Pure Wicked (Wicked Lovers #9.5)(43)
Author: Shayla Black

Hayden stared as if poised to say something but then reconsidered. “Bristol, what’s gotten into you?”

“A whole lot of anger. Thanks to you, I was stupid enough to let myself lose—”

The doorbell cut her off, and Bristol fumed that she didn’t get a chance to lay into Hayden about how he’d done a number on her ability to trust and most likely contributed to the reason she no longer had Jesse beside her.

But Hayden decided he’d been saved by the bell and darted away when she loosened her grip to peer around the kitchen wall, back into the foyer. He sprinted out as if someone had set his ass on fire.

Standing next to her, Jayla laughed. Corey and Presleigh came up for air.

Linda Mae looked on. “It’s not too late for that June wedding. We’ll simply have another groom.”

Bristol tried not to roll her eyes. Since it seemed as if no one else was interested in answering the door, she used it to make her escape, striding around the corner to find Hayden hustling down the walk and a very polished brunette in a gray business suit standing at the portal.

Her heart stuttered. Bristol hesitated, staring at the stranger. “Can I help you?”

Please let her have some connection to Jesse.

“Hi.” She stuck out her hand. “I’m Candia.”

Bristol blew out a jagged breath. She wasn’t shocked…but she wasn’t thrilled, either. “Don’t tell me you’re here to plead his case about any sort of fake marriage. The answer is no.”

“I’m here to apologize,” she clarified, hands clasped, face contrite. “May I come in so I can explain?”

What the hell? The night had already turned into a freaking sideshow. “Sure.”

Candia stepped in, and Bristol shut the door behind her, looking around for some privacy. Obviously, they couldn’t talk in the kitchen with everyone listening in. So she guided the woman into the empty parlor off the foyer to the right and shut the door. Instantly, the noise level dropped.

“Why are you here?” The more Bristol thought about it, the more she wished she’d shut the door in the woman’s face. “You know, I’m a real person with feelings who doesn’t appreciate you trying to manipulate me in order to make your client’s life a little cushier. He can go to—”

“Before you finish that sentence, you should know that marrying you was his idea first.”

Knowing that Jesse McCall thought it was no big deal to twist her heart around and pretend to be enough in love with her to share a lifelong bond pissed her off. “Great. Thanks for the FYI. You’re both horrible human beings. Will you get out of my house, please?”

Well, her mother’s house, but she was splitting hairs. The worst part was, even as Candia was throwing Jesse under the bus and all but admitted they’d conspired to use her to improve his image, Bristol still wanted him, missed him. Kind of even loved him.

Exactly why she hated romance. She did it so spectacularly bad and always wound up hurt. From now on, she was banning both romance and flings. Instead, she’d become the crazy cat spinster who baked cookies for the whole damn town. Maybe it wouldn’t bother her in a few years.

Yeah, when you’re sixty.

As she reached around Candia to open the door and show the woman out, Jesse’s publicist shook her head. “That’s not what I meant. The idea to marry you because he loves you was his. I had the same idea, though for the more obvious reason I stated in my message. I texted him…which I hear you read. When he read it first, this is what he had to say.” She held up her phone to reveal the screen that listed her voicemails. One from Jesse appeared three messages down, the date and time stamp shortly after he had made love to her and proposed.

“Are you crazy, woman?” Jesse sounded really agitated. No, super pissed off. “I’m not going to pretend to marry Bristol for my image. I know your job is to worry what people think of me, but that’s fucking out of the question. And over the line. I’m finally in love and I’m grabbing her with both hands. You can either be happy for me and get on board or hop the fuck off the train.”

Candia stopped the voicemail, then flipped to her texts. “You can see clearly here what time he read my message.” She shoved the screen in Bristol’s face. Based on what she remembered, Jesse hadn’t read Candia’s text until after he’d asked Bristol to marry him.

Her heart seized up. Regret poured through her. Had Jesse actually meant everything he said?

Had she completely screwed up?

She jerked her stare up to Candia’s face, her heart racing. The sort of cold sweat that came with a terrible realization hit her. “You’re not here to try and convince me to marry him for his image?”