Billionaire Games Boxed Set 1-3 (49 page)

Nick wasn’t exactly rich—not by L.A. standards, but he did all right. The restaurant made him a good living, and allowed him to keep the center going—which was Nick’s top priority. Too bad it wasn’t Ginny’s. That woman intended to break the connection between the restaurant and the community center. And the fact that she’d
forgotten
to give him the check for the computers was all the evidence Dean needed. To his dismay, the girl would meet Nick at the altar today, with bells on, which meant it was the beginning of the end for the community center.

Canvassing the maze that was the back corridors of the church, Dean finally found someone to point him in the right direction. He knew he’d found the place when he rounded a corner to see a whole slew of women loitering outside a set of double doors. Ginny’s bridesmaids? What were they doing hanging out in the hallway?

He took survey of the girls, all wearing the same black dress. Who does a wedding in black? Wasn’t that like the kiss of death?

“Ladies, why are we hanging out in the hallway?” he asked no one in particular, but taking notice that the only women missing were Ginny and Eve, her maid of honor. Maybe they were inside, having some kind of pow wow or something.

The bridesmaid closest to him said, “The door’s locked.” Her blonde hair had been perfectly coiffed. Part of it was up, and the rest lay in long curls around her shoulders. Normally, Dean was a brunette man, but this girl was pretty. Maybe he could steal her away during the reception at Hang Ten. It wouldn’t be the first time he’d
had
a girl in Nick’s office. Plus, it’d probably piss off Ginny. That made it even more appealing.

“Ginny and Eve must be having a serious conversation about something?” Dean hoped Eve was talking her out of going through with the wedding. But he doubted Nick would be that lucky.

“There’s nobody in there.” The girl’s frantic voice draped a veil of goose bumps over Dean.

“Seriously?” Dean was about to turn all giddy, until he realized that his best friend getting stood up at the altar wasn’t exactly an act of kindness—at least not on the surface. But her not being here, it didn’t make any sense. Ginny had found herself a decent ride with Nick, and Dean didn’t see her letting go so easily.

Unless she’d found a bigger fish.

CHAPTER SIX

NICK GLANCED AT HIS WATCH. Dean had been gone a long time. He was only supposed to find out whether or not Ginny had arrived. How big could the church be?

Just when he’d almost decided to take matters into his own hands, and find out for himself that Ginny had arrived, the door swung open. Dean slipped into the room. The look on his face was anything but comforting.

“What?” Nick asked. His heart thudded triple-time inside his chest. This was bad, he knew it. Had there been an accident? Oh, God. “She’s just running late, right?”

“I don’t know, man.” Dean shrugged. “She’s not here. She’s not answering her cell, or the phone at the house.” He gave Nick one of those looks you give a friend when there’s nothing good to tell.

All kinds of things—heavy traffic, a minor accident, the car broke down, a bad accident, Ginny had run out on him—fought chaotically to be the dominant thought inside Nick’s head. He shook out the last one. No way would Ginny run out on him.

He kept coming back to the
bad accident
. Oh, God. “She’s okay, right?” Nick’s voice wavered.

Dean’s head started shaking before he said, “I don’t know, man. I can’t get in touch with her.”

“What about the limo service that picked her up to bring her here?”

“I’m waiting for them to call me back.”

After a moment of silence and uncertainty, Nick said, “I should go to the house.”

“Let’s just wait and see what the limo people say. Maybe they were late picking her up. You don’t want to head over there if she’s on her way here.” The words came out of Dean’s mouth, but he didn’t look like he believed them. He looked like the kind of guy who was about to claim the right to say,
I told you so
.

“I just can’t sit here and do nothing.” Nick paced the center of the room, stopped and looked at Dean. “Something’s wrong. I can feel it. If she were able to call, she would.”
Wouldn’t she?

Dean’s cell phone rang. He took it from his pocket and glanced at the display. “That’s gotta be them now,” he said to Nick. He tapped on the screen, accepting the call, and raised the phone to his ear. He listened intently, for what seemed like forever.

Nick perched his hands on his hips. At this point, the only thing he’d gotten out of the conversation was a few groans and a headshake or two on Dean’s part. Nick wanted to know what the limo company had to say. And he wanted to know now.

“Are you sure?” Dean said into the phone, then looked at Nick and shrugged.

“What?” Nick mouthed the word. Dean shook his head and closed his eyes. His head dropped and then laid his forehead against his palm.

With the phone still at his ear, Dean cleared his throat and said, “Thank you.” He brought both hands down to his sides, opened his eyes and looked up at Nick. “She canceled the limo this morning.”

Canceled?
“What?” Nick stood there dumbfounded for a minute. He’d heard the words but he couldn’t quite reconcile them in his head. If Ginny canceled the limo, that could mean only one thing.

Nick had to find her. Make her explain why she’d canceled the limo—and not only that, why was he starting to get the feeling that he’d been stood up at the altar?

Nick’s heart sank to the floor.

This couldn’t be real. Could it? Surely not. It had to be a joke. That’s what it was. A joke. And Dean was in on it.

Nick tried to move, to put one foot in front of the other, but it was like his fallen heart had wrapped itself around his feet, cementing him in place. He looked at Dean. “Maybe she changed limo companies.” he said, grabbing at the last fleeting straw his mind could come up with.

“Maybe she did.” Dean shrugged. “Still doesn’t explain why she’s not here.” He looked at his watch. “The ceremony was scheduled to start half an hour ago.” He glanced back at Nick with a look that said,
accept it, man
.

Nick managed to get as far as the chair near the door. He sat, then surveyed his hands. Front then back. “I suppose I should go out there and say something.”

“You want me to do it?” Dean offered.

“It’s my responsibility.” Nick pushed himself up from the chair. “Besides, I don’t ever want to forget this moment…in case I ever think about doing something this stupid again.”

Nick opened the door and moved into the hallway. He wasn’t sure where he’d find the sanctuary—the place where he’d have to face hundreds of people, people who’d come to see a wedding, and tell them there wasn’t going to be one. Not today, anyway.

After a few turns that got Nick nowhere, a kind lady, probably a volunteer of the church, offered to lead him and Dean to the sanctuary.

She paused at the only door on the left side of a long corridor. “It’s right on the other side of this door.” She smiled. “Hurry now. You don’t want to be late.” She nodded, and was off.

You don’t want to be late
. That almost made Nick laugh out loud. Why should he worry about being late? Ginny hadn’t had the decency to show up at all.

Nick grabbed onto the cool metal doorknob and turned. Panic swarmed through him as he peered into the sanctuary, seeing hundreds of people, all their guests, waiting to witness his and Ginny’s wedding.

Dean gave him a gentle nudge. Nick sucked in a breath of courage and stepped through the door.

Gazing out over the crowd, Nick stalled, trying to find the words. He paused a little longer on the faces of the people he knew by name. Like Angela Davies. They’d worked together years ago, over at Martini’s, back when he was a cook and she was the hostess. They’d dated once or twice. She was married now, with two kids. Gary Larsen, an old college buddy, looked bored beyond words. Julia Mason, his mother’s longtime friend—when their eyes met, her hopeful expression turned to one of sadness. He hadn’t seen that look on her face since the day his mother died, nearly ten years ago.

The crowd started to stir. They were getting restless, antsy, wanting to know what was going on. Well, he’d better say something before they all turned on him.

Nick cleared his throat. “Sorry to keep you waiting,” was the only thing he could come up with. Too bad his mother wasn’t here. She’d know what to say. His older brother Kevin would dazzle them with his charm—if he were here.
Let’s face it, everybody’s gone off and left you, boy
.
Even Ginny
. “I thank you for your time in coming out today. I’m not entirely clear about what’s going on right now, but I can tell you there’s not going to be a wedding. At least not today.”

Hushed whispers turned into louder grumbles as people began to rise from their seats and make their way toward the front door. Some paused in the aisle, looking briefly at Nick. It was as if they were thinking about coming to offer him condolences, but then deciding against it. Some shook their heads before turning away, but most simply headed for the door.

Dean nudged Nick’s elbow, leading him back toward the rear hallway that they’d come in through.

“You think she’s at the house?” Nick asked Dean once they were in the corridor.

“It’s beyond me,” Dean said in a kind, soothing tone. “If she didn’t want to get married, why didn’t she just tell you?” He squeezed Nick’s shoulder lightly. “Instead of this.”

“I’m gonna go see if she’s at the house,” Nick said. “Shit!” He tossed his hands in the air. “My truck’s at the Hang Ten. Will you drop me by there?”

“Of course,” Dean said, with an understanding nod. “Let’s go.”

The drive passed by mostly in silence. It wasn’t until Dean rolled into the parking lot at Hang Ten, where there were several cars in addition to Nick’s truck, that the conversation picked up again.

“Jesus!” Nick swore. “I forgot about the stupid reception.”

“I’ll take care of it,” Dean said. “I’ll go in and tell the staff that there won’t be any reception here today, and they can all go home.”

“Thanks, man.” Nick sighed. That was one weight lifted off his shoulders.

“What about all the food?”

Nick let the possibilities rolled through his mind until a good one stuck. “Call St. Dom’s,” he said of the local homeless shelter. “Tell them you’ve got a boatload of food for them.”

“Good idea.” Finally, the hint of a smile from Dean. “They’ll be eating well tonight.”

Nick climbed out and stood beside the car long enough to fish his keys from his pocket. Dean was already halfway to the restaurant’s front door when he glanced over his shoulder. “You sure you don’t want me to go to the house with you?”

Nick shook his head. “No. It won’t be a scene that you, or anyone else I call a friend, should witness.”

“Remember…” Dean pointed at Nick. “It’s illegal to kill her.” He held his serious expression for a few seconds, then chuckled. He shook off the laughter, then added, “Call me later.” He pointed at Nick again. “If you don’t, I’ll coming looking for you.”

Nick knew what he meant. Dean had always wondered how Nick had managed to stay so strong after his brother had succumbed to drugs and his mother to cancer.

Nick had often wondered that too. But each day he kept getting up and living life. He’d always been a survivor. But now the real test would come. And Nick Matthews had no idea how he was going to get through this.

N
ick figured the best place to start looking for Ginny was the house. She had, after all, banned him from coming around for the last week. Now he was really wondering
why?

He pulled into the driveway, hit the garage door opener that was clasped to the visor and waited for the door to open. Instead of rolling on into the garage, he shifted into park, jumped out of the truck and trotted into the house through the garage.

Inside the laundry room, the washer and dryer were gone.
What the…?
crossed Nick’s mind as he passed through and on into the kitchen. The only appliances left in there were the stove and the dishwasher, and they belonged to the landlord. All the little knickknacks Ginny had on the counters were gone. He opened one cabinet, then two. Both were empty.

He wasn’t surprised to find the dining and living rooms stripped of everything but a few pieces of trash on the floor.

Standing in the middle of the living room, he did a slow one-eighty. Even the walls were bare.

What the hell?

After a quick inspection of the house, the only room that hadn’t been completely emptied out was the bedroom. But there wasn’t much left in there. Nick’s clothes from the dresser had been dumped onto the middle of the floor. The closet doors were slid open. Only his clothes remained inside. All of Ginny’s were gone.

Nick thought about the few pieces of furniture he’d inherited from his mother a few years ago. Ginny hadn’t wanted those hand-me-downs in the house. He was glad now that he’d stored his mother’s things in the loft over the restaurant, along with all of
his
stuff. Ginny hadn’t wanted any of it in the house. Not his Dodgers memorabilia. Not his mother’s collection of depression glass. And not his brother’s surfing regalia.

She’d made him go out and buy all new furnishings, and now she’d taken every single bit of it. Truth be told, he wasn’t going to miss those hideous drapes that she’d hung over the windows in their bedroom. Each panel was a damn different color. Brown, blue, green…and together it was ugly. The cold, hard fact was that Ginny didn’t have a lick of fashion sense, not when it came to home décor.

Nick trudged back into the living room and parked himself on the stone bench in front of the fireplace. The only other alternative was the floor, and he really needed to sit down.

A sudden coldness hit Nick at the core of his heart. Good riddance to her and all that crap she took with her.

Now Ginny’s odd idiosyncrasies during the past few months, and especially the last couple of weeks, were starting to make sense. No wonder she’d wanted him out of the house last week. And to think she’d said it was because she wanted their wedding night to feel like they were
real
newlyweds.