One Night [MOVING TO GALATEA]

A three-carat princess-cut diamond set in a gold band. Noelle’s engagement ring was as loud as the knock on her hotel room’s door. Looking into the mirror she was sitting in front of, she shared a glance with Nina, who’d been attempting to force her pin-straight black hair into ringlets.

“Room service?” Noelle asked.

“I didn’t order any,” her best friend said, brow furrowed as she put down the curling iron. “Perhaps it’s your brother,” she suggested, “coming to say sorry.”

Noelle’s lips curled at the reminder. The plane ride from Chicago to here had been fraught with tension from the moment her half-brother had pulled her aside at check-in to tell her that he thought this Vegas wedding was a mistake.

“Unlikely,” Noelle responded. Aaron was a lot of things, but he rarely apologized for things he was sure he was right about. Raising her voice, she demanded, “Who is it?”

Butterflies swarmed in her stomach when she heard the voice that responded.

“It’s me.” Spoken softly, James’s voice was almost entirely inaudible through the shut door. “Can I come in?”

“Oh, hell no!” In a flash of periwinkle blue, Nina was at the door, wrenching it open so that only she could see into the plushly furnished hallway. “It’s bad luck to see the bride before the ceremony, so unless something’s on fire, I’d suggest you walk your cute butt back down to your room.”

“Something’s on fire.”

When the brunette twisted, wordlessly consulting her friend, Noelle nodded.

“Let him in.”

Nina set her mouth as she widened the door. “Don’t you dare ruin her makeup.” She pointed an accusing finger at his face as she stepped out into the hallway. “And make whatever this is quick. We’ve got a chapel to get to, people!”

They exchanged a chuckle at her expense, but once the door had fallen shut, Noelle held her breath, her palms growing clammy.

“Wow,” she breathed, knowing that he would look good in his tuxedo, but not how much. Tall, dark-haired, and with a face she’d spent her childhood sketching, James Dawson was Noelle’s very own Prince Charming, and in that moment, he looked the part. His bow tie lay flat around his neck, and his hands were fisted in the pockets of his tailor-made pants, but besides that, he was perfect. “You look…”

His eyes were as wide as she imagined hers were. He drank her in slowly, but there was something somber about the way he looked at her. Usually, there was a heat to his gaze, one that sent a delicious warmth through her belly and brought a flush to her cheeks.

Today, the look was purposeful, cataloging, as though he was committing her picture to memory.

“I’m not finished getting ready,” she said, ducking her head and picking up her tube of lip gloss. She twisted it open, swiping its tip across her bottom lip.

“You’re beautiful. I’ve always thought so, even when I probably shouldn’t have.”

“Oh?” she asked, watching out of the corner of her eye as he made his way over to her.

He didn’t hover by her shoulder as Nina had, choosing instead to sit on the edge of her mattress. He picked up the discarded nightgown she’d left there, one of the silky pieces she’d bought to wear for their wedding night.

Once the fabric had fallen from his fingers, he buried his head in his hands and said the last thing any bride wants to hear on their wedding day: “This isn’t right, Noelle.”

“What isn’t?” Desperately trying not to read too much into his words, she twisted around on her stool to look at him straight-on.

“This wedding…I can’t do it.”

“It’s because Juliette isn’t here, isn’t it?” she asked softly, referring to his three-year-old daughter. Blue-eyed and a brunette like her father, the little girl was nothing short of an angel. “I’ve been thinking about this too, and I agree. I don’t need the big wedding, and I don’t need my family, but Juliette…she’s everything to me, and we should at least have something small and traditional back home.”

“This isn’t about Juliette,” James said. “I mean, in the grand scheme of things, it is, but…” Finally, he looked up, his expression nothing short of wretched.

“What is it?” Noelle rose, bunching her delicate white dress in her hands as she crouched down in front of him. It hurt to put so much pressure on her one knee, but she wasn’t thinking about that as she reached for his hands. He kept them balled on his thighs. “James, you know you can tell me anything, right?”

That’s what they did. He knew her every thought, her worst secrets, and had been privy to the pain she didn’t let most people see. He—and Juliette—had given her a reason to keep going after the worst moment of her life.

“I can’t.” He ripped his gaze away from hers, staring out her balcony doors where the clouds were blocking most of the sun. “If I tell you this, it’s going to change everything, and you’re never going to look at me the way you just did ever again.”

“I love you.” Scenarios played out in her head, each one worse than the last, but she refused to let the doubt creep in as she forced him to interlock one of his hands with hers. “Nothing’s ever going to—”

“Helena and I aren’t divorced.”

Her breath caught as the words repeated in her head. Helena. His wife. The woman he’d said he wanted a divorce from so that they could be together. So that they could finally get married.

“But…I saw you sign the papers… Did she not…?”

“She did.”

“If she signed, then—”

His chest shook as he took a rattling breath. “I didn’t file them.”

“But—” She opened and closed her mouth several times, wanting to say something, but not quite grasping the situation. “I don’t understand,” she said, her engagement ring catching the glow emanating from the overhead light. “Is this a joke?”

“No, it’s not a joke, Noelle,” he said, but she laughed anyway.

“It’s got to be,” she said, standing up. “You’d have to be a psychopath to drag not just me out here, but four of our closest friends and family, just to hit us all with this.” When all he did was look up at her, her throat constricted. “Please tell me what is going on here, James.”

Head hung low, he stood up, dwarfing her with his height. “I told Jake to tell the others. I’ve booked an early flight home. I know it might not seem like it, but you’ll still have a place in my home when you return.”

“As what, your fucking nanny?!” She shouted, hurling the words at his back as he turned it to her. He didn’t stop to face her, long legs eating up the carpet toward his exit as she followed after, all but tripping over the train of her dress. “Don’t walk away from me! Answer me, dammit!”

He paused, hand wrapped around the door’s metal handle. “I’m sorry.”

Sorry. Sorry? What good did sorry do?

She was only conscious of the words she spoke after they left her mouth.

“So what if you’re still married? We’ll go home. Together. You can file for a divorce, and then we can try this again.” A tear, unwanted, unneeded, slipped from the corner of her eye. She dashed it away quickly, glossy lips trembling. “It’s not too late,” she whispered.

But all he said was this: “There’s a reason I didn’t file those papers.”

“Excuse me?” It was difficult to keep up, but Noelle managed to limp after him all the way out of her room and down the hallway to the gold-gilded elevator. “James!”

She didn’t quite scream, but her voice was shrill enough to equate to one. If nothing else, it had him pausing for her, even if that meant the room doors closest to them opened. A few curious and a few worried faces watched the scene she was causing.

With his attention now back on her, she wasn’t sure what she wanted to say. Her mind was reeling. Was this for real? Or was this a prank? Please, God, she prayed. Let this be a sick joke that I’m the butt of.

But then he turned, pressing one of the hall buttons, and she knew this was happening.

“Why?”

His throat bobbed, and his eyes flickered away as she advanced, hands fisted in her dress to keep her from tripping over it.

“Why?”

The metal doors pinged open. He entered the elevator, and she would’ve followed him inside, barreling into the cabin if it weren’t for the arms that suddenly banded around her waist, pulling her back.

“Let him go,” Aaron told her as she struggled, tears clouding her vision as those same doors began sliding closed. “It’s not worth it!”

Her face felt hot. Her chest felt tight. But she could’ve been on fire, and that wouldn’t have stopped her from elbowing out of her brother’s arms and toward the emergency staircase. But then Jake, James’s would-be best man, was there, blocking her entry.

Heels cutting up the red carpet, she spun around, racing back to her room to get her hands on her phone. She had to call him. If he had a reason for pulling the rug from under her, she deserved to know it.

“Noelle!”

She ignored the voices calling out to her as she shoved her way into her room. Her phone was where she remembered leaving it, charging on the side table next to her stupid, unmade bed. Before she could unplug it from the wall socket, Nina was there, wrestling the device out of her hands.

“What the hell is your problem?” Noelle barked, not above hair pulling to get it back. “Give me my phone!”

Nina put her hand against her chest, lightly shoving her away. “And what are you going to do? Call him? He’s gone, Noelle. He’s said everything he intended to.”

Her mouth dropped open. She wanted to deny it. She wanted to continue fighting.

She wanted to snatch her phone back and prove that the last five minutes were a lie. But then there was movement in her doorway, and when she looked to discern it, she saw three male figures standing there, watching her.

Aaron. Jake. And…

And Felix.

It hurt to see his face. He was one of her oldest friends. But in that second, all he was was James’s younger brother, and she’d be lying if she said the sight of him didn’t make her sick to her stomach.

“Cry,” Nina said, recapturing her attention. “Scream, trash this hotel room, and charge it to his account. But whatever you do, don’t call him, okay? He’s taken enough from you today. Don’t let him have your dignity too.”

But Noelle wouldn’t do any of that. Not in front of them. They’d already seen enough.

“Give me a minute,” she told the room, turning away as she fought to compose herself. There was some protesting, but she spoke over it. “Just one minute,” she repeated, squeezing her eyes shut.

Feet shuffled out of the room, and then there was a sigh.

“Fine,” came her half-brother’s gruff voice. “But when you’re ready, come find me, and we’ll get you something to eat.”