The Forever Girl (Wildstone, #6)(71)

“Dammit. Nobody refill me.”

“I don’t think you’re stupid,” Heather said.

Maze looked at Cat.

“Well, maybe I think you’re a little stupid,” she whispered, tears in her eyes. “But only because I love you so much and I want you to be happy. You’re falling for him?”

Maze sighed. “I know, the very definition of stupidity, right?”

“Wrong,” Cat said firmly. “I didn’t mean anything by the stupid comment. You’ve never been stupid. And Walker is . . .” She shook her head. “Well, I think he’s amazing, and there’s no one who could ever deserve him more than you. Not that I can see you ever hitching yourself to a guy for life, but you know what I mean.”

Maze closed her eyes. “Yeah.”

“Oh my God,” Heather whispered, her eyes getting wider. “There’s still more, what is it? You did something crazy and got arrested, right?”

“Crazy, yes. Arrested, no.” Maze paused. “We did get married.” She covered her face. “I blame the endless mai tais. And this cute little chapel right next to the bar. It was closed because the guy who ran it was an Elvis impersonator and he had a gig that night, but then his gig got canceled. I still get flashes of saying ‘I do’ to Walker with a very happy Elvis serving more mai tais.”

“And then?” Caitlin asked, both she and Heather leaning in for the rest of the story.

“And then it was over, almost before it began.”

“Well, that’s disappointing,” Heather said. “Walker’s always struck me as the sort of guy who’d take his time with a woman—”

“Not that,” Maze said with a laugh. “Trust me, not that.” She drew a deep breath. “I’m talking about the next morning. He let me walk away, never even asking why. In fact, we never talked about it again.”

“No,” Cat said. “That doesn’t sound like Walker.”

“Well, it’s what happened.”

Heather was frowning. “You walked away?”

“Yes. And I get that my own actions led to that, but people make mistakes, especially me. I screwed up, but he never came after me, never texted or called, nothing,” she said, knowing the betrayal she’d felt was all over her face but utterly unable to hide her emotions from the sisters of her heart.

“Honey,” Cat said softly. “He’s a guy. You walked out. That’s all he needed to know. He’ll never ask.”

“He said he’d fix it. ‘It’ being me and our marriage.”

Cat was still shaking her head. “We’re missing pieces. What happened that morning exactly?”

“We woke up hungover,” Maze said softly, remembering every little detail in spite of telling Walker she did not. “But even dying, I was ridiculously happy.” She shook her head. “So dumb, because he woke up quiet and somber and unhappy. He actually apologized for letting us make such a huge, stupid mistake. Then he went out to get me some aspirin and caffeine, and I . . .” She winced. She wasn’t exactly proud of this part. “I was reeling over being a mistake. And we all know how well I deal when I’m reeling. But the bottom line was that I refused to be anyone’s damn problem. I knew he was leaving for another tour of duty, which also made me a liability. Not wanting to hear it again in greater detail, I left him an I’m sorry note and sneaked out. I went and found drunk Elvis, who promised not to file the papers, which meant the wedding was as good as never happened. Then I let Walker know via text, and that was the last we ever talked about it.”

“Wow, you really did walk away from him,” Heather said.

“More like ran,” Caitlin noted, sounding incredibly unimpressed with her.

“I was a mistake to him,” Maze insisted.

“Not you,” Cat said. “He never said you were a mistake.”

Heather nodded in agreement.

“You weren’t there, you didn’t hear him say it,” Maze said quietly, a little thrown that they weren’t automatically agreeing with her. “And anyway, the mistake lives because Elvis did file the papers, meaning we’ve been married this whole time.”

“Oh my God!” Heather exclaimed.

“Seriously?” Caitlin asked.

Maze nodded. “He told me a few days after we got here.”

“And you’re just now telling us?” Cat asked. “Wow.”

“It took me until now to process,” Maze said.

“Wow,” Cat said again.

“It threw me,” Maze said. “Don’t be mad. I can’t do this if you’re mad.”

“Do what?”

“Anything,” Maze said truthfully.

Cat’s eyes got teary. “Aw. But you’ve gotta promise you’ll tell me stuff!”

“The next time I’m drunk and plan anything stupid, you’ll be the first to know,” Maze said.

“Thank you.” Cat smiled. “You’re married!”

Maze shook her head. “Don’t get excited. We’re filing for a divorce.” As soon as she signed the papers . . . “And I really don’t want to talk about this anymore,” she said, pulling a page from Cat’s book. “This is your night, we’re moving on now. And it’s Heather’s turn.”