Meant to Marry Me: Nashville Country Dreams Part 1 novel Chapter 40

After Bree left, Trent sat on the beach for at least a half an hour or more staring out at the ocean, thinking about what Bree had said. He’d have to head back to the room and talk to Monica eventually. He had no idea how that conversation was going to go, but he had a feeling she’d deny everything, even with the pictures right in front of her face.

He’d had an idea she was sneaking around with someone, but he didn’t know it was Hank. He never would’ve thought Hank could do anything like that to him. Granted, he did meet Monica first. They had slept together before he started dating Monica--though Trent didn’t know that at the time, or he never would’ve gone out with her in the first place.

There were a lot of things that would’ve prevented him from dating Monica in the first place if he had known about them before he’d finally consented to go out with her. She’d been so persistent, though. He’d been flattered to have such a beautiful woman interested in him. Now, he was thinking none of it was for the right reasons. But what were her reasons? Would he ever know for sure?

If Trent was going to call this entire wedding off, though, it had to be for a good reason. The fact that Monica was sleeping with Hank was a lot more legitimate in his mind than the possibility that Bree might actually want to be with him. He had heard what she’d said before she left, and he wanted to believe that she meant it, that she wanted to be with him, but it was almost too good to be true. After all of these years, for her to admit that she’d wanted to be with him all along was sort of like finding out that the sky was actually green. He couldn’t process it.

His phone was ringing. It was Hank. Trent had a feeling he’d put things together and realized that Bree had swiped the photos and that she was going to tell him. How could Trent marry a woman standing next to a best man who’d been sleeping with the bride while a woman sang a song about how she was in love with the groom? It was like one of those soap operas his mom used to watch, only not quite as believable.

Rather than answering the phone, he put it in his pocket and watched a pair of seagulls circling in the air above the turquoise waters. It would’ve been peaceful under other circumstances. But the paradise he was surrounded by was about to get ugly in ways he knew he couldn’t even imagine.

With a deep breath, Trent stood up, dusted the sand off of his shorts, and pulled his phone out of his pocket. “Monica? Hey. What are you up to?”

“I’m resting, trying to make sure I don’t have any bags under my eyes when I go to get my makeup done before the rehearsal dinner. What are you doing? I heard you left golf early. Are you all right?”

“Not exactly. Do you mind if I come by your room? I need to talk to you about something.”

“God, Trent. You sound upset. You’re scaring the hell out of me. What’s going on?” He could practically hear her eyes rolling as she asked the question.

“I’d rather talk to you about it in person. I’ll be there in a few minutes, okay?”

“Okay. I love you.” Her tone was sweet and innocent and made him wonder if the pictures on his phone were real.

“I love you, too,” Trent said, and he did mean it, but he wasn’t sure the love he felt for Monica was all that it should be, and if it was true that she really was sleeping with Hank while she was engaged to him, how could he do anything but call the wedding off?

Not knowing where he was headed, he took off down the path toward Monica’s room, certain wherever the road led, it would be full of tough decisions that could end with him in a completely different place than where he imagined he’d be this time tomorrow.