Owen wanted to settle down for real. He was tired of faking. He wanted . . .
“He said something about checking up on Hayden later, needing to clarify where he stood with his boyfriend. Has he spoken to you?”
He wanted to clarify where he stood.
To be with Hayden, Owen had to separate from ‘Carl’. But Jason had rebuffed every attempt to break up with him. Owen needed Jason to reveal himself or, at the very least, contrive a very public break-up where Jason was the bad guy.
Heat prickled behind his eyes and his stomach churned. He slouched through shafts of peach light toward the restaurant’s side entrance.
At the awning, his phone rang and Jason gestured pathetically for Alex go on without him.
A rather throaty voice rumbled down the line. Carl. “Ah, Jase. Guess you’re about to head to the rehearsal dinner?”
He sure kept close tabs on everything happening with Pete. “Yes.”
“Look, I know this is . . . would you . . . keep me on the phone during the toasts? Secretly? I . . . I just want . . .”
“To torture yourself?”
“To be there. From a distance.”
Jason felt Carl’s pain. Having to let go of something beautiful. Having to do what hurt for the happiness of another.
Jason didn’t like Hayden. He didn’t know Hayden.
But Jason’s opinion didn’t matter. Owen had said as much when Jason had been afraid of meeting his parents. No one’s opinion mattered but Owen’s own.
Could he just go ahead and drown in a puddle of misery?
“Ah, there you are,” Pete smacked his back. “Just came out for a breath of fresh air and not at all for a sneaky ciggie. Starters will be out soon.” A waggled brow. “Looking forward to your toast.”
Jason gave a wan smile and carefully slipped the phone inside his inner jacket pocket, right over his aching heart. Carl could probably hear it cracking.
Pete lit his cigarette and sucked in deeply. “Thanks for making sure Darla got here. She’s already cracking everyone up inside. Y’know, you should chat. She knows everything about star signs and stuff. She’ll be able to tell you what crazy things will happen to Capricorn this month.”
“Capricorn. I mean, right. Yes.”
Smoke curled out the sides of Pete’s mouth. “Speak of the devil.”
A sprightly older woman with a glitter in her eye emerged from the side door and stole the cigarette from Pete. Instead of stomping it out, she took a drag herself. “Who’re you calling devil, young man?”
“You?”
“Brazen, Aquarius.”
Pete grinned broadly. “Carl, meet my great—great?—aunt.”
“Just one great will do.” She smirked and looked Jason up and down shrewdly. “This the boy whose heart you crushed?”
“Darla!”
She coughed out smoke and decided that was the moment to squish it under her foot. “Rather thoughtless of you to ask him to be your best man.”
“He was happy to do it!”
“He wants you happy, of course he said that.”
Pete looked sharply at Jason. “No, he’s fine about it. He’s been just fine. You’re fine, right?”
Jason stiffened; he could feel the weight of the phone against his chest, the equally saddened Carl listening in.
Carl had flown to New Zealand and asked his twin to trade places with him to avoid the hurt of watching the man he still had feelings for marry someone else. ‘Carl’ had gotten a fake boyfriend and still Carl continued the ruse. No, he was not fine. But Jason . . . understood. “I want you happy.”
Darla’s phone burst to life and she struggled to answer an incoming video call. “Pete, help me, dear.”
Pete helped her and then Darla was calling out delightedly. “Becky, Zane, how are my lovebirds?”
“As lovey as always!” one said in a chipper voice.
The other, more restrained, “Checking to see you got there all right?”
“Oh, fine. Very good flight. The stop in Melbourne was wonderful.”
“We look forward to meeting you in Wellington after the wedding!”
Wellington after the wedding.
Jason shivered.
Would he be there too?
Darla shuffled between the potted plants edging the sunset-soaked parking lot, and Jason looked over to find Pete frowning at him.
Quickly, he copped his way inside.
What a mess he’d gotten himself into! If he could just get through this night and start sorting it out tomorrow.
Twenty-odd wedding guests had arrived and were seated around a long table at the far side of the restaurant. Jason rounded the dozen other tables glittering with candles and flute glasses, and—
He crashed into Cora.
“What are you doing here?”
She blinked at him. “I’m here with Craig. It’s our second year anniversary.”
Jason gestured to Pete beside him to discover he’d continued to his guests. “I’m here for Pete’s rehearsal dinner.” He looked Cora up and down. She wore a short mint green dress with matching shoes and bangles. Her hair was swept up and delicate earrings gave off a green sparkle. “You look pretty.” He saw her glance at her table and Craig, who was smiling nervously, patting his jacket pocket. Checking he’d brought the ring, perhaps? God, now he looked, he caught the agitation in Cora’s fingers, the way she kept swallowing, the shifting of weight from foot to foot. “You having a good time?”