone, vulnerable and glowing in that quiet way she had.
“Hey,” she smiled. “I know we’re not supposed to see each other much before the big day, but I need to tell you something.”
Marcus swallowed.
“Yeah?”
She stepped inside without hesitation, wrapping her arms around him gently.
He stiffened for half a second.
Then slowly hugged her back.
She didn’t notice.
“I’m just really happy,” she said against his chest.
The words landed heavier than they should have.
“Today felt so real,” she continued softly.
Marcus closed his eyes.
“I keep thinking about how far we’ve come ,” she added, pulling back to look at him. “You found me at my worst.”
He tried to speak.
She kept going.
“You remember how broken I was when we met?”
He did.
She had told him everything. The cheating ex. The humiliation. The way she had stopped trusting herself.
“You were patient with me,” she said, her voice growing emotional. “You didn’t rush me. You didn’t make me feel crazy for being scared.”
His chest tightened.
“You made me feel safe.”
There it was again.
Safe.
She reached for his hands, the same way he had reached for Lucy’s.
Only this felt different.
Grounded.
Steady.
“Marcus,” she whispered, eyes shining, “I’ve never been more sure about anything in my life.”
His throat went dry.
He had rehearsed the words.
We need to talk.
They were right there, sitting behind his teeth.
But she kept speaking.
“I know I’m not perfect,” she said with a small laugh. “And I know I overthink sometimes. But with you? I don’t. I just…feel calm.”
Calm.
The opposite of what Lucy made him fell.
Lucy was history, heat, unfinished chapters.
Britney was stability.
Future.
Family.
“You’re not having doubts, right?” She asked softly.
The question pierced him.
For a split second, just a split second, Lucy’s flashed in his mind.
The beach.
The kiss.
Her telling him don’t do this.
He looked down at Britney.
At the woman who had trusted him with her worst days.
Who had chosen him fully.
He felt it then.
Not fireworks.
Not chaos.
But something quieter.
Something built.
“Hey,” she said gently, noticing his silence. “What’s going on in that head?”
He forced a small smile.
“Just…overwhelmed.”
She laughed lightly. “Same.”
She leaned up and kissed him softly.
Not desperate.
Not dramatic.
Just love.
And something inside him shifted.
Maybe uncertainty didn’t mean absence of love.
Maybe it meant fear.
Fear of repeating the past.
Fear of choosing wrong.
Fear of comfort over intensity.
Britney rested her forehead against his.
He looked at her for a long moment.
He didn’t say the words.
He didn’t tell her he was unsure.
Instead, he pulled her into another hug.
And across the resort, Lucy sat on the edge of her bed, staring at her phone.
Waiting.
Terrified it would buzz again.
But it didn’t.
Not that night.
- Writer
