Midnight Kiss (Virgin River #12)(26)

Annie shrugged and smiled, looking up at her. “All part of protecting yourself from possible hurt. I mean, what if you’re wrong? Scary, huh?”

“Oh, crap, one hour with Drew and I knew what was wrong with Glen! I just couldn’t…” She stopped herself. She couldn’t stop that wedding!

“You said it yourself—you shouldn’t get mixed up with another guy,” Annie reminded her softly. “You wouldn’t want to risk getting hurt.” Annie stood and looked Sunny in the eyes. “Give it eight or ten years. I’m sure the right guy will be hanging around just when you’re ready.”

Sunny stiffened so suddenly she almost grew an inch. She grabbed Annie’s upper arm. “Can I borrow your truck? I have something important to do.”

“In your pajamas?” Annie asked.

“I’ll throw on some jeans and boots while you find your keys,” she said.

Sunny dashed to the kitchen, put her coffee mug on the breakfast bar and as she was sailing through the great room Annie said, “Sunny?” Sunny stopped and turned. Annie took a set of keys out of the pocket of her quilted robe and tossed them.

Sunny caught them in surprise, then a smile slowly spread across her face. Who carries their car keys in their robe? “You sly dog,” she said to Annie.

Annie just shrugged. “There are only two things you have to remember. Trust your gut and take it one day at a time.” Annie raised a finger. “One day at a time, sweetheart. Nice and easy.”

“Will you tell Uncle Nate I had an errand to run?”

“You leave Uncle Nate to me,” Annie said.

BY THE TIME SUNNY WAS standing in front of the cabin door, it still was not light out. It was only six-thirty, but there were lights on inside and the faintest glow from the east that suggested sunrise. Drew opened the door.

“We never open the door that fast in L.A.,” she said.

“There weren’t very many possibilities for this part of town,” he said. And he smiled at her. “I’m pretty surprised to see you. Coming in?”

“In a minute, if you still want me. I have to tell you a couple of things.”

He lifted a light brown brow. “About my nose? My hips?”

“About me. First of all, I never lie. To anyone else or to myself. But my whole relationship with Glen? I wouldn’t admit it to anyone, but it was one lie after another. I knew it wasn’t going well, I knew we should have put on the brakes and taken a good, honest, deep look at our relationship. But I couldn’t.” She glanced down, then up into his warm brown eyes. “I couldn’t stop the wedding. It had taken on a life of its own.”

“I understand,” he said.

“No, you don’t. It was the wedding that had become a monster—a year in the making. Oh, Glen should take some responsibility for going along with it in the beginning, but it was entirely my fault for turning off my eyes, ears and brain when it got closer! I’d invested in it—passion and energy and money! My parents had made deposits on everything from invitations and gowns to parties! And there was an emotional investment, too. My friends and family were involved, praising me for the great job I was doing, getting all excited about the big event! Not only did I feel like I was letting everyone down, I couldn’t give it up.”

“I understand,” he said again.

“No, you don’t! The wedding had become more important than the marriage! I knew I should snoop into his text messages and voice mails because lots of things were fishy, but I didn’t because it would ruin the wedding! I should have confronted our issues in counseling, but I couldn’t because I knew the only logical thing to do was to postpone the wedding! The wedding of the century!” A tear ran down her cheek and he caught it with a finger. “I knew it was all a mistake, but I really didn’t see him not showing up at the last minute as a threat, so that made it easy for me to lie when everyone asked me if there were any clues that it would happen.” She shook her head. “That he would leave me at the altar? I didn’t see that coming. That we weren’t right for each other? I managed to close my eyes to that because I was very busy, and very committed. That’s the truth about me. There. I traded my integrity for the best wedding anyone had ever attended in their life! And I’ve never admitted that to anyone, ever!”

“I see,” he said. “Now do you want to come in?”

“Why are you awake so early?” she asked with a sniff.

“I don’t seem to need that much sleep. I’d guess that was a real problem when I was a kid. Sunny, I’m sorry everything went to hell with your perfect wedding, but I’m not threatened by that. I’m not Glen and I have my own mistakes to learn from—that wouldn’t happen with me. And guess what? You’re not going to let something like that happen again. So the way I see it, we have only one thing to worry about.”

“What’s that?” she asked.

“Breakfast. I was going to have to eat canned beans till you showed up. I don’t have a car. Now you can take me to breakfast.” He grinned. “I’m starving.”

“I brought breakfast. I grazed through Uncle Nate’s kitchen for groceries,” she explained. “I wasn’t going to find anything open on the way over here.”

“You are brilliant as well as beautiful. Now we only have one other thing to worry about.”