bobby
It was Saturday night, the night of our engagement party, and the yacht club looked magical. But there was a feeling of apprehension in the air.
I don’t know if it was just me, but I felt weird. It wasn’t fear I could feel. The night was mild. Our guests arrived, and the decorations looked perfect. But I couldn’t push aside the feeling of foreboding like something terrible was about to happen.
I just really hoped it didn’t.
I couldn’t let anything ruin tonight. Tonight was going to be one of the best nights of my life, other than my wedding with Tristan.
Since the incident with Declan happened two months ago, I have focused on moving and looking forward. I was only focusing on the positives in my life.
Because when you have a brush with death, and you look death in the face, it makes you realise just how precious life and those you love are, as well as just how short life was.
Life was too damn short, and dammit, if I wasn’t going to live the rest of it to the fullest!
That meant throwing the best damn engagement party Summervale had ever seen.
“There he is!” shouted a familiar voice from behind me. I turned around on the outside balcony of the yacht club where I’d been standing, drink in hand, wondering where my fiancé was because I hadn’t seen him or spoken to him since he stormed off the other day. I looked down at my phone and then turned to see Stacey and Ashton coming through the French doors onto the balcony. Stacey had her arms open wide and was running to hug me.
“Congratulations, Bobby boy! I’m so happy for you!” she hugged me so tight I couldn’t breathe.
“Thanks… Stace…” I gasped. “But don’t congratulate me yet. I don’t even know if I’m still engaged…” My lip wobbled, and my voice broke as a tear rolled down my cheek.
“What?!” shrieked Stacey.
“Oh, no. What happened, Bob?” asked Ashton.
Before I could tell two of my best friends what happened, Darcie and Dane walked out onto the balcony.
“Where’s your better half?” asked Darcie.
And that’s when I lost it.
A sob fell out of me.
“I… excuse me…” I bolted through the French doors, trying to hold back the sobs, ignoring my friends’ pleas, and crashed straight into a tall, muscular chest. A familiar muscular chest.
“Bobby?” strong arms held me, then reached for my chin and lifted it, making me meet his gaze. I looked up into the eyes of Tristan.
“Tristan!” I threw my arms around him and sobbed into his nicely pressed dress shirt. “Oh my god, I thought you weren’t talking to me. I thought you left me. You didn’t answer your phone, and…”
“Bobby… Baby, shh. No, that’s not it at all. I’m sorry I ignored you this past week or so. I was dealing with personal matters and organising a few things for tonight.” He pushed back my hair from my forehead, kissing me there. His thumbs traced my chin, and then he leaned down and kissed me deeply. He was a head taller than me and always had to lean down to kiss me, or I had to reach up and pull him down to meet me.
It didn’t matter how we kissed, the mechanics of it. All that mattered was that we were together, and everything else happening around us didn’t exist when we were. It was only Tristan and me.
“Oh, get a room,” complained a familiar voice. Tristan and I broke our heated kiss, which meant we would need to find the nearest private place if we didn’t stop. We turned toward our friends, standing behind us and making faces at us.
I laughed and ran into their arms. They pulled Tristan into our group, too. And then Ashton announced, “Let’s get this party started!”