The Rose He Killed novel Chapter 160

Chapter 146: Bachelor Night

Caleb POV

James brought it up on a Monday morning, which was either deliberate timing or just James, and with James the two were often the same thing.

I was going through the week’s schedule when he set a coffee on my desk and said, without preamble, “We need to talk about the bachelor arrangements.”

“There are no bachelor arrangements,” I said.

“That’s what we need to talk about.”

Claim

I looked up. James had the expression he wore when he had already decided something and was now managing the process of bringing me to the same conclusion, I recognised it. I’d been on the receiving end of it for years.

“I’m not doing a club,” I said. “I’m not doing anything that ends with a hangover the morning of my wedding.”

“I know,” he said. “That’s not what I’m suggesting.”

“Strippers”

“Absolutely not,” he said, with a firmness that suggested he’d already considered and rejected this on my behalf. “Nothing that Bella would hear about, nothing that gives anyone a story. Nothing that risks one single thing about Saturday.” He paused. “Just a dinner, with a private room, with people who actually matter. Good food, good scotch, and you get to have one evening that is specifically about you before you become a husband again.”

I looked at him. “You’ve already booked the room.”

“Two weeks ago.”

I sat back. “James.”

“Sir.”

“You booked it before asking me.”

“I booked it because I knew you’d say no and then agree, and I didn’t want to lose the reservation window.” He said this entirely without apology.

“You’ve been the head of this company for years. In that time you’ve given me three pay rises, sent flowers when my mother was in hospital, and once cancelled a board meeting because I had a family thing I didn’t want to miss.” He met my eyes. “You even forgave me when I betrayed you, so let me do this.”

I was quiet for a moment.

“Your first wedding,” James said. “That wasn’t a wedding, that was a transaction dressed up as one. You went through the motions and you called it done and nobody celebrated anything because there was nothing to celebrate.” He paused. “This is different, this is real.”

Chapter 146 #achelor Night

Hooked at the desk for a moment, at the week’s schedule. “Who’s invited?”

James allowed himself the smallest smile. “Already handled.”

He’d invited Ethan, which Thadn’t expected and then understood immediately. David, the new CFO, because he’d been solid through the transition and deserved the inclusion. And James himself, which went without saying, at my left, which was where James always was.

No club, no loud music I’d have to talk over. No obligation to perform enjoyment for strangers. Just a private room, a good kitchen, and the people I actually trusted in the same room.

Claurs

Ethan arrived first and we shook hands at the door and there was a moment – brief, acknowledged by neither of us – where we both understood what the other had navigated to be standing here. He’d wanted Bella but had stepped back cleanly. I’d watched him do it and respected him for it more than I’d told him.

“Thank you for coming,” I said.

“Thank you for inviting me,” he said. “I know that wasn’t straightforward.”

“It wasn’t,” I said. “I did it anyway.”

He nodded as we ordered scotch.

We didn’t make speeches immediately. We ate first, talked business briefly and then dropped it by unspoken agreement, and it was only when the plates were cleared that Ethan lifted his glass and said, “Someone should say something.”

“You volunteered,” James said.

“I didn’t volunteer, I observed that someone should.”

“Same thing.”

Ethan looked at me. “I’ll say something if you want.”

I nodded because I didn’t trust myself to speak yet, not because I was emotional in a way I couldn’t manage, but because whatever came out of my mouth right now would be the truest thing I’d said in a long time, and I wanted to hear someone else go first.

Ethan turned his glass. “When I met Bella,” he said, “she was already the finished version, she walked into a room like she’d already fought every battle and won. There was nothing uncertain about her.” He paused. “But with you – she lets her guard down. She’s still figuring things out and she’s okay with you seeing that.” He looked at me directly. “That’s rare for her, Don’t waste it.” He raised his glass.

The table went quiet. “That was good,” James said.

“I know,” Ethan said, and drank.

I looked at the men around the table and felt something I didn’t have a precise word for. Gratitude, partly.

I cleared my throat. “I spent a long time being someone who was very good at not needing anyone,” I said. “I was efficient at it, I told myself that was strength.” I turned my glass on the table.” But I was most wrong about that.”

Chapter 14-fachelor Night

Hooked up at the room.

Claim

“The first time I married Bella, I didn’t earn it. I was handed a woman who was extraordinary and I treated her like a nobody because I didn’t know how to do anything else, because my father spent years teaching me that needing someone was the fastest way to hand them a weapon.” I paused. “I know what that cost her, I know what it cost Tom. I know what it cost me, though I didn’t understand the cost for years because you can’t miss what you’ve trained yourself not to want.”

“What I’ve had to do for the last few months,” I said, “is the hardest thing I’ve ever done, not because of the external threats, not because of the legal battles or the security operations or any of it but because I had to learn, at thirty-two years old, how to be a person who could actually be loved and also love back.” I looked at my glass. “Bella made that possible, not by being patient with me – she wasn’t particularly patient, which is correct – but by being worth the effort, by being someone I wanted to be better for.”

I raised my glass.

“To second chances,” I said. “And to everyone in this room who helped me not destroy mine, I would not be here without every single one of you.”

We drank as Ethan raised his glass. James refilled everyone’s glass and the conversation loosened, and somewhere around eleven I checked my phone and found a text from Bella.

How’s the no-party party?

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