“Ugh!” Low does a frustrated version of the bunny hop. “For the last time! He did not stick his tongue down yourthroat!”
Lex scoffs, not missing a beat. “He’s not called The Frencher for nothing,sweetheart!”
The wedding planner tosses her hands in the air and spins in acircle.
Raven doubles over, she’s laughing so hard, and Brody knocks me in theribs.
“Dude, you really know how to get a party going. Remind me not to invite you to mywedding.”
“You won’t have a wedding,” I scowl up at him before reverting to Lex. “You’d have to actually single a girl out and carry out a relationship. A concept neither of us seems tograsp.”
“All right, no crying in your beer.” He slaps me over the shoulder. “You’ve had a relationship.” My stomach knots up when he uses the past tense. “It’s the art of holding on that’s eludingyou.”
“Dude, be quiet while you’re ahead.” I refocus my attention on the chaos erupting on the girls’ side of thefence.
“Don’t get uptight over it.” Brody leans in. “Some chicks don’t want to be pennedin.”
“And neither do some guys.” I slap him over the arm. “And that, my friend, is why you will never getmarried.”
Lex struts over in haste, her cheeks pinched pink, her mouth pouting while she glares my way. “Wipe that grin off your face. This is all your fault. I will not traipse down the aisle with you this Saturday or any day thereafter. Not as a bridesmaid, never as a bride.” The veins in her neck look as if they’re struggling to break free, and her face turns a peculiar shade of plum. “For the record, I have no intention of setting foot in this place ever again after the wedding. You’d better have my last check ready to go. After they say I do, I say I quit. You will grow old alone, Axel Collins. You will rot in that legal firm, on your decaying leather throne without anybody by your side—counting your shekels like a miser—just like yourfather.” Her eyes spear mine with something just this side of hatred, and my heart bleeds out with the laceration. The room grows strangely quiet as the tension pollutes the air, thick and smothering. Lex turns abruptly and wastes no time in speeding out of the banquethall.
I take a step after her, and both Low and Raven block mypath.
Low growls, “Oh no, you don’t, lover boy! The last thing I need is for her to mow you down before my big day. I need my bridesmaid sans a felony assault charge and a groomsman who’s not intraction!”
I step right, and Raven blocks me. “Be warned—that girl is rumored to have the ability to perform a sex change in a parking lot, and you’re not only the wrong sex, but that lot out there happens to be her favorite place to perform the electivesurgery.”
“I’ll take my chances.” I dodge past the wedding planner, and she tosses an armful of tulle and paper flowers into the air, rife withexasperation.
I thread my way past the crowd in the restaurant and burst out into the fresh Hollow Brook night, sprayed with stars and a low hung moon. It’s clear there’s hope for any romantic on a magical night likethis.
A black Range Rover comes close to clipping me as Lex barrels out of the lot. She won’t listen. There’s no way she’s stopping forme.
Lex might be stubborn to a fault, but then, so amI.
I’ve got an ace up my sleeve that will land us in the same room at the same time, and she will damn well have to listen to what I have tosay.
Ihope.
I drop to my knees and tip my head toward the glowing nightsky.
“If anyone up there is open to performing a miracle or two, send them my way. God knows I needthem.”
