BooksBarbecue
Back First Comes Love
Chapters (92)
  1. First
  2. Love Connection
  3. Zero
  4. One
  5. Two
  6. Three
  7. Four
  8. Five
  9. Six
  10. Seven
  11. Eight
  12. Nine
  13. Ten
  14. Eleven
  15. One Month Later
  16. Twelve
  17. Thirteen
  18. Fourteen
  19. Fifteen
  20. Six Months Later
  21. Sixteen
  22. Seventeen
  23. Eighteen
  24. Nineteen
  25. Twenty
  26. Twenty-one
  27. Twenty-two
  28. Twenty-three
  29. Twenty-four
  30. Six Months Later
  31. Twenty-five
  32. Twenty-six
  33. Twenty-seven
  34. Twenty-eight
  35. Twenty-nine
  36. Thirty
  37. Thirty-one
  38. Thirty-two
  39. Thirty-three
  40. I Have Never
  41. One
  42. Two
  43. Three
  44. Four
  45. Five
  46. Six
  47. Seven
  48. Eight
  49. Nine
  50. Ten
  51. Eleven
  52. Twelve
  53. Thirteen
  54. Fourteen
  55. Fifteen
  56. Sixteen
  57. Seventeen
  58. Eighteen
  59. Nineteen
  60. Twenty
  61. Twenty-one
  62. Twenty-two
  63. A Christmas Date
  64. One
  65. Two
  66. Three
  67. Four
  68. Five
  69. Six
  70. Seven
  71. Eight
  72. Nine
  73. Ten
  74. Eleven
  75. Twelve
  76. Thirteen
  77. Fourteen
  78. Fifteen
  79. Sixteen
  80. Seventeen
  81. Eighteen
  82. Nineteen
  83. Twenty
  84. Twenty-one
  85. Twenty-two
  86. Note from the Author
  87. Sneak Peek – To the Stars and Back
  88. Two
  89. Three
  90. Four
  91. Also by Camilla Isley
  92. About the Author

Finally, bouncer guy drops me to the ground. I shake him off with some indignation and walk back toward the center of the room.

“Jake,” is all I’m able to say.

On the other hand, the bride doesn’t seem to suffer from muteness.

“Jake, who is this woman? Security, can you take her away, please?”

Jake appears shell-shocked.

“Is this Gemma, as in your ex-girlfriend?” the bride asks. “What’s she doing here?”

“I don’t know,” Jake says.

“Tell her to go away. I don’t want her here.”

I find my voice again. “Jake, I need to talk to you.”

Jake stares from me to his wife-to-be and back, still at a loss for words.

“Well, we don’t want to hear what you have to say. So you can go,” the bride says.

I look pointedly at the minister. “I have a right to speak; everyone can speak. I want to speak now.”

“Well, technically, she does have a right to speak,” the minister says.

“Oh, please!” The bride’s voice jumps up a few octaves as she turns toward the minister to argue. “You’re the one who told me the ‘speak now or forever hold your peace’ was an archaic form with no real value, and that it wasn’t necessary anymore.”

“But you insisted on keeping it, so now she has a right to speak. It’s the protocol.”

The bride turns around and gives me the stare of death. I ignore her and turn toward Jake.

“Jake.” I inhale deeply. “When I discovered you were getting married, my world collapsed. I bought a ticket for San Francisco the same night, telling myself I was never going to use it, that coming here was a stupid idea, that I’d say the wrong thing and humiliate myself. Then today came, I was at the airport with the ticket in my hands, and I couldn’t stay away.

“I couldn’t live with myself another day if I didn’t do this. I wish I had perfect and beautiful words to say to you, but the truth is I don’t. I wrote eighteen speech drafts coming here and now none of them seems to make any sense. All I can think about are the things I should’ve said three years ago, and I didn’t say because I was too stubborn, too proud to admit my mistakes. Too proud to pick up the phone when you were calling. Too proud to reply to your emails. Too proud to admit I was wrong and you were right.