Total pages in book: 65
Estimated words: 58952 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 295(@200wpm)___ 236(@250wpm)___ 197(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 58952 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 295(@200wpm)___ 236(@250wpm)___ 197(@300wpm)
Of course, Lauren would be the bigger person. “You weren’t… upset?”
“I think I was more disappointed, and even relieved, which told me a lot about my true feelings for Greg,” she said with a shrug. “And that marrying him would have been a huge mistake.”
He couldn’t detect any real pain or hurt, which was good because Chase was starting to feel protective of Lauren. And he didn’t want to have to kick the groom’s ass when Chase met him.
“That doesn’t excuse the fact that they were messing around behind your back,” he said, stunned by the heated tone of his own voice.
“No, it doesn’t,” she agreed, absently pleating the blanket between her fingers. “Honestly, it wasn’t the affair that was humiliating, because to this day no one in town knows what transpired that night at the office, but only what happened after that day.”
He almost hated to ask. “Which was?”
She shifted on the couch, turning her body more toward his, bringing them in closer proximity. “Clearly, when I walked out of Greg’s office, we were done. That was a given, but everyone in town just assumed that Greg ended things with me, not knowing what I’d walked in on.”
He tried to wrap his mind around what she’d just said. “And what about your parents? Do they know the truth?”
“Yes, I told them,” she said, her tone layered with sadness. “They were obviously upset on my behalf, but considering Ashley is their daughter, too, they were torn. Of course they supported me, but they weren’t going to disown Ashley, either, and I didn’t expect them to. I mean, I could have made the truth be known to everyone, but the last thing I wanted was to cause even more drama, or make things even more uncomfortable within the family, or have everyone in the town label Ashley as the other woman, even though she was. I’m not the spiteful type, and it was just easier to let everyone believe the lie, except…”
He heard the hitch in her voice as that last word trailed off, and he was too invested in the story, in her, not to know what had caused that emotional falter. “Except what?”
Her lips pursed. “Except when Greg and Ashley started openly dating a week later, I became fodder for town gossip.”
“How so?” he asked, setting his coffee mug next to hers on the firepit table.
She bit her bottom lip before answering. “Because Greg had chosen the beautiful beauty pageant sister, over the plain-Jane tomboy sibling. Truthfully, out of everything that happened, the looks of pity from the people in town were the most painful to endure.”
He swore beneath his breath. Yet endure it, she had, to keep the peace in the family. “Is there animosity between you and your sister?”
“No, not really,” she said softly. “But we were never really close to begin with, as I’d told you earlier. We’ve never even talked about what happened. And yes, the few times I’ve been home it has been awkward between us, and she’s done her best to keep any interactions between us to a minimum, which of course everyone thinks is because, again, I was the one who got dumped and they feel sorry for me.”
She exhaled a deep sigh and met his gaze. “You know, as hurt as I was about the situation, I can live with the fact that it happened, because I don’t think it was vindictive on either Greg’s or Ashley’s part. But, it would have been nice if my sister had apologized, instead of always avoiding the big elephant in the room when we’re together.”
He winced, unable to imagine how uncomfortable that had to be for Lauren. And unfair, too.
“I know my parents and Gramps have worried about me since the breakup, and as much as I’ve promised them that I’m okay, I’m not sure they really believe it,” she went on. “So, that’s another reason why I wanted to bring a ‘boyfriend’ home for the wedding. That hopefully seeing for themselves that I’m happy and that I’ve moved on with someone else will ease their concerns. All I really want is for things to be normal and not have that one incident hanging over us for the rest of our lives. I don’t think I’ll ever have a close relationship with Ashley, but I want to keep things in the family copacetic.”
As she opened up and shared the painful details, Chase couldn’t help but feel empathy toward Lauren, and the entire situation. Now he had a much clearer understanding of why she’d bought him at the bachelor auction. Not just to keep any attention on her being single and alone to a minimum, but to alleviate her parents’ worries, as well.
“The way things happened wasn’t ideal, and I would have appreciated not being blindsided by their affair,” she went on. “But honestly, the breakup was the push I needed to leave Fairview and pursue my dreams.”