“No, and apparently it’s all over social media. Someone filmed the entire thing and posted it online. They even made a dub mix,” he added, but Rachel had already snatched up her phone and started swiping at the screen.
“Holy crap, it’s trending on Twitter, and it’s the first search term on YouTube.” She couldn’t stop laughing. “She deserves this, Nick. She deserves this and so much more. I have never hated another person as much as I hate her.”
“Is she really that bad?” Brooke asked, and the rest of us shouted “Yes!” in unison.
“I feel like maybe I should feel sorry for her, but I don’t. I don’t at all.” I looked at Nick. “Does that make me a bad person?”
His hand cupped my cheek. “After everything she’s done, you’re asking if you’re the bad person? This is why you could never be bad, babe. But there’s more.”
“What else could there be?” Rachel clapped her hands together joyfully. “What else could there be?”
“Apparently, Mr. Crawford was threatening my dad as well. Basically, ladies,” he said, addressing Rachel and Brooke, “he told me that Jess would never work in Hollywood if I didn’t do what he wanted.”
“He what?” Rachel’s fiery temper appeared as she jumped to her feet, fury replacing her joy, and Nick threw up his hand to stop her.
“He threatened me, but I guess he also threatened my dad.”
“What could he possibly threaten your dad with?” I asked, wondering how this situation could get even more insane than it already was.
“He said he’d close down the bar. That he’d bog it down with so many code violations and fines that Frank and Ryan would never be able to reopen. At least, not before becoming irrelevant and losing their entire customer base. My dad apparently thought he had the means to go through with it, the same way I felt about his threats to you.”
“Is that why your dad pushed you to agree to the wedding?”
Nick ran his hand through his hair while he nodded. “Yeah. So while I was trying to protect you from threats to your future, my dad was trying to protect my brothers from threats to theirs.”
It was all so messed up. Everything Nick was saying was beyond the level of crazy that anyone should be forced to deal with.
“This is not normal. You guys know that, right?” Brooke’s eyes were even wider, and she almost sounded scared.
“We know.” Rachel grimaced. “So, why would Mr. Crawford do all of this? Because his daughter wanted you?”
Nick looked at me. “In a nutshell, yes. She said that I embarrassed her. That once I started dating Jess, I’d blown her off and done it publicly more than once, and she couldn’t handle that. She was mad and hurt, and claimed that she wanted you to suffer the same way she had.”
“By getting you to marry her?” The whole thing was way too ridiculous for me to comprehend.
“She wanted to win, and she wanted to hurt you doing it.”
“Why would her dad go along with something like that? I don’t get it,” I asked, still trying to wrap my head around all the craziness.
“She’s all he has. His wife was killed in a car accident, and he never remarried. He said his whole goal in life is to keep Carla happy and give her whatever she wants,” Nick explained, like this was typical father-daughter behavior.
Rachel blinked hard at that. “No matter what she wants or asks for?”
“Apparently, there’s no limit to what he’d do for her,” Nick said, then looked at me. “And there’s no limit to what I’d do for you.”
He placed a soft kiss on my forehead and apologized once more. I melted against his touch, knowing that I never wanted to be without it again.
“I forgive you,” I whispered. “For everything.”
“Really?”
“Yes.” I nodded because I had. I did. And I didn’t want him thinking for a second longer that I didn’t.
“I forgive you too,” Rachel said, wearing her smart-aleck grin when I glanced at her. “Yeah, I heard you.”
“Brooke?” Nick said. “While we’re doling out forgiveness here, how about you?”
Brooke took a few seconds to think. “Two hours ago, I hated you. But I’ve never heard a guy say the kind of things you said to Jess tonight, unless it was in a movie. If Jess and Rachel forgive you, then so do I.”
Nick smiled bigger than I’d seen in a long time as he pulled something from his pocket and flipped it in the air. I grinned, knowing exactly what it was. His grandfather’s lucky poker chip landed in his palm, and he brought it to his lips and kissed it.
“Thank you,” he said to the chip before putting it back into his pocket. “I knew it would bring me luck. I just didn’t know it would bring me this much.”
“You two are grossing me out. Get a room,” Rachel said before recanting. “No. No. Do not get a room. Because then I won’t have anywhere to sleep, and I need a good night’s sleep before that hellish drive tomorrow. Dammit, Nick!” she yelled, switching gears. “Why the hell couldn’t you have done this yesterday so we could have carpooled? Now we both have to drive back to LA separately, and it’s awful. Trust me. The drive sucks. And you don’t even have your phone,” she added, laughing.
“It’s kind of nice, actually,” he said before grabbing my legs and throwing them on top of his. “I like being unreachable right now.”