“There aren’t any games. You’re aware of why the marriage was suggested. There’s nothing else hidden.”

“Please, stop telling me how distraught the man is over me then. It’s not freaking true. If he was distraught over the fact that I couldn’t go on a trip with him, then he wouldn’t have gone out drinking sans wedding ring. It seems to me – if not you – that he was prepared to find a hook up and didn’t want the ring to be a problem. I’m sorry, but that doesn’t sound like a man who would be broken up about me in any way. He tried to get back together with his ex-girlfriend, excuse me, he did hook up with her while he was there. It probably would have gone a lot further if she hadn’t found out he had gotten married.

“So, he might be distraught about something, but it’s definitely not me. And the last thing he said to me before I kicked him out of my hotel room last week was that he was willing to agree to fuck only me because it had to be better than going through all the drama.” I stood up then, cradling my iPad in my arms, up against my chest. “Does that sound like something a man who’s torn up over me would say?”

“He said that to you? And wait, how do you know he even hooked up with the ex?”

“He fucking told me he was with her, made out with her, slept in the same bed with her, until she threw a fit after finding out he was already married, and she came clean about being there to seduce him on his family’s orders.”

Wes sat there with his jaw unhinged, just staring at me. Then he shook his head, as if he could clear it of the things that I’d just told him. “I don’t understand,” he murmured. “It’s like we’re talking about two different people.”

“How the hell could that be?”

“Because the man I know – my best friend – likes you. He liked you from the beginning when this whole scenario was first suggested. He threw that huge fit he did, messing with all those women in public so that your father would refuse the deal and so that his family would leave him alone. He said you seemed like too nice of a person to have to put up with something like that.” I laughed at the thought that I had ever been a consideration Tucker made. “I’m serious. You don’t understand, he was trying to spare you.”

“No. I need you to stop whatever fucking bullshit you’re trying to pull; it needs to end.” I glanced around, old fears grabbing hold and refusing to let go. “Is your sister in on this too? Is she part of the joke?”

“What? There is no joke,” he said, but his words barely made it through the panic.

“Oh, God! I messed up again. I knew I shouldn’t have trusted anyone.” I ran from the living room and made it to the bedroom where I’d managed to finally get comfortable. Why did people keep doing this to me? I pulled my suitcase and bags out of the closet and started filling them.