Best Man Under the Mistletoe

She couldn’t be reading this right. She just...she couldn’t. This was important evidence that had been sent to Gabe weeks ago. Why was he hiding these photos in a drawer? Shouldn’t he have turned these over to the sheriff by now? Was Gabe covering something up?

Dropping the letter on top of the pictures, Chelsea took a step back and stared at the pile. Such damning evidence of Gabe’s involvement with his uncle mocked her and the future she’d been foolish enough to believe in.

Trust hadn’t come easy and now she knew why. She should’ve trusted her instincts to begin with where Gabe was concerned.

The tears came before she even realized it. All the hurt, all the anger, and so much resentment flooded her. She should’ve listened to her initial suspicions. Hell, she should’ve listened to Daniel. Hadn’t he been trying to warn her she’d get hurt?

She wasn’t just hurt, she was utterly, completely, destroyed.

The glow from the Christmas tree in the living room mocked her, trying to pull her back to that night when they’d put it up. He’d completely played her for a naïve fool.

At least she hadn’t told Gabe how she felt. He’d probably get a great kick out of knowing he’d duped her.

Chelsea blinked the tears away and went to the living room where her clothes were. She quickly changed, trying to figure out exactly what her next move should be. Did she really want to confront him? Did she want to hear more lies?

And that’s what all of this had been. A relationship built on lies.

Once she was dressed, Chelsea tucked her hair behind her ears and glanced at the closed bedroom door. As much as she didn’t want to even look at him and hear his excuses, she deserved answers. She deserved to know the real man...not just the one she’d fallen in love with. That man didn’t exist.

Sixteen

The sound of the bedroom door creaking woke him. But it was the lights flashing on and the papers that were tossed onto the bed that had Gabe sitting straight up.

No. Not papers. Pictures.

His gut tightened as he glanced up at Chelsea. The brokenness and pain staring back at him told him all he needed to know. She believed he had deceived and betrayed her.

He now regretted that he hadn’t done a better job securing the papers. He had intended to turn them over to the sheriff as soon as the wedding was over; he just hadn’t wanted to risk more press attention to ruin Brandee and Shane’s—not to mention Chelsea’s—special day. She had worked so hard on this wedding and he didn’t want it ruined for her. He’d had every intention of doing things the right way—or what he thought was right—but now he just looked like he’d been deceiving her all along.

“I don’t even want you to defend yourself,” she said, crossing her arms over her dress.

Damn it. She’d put her clothes back on, which meant he had about two seconds to get her to listen to the truth. Mentally, she’d already left.

“I just want to know what your motivation is,” she went on. “What could you get from having these pictures just lying around your house? Were you planning on humiliating me further? Is this just family loyalty?”

Gabe came to his feet, jerking on a pair

of shorts lying by the bed. “I have never set out to hurt you, Chels. I had nothing to do with these pictures being taken.”

“Maybe not,” she agreed then let out a harsh laugh. “But you know what? Dusty’s letter spells things out pretty clearly. You were to take over since he was too sick. You could’ve destroyed these or turned them over to the sheriff, or hell, given them to me. Yet here you are with them tucked away in your apartment.”

He started to take a step forward, but she held up a hand. “No. All this time you were with me, you made me believe you cared, but under the same roof you were hiding these pictures. I was a fool to trust you.”

“You can trust me,” he insisted. Gabe crossed the room, ignoring her when she shook her head and held her hands out to keep him back. “Look at me. Damn it, I was going to take them to Nathan, but not until after the wedding. I put them away so nobody would see them.”

Chelsea kept her head turned away, refusing to look at him. “Convenient,” she muttered.

Nothing he said now would make her believe. She’d seen the pictures and the letter, and had decided he’d been lying all along. He hated her thinking he would ever be involved in something like this, but most of all, he hated that she was hurting and he couldn’t comfort her.

“What can I say to make you believe me?” he asked.

He wanted to reach out and hold her, but she would never allow that. Her red-rimmed eyes tore him apart. How long had she been in the other room tormenting herself with this?

The automatic bedroom shades rolled up right on time, the soft hum breaking the tension in the room. The sun was starting to rise, but the day that should’ve been one of the happiest for them had turned into anything but.

“There’s nothing you can say,” she whispered, her voice thick with tears. “I trusted you with a piece of me I’ve never given to another man. I thought...”

Her words died off as she bit her lower lip to compose herself. Gabe did reach for her now. He didn’t give a damn what she wanted because he knew he hadn’t done a thing wrong and he just wanted to hold her, to comfort her. She was absolutely breaking his heart and he’d promised her she’d never feel alone again.