Page 68 of The Wedding Planner's Manny

“You okay?” I asked, meeting him out in the kitchen where he was chugging coffee the way an athlete chugged water after a marathon.

“I will be.” He set the mug down and sat at the counter, resting his head in his hands.

“Headache?” I asked, feeling sympathetic. What he'd just gone through couldn't have been pretty.

“Should I get you an Aspirin?”

“No, it's fine,” he waved me off. “It'll pass. I just... I want to smash something.”

“I'm sorry we didn't save the piñata for you.”

That got a little smile out of him. “A piñata would be perfect right now.”

I went around the counter to stand behind him and run my fingers through the hair on the back of his head. “Caleb's back to playing with the other kids now,” I told him. “He seems fine. Kids can be pretty resilient, you know?”

Ethan sighed. “I wish he didn’t have to be.”

“I know. Me too.”

“Laura is forcing me to let her stay here for two nights.”

“She is?” My heart stopped cold. Ethan's ex was staying with him.Yay.

“She's threatened me with all sorts of consequences if I don't oblige.” Ethan took another sip of his coffee.

“I'm sorry.”

“I only hope the kids will be okay.”

“Yeah,” I agreed. And it wasn't only Nathan and Caleb I was worried about either. No, I also worried about what impact Laura's return might be having on my alpha. He was an alpha, yes, but he was also a gentle soul, and I was sure that seeing his wife again would upset him on a level that went beyond his instincts to protect his children. Slowly, I started massaging his neck, trying not to chew my lower lip.

When I was being honest, I was worried for myself too.

Laura had done horrible things, but what if she pledged to be better and Ethan believed her? She was the mother of his children, and she was still every bit as pretty as she'd been in high school.

What if Ethan remembered how once upon a time he'd liked her better than me, and he still did now?

He was a wedding planner, hemustbelieve in marriage and trying to make it work.

I wanted to tell Ethan about my fears, but my throat was so tight it was hard to breathe. Forget about speaking.

Tomorrow, I told myself.Everything will look better in the morning.

When I left Ethan's house that night, I didn't go home. Not immediately anyway. No, my feet carried me to the book store on Main Street, where my brother lived. Nick was the only person I wanted to see right now. I rang his door bell and when he opened up with a questioning expression on his face, I went in for a hug.

“Rhys? What's wrong?” he asked as he closed his arms around my back. I wasn’t a big hugger, usually, so my behavior must have confused him.

“I'll tell you, but can we sit down first? My ankles hurt.”

For some reason, this made Nick laugh. “Sure. I remember that from when I was pregnant.”

Together we went up the stairs. Nick and Zander's yellow Labrador greeted me with a tired look when I entered, as if wondering why I was disturbing the peaceful evening she'd been having. “Don't mind Betty,” Nick said, reading my thoughts. “She puts up with Sam's crying very patiently.”

“Where is Sam?”

“In his crib. And Zander’s either working on his latest novel or making a new set of pointless lists.”

“My lists are not pointless!” Zander said, stepping out of the living room. “Hi, Rhys. Nice to see you.”