He Cheated With My Best Friend, So I Spent the Night With His Brother novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: The Best Man

Dominic shakes her hand as a stranger, Brooke toasts her, Constance moves the wedding up to three weeks, and in the pantry Dominic says he is Preston's best man.

Forty people stood in the Greaves living room holding mimosas, and not one of them noticed that I had stopped breathing.

Dominic stopped just inside the door.

His eyes went to my face, then to the ring on my hand, then to Preston's arm around my waist.

I watched him put it together.

He did not flinch.

Constance crossed the room and took her elder son's face in both hands.

"Six years," she said. "You could have called."

"I'm calling now," Dominic said. "Hello, Mother."

She turned him toward us with a hand between his shoulder blades.

"Dominic, this is Preston's fiancée. Margot Haldane. Margot, my firstborn."

He held out his hand.

I took it.

His palm was warm and dry, and the scarred knuckle pressed against my thumb.

"Margot," he said, as if he were trying out the name.

"Nice to meet you," I said.

My voice came out perfectly steady.

Preston clapped his brother on the shoulder.

"Dom! You look terrible. Where did you sleep last night?"

"A hotel on Front Street," Dominic said. "Slept badly."

I turned to take a mimosa off a passing tray, so nobody would see my face.

Brooke appeared at my elbow and squeezed my arm.

"Babe, you're pale. Did you eat?"

"I'm fine."

"I'll make you a plate. Sit, sit."

She steered me to the sofa and put a plate of fruit in my lap, and her hand stayed on my shoulder a moment too long.

I looked at her fingers.

They were the same fingers that had been in Preston's hair eleven hours ago.

I ate a strawberry.

It tasted like nothing.

At noon, Constance tapped her glass again and the room went quiet.

"Brooke has asked to say a few words," she said. "Our maid of honor."

Brooke stood, flushed and shining, and held her glass up with both hands.

"I've known Margot since we were fifteen," she said. "She was the first person who ever shared her lunch with me."

Somebody said aw.

"She's the kindest, most loyal person I know. And Preston, you are the luckiest man in this county."

Preston grinned at her.

She grinned back.

I watched them do it, and it lasted half a second.

Nobody else saw.

Dominic saw.

He was standing by the window with a glass of water, and his eyes were on Brooke, and then they moved to Preston, and then they moved to me.

I looked away first.

"To Margot and Preston," Brooke said, and everyone drank.

Constance stood again.

"One more announcement, since the family is finally together. We had planned the wedding for October. I think we should not wait. I have spoken to the church, and I have spoken to Raymond. The wedding will be three weeks from today."

Everyone clapped.

My father sat in a folding chair by the bookcase with a plate on his knee.

He looked at me over the top of his glasses, and he smiled, and it was the saddest smile I had ever seen.

"Three weeks," Preston said into my ear. "Can't wait."

He kissed my temple.

I kept smiling until my cheeks hurt.

At half past twelve I went into the pantry for a clean napkin, and the door clicked shut behind me.

I turned.

Dominic stood with his back against it, one hand still on the knob.

The shelves smelled like flour and cinnamon.

"Last night," he said, low. "Did you know who I was?"

"No."

"Neither did I."

I pressed my palm flat against the shelf behind me.

"You flew in yesterday," I said. "You said you didn't know a soul."

"I haven't seen my family in six years. I haven't seen Preston since he was twenty-four." He rubbed a hand over his face. "My mother mailed me a card at Christmas with an engagement announcement in it. I never read the names."

"That's convenient."

"It's the truth. If I'd known, I wouldn't have touched you."

"You're right to say that," I said. "I wouldn't have let you."

That wasn't true, and we both heard it.

The silence went on.

"He doesn't deserve you," Dominic said. "I heard enough in that room."

"I don't need you to say that."

"What do you need?"

"For you to get on a plane tonight."

His mouth tightened.

"I can't," he said. "I'm staying. Preston asked me to stand up with him at the wedding."

He let go of the doorknob.

"I'm his best man."

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