Down the Aisle by Christine Bell Read Free Book Online

stiffly, and then pulled away. “Just the stress of the wedding and the new job all at once. I’ll be fine in a week or two once things die down.”
    Lies.
    The still-warm bagel he’d scarfed down on the way home sat in his belly like a rock. Whatever she was saying about it now, he knew that Lacey had been looking forward to their wedding day since he’d first proposed. Sure it was a busy time for them both, but she’d always been the type of person who thrived on this shit—organization and lists and lace. And she’d been over the moon when she’d landed her first teaching job. This should’ve been the happiest time of her life. Was this all about their baby trouble, or was something else happening here? Had she changed her mind? He swallowed hard and decided that he’d been patient long enough. Time to push her into talking to him.
    “I don’t buy it, Lace.”
    She bit her lip and made a show of getting herself a bagel from the bag. “What don’t you buy? This is a stressful time. It happens.” She shrugged and tore the bread in half before stuffing a hunk into her mouth.
    “Is this about the baby or is something going on about us that we need to talk about?”
    She chewed for long enough that he wondered if she’d ever stop, and then she swallowed before meeting his gaze. “I’m fine. I’d be even finer if you stopped asking me what’s wrong.”
    And maybe I’d stop asking you if you didn’t have tears brimming in your eyes half the time, he wanted to shout.
    But he didn’t.
    Instead, he stared at her helplessly, and she glared back, arms crossed over her chest defiantly. Good. He could take mad a lot easier than sad. If only he believed that’s what it was instead of a bone-deep despair that she was unwilling to share with him.
    He glanced at the kitchen clock and swore under his breath. “I’ve got to call Shane and cancel. I was supposed to help him install a bathtub today and—”
    “No, go!” She cleared her throat and lowered her voice, running a hand through her hair. “Don’t cancel. You should definitely go help him. It wouldn’t be right to bail last minute like that.”
    The relief on her face at the thought of getting rid of him for a few hours made his stomach clench again, and in spite of his instincts warning him to tread carefully and give her space, he couldn’t help but press a little.
    “Why?” He kept his eyes locked on her telltale face. “We can do it another day. I’d rather be with you.”
    I’d rather be with you too, he willed her to say. That would have been the instant reply a few months ago. Now, it was just dead air between them, and his gut pitched so hard, he wondered if he might be sick. Finally, she spoke.
    “I’d…rather be with you too,” she swallowed hard, “but there’s still a lot to be done. I was going to head out and pick up the groomsmen’s gifts anyway. We’ll meet up for dinner later, okay?”
    The words were right this time. She even managed a strained smile when she said them. But that long pause before she’d answered…That hesitation was killing him. Was that how things were going to be now? She wouldn’t talk to him, she didn’t seem to want him around, and the only time they’d slept together was when she’d been half in the bag.
    What was happening to them, and how the fuck was he going to stop it?
    …
    “Remind me next time to ask you if you have the air conditioning hooked up before I agree to help you with any more projects, bro,” Galen griped, taking a long pull off a sweaty bottle of water.
    It was a hellish ninety degrees outside and at least five degrees hotter in the bathroom where he and Shane were attempting to install a fancy, claw-foot tub that Cat had decided was a “must have.”
    “Sure. And the next time you need me to move a sectional, make sure to tell me that it’s going to be an all-day affair since your wife-to-be will want to see it in every imaginable position, in every possible room of