Sizzle (Bad Boy Rockers) (Volume 1)(44)

Last weekend, he’d even mentioned getting folks to buy tickets so he didn’t exceed the maximum capacity allowed by the fire marshal.

It felt good to know that our music and songs were attracting a larger audience, which kept growing weekly.

“What the f*ck you doing here at this time?” Reece asked, sitting his ass on the stool next to me. “And with a beer?”

“I’m drowning.”

He sat silently beside me for all of five seconds.

“Look, I heard what you told me and D the other night after you’d spoken with Liam, but surely, if she goes off with Liam and you go off with Thalia, your dad isn’t going to withhold your tuition. He wouldn’t want the town knowing he refused to pay your fees.”

Reece could be an insensitive jerk at times, but every now and again he said something that made me think.

“You need to call his bluff.”

Standing up, I drained the rest of my beer, ready to leave. “That’s a lot easier said than done.” I stretched and looked around the bar, which had started to fill up some. “I haven’t spoken to Thalia. She was in bed when I arrived home last night. This morning Mia arrived at the crack of dawn in tears. Thalia walked into the kitchen to find Liam and me in there with Mia still in tears.”

His fingers worked the label on the empty bottle, slowly ripping it off. “She had no idea we were pretending the wedding was still going ahead, and I can’t get the look on her face out of my f*ckin’ head.” I ran my hands through my hair. “It took all of my strength not to shout from the top of my voice that the wedding wasn’t going to happen, because I was in love with Thalia.”

Reece’s eyes nearly popped out of his head at my announcement.

“Yeah, I love her and I can’t f*cking have her. God I nearly lost it when Mia shouted at Thalia. I need to talk to her, to try and explain, because the look on her face nearly tore me in two.”

“Man, I sure as hell don’t envy you, although I wouldn’t mind a woman of my own; someone sweet, someone who hasn’t been around a lot. You know what I mean.”

Stunned, I stared at him. Yeah, I heard the words, but couldn’t believe they’d come out of his mouth.

“What.” He started to laugh. “Yeah, I know what you’re thinking, but the fact is, I’m twenty-six and getting fed up of all the meaningless girls that run through my life. It’d be nice to just have the one...Hell, I’ve been hanging around with you too long.”

“All I can say is that I’m glad I wasn’t drinking when you made that announcement. Wow. On that thought, I’m going to leave and walk into town for something to eat.”

Walking away, I turned back to look at Reece, who was watching me. “You amaze me sometimes.”

“Yeah, I know,” he said grinning.





Chapter 34


Thalia


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All I’d wanted to do as soon as Jack left was run to my room and cry; my heart was shattering into a million pieces. The fact that I’d only known him for a few weeks didn’t matter. He was in my heart and I was dying with jealousy and pain.

What had happened in the past few days to make him change his mind? When he left me the other night, he said he was going to stay away until the whole thing with Mia had been taken care of. That he wasn’t going to marry her, but according to what happened this morning, everything was most certainly still going ahead. I was so confused and needed to talk to Jack.

Standing in the dressing room of the bridal boutique in a pale green bridesmaid dress, which was fitted to the top part of my slim frame and fell to my feet in an A-line style, I grimaced. It looked amazing on me and if it had been any other wedding, I would have been thrilled to be wearing it. Instead, I was pissed that it looked so good – well, at least until your gaze reached my face; at that point, I looked like a torture victim.

My eyes were red rimmed, because I was trying not to cry and my skin looked grey. In fact I looked as sick as I felt.

Liam had given me some weird looks once we’d left the house and while arriving at the boutique. A couple of times he’d taken the dresses out of my arms that Mia had thrown at me. Probably because he could tell I was seconds away from throwing the damn things back at her and storming out.

Grabbing my purse, I quickly reached inside for some face powder, which I quickly applied to my cheekbones and then some green eyeliner, which accentuated my green eyes.

Inhaling and with a slow exhale, I exited the dressing room and walked on wobbly legs out through the curtain to show Mia, and I suppose Liam, who was sitting brooding across the room with such a look on his face. If I didn’t know better I’d say he had a thing for Mia. Wait a minute. What did Liam say to me about not being able to have whom he wanted?

I needed to think about that...and watch.

“Thalia?”

Shit, Liam was standing in front of me. How’d I miss that considering I’d been staring at him?

“What do you think?”

“You look great, Thalia. That color suits you,” Mia said walking around me in circles.

“It looks as though it fits you well.”

“It does.”

She spent a moment looking at Liam, and then turned back to the sales assistant, “We’ll have this one, please.”