And Will's one girl didn't want him. Again.
He shoved his pie away.
"Does he look happy to you?" Mari Belle deadpanned.
"Darkest days of a man's life are the ones where he's found his girl but doesn't think he can have her." Jackson forked another bite of pie. "Don't reckon she's got it much easier. Anna Grace gave me a right good fight about needing to do that independent woman thing, not wanting to follow me around all the time when the military moves me, but your life makes ours look simple."
Independent woman thing. Yeah, Lindsey had that. Always had.
"Lady doesn't like the spotlight, does she?" Jackson continued. "Your crew scared her right good."
Will's head jerked up. His BillyVision crew. They'd been behind her during her song Friday night. They'd scared her away. He'd have to talk to them about-no. He clenched his jaw.
Lindsey would've left anyway. It was what she did. Difference was, this time, she'd told him she would.
"It's so easy to lose your own identity in a regular relationship, and you don't even realize you're doing it until it's over," Anna said. "But being a superstar's girlfriend? Getting all that attention? That's even harder."
Will grunted. He was the problem. His job was the problem. What about hers? She wasn't even doing what she was supposed to be doing.
And what would her life look like if she walked away from a successful career to be a full-time psychic matchmaker on the road with him?
His stomach clenched.
Lindsey wasn't built like Sacha. She liked having a traditional job. She liked stability. She liked taking care of herself.
And being with Will-being with Billy Brenton-would've made her give all that up eventually. He could've found her another job-lots of guys' wives ran charitable foundations, worked part-time from the road, found worthy causes to champion-but she hadn't even given him the chance.
Because her psychic woo-woo matchmaker senses went haywire where he was concerned.
Mari Belle let loose another of her sighs. "I don't think she was after your fame and fortune, I'll give her that. But I still think you're better off without her. Is Mikey going to Nashville with you?"
Nashville was another problem.
Lindsey didn't like crowds. She'd been rejected by friends in college because of her gift and by the townspeople of Bliss because of her job. Being Billy Brenton's girlfriend would put her in a spotlight no matter what Will did.
Another place to be judged.
Another place to be rejected.
He got it.
He did.
But she still didn't want to give him a chance to make it all right.
He shoved to his feet. Mari Belle was right. Lindsey was right. He and Lindsey were better off apart. "I gotta hit the road." He patted his leg, and Wrigley pushed to his feet once again. "Call me if any of y'all need anything."
Paisley darted into the room. "Don't go, Uncle Will. You barely got here."
He squeezed her hard, a big ol' lump threatening to choke him. "Miss you already, peanut. I'll talk to your momma about that plan you had for the summer."
She let him go with a whoop. He nodded to Jackson and Anna. "Appreciate y'all watching out for these two." Even if he didn't appreciate them butting into his own personal private life.
Mari Belle walked him to the door and wrapped him in a tight hug. "Take care of yourself, okay? Call me. Every day. Every hour, actually. That would be better."
He nodded.
She worried. He knew.
He worried too. But he couldn't afford to go to that dark place that was creeping at him from all angles again.
He had to go be Billy Brenton.
LINDSEY'S SKIN itched everywhere.
She'd taken off the wedding dress over two hours ago, but she still felt the satin and lace, still smelled the flowers, still felt the ache in her cheeks from forcing a smile throughout Nat's photo shoot this afternoon.
And she wasn't done yet. Because Nat wanted to celebrate the launch of her new line of Bliss Originals bridal gowns. So here Lindsey was, on a crowded Friday night, hunched into an impossibly small personal space bubble in Suckers, watching the out-of-town wedding crowd.
The guests came in for weekend weddings in Bliss. They came to Suckers to hook up with other wedding guests, then disappeared as if they'd never been here. The ones who smelled like one-night stands, she didn't mind. She'd done enough itch-scratching in her life to get it. But the ones who smelled like desperation?
Those made her head and her heart hurt.
She could spare them long-term pain if she interfered. But she didn't know how to be tactful about it.
Or why any of them would listen to a random crazy woman in a bar who was doing a horrible job of hiding her own personal heartbreak.
The itch in Lindsey's skin flared.
Will would be back tomorrow for the Battle of the Boyfriends, and he was bringing a camera crew. Doing what he promised for Bliss.
She missed him.
She didn't have the right, but she missed him.
"That was fun, wasn't it?" Pepper said beside her.
Lindsey forced a smile. "Yep. A blast. And none of the dresses burst into flames for being worn by a divorce attorney."
"Or pre-brides." Pepper's shoulders slumped.
"Pre-brides?"
Pepper grimaced. "Is there really no legend of the pre-bride in Bliss? That seems so unlikely."
"If there were, I would've heard of it," Kimmie said over her coconut cream pie on Lindsey's other side. It was practically the first thing she'd said all day. "We have the widow-maker, the groomsman curse, and the golden bouquet hex. But the pre-bride legend? That's a new one."
"Pepper's got it bad," Cinna said. She was slinging bottles behind the bar beside CJ tonight. "Her last fourteen boyfriends have married the girl they met after they broke up with her."
"Seven. Seven. Not fourteen. And sometimes I did the breaking up." Pepper tossed a piece of ice at her sister. "No one invited you to this conversation."
"Just because you dated half of them before you signed up for Facebook doesn't mean it didn't happen with them too. It just means you didn't hear about it." Cinna grinned. "Too bad hanging with Billy didn't count as dating or maybe Lindsey would have a ring on her finger instead of some tears in her beer."
"Too bad drinks don't mix themselves." CJ popped up behind her and swatted her with a towel. "Get back to work and quit being obnoxious."
"I'm the baby. Being obnoxious is my job."
Cinna slid down the bar, sassing three groomsmen and winking at a fourth on her way.
"I totally get why some animals eat their young," Pepper said.
"Yeah, but if Mom and Dad had eaten her, Sage would've had baby syndrome," CJ said.
"I could've lived with that."
Kimmie slid her coconut cream pie across Lindsey and over to Pepper. "Here. You might need this more than I do."
"Really?"
"Well, no, but I almost didn't fit in my dress today, and that'll interfere with my mom's efforts to marry me off." She shuddered, then eyed the pie.
CJ pushed another piece onto the bar. "Got enough to go around, and your mom's gonna have to go through me before we let you get married off. To a man of your choosing. Who loves you with or without the dress. Eat up." He added a second glass of white zin for Lindsey, then went to check on Nat, who was hunched over a camera with her photographer.
Kimmie and Pepper both poked at their pie.
"Does Bliss have any ways of breaking curses?" Pepper said.
"Supposedly there's an old troll lady who lives under the country club, but you have to be able to sing the alphabet in her native language, which is a cross between Minion and Mandarin."
Lindsey peered at Kimmie. "Seriously?"
"Yeah, she-oh, wait. No, that was a dream. Sorry. No curse-breakers."
"Evening, ladies," Dad said. "Mind if I join you?"
Lindsey turned. She hadn't realized he was coming tonight. He was alone-no Marilyn-and he was wearing a melancholy expression she recognized all too well.
She tucked her hair behind her ears. "Have a seat," she said.
Dad eyed Kimmie's coconut cream pie, then winced. "Go light, Kimmie. Don't want you having bad dreams."
Lindsey glanced about for an empty stool, and a woman at a table caught her eye. She had plain brown hair with bangs that needed a trim, little makeup, and she wore a chunky sweater that hid her figure. When she realized Lindsey was looking at her, she pulled her purse tighter into her body and shifted her gaze away.
Lindsey's heart swelled, beating fast. Her nose started running, and pressure built in her sinuses.
She smelled tulips.
She looked around and spotted someone else she recognized.
Her throat clogged.
"Here, Dad. Take my stool."
"You sure?"
"Yeah. Way crowded tonight. I'll celebrate with Nat another time."
She needed to leave. Take her coat and her purse and go.
Instead, her wobbly knees moved away from her stool without grabbing her personal belongings.