After the week Shannon had, Katie-Anne would give her leeway. She’d been kidnapped and tortured by a deranged killer, the same man who’d abused her as a teen and threatened the people she loved most
after
he’d brutally murdered her parents ten years ago. The seven men inside the house had managed to save her in time, but Shannon had endured a lot of torture beforehand.
Katie-Anne gritted her teeth and said, “I’m sorry, Shan,” before peering around her friends and into the house. “So where’s everyone?”
Shannon huffed. “They’re all in the man cave.”
“Come in,” Jaycee offered, moving aside to let Katie-Anne in the house. A loud cheer drifted down the hallway. “If you can’t tell, they’re watching the end of the Titans and Colts game.”
Katie-Anne snorted and stepped into the foyer. “Sounds like Gray isn’t going to be happy with his husband tonight. He
loathes
football.”
Jaycee smiled devilishly, shutting the front door behind Katie-Anne. “Gray got an early Christmas present from Cade, so he’s in a really good mood.”
Before she could make an inquiry, Shannon interjected, “Don’t ask. You do not want to know. Besides, I’m not in the mood to listen to you bitch about your best friend fucking your
virginal
”—she paused, making air quotes—“brother and your
virginal”—
she stopped again and made more air quotes—“brother-in-law.”
I really upset her, damn it.
“Shan…” Katie-Anne started to apologize but thought better of it. Instead, she reached into her pocket and pulled out the ornate jewelry box her carpenter friend had hand carved wrapped in the paper Katie-Anne had bought on clearance at Amazon. “Here’s your birthday present.”
That did the trick. Shannon’s anger dissolved, her eyes lighting up. “Oh! I love presents. What is it? I’ll bet it’s good.” She ripped at the paper. “You always buy the best presents.”
Katie-Anne held back a laugh. She rarely
bought
presents. Each gift was made by her or one of her artist friends from around the world. If she gave someone a gift, she wanted it to be from the heart and not some trinket she’d bought at a store.
Katie-Anne was fairly nervous about the present Shannon had in her hand. It was a pair of earrings designed by the infamous TL Jacobsen. The dramatic drop sparklers had a tiny tiara with an
S
and
D
interwoven in place of jewels dangling from each chain. Katie-Anne hoped that Shannon would wear it when she married Jared, Drew, and Randy Dalton. Jaycee’s brothers hadn’t gotten around to proposing to Shannon, but she knew they would. It was only a matter of time.
Shannon lifted the lid of the box with a gasp. “They’re beautiful.” Tears welled in her friend’s eyes. “But I’m not a Dalton—”
“Yet,” Katie-Anne cut her off, finishing her sentence for her.
Shannon smiled through the tears and nodded. “Yet.”
Both of her friends were basking in the glory of love. Despite her kidnapping, Shannon was happier than Katie-Anne had ever seen her, and Jaycee practically floated on air. It made Katie-Anne so happy to see them, finally, getting the life and love they’d dreamed of.
If only, I could have that with Shane Jacobs and Landon Tolliver. Shit. What is up with me tonight? I’m all weepy and whiney.
Katie-Anne knew it would be best to suck up her foul mood so she could get in and get the hell out as unscathed as possible.
Another round of cheers filled the air. Katie-Anne heard a “Touchdown!” from Randy and Cade while Landon cursed, “Son of a bitch.”
Hearing Landon’s voice did the same thing it always did—the strange stomach somersault. She pictured all six foot one inch of his delectable body cramped onto the couch with the other two sport fanatics around here, Cade and Randy, like they always did when they got together for an event. Landon’s normally stoic face would look far younger, his blue eyes softer and more relaxed. He was probably rubbing his hand through his always messy, way-too-sexy blond hair in aggravation because that man took his sports to a whole new level. It was practically a religion to him.
The door to the “man cave,” as Jaycee liked to call it, opened and Shane walked out. “Is that Katie-Anne?” he asked before glancing in her direction.
When he turned his head, their eyes met, and Katie-Anne’s heart jumped into her throat.
God, he’s so damn beautiful.
A man shouldn’t be beautiful, but this one was. With his six-foot-tall, powerful body and his chiseled facial features, he would take any woman’s breath away. But his dark hair and mesmerizing blue-green eyes completed the sexy package that was Shane Jacobs.
“I just asked the same thing,” Shannon informed him shortly.
Katie-Anne couldn’t tell if Shannon was being curt because of her or if it had to do with Shane. Lately, her friends had been giving him and Landon the cold shoulder. They didn’t know what had happened the night of Jaycee’s rehearsal dinner, but they knew that something had.
Now, her friends were barely civil to the men Katie-Anne was in love with. If it weren’t for their respective men, Katie-Anne was convinced that Jaycee and Shannon would club Shane and Landon over the head with a long, hard object.
“Well, here I am, Shane,”
Katie-Anne sneered when he joined them.
“Good,” he snapped. “The girls were worried about you.”
Of course, the girls were concerned about me, but not him and more than likely not Landon.
Mentally, Katie-Anne cringed, remembering her argument with Landon a couple of days ago. She’d told him to fuck off after he confronted her in the parking lot of the hospital and demanded that she tell him what was going on with her. It wasn’t like she could tell him, even though she’d desperately wanted to.
Landon had a way to get to her like no other person in the world, but how did she explain without telling him everything—her sordid past, her double life, her lies? She’d told him some, just not all.
Since then, Landon hadn’t attempted to contact her. Hell, he hadn’t even come near her or called to check on her or anything. It was as though she didn’t exist anymore.
Katie-Anne wished that she could say that she didn’t understand, but she did. They’d had more than one fight that day, and he probably had reached the end of his patience with her. Just a couple of hours prior to their argument outside her car, she, Shane, and Landon had quarreled as they sat in the hospital and waited for Shannon to wake up. They’d jumped on her because she and Jaycee had gone to save Shannon, instead of sitting with their thumbs up their ass while the men went after her.
Damn cavemen.
Katie-Anne muttered, “God knows
you
weren’t worried about me,” under her breath. But, apparently, she hadn’t spoken softly enough because Shane grabbed her elbow and pulled her away from Jaycee and Shannon. Her treacherous friends waved bye then walked down the hallway.
Bitches.
“You don’t know what I was or wasn’t feeling,” Shane said testily.
“Oh, but I do,” Katie-Anne retorted. “You were probably relieved that I wasn’t here. That way you didn’t have to deal with the woman who tricked you after betraying you and stealing your best friend. Wasn’t that what you said?”
“I know what I said, Goddamn it,” he snapped, rubbing his tanned hand across his face wearily. “You don’t have to keep reminding me. I just want to fucking forget about that weekend and move on.”
“I’m sure you do,” she replied, her anger dissipating and hurt flaring to life. She reached into her oversized purse then pulled out an envelope and slapped it against his chest. “Maybe this will help you forget.”
She didn’t wait for him to reply before she turned sharply on her heel and stalked away, fighting back tears with her every step.
Shane watched Katie-Anne storm down the long hallway to Gray’s den. He allowed his eyes to openly worship the beautiful body of the one woman he wanted above all others.
She was tall for a woman, standing only two or three inches shorter than him and another inch or so shorter than Landon. But, even with her above average height, she had a dainty air about her that only enhanced her ethereal beauty.
Her long, midnight hair billowed behind her as she moved further and further away from him, taunting him with the reminder of waking up next to her only a few weeks ago. He didn’t even have to close his eyes to see how her hair had looked fanned out on the pillow between his and Landon’s or the way her turquoise eyes had opened languorously after a night in their bed.
If only they hadn’t betrayed him. If only he hadn’t driven them to it. If only he hadn’t fucked everything up by not giving them a chance to explain.
If only, if only. Those words are going to fucking kill me.
As she disappeared, he recalled what she’d said and what she’d thrust at him. He glanced down at the manila envelope in his hands. Somehow he didn’t believe any papers could make him forget her or Landon or their betrayal.
And he was horribly right. When he pulled out the sheaf of papers, he knew that he would never forget because he was the
betrayer
, not the
betrayed
.
He
was the one who’d married Katie-Anne, not Landon, when they’d been in Tennessee last month. Every cruel accusation he’d made the morning after their wedding night had been bogus because his alcohol-induced amnesia had distorted the truth and the chain of events.
Before now, his memory had no problem recalling him walking in the chapel and catching Katie-Anne with Landon in the middle of their wedding. And prior to this very second, his brain hadn’t allowed him to forget how he’d felt or the words he’d thrown. But everything after that had been blank—until just a few moments ago when he opened the envelope and saw the annulment papers inside.
* * * *
Six weeks ago, early November…
Sitting at a table in the nearly full bar at his foster brother’s east Tennessee resort, Shane attempted to drown his sorrows in yet another glass of Jack Daniels. But it didn’t dull his excruciating pain, nor did it blot out the memories tormenting him, just as the last glass hadn’t helped him or the one before that.
He stared straight through the glass in his hand, peering at one of the happy couples sitting at the table across from him. His eyes struggled to focus, but he still saw the two people—their whispered words, their stolen kisses, and their sensuous caresses. Everything about them screamed love and devotion.
God, that could have been me with Landon and Katie-Anne. If I hadn’t fucked the hell up.
Unable to watch the couple any longer, Shane turned way. He searched the room for something else to observe, but he came up empty-handed. The rustic room did nothing for him or his attention span.
With a sigh, Shane thought about something he’d always heard. He couldn’t count the number of times someone had told him that life could change in the blink of an eye. Well, they had been only partially right. It had taken him a bit longer than that.
Maybe I’m just fucking special.
Glancing down at his watch, he mentally tabulated how long it had taken his world to be rocked then turned on its fucking side. For him, it was more like a blink of an eye plus twenty-nine minutes. Exactly one thousand, seven hundred, and forty seconds ago, he’d walked in on Landon and Katie-Anne in the middle of their godforsaken wedding.
Wedding!
He’d seen the man he’d been in love with for twenty-four years at the front of a chapel, standing at the altar—without him. Every day of those past twenty-four years, he’d loved Landon. And every night, he’d dreamed of him. Only he’d never allowed himself to entertain the notion of being with him forever. Sure, he’d planned to be his best friend for life. And, sure, he’d planned to share a wife with him. But, when it came down to more than that, he couldn’t and wouldn’t do it.
Then there was Katie-Anne by Landon’s side, waiting to slip a wedding band on her ring finger. She’d been a thorn in his side since he’d moved to Serenity at the age of twelve. Not many people could say that they had a love/hate relationship with a two-year-old. Even at that young age, the precocious girl had driven him up the wall. But, as she’d grown, so had he. He’d grown to like her—even when she drove him mad. Then he’d grown to want her—even though she was everything he didn’t want in a woman. And finally he’d grown to love her—despite their drastic differences.
Regardless of the odds stacked against them, Shane had found himself deeply entrenched in her exotic eyes, her silky black hair, and her exquisite face. And he didn’t even want to think of that angelic body of hers. It had nearly been his undoing—on more than one occasion.
But Landon and Katie-Anne together was what he wanted. It was what he’d always wanted. It was what he would continue to want until he took his very last breath. Yet he’d been scared and ran from what they made him feel, what they’d made him crave.
Now that he’d realized what he wanted, what he had passed up time and again, Landon and Katie-Anne had each other. And Shane was left standing alone.
I deserve to be alone. I was a goddamn fool.
At any point in time, he could have had them in his arms. He could have had
his
ring on Katie-Anne’s finger and
his
name attached to Landon’s.
If only I’d asked.
In spite of his knowledge of their feelings, he’d held them at an emotional distance, keeping them as far away as possible.