Steve doesn't even give Rylie a second glance as he walks across the room over to Bucky's desk. He tries not to make it obvious that he's uncomfortable, but she notices the way he strides in too confidently, throwing her an indirect shade with a side glance.
She and Bucky, still trying to mentally recover from the moment they just shared, watched as he leaned over the table, supporting himself on one arm. With the other, he reaches across the desk to grab a pen that was next to Bucky's laptop.
Bucky throws Rylie an additional glance. He still doesn't understand what had just happened. He knew he had almost kissed her, but she hadn't pulled away. If anything, she had leaned in yourself.
She touched him.
His heart was still in a fragile state, he tells himself. He looks down at the paper the Steve handed to him, his eyes scanning over the words.
Rylie tries to peak an eye at it over his shoulder, curious as soon as his entire demeanor changed. Minutes ago he had been sad, broken, and he had looked the closest to what she had always hoped for - love. But now, he was aggravated.
"They couldn't even wait until his body was cold?" Bucky spats as he waves the paper in his right hand, looking up to meet Steve's eyes.
It doesn't take much for her to realize what he's holding.
Steve looked pissed and tired as he peaks an eye at Bucky. Steve straightens his back out as he beats one finger repeatedly down on the table.
"They can't wait. This has to be done now," Steve's eyes drift over to her, he looks her up and down with a raised brow. His gaze is intense and she blushes furiously. Not from his stare itself, but from embarrassment. His look was accusing and his words only further confirm that, "unless this isn't a good time."
Bucky seethes as he walks over to Steve, his bright teeth in a tight line.
Steve's eyes are still on Rylie and she felt a tremor go through her body. She felt awful and most importantly, guilty, knowing exactly why he was pissed. She didn't blame him, he had every right.
She looks away from his eyes, swallowing hard. She wanted to be swallowed down into a dark hole.
"It's just you? Where's everyone else that has to be present to watch me sign this damn thing?" Bucky asks Steve once he's in front of him.
Steve finally looks away from Rylie and down at the paper in his best friend's hand.
"This is just page one, the one that will hand everything over to you. As soon as this is signed, it'll all be yours. No formalities. The other important stuff will be later, when it's time to sign all that, we will have a board meeting. This is nothing compared to all of that." Steve taps the pen against Bucky's chest as Bucky glares at him. They knew the real reason there was tension in the room and it had nothing to do with his father's death, "So, yeah, Buck. It's just me."
Bucky takes a deep breath as he snatches the pen out of Steve's hand.
The silence in the room is overbearing, her heart was still beating in her ears and the only sounds were that of the distant thunder in the skies above her and the scuffling of the mahogany desk as Bucky wrote down his signature.
"I'm sorry, Buck." Steve finally says once he's finished. Bucky looks away as he clears his throat, not wanting to make eye contact.
"We all saw it coming. Nothing we weren't ready for." Steve nods as he pulls the paper off Bucky's desk after realizing Bucky wasn't even going to attempt to hand it over himself.
"I need to splash some water on my face or something," Bucky mumbles under his breath as he pushes himself off his desk. He doesn't even give Rylie a second look as he walks past her towards the bathroom.
He needed air.
She could still feel the ends of her hair standing up and the heat of her blood on her face as he brushed up against her.
Once it's just her and Steve in the room, the tension is thick. Steve had noticed the way her breath caught when Bucky walked past her. His heart sunk and his blood boiled simultaneously. This wasn't how things were supposed to go.
Steve's looking at her disapprovingly and she looks away in utter shame. She had been so transparent in front of him, so disloyal as a friend.
He watches her intently, begging with his eyes for her to talk to him, as she walk over to where her purse was against the wall. But she doesn't.
She swings it over her shoulder and then turns around to leave.
She needed air. She needed to think.
"Rylie, wait."
She freezes in her spot. His tone is pleading, his hand on her upper arm is strong.
She closed her eyes tight together.
When she turns around to face him, the only words that come out are: "I'm sorry."
Because she was. She didn't mean for any of this to happen.
Steve narrows his eyes at her, mouth gaping.
"What's going on, Rylie? I don't understand."
She looks everywhere except for him, the indiscretion eats away at her.
"What do you want me to say?" She says shamefully, settling for looking at the ground.
He looks at her for a beat and then chuckles in disbelief, but there's a very evident sound of heartbreak underneath it. He looks away from her and to the wall.
"What do I want you to say?" He looks back down at the ground and shakes his head, "I'm not begging for anything, Rylie. I never pressured you into anything," he looks back up at her beautiful face, "It just doesn't make sense to me," Steve scoffs as he pulls his arm off her, "You told me you didn't want to be with me because you weren't ready for a relationship, but then I find out that a few days after you told me that, that you were with Loki? I don't understand." She's silent because she herself doesn't have a direct answer. She was a mess. He notes she has no response so he continues, "Is it something I said? Is it me? Because if it is, please just tell me, because what you're doing is unfair."
She swallows hard, the lump in her throat growing dry. Finally, she looks up at him, her eyes red, brimming with tears.
Steve takes in a deep breath, his eyes suddenly soften to more than when he first came in.
"If it's someone else that has your heart-" he whispers, his heart slowly falling into his stomach at the thought of her and Loki, or worst, her and his best friend. His best friend who knew that he, Steve, had always wanted you.
"Steve," she interrupts him, not letting him go there, "I meant what I said when I had told you that I wasn't ready. This thing with me and Loki, it was just me testing out the waters. Getting out there again. It had been so long since I had been with someone. I don't want to jump into a relationship with you just because it feels like something fun we could do. I didn't lie to you."
He stares at her and considers her answer for a second. He should believe her, and for a second he buys it, but he sees the lingering look of doubt on her face and he wonders if even she believe her own answer.
He clears his throat and looks around the room before returning his gaze to her. This time she meets his eyes.
"Why were you here?" He asks strongly.
She furrows her brows together.
"What?"
What was he implying?
"Why were you here with Bucky?"
She feels her heart in her throat, the thrumming of it is in her ears and her shame comes out in the form of anger and annoyance, "Because he's our best friend, because I was worried when I called him earlier. I showed up and he was crying. I don't know what else you're thinking, Steve."
Steve scoffs under his breath. Fucking bullshit.
She catches his negative attitude in an instant and she's lost and so very confused.
"What's going on, Steve?" Steve bites his lip, shaking his head back and forth as if in denial. "Steve," Steve doesn't say anything. She moves up closer to him, taking his hand in hers. He's surprised by her gesture and he looks back up at her. For a second he even forgets what he was mad about. She's absolutely beautiful and he was so close to having her as his. He swallows hard, recognizing that he hasn't been this close to her since New Years. "Steve."
He swallows hard.
He looks into her eyes and he continues softly, "You told me to wait for you, and that's exactly what I'm going to do. If you're going to back on your word do it now," his eyes go to your lips, "If there's something else that should make me not wait for you, please tell me so I can walk out of here right now. The last thing I want is for you to hurt me on false hope."
She feels her throat close up sharply at his strong pleading words. She gulps.
"You're asking a lot of me." She practically whimpers out, her hands both shaking.
"I'm really really not. You told me that the only reason you didn't want us to happen was because of time. Aside from time, I see no other reason as to why you wouldn't want to be with me, why we can't happen. I'm not holding anything against you, Riley. Just don't lead me on. I don't want to give one hundred percent of my heart to you just to later find out that you weren't really in it. If you're going to hurt me, I'd have you rather do it now than later on."
His words are begging - they're desperate. She sees it in his eyes how much he's begging her not to hurt him and it makes her hurt.
She doesn't know what else to do except wrap her hands around his neck, hugging him tightly to her.
She feels his large hand pressing up against her back.
"The last thing I want to do is hurt you." She tells him.
He believes her, but as his eyes follow the gaze out into the hallway where Bucky just went, he's not so sure.
But he accepts her answer.
~
Ashlyn had met Bucky at the hospital about an hour after the phone call. After Bucky had time to freshen up in the bathroom, washing away any feelings that he could, he called Ashlyn up to tell her of the news. She was distraught and extremely saddened, letting him know that she'd be on her way to the hospital soon.
After staring at his reflection long enough in the mirror and convincing himself into thinking he was a good man, Bucky walked back to his office to let Rylie and Steve know he was headed to the hospital. He didn't allow his gaze to lock on her for too long. It was dangerous.
They both knew very well what had just happened and it had to be buried down as much as possible.
Ashlyn had run into Bucky's arm as he hugged her tight. They spoke to the doctors about what would happen next and then they spoke among themselves regarding the funeral and memorial services.
It was that night while they're in Mr. Barnes' office that Ashlyn asks a strange question about his father's will. This makes Bucky's head snap up immediately. He had just gotten off the phone with the funeral director and she was already asking about the will.
The will Rylie were telling him about.
"Probably tonight. Fury's coming over to sit down with us over what goes on from here," Bucky looks around his father's (now HIS) office. There were boxes all over the place filled with Mr. Barnes' personal belongings. Bucky didn't have the heart in him yet to move it out and move his own stuff in its place. He looks up at Ashlyn curiously, who is sitting leg crossed in front of him, her tight skirt halfway up her thighs.
Bucky swallows hard.
"Why?"
"No reason, I had discussed some things with him and I just want to talk to you about it as well, before you freak out."
Bucky clears his throat. "What kind of changes?"
"I'm not even sure yet, he didn't fully disclose me on it."
Ashlyn's hand seductively went to the top button of her blouse. She played with it as she bit on her pen with the other hand.
Bucky looked away quickly and down at the paper on his desk. The last thing to be signed was the agreements with Hank and Tony Stark documents that the company had recently adjoined.
Bucky signs his line below next to CEO.
This was only the document that approved that he'd now be the one taking charge on their meetings.
Bucky continues to file through the paper, proud that he had finally done everything that he needed to. Bucky clears his throat as he notices Ashlyn's skirt still riding up deliberately.
"I'm having Steve and Sam help me load up my stuff from my apartment to the moving truck this afternoon, but my lease isn't up until the month after the wedding. I'm thinking of staying there until the week of the wedding and then closing it out when we're at my father's place. I'll have some stuff moved in, but not everything."
"Why don't you just cut the lease?" Bucky sighed as he closed his laptop, "It's money, sweetheart. I'm not my father. Just because it's pocket change to me doesn't mean it is to someone else."
The silence in the room is overbearing.
Bucky sighs.
"Anyway, the penthouse is ours. Did you want to already move in? I can have them stop by your place to have them pick up your stuff."
Ashlyn doesn't tell Bucky that she knows damn well where the penthouse is and that she's slept in it countless of times. The guilt eats her alive as she watches her fiancé's eyes on her.
She needed to make this work, she had to leave the past behind. That was her and his father's idea to make this company thrive.
"You are the angel we had been waiting for, love. He needs you to make this work. He won't know how and he will never need to know."
"Am I a bad girl, Mr. Barnes?"
"Very bad, honey, very bad. But that's why you're so good, and why you will be perfect for him."
"I don't like cheating."
"Don't think of it as cheating, Ashlyn. This is a business. The only reason Bucky wouldn't understand is that he's not a businessman. He works too much with his heart. It has his perks, but unfortunately, it could make you guys lose it all. I will teach you the ways."
"And if he finds out?"
"He won't. Before you know it, you'll love it and it won't even bother you anymore."
Ashlyn sits on the edge of Bucky's desk as she leans over him. Her top button had become undone and Bucky's eyes drifted down to her plunging cleavage.
Ashlyn knew what she was doing and she knew how hot he was for her right now. They hadn't had sex in a while.
While, sure, his heart was somewhere else right now, but he was still a man. Maybe what he needed was to relieve some of the tension he was feeling because of Rylie.
His tongue darts out to lick the top of lips.
"Yeah, baby," she crossed her right leg over her left one, giving his eyes access to her tan legs, "That's fine." She whispers.
He doesn't even remember what they were talking about anymore.
"Baby its been so long." She whispers, following her fingers down to the second button of her shirt.
As much as his dick wanted to, as much as that carnal part of him wanted to fuck her on his desk, fuck the aggravation from not having Rylie, fuck it out of his system - he bit his lip and looked away.
"As much as I'd love to christen my dead father's office, we have a lot of stuff we have to get done." Ashlyn huffs.
"You're really not considering this whole abstinence thing until marriage are you?"
~
It's morbid, it's something no one really wants to do, but it's necessary.
Bucky sits around a large wooden table along with three other people and Ashlyn. After he had done his homework, he was familiar with them before they even had to introduce themselves.
The young woman had medium length hair and piercing eyes. A warm smile. She wore a tight grey tailored suit and short heels. Wanda Maximoff, the Chief financial officer.
Next to her sat a man in his early sixties. He wore a dark blue suit and his hair was a dark black shade. His name was Nick Fury, the current COO.
Next to him was the operations manager, a younger gentleman with a knack for sarcasm and uncomfortable jokes but knowledgable nonetheless. Operations Manager, Mr. Scott Lang.
They all talked for a bit until it was time to sign the supposed "documentation".
Scott slides a paper over to Bucky. Bucky already has his pen in hand, ready to sign his life away.
"This is the bank information, which will allow all revenues and incomes to be automatically deposited into your accounts. This is all of your father's assets which have been passed down to you." Scott adds.
Nick hands Bucky a folder. "This is the contact information for all of your departments, these are all the names of important people which you will contact daily,"
"Confidential are on page A3 to A8." He adds.
"I'm sure Steve Rogers already gave you the ownership form correct?" Fury asks.
"Yes. Yes, he did." Bucky nods.
"Perfect. Since your wife will be co-owner as well," Scott says while smiling up at Ashlyn, "we do have an additional official form that will be needed to be signed with the vice president and other officials present. For that, we will have to wait until after the wedding, per the request of Mr. George Barnes."
"That's fine." Bucky agrees, maintaining eye contact with Lang and giving Ashlyn's hand a squeeze.
"Now, onto the will." Fury announces, pulling out a skinnier folder.
"Everything is yours obviously," Fury starts, "He's left you codes to all his private locks, his private information, and all the material things he's passed down. We're talking assets worth millions. To which, inside this folder, you will see additional information in regards to those and others that you can later ask Mr. Lang about, since not every item could be listed here."
There's a long silent pause in the room before Fury looks between Bucky and Ashlyn. He crosses his hands on the table in front of him and clears his throat, "Mr. Barnes, your father had added one information regarding behalf of Miss Ashlyn."
Ashlyn bites her bottom lip nervously.
"It's a prenup that's already been signed by Miss. y/l/n," Ashlyn avoids looking at Bucky as soon as his head snaps to look at her, "and has to be obeyed by Mr. George Barnes' request in his will. It says that in any given situation if you two were to separate, the majority of the profits of Barnes' industry will be given to Ashlyn. Under no circumstance will only you be given full responsibility, unless in the result of a death."
For a fraction of a second, Bucky's world stops. His mouth is stuck open, and his hand that was holding Ashlyn's slacks. A short laugh of disbelief leaves his lips. Wanda looks down at the table below her and Scott looks between all of them at the sudden tension, his eyebrow perking up.
Bucky looks at Ashlyn for confirmation and then at Fury and then at the paper.
"I-i'm sorry, what?" He shakes his head, "That's not-"
"But what's to worry about, Bucky?"
Ashlyn interrupts him.
When he looks at her, this time his face is furious. He couldn't believe that Ashlyn would do something like that.
He's pissed that she had the audacity to look up at him smiling, an over-optimistic tone in her voice. But he was anything but fucking optimistic. He felt nauseous. "We're not going to be divorced. I would never divorce you. And you would never leave me. So there's nothing to worry about."
He shakes his head, still not believing in her betrayal. He was shocked and speechless.
And his own father was behind this?
"But why? I mean, why do you want the majority of the profits? I just don't comprehend why you two would come up with this decision."
"Bucky. He's the one who decided this." Her tone is perky and he doesn't buy it for a second. He feels disgusted as he lets go of her hand.
"You told me that there are things you discussed with him. What did you two hide, Ash?"
Ashlyn swallows nervously. She looks between everyone at the table, suddenly feeling awkward, and she tucks a strand of her hair behind her ear.
"Nothing, Bucky. We just figured it'd be the best choice for you. I don't understand why you are getting so angry over this," she adds nervous chuckle, "it's only if we were to divorce. It's only under the worst-case scenario."
"It just doesn't make sense to me. You don't know how to run a company, Ashlyn."
"I trust you, Bucky. Which is why I agreed to this." She says sharply.
Bucky was fuming.
"We need your signatures on the prenup and will." Fury cuts in.
Bucky looks up sharply at Nick.
"I'm sorry, but it's a will. You have no say in this, James. Mr. Barnes' orders."
Bucky swallows hard as he feels Ashlyn's lingering touch on his hand. He feels dirty in his own skin for a second and his hand trembles as he puts the tip of the pen against the piece of paper. He takes in a deep breath and hesitates before signing.
Bucky is in a trance for the rest of the meeting, his emotions running wild and his mind not knowing what to think anymore.
Wanda shuffles through some more folders and then slides -finally - the last one over to Bucky.
"You will have a board meeting on Monday and there you will meet your entire team. Tuesday, you have a photoshoot at eight followed up with an interview with CNN at eleven thirty and a written interview with the New York Times at two. You will have a fitting with Louis Vuitton on Wednesday for an outfit for the gala which will be in September. And starting Thursday until the end of July you will have a team working for you on pre-determined decisions made by your father before he passed so you and your fiancé can focus on your wedding. Think of it as a long vacation."
Bucky clears his throat, "Understood. Thank you, Wanda."
"Alright, I think that's everything," Then Wanda, Nick, and Scott all stood up together.
Fury stretches his arm out for Bucky to shake. Bucky takes it confidently and a little too harshly. It was quite obvious to everyone that he was still very upset.
"Congratulations, Mr. Barnes. You're officially the new CEO and owner of Barnes' enterprises on all accounts."
Bucky turns around sharply to face Ashly once everyone is gone.
She's shocked at the tight hold he has on her arm. It hurts.
He's hurt.
"Ashlyn, why? Just please fucking tell me. You have no," He takes in a deep breath and relaxes his hand, "you have no right. I care about you so much, you know I do, but I don't -"
She feels the tears brewing in her eyes.
She doesn't know why she's crying, but she is. "You don't what, Bucky?"
He rips his hand off of her and gestures wildly around them, his voice suddenly several octaves louder.
"This! I don't know what kind of crap my father put in your head, but does none of this seems strange to you?"
She steps up closer to Bucky's face and grits in his face, "Seems to me that you don't trust me, that's what it seems like to me."
Rylie's words - she- she put doubt in his head.
I saw her name on his will...
Ashlyn continues as her eyes water up even more, "I promised you I would love you forever, it's why we're doing this isn't it? Getting married?" Bucky cringes at the way she says it, almost like it was a chore or an obligation, "Why would I want to spend the rest of my life with you and want you to have all of this and then take it all away? Of course, I would never do that. You're freaking out because you're the one who's scared. Please, for the love of God, the last thing I would want is to work so hard on this with you for some other women to take you away from me and steal your money from you. I'm doing this to protect you, protect us!"
Ashlyn took in a deep breath as she eyed Bucky up and down. Suddenly suspicious. "But it won't happen because you love me, right? Right, James?"
Bucky looked down at her with clenched teeth and now his own tears in his eyes. What on earth had they become?
His gut was burning hot.
"Right." He lied.
~
One month before the wedding.
The closer their wedding day arrived, the more Bucky wanted to turn time around and change it all. But he seemed to have been making mistake after mistake. His choices haven't been the best.
He had avoided Rylie for the last four months, fear that another moment like that one day would happen again- except this time he wouldn't be able to turn away.
He was slowly becoming weaker because of her. She had made him a weak man, she had filled his mind with doubt.
His net worth was now just above eighty million dollars, he could really have anything, but the only thing he wanted was her.
Days after signing that goddamn prenup and that will, he kept thinking of different ways to opt-out of this, to opt-out of it all, but it had been too late.
And worst of all, there was still a ninety percent chance his feelings were completely unrequited.
Bucky's mind weighed like a hundred pounds, or at least his conscious did. Ashlyn's words repeated repeatedly in his mind.
the last thing I would want is to work so hard on this with you for some other women to take you away from me and steal your money from you
Was that really her worst fear? And if it were Rylie, she would never do something like that. She was an angel.
Had you been right all along? Was Ashlyn really the materialistic girl Rylie had been warning him about? Was she really in this for the money? The thought itself makes him shake. It couldn't be.
He kept lying to himself to make himself feel better. Ashlyn had been perfect when he first met her, she had been everything he thought she would continue to stay.
The reality of it hits him like a ton of bricks.
Ashlyn had changed. Everything he thought he saw in her had always been in you.
He doesn't want to submit to the realization, he doesn't want to cave because it was too late.
He had to make the best of his situation. He had to force himself to fall back in love with his future wife because he no longer had a choice.
He had to make it work.
You still have some stuff at your apartment, right?
Bucky had texted Ashlyn after buying her a bouquet of flowers and chocolates on his way to her apartment from the office. Perks of being a CEO- you didn't always have to actually be doing the hard work majority of the time, you had assistants and other representatives that took care of the job for you- and you still got paid.
Bucky takes the elevator up to Ashlyn's floor regardless of her non-response.
He swallows down the anger he feels.
He knew she was just about fully moved into their new penthouse so he thought that he could be kind enough to help her with her last few things. They were getting married, after all, he had to at least attempt to be courteous, no matter how uneasy he felt about it.
He knocks and he wished that it hadn't been Rylie who opened the door.
They hadn't spoken to each other in four months.
She's startled at first by his visit and then by the items in his hands.
"She's stepped out. I was just finishing packing the last of her stuff." Bucky stands there motionless as he stares at her. She takes a step towards him and stretches out her hand, "This is very sweet. I'll be sure to hand this to her for you."
Her tone is different. Tired, like she's given in.
"Thank you."
He doesn't expect it to come out so softly.
They both stare at each other and the tension thick.
Bucky clears his throat.
"Do you know where she is?"
She nods curtly, spinning around to head inside. She leaves the door open so he can step in behind her.
She hesitates for a moment, trying to think if this was really a good idea.
"I think she's shopping. I'm not sure though, she asked me to come to help her pack tonight but I decided to come earlier so she didn't have a lot to deal with, ya know?"
He continues to stare at her, breathlessly.
She looked adorable. She has a small bun in her hair, the strands of it were fallen messily over her head and around the frame of her face. She had a small summer dress and an apron tied around her waist.
It's then that he notices the smell of freshly baked cookies.
She was beautiful.
pure. "Yeah." He whispers in a daze.
She's shocked by how soft his voice is. Her eyes flicking up immediately to meet his. "I hope she likes the flowers," he continues, keeping eye contact with her, "they are her favorite. And I went all the way uptown for those chocolates. She loves those."
She swallows hard. Your eyes search his and he searches yours. "You're an amazing man, Barnes."
"Rylie..." He whispers.
They both remember that moment, they both know what happened.
What was her intention?
What was his intention?
"You are. You do so much for the people you love, you make beautiful gestures, you really are a great guy. And I know you hate when I say this but, how I wish you saw you deserved more."
He feels defeat at her words. He feels filthy, he feels disloyal, unfaithful. disgust. How could he have let this happen? How could they both been so careless? How could she have made him fallen for her so hard so quickly?
Ashlyn had been right.
But it won't happen because you love me right?
He was weak.
"Maybe I don't."
His response makes her sad.
"Bucky, don't say that. Don't lower yourself down."
But it won't happen because you love me right?
He was a weak man. Ashlyn was right. She had done was she done because she was stronger than him.
"I'm just saying, maybe a lot of you think too highly of me. I really appreciate your kind words, but come on y/n, take a look around you, without my money and power, what am I? I'm a pathetic little New York boy who buys chocolates and flowers for a girl who doesn't even answer her damn phone, who doesn't even bother to fucking show up, who doesn't even care that I-," he doesn't realize he's borderline crying until he forces out the next phrase through hushed tears, "I brought her flowers and chocolates."
Her heart shatters. She wanted to do nothing more than run around that island and hug him; kiss him.
But of course, she doesn't.
It's wrong.
And he doesn't feel the same. He's just going through a rough patch and doesn't know his worth, that's why he almost kissed her. Nat has always been right from the beginning.
He has a way of making girls fall in love with him without even realizing it. It's just how he is. be careful. Don't fall for it.
But, hell, how she did fall for it.
She swallows down thickly. Her throat hurts- it burns.
"Bucky."
"I know she's not perfect, but neither am I. That's why me and her work."
He explains, trying to convince himself more than her and it's obvious and it hurts both of them to the fucking core. "You're looking at this the wrong way, Bucky. If you could only see yourself the way I see you."
"And what's that, Rylie?"
"You are a strong person, you are committed, and you are going to make a great husband. Any girl would be lucky to have you, and not because of your money, but because of who you are."
That's all he needed to hear to know for sure that she still saw him as Ashlyn's husband and then he left.
And her words replay in his head when he takes Ashlyn out to dinner
You are a strong person,
Ashlyn similes up at him over her dinner menu. He smiles back, reluctantly.
Ashlyn stretches her hand out across the table to hold Buckys'. The diamond on her ring had been his grandmothers, his mothers, and how hers. It was gorgeous and almost too big for her finger. But she damn loved it.
you are committed,
Ashlyn was right, as long as everything stayed great between them, they had nothing to lose.
you are going to make a great husband
Maybe he had been overreacting. Maybe his father knew was he was talking about when he made that decision for them. Maybe Bucky did have it in him to be a great husband and he just lost sight of it because he got distracted.
Ashlyn smiles at him once more over her glass of wine. A Sauvignon, her favorite.
And, god, how he does want to love her as much as he did the first moment he saw her. He wishes he did and he wished he could trust her. He wanted to push Rylie to the back of his mind and move on. He wanted to be a damn good husband.
But her, fuck. Fuck.
Any girl would be lucky to have you
So why couldn't it be Rylie? Why couldn't she just love him back?
and not because of your money
She was everything that Ashlyn wasn't. She wasn't the kind to make a man run after her so she take advantage of him and take his money away. That's the idea that Ashlyn had put in his head because she never would have thought that the women he would love would be her.
Rylie would never hurt him- ever. She would never use him- ever.
She would never find her way into his heart for the money.
Sure, maybe she wasn't in love with him, but he knew that she cared about him more than anyone has in a long time. If not, more.
but because of who you are.
He takes a sip of his own wine, peaking up at Ashlyn over his own glass. For the first time in his life, he didn't feel any remorse in the idea of cheating on her.
He would leave her in a heartbeat for Rylie.