Shine Not Burn (46 page)

“It’s not real, Andie.
 
It didn’t happen,” said Bradley, also stepping closer.
 
He was using his cajoling tone, trying to get me to change my mind.

“Oh, it’s real, all right,” said Mack, defensive.
 
“She has the documentation to prove it, and I’m not signing any divorce papers.
 
Not yet anyway.”
 
He looked down at me.
 
“Not until she’s absolutely sure she’s done with me.”

I stared at the ground.

“She doesn’t need you to sign any papers, you redneck idiot,” Bradley ground out.

“Hey now, there’s no call for that kind of language,” said Angus, his chest puffing out a little.
 
Several of the men nearby moved closer to stand behind him.

I started feeling panicky about the situation.
 
I had to fix things before they got out of hand.
 
“Bradley’s right.
 
Mack doesn’t have to sign the papers.
 
I can do it without the signature if I have to.”
 
I forced myself to look up at him, even though I knew it was going to bring so much pain.

He was stricken.
 
“You’re not going to do that are you?”

“I have to,” I said, my voice trembling.
 
I wanted to vomit right there at his feet I was so sick over it.

“No, you don’t,” he insisted, putting his hand on the side of my face.
 
“I told you, you can stay here.
 
Stay with me.
 
Be my wife in more than just words.
 
Let me show you how much I love you.”

“Am I the only person here who hasn’t lost his mind?” yelled Bradley, clearly frustrated.

“No!” yelled Hannah.
 
“You are
not
the only one!”

“Thank you!” he yelled back, looking at me.
 
“Andie, that knock you took to the head obviously caused you some brain damage.
 
We’ll get it looked at back home, but you need to come with me
now
.
 
No more playing cowgirl.
 
We have a rehearsal dinner to plan, a wedding to finish, and people to pick up from the airport.
 
Our friends and family are waiting for us back home.”

I looked from Bradley to Mack, my head spinning with the choices flying around me.
 
Lifeplan or off-the-rails-no-plan?
 
Lawyer or rancher?
 
City or country?
 
The man I once loathed and then came to see a partnership opportunity with or the man I’d never had anything but fun with?
 
The known quantity or the stranger?

Mack’s hand fell away from my face and his expression became shuttered.

“I don’t think she wants to go with you, city boy,” said Grandma Lettie.

Bradley frowned at her dismissively before turning back to me.
 
“You’re just feeling obligated,” he said, his voice much gentler than it had been.
 
“You feel like you signed the paper and said the vows, so now you have to follow through.
 
I know you, Andie … I know you a hell of a lot better than this hayseed does.
 
But you don’t have to do that, okay?”
 
He got a really hopeful grin on his face.
 
“I made some calls.
 
It’s all good news.”
 
He held his hand out for mine.

“What’s good news?” I asked, wondering what he had cooking up his sleeve.
 
Bradley was always good for a last minute courtroom surprise, and that’s what this felt like.

He glowered at Mack for a few seconds before continuing.
 
It made my heart freeze over because I knew what it meant.

“I called the Nevada State licensing department.”

“So did Andie.
 
She has a document from them,” said Mack.
 
He was nervous too.
 
I could hear it in his voice.

“I’m not talking about
that
department.
 
I’m talking about the one that licenses wedding chapels.”

My blood ran cold and the sound of pounding heartbeats echoed around in my head.
 
I could hear my own hammering pulse and it was drowning out everything but Bradley’s voice.
 
He was like the great and terrible Oz, delivering the bad news.

“That place that married you?
 
They weren’t properly licensed.
 
Your marriage is a sham.
 
It’s not real.
 
You’re not really married to this guy.
 
See?
 
You don’t even need a divorce.”

There were a couple gasps from the women and a mumbling came from Angus’s group of friends.

“What are you talking about?” I asked when I could speak again.

“For a girl known around town as the discovery queen, you sure didn’t do a very good job of checking your facts,” he said mockingly as he moved in to take me by the elbow.
 
“Come on.
 
Time to go home.”
 
He looked over my head at Mack.
 
“No harm, no foul, guy.
 
You’re single.
 
Might as well live it up while you can.”

I looked back at Mack and felt something like a knife entering my chest at the expression on his face.
 
He was staring at me like I had done it, like I had tricked him into thinking he was married.

“I’m so sorry,” I whispered as I let Bradley lead me to the front of the house.

The crowd in front of us parted and fell away.
 
An almost clear path led from the banquet table to Bradley’s shiny silver rental car.
 
The only thing standing in our way was Grandma Lettie.

Chapter Forty-Three

SHE FROWNED AT ME, BRINGING what looked like a hundred years of practiced shaming down on my head.

“Come on, Andie.”
 
Bradley pushed me so we could go around her.
 
I stumbled numbly to the side.

“Are you just going to let him boss you around like that?” she asked.

I was in a fog.
 
I could hear the words, but they weren’t making sense.
 
“What?”

“I
said
, are you going to just let him boss you around like that?
 
Because if you are, you’re not the girl I thought you were.”

I looked up at Bradley and could tell he was at the end of his patience with the situation.
 

“Just let me talk to her,” I said, trying to keep him from blowing his stack.

His grip on my elbow tightened.
 
“No.
 
You’ve talked enough.
 
It’s time to go home.”
 
He pushed on me again, but I dug my heels in, refusing to move.

“Just let me talk to her for a second.
 
Then I’ll go.”
 
I owed the old woman that much.
 
She was going to be hurt by all this too.

He let go of my arm and stood there, hulking over me like a dark, angry shadow.
 
“So talk.”

I looked at the older woman.
 
“I’m sorry, Grandma Lettie.”
 
It took everything I had not to bawl.

“Don’t say sorry to me.
 
Say sorry to the man whose heart you’re breaking behind you.”

I couldn’t look back.
 
I just couldn’t.

“He’ll be fine,” I said, trying to convince myself as much as I was her.
 
“Mack’s an amazing man with everything going for him.” I tried to smile, but my lips were trembling too much.
 
“Now he doesn’t have to worry about a crazy wedding out in Vegas that made no sense anymore, so he can get on with his life.”

“Exactly,” Bradley chimed in.
 
“Let’s go.”

When he tried to push me this time, I smacked him lightly on the arm.
 
“Stop pushing me, would you?
 
I’m not done talking yet.”

He put his hand on the back of my neck.
 
He didn’t squeeze, but his threat was clear enough.
 
He leaned down and spoke softly but menacingly in my ear.
 
“The time for talking is over.
 
Now
get
to the car.”

Grandma Lettie shook her head.
 
“Poor girl.
 
You are walking into the biggest mistake of your life.
 
Why can’t you see that?”

“Grandma,” said Mack from behind me.
 
“I think you’d better step aside.”

The minute the words penetrated the fog in my head, my heart collapsed in on itself.
 
Pain like I’d never known before came rushing in to fill the empty spaces.
 
Mack didn’t want me anymore, and he didn’t want his family trying to convince me to stay.

The crushing blow had been delivered, and it was everything I deserved.
 
This is what people like me should get out of life.
 
A life of happiness and wedded bliss is for other people, not me.

“If you say so, son.”
 
Grandma Lettie stepped off to the side and disappeared from my view.

I took a step forward, guided by Bradley’s hand still on the back of my neck.
 
I was fifteen again, being pushed into a back room by my mother’s boyfriend.
 
He was going to teach me a lesson about life he said, about back-talking grown-ups and not doing what I was told.
 
Not staying
on plan
.
 
He undid his belt as he walked.

My shoulders heaved with the silent tears that poured out of me.
 
My throat ached with the screams that I couldn’t give voice to.
 
I imagined I knew in that moment what a person walking down death row must feel like, saying goodbye to the light of day and entering the prison of darkness, forever paying for sins committed.

“Andie?”

Mack’s voice rose above the din of the music and whispered conversations behind me.

I stopped but didn’t turn around.

“I think you’d better step aside too, babe.”

I stopped breathing for a full five seconds, my heartbeats slowing, slowing, slowing.
 
The word
babe
was like a ray of light, penetrating the darkness that enshrouded me.
 
A term of endearment so simple, but so full of meaning at the same time.

Bradley turned around, his hand falling away from my neck.
 
“Don’t even think about it, cowboy.”

I heard footsteps in the dirt coming towards us, first slowly and then faster until they were running.

Bradley pushed me and I fell to my side on the ground. I was in the perfect position to see Mack make a flying tackle into Bradley, taking him down into a cloud of dirt.

Chapter Forty-Four

THE TWO MEN ROLLED AROUND in the dirt unencumbered, everyone making room for them to fight.

“What are you doing?!” I screamed as I scrambled out of the way, not sure which of them I was even talking to. Maybe it was the bloodthirsty crowd I was appealing to, but regardless, it didn’t matter.
 
This fight was going to happen, and it was obvious no one was going to interfere.

“Stop!
 
Okay,
stop!”
 
I got on my feet and held out my hands towards them, trying to see a way to get in between them.

Mack and Bradley completely ignored me, locked in an embrace that looked like a fighter’s waltz, each of them taking turns hitting each other in the gut.

Maeve was suddenly at my side, putting her arm around me.
 
“Just let them work it out,” she said, pulling me back away from them.

“But it’s barbarian,” I exclaimed, watching as Mack landed a solid punch to Bradley’s cheek, snapping his head back and making him stumble.

“Sometimes it’s the fastest, easiest way for them to figure things out.”

“Maybe for Mack, but not Bradley.”
 
His Brooks Brothers shirt was getting destroyed, already covered in ground-in dirt and grass stains.
 
One of his loafers was off his foot and sitting on the outskirts of their fighting ring.
 
I’d never seen him lose his temper, ever.
 
It’s why he was still a part of my lifeplan, or had been before I’d come out here.

She snorted.
 
“Sorry, sweetie, but even I can see that city boy’s a scrapper.
 
He’s had plenty of fights of his own, I can promise you that.”

Once I paid closer attention, I realized she was right.
 
Mack was winning, but Bradley wasn’t going down easy.
 
Every time I thought it was going to be over, Bradley came back at Mack again and caught him unawares.
 
They were almost evenly matched, but in the end, it was Mack who had the stamina and strength to win out.

Angus, Ian, and Boog moved in to separate them when they were doing more hugging than fighting.
 
Both of them were bleeding in the face and across their knuckles, and neither one of them could stand up straight anymore.

Maeve squeezed me once before letting go.
 
“Come on, sweetie.
 
Let’s get your men cleaned up.”

“They’re not my men,” I said petulantly, embarrassed she saw them that way.

“They are until you officially let them go.”

I followed behind her reluctantly as the men led the fighters up the front steps and into the house.
 
I’d thought the scene outside in front of everyone was embarrassing, but something told me this one was going to be worse.
 
Now it was just the close MacKenzie family there to witness my shame.
 
There would be no buffers and no running away this time.