Hope Unbroken (Unveiled Series Book 3) (18 page)

chapter twenty-four

A Page Turned

Riley pushed off the brick wall. I wasn’t sure how long he’d been standing there or how much he’d overheard, but his face didn’t show anything other than affection.

He headed toward A. J. and me with his suit jacket draped over his arm, tie loosened around his neck, and eyes radiating above his blue dress shirt. I couldn’t look away. No distance or circumstance would ever change how easily he caused everything else to matter so little.

By this point in the evening, my hair had to have been a tangled mess. No telling what kind of smudge marks my mascara had left under my eyes. Yet Riley still looked at me as though I took his breath away.

He edged close to kiss my cheek. “I told you no one would be looking at your feet.”

“You made it.”

He kept his eyes on mine. “Promised I would.”

A. J. backed away, but Riley held out an arm to stop him.

If I could’ve slithered through the railing slats and hid under the deck, I might’ve. They hadn’t spoken since Riley first came back from Nashville in December. And after such a draining day, I wasn’t sure I could handle the confrontation.

A. J.’s stare strayed from me to Riley and equaled his intensity.

The silence swelled around my vocal chords.

Riley didn’t lower his gaze. “It’d be naive of me to pretend I don’t know your friendship means a lot to Emma. You were there in times when she needed a good friend.”

The unexpected tenderness in his voice tightened my throat even more.

A. J. squared his shoulders, probably steeling himself for whatever he thought was coming next.

Riley looked away, grinned, and kneaded his neck. “It’d also be naive to pretend your connection with my fiancée doesn’t make me insanely jealous.” He laughed softly before raising his head again.

“But I’ve had to learn that loving Emma means trusting and respecting her heart, even if it means risking my own. All I’m asking . . .” He paused and gazed at me so long, I wasn’t sure he was going to finish. A slow blink returned his focus to A. J. “All I’m asking is for you to do the same.”

A. J. stared at the lake. Jaw clenched, he sucked in a breath and forced down whatever response had almost come out.

I don’t know how much time passed in the silence, only that it felt lighter somehow. A slight smile touched A. J.’s face as he nodded at Riley in what resembled a bow of surrender. Without saying anything, he shuffled backward, turned, and disappeared into the banquet hall.

He’d grown more than he realized.

I curled into Riley’s arms. The sun’s absence sent a chill sweeping through my spaghetti-strapped dress.

He draped his suit jacket over my shoulders. “You okay?”

“You mean, besides my feet?” I stepped out of my heels and stretched my ankles.

He tipped my chin until my eyes met the genuine concern in his.

I forced a weak smile. “I’m good. A little emotional. That’s all.”

“Not everything’s gonna change.”

How did he always know what I was thinking?

“You’ll still have your best friend. She’ll just be your
married
best friend.”

“Thanks for that clarification.” I hunched over the railing again. “It’s gonna be strange, though. Being in the apartment all by myself.”

From behind me, Riley placed his hands on my shoulders and rested his chin on my head. “Just think how much studying you’ll get done now.”

I didn’t have to see his face to know the exact grin he was flaunting. “Ha. Ha.”

He rubbed my arms. “Good news is, you’ll be getting a new roommate soon. I doubt he’ll be as neat as Jaycee, but I hear he makes a pretty good pot roast. That is, if he can wean you off your frozen-meal-in-a-bag dependence.”

Smiling in spite of myself, I pressed my back against his chest. “I guess living with you won’t be
that
bad.”

“Well, that’s a relief. I was worried marriage might not live up to your expectations. But if you’ll settle for it being
not that bad
, then this should be a piece of cake.”

I elbowed him, but he only held me tighter. “It’s interesting, though, isn’t it?”

I circled toward him. “What?”

“Life. It’s like we’re always given exactly what we need to make it through each little part.” He stared past me into the woods and into thoughts that sounded like they were forming as he spoke.

Earnest transparency met my eyes again. “I don’t know what this next season will look like, Em. I don’t know where we’ll end up or how long it’ll take to get there. But I know we’ve been given each other. And honestly, that’s enough.”

A hundred thoughts surged, but only one mattered. “I love you.”

Riley’s fingers smoothed over my temple and dove into my hair. His smile slid to the left. “Just so you know, fear of Jaycee’s wrath is the only thing keeping me from running down to that altar with you right now.”

My laughter deepened his expression. He eased even closer, gaze drifting to my lips. I clung to his sleeve. It didn’t make a difference how many times I’d told myself a look wasn’t an actual kiss. His eyes always said otherwise.

The wood railing creased into my lower back. I wove my fingers through his hair and ran my other hand down his lapel.

He rested his forehead against mine. “We better get away from this church.”

I didn’t argue. Not that he gave me the chance. I barely had time to snatch my shoes up from the ground before he had me flying around the building toward his Civic.

A few miles down the road, he glanced across the seats. “That was close.”

I laughed with him. But truthfully, I wasn’t sure how much longer we could hold off.

His car slowed to a stop beside the forest as his focus honed in on the tree line. “C’mon.”

I looked down at my dress. He couldn’t be serious.

He jogged around the front bumper and opened my door. He
was
serious. Perfect. I shoved my shoes back on, took his hand, and followed him down a narrow trail cluttered with overgrown ferns. “A little farther,” he called behind him.

“Wait, you’ve been here before?”

He smiled over his shoulder. “Just warming you up to surprises.”

Why did his grin have to be so ridiculously charming?

He turned and jogged backward a few strides ahead of each of mine.

“Riley, I swear, you’re—”

A bright light stopped me short the minute we stumbled out of the woods. The moon’s reflection shimmered over the lake. Riley kept jogging down to the shoreline and beamed at me the way he had when he’d first shown me the clearing in the woods near Reed.

I waded through the sand to his side. “How’d you find this place?”

“You have no idea how long you guys were taking pictures earlier, do you?”

“When did you get here? I didn’t see you.”

He shrugged. “Surprises aren’t fun if you know about them.”

I pinched his side. “You’re lucky I’m in heels right now.”

His laughter petered into a look of sobriety. He reached for my hand, eyes never leaving mine. “I think it’s only fair that I get a dance too.”

“Here?”

His smile answered for him. Of course he meant here. I freed my ankles from my heels.

Between the wind rustling through the trees and the crickets playing their usual symphony, our secluded stretch of moonlit beach couldn’t have been a more perfect dance floor.

Barefoot in the sand, wearing a bridesmaid dress topped with Riley’s suit jacket, I clung to his arms and the beginning of a new chapter in my life. “You know, you’re right. About what you said earlier.” I set my chin on my hand over his shoulder. “We’re always given exactly what we need along the way.”

“My brave fiancée.” He leaned back. Moonlight draped over an unreadable expression. He looked down like he was wrestling over how to say something.

My stomach dropped. He hadn’t said what happened in Nashville. Did I want to know?

His lashes swept toward mine. “I’m glad you’re feeling brave, because there’s something I need to tell you.”

I pulled back from his arms. “Your contract? Is everything okay?”

“For now.”

“Oh, that’s comforting.”

He waved it off. “The album’s done. Brett’s got some things in the works that have Nick eating out of his hand. That’s not what we need to worry about.”

“There’s something else to worry about?” Would it ever stop?

He drew a line in the wet sand with his shoe. “I got a call from my mom last night.” He swallowed as he faced me again. “They’re coming to your graduation.”

What?

He picked up a flat rock from the shore and turned it around in his hands. “Aside from having Jazz as your new shadow for a couple of days, it shouldn’t be too bad.”

I didn’t buy it. “What aren’t you telling me?”

He skipped the rock across the water. “Mom said my dad wants to talk to us . . .” He turned slowly. The lake didn’t come anywhere close to the depth in his eyes right then. “About the wedding.”

chapter twenty-five

Exposed

Between getting used to living in the apartment alone, poring over my final research paper, and dividing my roles at the center, two weeks of nonstop activity should’ve at least overshadowed the fear of what Mr. Preston had to say to us. If he was planning on withholding his blessing, did he really have to wait until graduation to tell us? That day would be emotional enough.

I twisted my necklace in a spiral and let it go.
One day at a time.

Darius and Brandon came in from the basketball court with white paint flakes splattered on their arms and faces.

Trey sat up at his desk. “All done?”

Brandon spun his paintbrush in the air. “You should see it, yo. That court is sweet now.” He and Darius clasped hands. “Alls I gots to say is, those girls better be ready for a rematch.” He strutted toward the classroom where a group of girls was working on a science project. “Once that paint dries, it’s on.”

They trailed into the room, and Trey rocked back in his chair. “How long you think they’ll last in there?”

“Thirty seconds tops.”

My cell’s ring cut into our laughter. I swiped the screen. “Jae?” She rarely ever called me at work.

“Are you near a computer?”

I shook my mouse. “Ye-ah. Why?”

“Go to KATU.com.”

The local news station? My heart rate picked up. Whatever it was, it couldn’t be good. I held the phone with my shoulder and typed in the URL.

“Middle of the page,” she said. “See it? The ex-executive part?”

A picture of an officer leading a man into a patrol car came up in the headlines:
Ex-Executive Caught Defrauding Company.
The link pulled up a video feed. My pulse skipped again. “Jae, let me call you back.” I motioned Trey over and clicked on the video.

The same reporter who’d waved her microphone around our faces that day someone had plastered the picture of Dee on the building stood in front of this guy’s house now, looking extra makeup-y for the camera. “Earlier today, a local grant foundation exposed suspected fraudulent activity from one of their former executives, James Brake. These internal allegations are reported to have cost Brake his job and may lead to a jail sentence.”

The shot zoomed in on two officers escorting Mr. Brake across the lawn. He bucked against them and strained for a view in front of the camera. “I was protecting this city’s future. Keeping our streets clean.” A haunted look in his eyes cut to my core. “For the next generation. We must pave the way for the next generation.”

The taller cop got a tighter hold on him and led him into the police car. Behind them, a silver BMW sat in the driveway. I dropped my cell in my lap. Mr. Brake had been the one following me? The one who’d been blackmailing Mr. Glyndon? But I’d thought—

My phone rang again. I patted for it but couldn’t take my eyes off the screen. “Hello?”

“Miss Matthews, it’s Neal Chandler.”

The name set off another jolt down my body. “Yes?”

Trey sat on the edge of my desk.

“I’m assuming you saw the news?” Mr. Chandler asked.

I paused the video. “Just now, actually. I can’t believe . . .”

“I didn’t want to either. Jim was with us since the beginning. A little overzealous at times but committed. After his daughter was attacked, he—”

“Attacked? I thought someone only broke into her car.”

“A few weeks after that, someone cornered her in a public parking lot downtown.”

He didn’t need to go into the details. It had to have been heinous to have driven Mr. Brake this crazy. Despite my feelings toward him, my heart ached for his daughter. Especially after having been so close to a similar situation myself. I clutched my necklace.

Trey slanted me a what’s-going-on look. I switched over to speakerphone and set my cell beside my keyboard.

Mr. Chandler coughed away from the line. “Jim’s been a little off ever since then. Getting sloppy with his work. I came across some errors, but I figured he was just sleep-deprived. Making mistakes from not being on top of his game. I never suspected it was intentional.”

He had every right to feel blindsided. No one’s ever prepared for betrayal.

“After I got your message, I did some digging. Turns out, he falsified reports to sway the board’s decision on your proposal.”

I grabbed Trey’s hand and deflected a wave of anger. It wasn’t Mr. Chandler’s fault.

“We originally signed on because we saw potential in the center. And we’d like to make good on that decision.” He cleared his throat, and I squeezed Trey’s fingers even tighter.

“I have the check in my hands and will deliver it first thing tomorrow.”

And I’d still be sitting here, trying to find my voice.