My Groom Fled the Wedding, So His Father and His Guides Kept Me novel · Chapter 13 of 24
Chapter 13: Cold Water
"Kristin," Hank said. "Let me."
"No."
I stood up out of the blankets and pulled my jeans over my hips with hands that would not stay still.
The aurora kept moving over the lake and did not care.
He sat up on the planks with his coat hanging open and his chest bare to the cold.
"Four years," I said.
"Yes."
"Four Julys. You stood on this dock every one of them."
I pointed at the lodge, small and yellow-lit across the ice.
"And I was in there, cooking, thinking about a man who did not exist."
"Kristin," Hank said.
"I kissed you, and you kissed me back, and you walked away."
My voice rang over the ice and came back at me.
I did not lower it.
"I spent three years trying to get that kiss out of your son, Hank. I tried it drunk and sober."
I drew a breath.
"I tried it in the dark with the lights off. He kissed me politely, and I told myself the fault was mine."
"It was never you," Hank said.
"You had it in your mouth the whole time. You sat across from me at the engagement dinner and looked at the wall."
"He was my son," he said.
"He was a coward in a borrowed shirt, and so were you."
He took it.
He did not flinch and he did not look away, and that made me angrier.
"The morning after," Hank said, slowly. "Devon sat at breakfast, and you thanked him. And I watched him say Anytime."
"And?"
"And I looked at his face, and I think he knew," Hank said.
His voice was flat and slow.
"I said nothing. I thought, she wants him, and he has earned it. I thought that was the end of it."
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–6 of My Groom Fled the Wedding, So His Father and His Guides Kept Me are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
← Chapter 12 · All chapters · Chapter 14 →
Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend