“Weird like he spent a lot of nights out with the guys, or he’d go and spend hours talking to Sage, a friend of ours from school who also never left town.”

A low growl escaped his throat. “He was cheating on you.”

“I’m not sure that he was.” Becca crossed her arms and leaned against the counter, watching him work. It was a pleasure to see his slight movements, the way he expertly made pancakes, all without a single hint that she should take over for him. “Sage is the nicest girl, and she’d had a crush on Greg ever since we were kids. The entire town knew about it. Anyhow, I’m sure Greg liked the attention. He just showed no interest in anything wedding or family and would find an excuse to leave the moment I wanted to talk about anything. I should have seen it for what it was, but I was very stubborn and positive I was finally going to get my wedding. We could figure everything else out after we crossed that finish line, you know?” She shook her head. “But then Sage started dating someone and didn’t have time to be Greg’s buddy, and I think that made him panic. I think he liked the idea of having his cake and eating it, too, and he liked being the center of Sage’s world as well as having me. When Sage moved on, he freaked out. She was never pushy like his awful fiancée, you see.” She grimaced at the memory. “And to be fair to Greg, I was being pushy.”

Hank gave her a disbelieving look. “You’re defending him?”

She took the spatula and flipped the pancake before it could burn, since his attention was now focused solely on her. “Not at all. I just know what I was like. I was very, very, very focused on getting married. A bridezilla, you might say. At any rate, Greg decided he was in love with Sage and broke up with me two days before the wedding.” Her voice took on a bitter note. “After I’d paid for everything. The church, the reception, the catering, the honeymoon, matching wedding bands, all of it. He humiliated me in front of everyone, because the whole town was invited. It’s all anyone’s been able to talk about ever since. I closed my shop for days, went on the honeymoon by myself, cried buckets, and came home early.” She shook her head. “I don’t think I wanted Greg as much as I wanted this picture in my mind of what my life should be like. I wanted a family. I wanted children. Maybe some of that was loneliness, because even when I was with Greg, I still felt like I was alone. Like he never really got me.”

“You were alone. He didn’t get you,” Hank growled. “The man’s a user.”