The next best day, p.1
The Next Best Day, page 1
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Books. Change. Lives.
Copyright © 2022 by Sharon Sala
Cover and internal design © 2022 by Sourcebooks
Cover design by Eileen Carey/No Fuss Design
Cover image © Breslavtsev Oleg/Shutterstock
Sourcebooks and the colophon are registered trademarks of Sourcebooks.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems—except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews—without permission in writing from its publisher, Sourcebooks.
The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.
All brand names and product names used in this book are trademarks, registered trademarks, or trade names of their respective holders. Sourcebooks is not associated with any product or vendor in this book.
Published by Sourcebooks Casablanca, an imprint of Sourcebooks
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Contents
Front Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Epilogue
Excerpt from You and Only You
Chapter One
Back Cover
Chapter One
It was Saturday in Albuquerque. The first Saturday in February and it was cold. But weather was not an issue for twenty-nine-year-old Katie McGrath. She awakened in a state of absolute bliss, calm and confident in everything this day would bring, because she was getting married.
And she wasn’t just gaining a husband. She was getting a family, something she’d never had. She didn’t know where she came from, or who her parents were, or if she had any extended family. All she’d ever known was foster care.
She’d come close to getting adopted more than once, but every time, something would happen. Either the couple changed their minds about adopting or decided she wasn’t the right fit for their family.
By the time she was twelve, she had a chip on her shoulder and was tired of pretending anyone cared about her. At that point, she was just another half-grown kid in the foster care system, so she made her peace with it and finally aged out.
Once she graduated from high school in Chicago and left the foster care system, she knew exactly what she was going to do. She wanted to be a teacher, and with the help of a couple of grants and working two jobs for four years, she put herself through college.
Coming to Albuquerque to teach, which was where she was now, was also where she met Mark Roman. He was a farm boy from Kansas who had a junior position in a CPA firm, while Katie taught at Saguaro Elementary. Now, three years later, here they were, ready to take that next step in their relationship, and she couldn’t be happier.
She was just getting out of the shower when she got a text from Lila Reece, a fellow teacher who’d become her best friend, and today, her maid of honor.
It was a “good morning, good luck, see you at the chapel” kind of message, but it brought reality to the day. It was time to get moving.
After breakfast, Katie loaded up her things, made a quick trip to her hairdresser, then hurried off to the chapel to meet Lila.
Lila was short, blond, and curvy—the opposite of Katie, who was tall with dark shoulder-length hair and the metabolism Lila longed for.
When Katie pulled up in the parking lot, Lila helped carry in the dress and everything that went with it.
“I love your hair!” Lila said, eyeing the smooth, silky strands as they headed inside.
Katie smiled. “Thanks. This style works really well with the veil,” she said.
They spent the next couple of hours getting ready in one of the dressing rooms, laughing and talking.
Gordy Thurman, Mark’s best man, arrived early, too, and popped in to give her a thumbs-up.
“Hey, Katie, you look beautiful. So do you, Lila,” he said.
“Thanks,” Katie said. “Is Mark here yet?”
“Not yet, but we both know Mark Roman is never going to be the early bird. He’ll be here soon,” Gordy said, then waved and went to find the men’s dressing room.
The wedding chapel was a popular venue, even though the wedding wasn’t going to be a large one.
Just Katie and Mark.
A maid of honor and a best man…and fifty guests.
The florist stopped by the bride’s dressing room to drop off flowers, then scurried away.
Katie was listening without comment to Lila’s continuous spiel about what a fun weeklong honeymoon she and Mark were going to have at the Bellagio in Vegas.
“You’re going to be in the honeymoon suite, living it up. That should warrant enough good luck to do a little gambling while you’re there,” Lila said.
Katie laughed. “We have a little money put aside for that, too.”
They were down to finishing touches when Katie finally sat on a bench so that Lila could fasten the veil to Katie’s hair.
Once Lila finished, she eyed the pretty woman before her and sighed.
“You look breathtaking, my friend. Your wedding dress is as elegant as you are. Mark is one very lucky man.”
Katie shivered. “I’m the lucky one,” she said, then got up, moved to the full-length mirror in the corner of the room, and did a full turn, eyeing herself from front to back. She felt beautiful and loved.
She was still thinking of Mark when her cell phone rang. When she saw it was him, joy bubbled up into her voice.
“Hello, darling. Are you as ready as I am?”
“Um…Katie…I have something to tell you,” Mark said.
Katie laughed. “Sorry, but last-minute jitters are not allowed.”
“It’s not jitters, Katie. I’m so sorry, but I can’t marry you.”
Katie’s knees went out from under her. For a few horror-filled moments, this was her childhood all over again. She reached backward for a chair that wasn’t there and sat down on the floor.
“What do you mean, you can’t marry me?”
Lila saw her fall and then heard those words coming out of Katie’s mouth and gasped, but when she started toward her, Katie held up her hand.
Lila froze in midstep—horrified.
“I can’t marry you because I’m already married…to Megan. We eloped to Vegas last night. I’m sorry but—”
Katie went numb. “Megan who?” Then she gasped. “Megan, your boss’s daughter, Megan? You married Walt Lanier’s daughter? Just like that?”
Mark Roman sighed. “No, not just like that. We’ve been seeing each other for a while and—”
Katie’s voice rose two octaves. “You’ve been cheating on me and still playing out this wedding lie? When you knew it wasn’t going to happen? What kind of a lowlife does that?”
“I know you’re—”
Katie interrupted him again. “Oh! Now your unexpected promotion makes sense. Your boss can’t have his daughter married to a lowly CPA in the financial department.”
“Look, Katie, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you. It just—”
Tears were rolling down Katie’s face, and her heart was pounding so hard she didn’t know she was screaming.
“You lie! You don’t give a damn about what you just did to me. Just stop talking. I can’t believe I was this blind, but I’m beginning to realize how freaking lucky I am to find this out about you now. You are a cheat and a liar, and you just sold your honor and your word for money. You deserve each other.”
“I’m sorry… I’m really—”
Katie interrupted him again.
“Not as sorry as you’re going to be when you remember everything about today was paid for with your credit card,” Katie said, and hung up.
Lila’s eyes were wide with unshed tears, and she kept staring at Katie, waiting for the explanation.
Katie looked up. “Mark married his boss’s daughter last night. They eloped to Vegas. Our Vegas. Will you help me up? I have to tell the guests
.”
Lila reached for Katie with both arms and pulled her up and then hugged her so hard.
“I’m so sorry, Katie. I’m stunned. I can’t believe he just—”
Katie pushed Lila away and took a deep breath.
“I should have known. I should have known. I have never been enough,” she mumbled. “God give me strength.”
Then she tore off the veil, tossed it aside, yanked up the front of her skirt with both hands so she wouldn’t trip, and strode out of the dressing room.
Gordy had just received the same phone call from Mark and was coming to look for Katie when he saw her storming up the hall toward the sanctuary with Lila running behind her, trying to catch up.
“Katie, I don’t know what to—”
She just shook her head and kept walking, unaware Gordy and Lila were behind her. They stopped at the door to the sanctuary, but Katie kept walking down the aisle before stopping at the pulpit and turning around to face the guests.
Her eyes were red and tear-filled, and the splotches on her cheeks were obvious signs she’d been crying. Total humiliation was imminent, but she lifted her chin and met their gaze.
“I have just been informed there will be no wedding today. I’m not getting married. Mark eloped with his boss’s daughter last night. They got married in Vegas. Thank you for coming. Please take your gifts home with you when you leave. The wedding food will be going to a homeless shelter.”
The communal gasp was so loud Katie felt like it sucked the air from the room, and then the buzzing undertone of shocked whispers began.
She went back up the aisle with her chin up and her head back.
“Worst day of my life,” she muttered, and walked back to the dressing room and changed into the clothes she’d arrived in. She left the wedding dress and shoes in a pile on the floor, leaving Lila to contact the caterers to have them pack up the food and take it to a shelter.
Lila kept telling her not to worry, she’d take care of everything and call her tonight, but all Katie could do was thank her and hug her.
She couldn’t face the pity.
She couldn’t face herself.
She wasn’t enough.
She drove home in a daze.
***
Meanwhile, Mark Roman was alternating between being a happy bridegroom and feeling like an asshole, which was fair because he qualified in both categories. When he’d told Megan he had to make the call to Katie and needed some privacy, she’d been more than understanding.
“I totally understand, darling. I have some things to take care of anyway. I’ll be back later,” she said.
So now he’d made the dreaded call and Megan was still gone, and he was too rattled to go looking for her, which, as it turned out, was for the best because Megan was only two floors down in one of the suites reserved for the big spenders the casinos called whales.
And this particular whale, who went by the name of Craig Buttoni, didn’t just gamble with money. He was in the drug game up to his eyeballs, and Megan and her father, Walt, were, in a sense, his employees.
Walt Lanier used his CPA business as a front, while he controlled the flow of cocaine coming in and going out of New Mexico. From time to time, Megan had her own little part in the business, and she’d just fucked it up by getting married to an outsider.
Craig Buttoni was pissed, and when he found out she was honeymooning in Vegas, he sent her a text she couldn’t refuse, demanding her presence in his suite.
The moment she knocked on his door, he opened it, grabbed her hand long enough to look at the size of the ring on her finger, rolled his eyes, and then pulled her into his suite and locked the door.
“Is he making payments on that thing?”
Megan glared. Buttoni was in his late forties, with a bulldog underbite and diamonds in his ears. His eyes were always at half-squint, and she was just a little bit scared of him. She didn’t like the comment or the tone of his voice, and snatched her hand back.
“I didn’t see you offering anything better,” she snapped. “I’m happy. Be happy for me.”
Craig liked it when she got feisty, but business was business.
“He’s not in the loop. He could cause us trouble,” Craig said.
Megan shouted, “You keep your hands off him. If I think he’s dangerous to us, I’ll just dump him. I got married in Vegas. I can get unmarried here if the need arises.”
Craig held up his hands and took a step backward.
“There’s a lot riding on your itch for sex. Just making sure we understand each other,” he said.
“I can scratch my own itch,” Megan said. “I married him because I love him.”
Craig threw back his head and laughed. “Okay. But you’re the one with the most to lose. He can’t suspect anything. If you fuck up, you know my rule for fuckups.”
“Yes. You eliminate them,” Megan muttered. “I’m leaving now. Happy roll of the dice,” she said, and let herself out.
When Megan got back to the honeymoon suite and saw the look on Mark’s face, she knew what she had to do, and it all revolved around getting naked.
***
Katie holed up in her apartment for the entire week that would have been her honeymoon. She slept away the shock, then ate away the rage, and ignored the phone calls from everyone but Lila. Those she took, only to reassure her best friend that she was still kicking. By the time she was ready to go back to Saguaro Elementary, she had her game face on.
It took that week of solitude to remind herself that, in the grand scheme of things, her heart had been broken, but nobody died. She was tougher than some man’s lies. She didn’t need a man to take care of her. She didn’t need anyone. Ever again.
It was time to go back to work. Some would talk behind her back. And some would not. But her first-grade students would not know the depth of her heartbreak. She’d been Miss Katie before and she was still Miss Katie. She would keep their little world safe and secure, and they would know they were loved.
For Katie, it was enough.
***
Six weeks later
Katie was getting ready to walk her class down to the cafeteria for lunch.
“Boys and girls, if you brought your lunch, get it out of your backpack and get in line,” she said, and then took a deep breath when two of her six-year-olds suddenly lost their minds, launched at each other, and began wrestling on the floor. “Oh no! Alejandro! Kieran! I’m so sorry, but you forgot the rules. Get up and go to the back of the line.”
Alejandro scrambled to his feet, his dark eyes wide with instant distress.
“But, Miss Katie, it’s my turn to be leader!” he said.
“I know!” Katie said, keeping the tone of her voice between regret and it’s out of my hands. “You and Kieran made bad choices. Now, get to the back of the line and do not look at each other. Do not touch each other. And just to make sure, I’ll be watching you to help you not forget again. Allison, you will be leader today.”
“Yes, ma’am,” the little girl said, and strode to the front of the line like she was walking a runway.
Katie sighed again. Three more hours and Saguaro Elementary would be out for spring break. It was none too soon.
The past weeks had been stressful beyond words. By the time she’d returned to work, everyone knew what had happened. Half of the staff wanted to talk about it. The other half just gave her sad, hangdog looks. It was the students who’d saved her sanity. They didn’t know what had happened, and the few who’d asked her if her name had changed were fine when she answered, “No.”
But today, the kids were antsy to be gone, too, and Alejandro and Kieran were examples of the lack of focus within the building.
Katie glanced up at the clock again, then nodded at Allison.
“It’s time. Lead the way,” Katie said, and watched Allison disappear out the door, with the other students in line behind her. Katie stayed toward the back of the line to make sure her little rebels were still there, and up the hall they went.
They were halfway to the cafeteria when they began hearing popping sounds and what sounded like a scream in another part of the building.
Before she could get on her walkie to check in with the office, the principal was on the school intercom, and the panic in her voice was enough to freeze Katie’s blood.
