Fighting the Flames (Firefighter Romance #1)(13)
“Me too, Mom,” she finally said. It had been easier to forgive Derrick than it had to forgive her own father. She was still trying not to feel the sting of his infidelity. “I miss him too.”
Friday night was upon her before she knew it. The rehearsal had gone beautifully and the entire wedding party and a few close friends were relaxing at the post-rehearsal dinner. Jessie had chosen six bridesmaids and they were all beaming at her, with the exception of my matron-of-honor.
“It’s still not too late to back out,” Lisa told her for the hundredth time. “Just give me the sign. The Tahoe is filled with gas and ready.”
Jessie was barely speaking to her sister by this time, her nerves already on edge. Jessie just held up her hand, silently begging her to stay quiet. Lisa still didn’t approve… clearly… even after giving Derrick the benefit of the doubt. “Something just seems off about him,” she would say.
Jessie looked at Derrick, something does indeed seem off. He seemed pale, and he was turning his cell phone relentlessly in his hand. He was also drinking… a lot, tossing back glass after glass of whiskey. Even his best man told him, several times, to slow down.
When the toasts began, he continued to belt down the drinks as soon as they were set in front of him. Jessie motioned to the waiter to cut him off. Finally, it was the groom’s turn for the toast and Derrick stood, wobbling to his feet. He held up his glass so quickly, the liquid sloshed over the side.
“I’d like to p’sent a toast,” he slurred. “To the most bootiful bride ever. I love you, Cindy, and can’t wait to…”
The rest of his drunken toast was cut off by the gasps that filled the room.
“Wha…” Derrick slurred as his father pulled him away from the table. “I wa- bout to say Amen.”
Silence.
There is total silence in the room as the sounds of Derrick’s belligerence echoed behind him. All eyes were staring everywhere but at Jessie.
Lisa, bless her, saved her. She stood and said, “I think we can call this a night.” She grabbed Jessie’s arm, steered her from the room and drove her home. She didn’t say another word. She just helped Jessie change from her pretty pink dress and tucked her into bed.
Two weeks later, Jessie was trying to stuff the rest of her things into her little car but gave up, realizing there’s no way in hell all of it would fit. She wiped the tears streaming from her cheeks, the ones that won’t seem to stop flowing. Not because of Derrick. She now cries for the nearly three years of her life she wasted trying to make chocolate cake from a pile of shit.
The wedding never took place, all the gifts had been sent back and her beautiful dress was now hanging in her mother’s closet until she decided what to do with it. Her job at the newspaper, which she tried to get back, had already been filled. With no reason to stay, besides her sister and the twins, Jessie decided it was time to move on and become independent. She couldn’t live with her sister for forever, after all.
She applied to all the newspapers in the surrounding towns and an offer came from Hamilton City, about forty-five minutes away. She held her breath as she looked at the city on the map. It is just next to Silver Creek, the little town Ryan had invited her to live so long ago. It wasn’t the fresh start she was hoping for, but it was better than nothing. She accepted the position and found a little house to rent. She was moving in today.
It turned out that Derrick wasn’t having another affair with Cindy, not one of the physical kind at least. When Jessie had insisted he let her look at his phone though, she found a multitude of messages between the two. They missed each other. They loved each other. They would never forget each other. The text messaging between them had started just weeks before the wedding. Derrick admitted to getting cold feet. Although he claimed it was nothing, Jessie was done.
“Let me help you.” Lisa offered. “We can load up my car with the rest of this stuff and bring the kids on a little adventure.”
Just what she didn’t want. It‘s not that she didn’t appreciate it, but she needed some alone time. She’d barely had a second alone since she called the wedding off.
“Just help me close this, I don’t really want to bother you,” Jessie said, trying not to sound selfish. “When I get settled in, you can come with the kids and visit for the weekend. There won’t be any time rush, and I’ll have things organized. I don’t even know where I’m going to sleep tonight.”
Lisa re-arranged one of the plastic bags and pushed the one underneath it with all her weight, throwing the other one on top. She slammed the trunk down and Jessie almost didn’t get her hand out of the way, but it closed. A little piece of the black plastic hung out the back like a flag, but Jessie wasn’t about to open it up and try closing it again.
“I’m really going to miss you,” Lisa said, wrapping her arms around her tightly. Jessie had already said goodbye to the kids, who were now with their father. It had nearly broken her to wipe away the tears that had streamed down their precious faces.
“Yeah, right,” she went for sarcasm, “you’re just going to miss the built in babysitting.”
Lisa laughed and sniffed. “That too.”
Jessie remembered her mom dragging her to Hamilton as a kid, but she hadn’t been there much as an adult. It used to be a quaint little town on the road to the beach. Instead of the old, tired looking stores along the main drag, there were now condos everywhere she looked. Where the old drive-in movie theatre used to be was now a mall… not a mini-mall, a full-sized monstrosity.