“Go ahead and keep telling yourself that.”
Kaci leaned back, blinked at her reflection, and then grinned so big the subtle lines that spoke her age popped out. The door to the room clicked, and stale air filtered in.
“Ready, Kaci?” Cheri asked. “Your momma’s having a conniption down there about the music going on too long. And Lance is starting to look nervous.”
“Go on and tell Lance he doesn’t have a thing to worry about,” Kaci said. “He’s gonna be stuck with me soon enough. He can wait another three minutes. And ignore my momma. She’s hell-bent on not being happy enough with this since we wouldn’t take it back to Mississippi, so there’s no sense in even trying.”
“Yes, ma’am.” She looked at Anna. “But can I borrow you for a minute?”
“Go on and take her,” Kaci said. “I got one last thing to do.” She blinked rapidly and gestured up to the ceiling. “Promised my daddy I’d give him a minute on my day.”
Cheri led Anna back downstairs. They snagged a bridesmaid who was made up to look more like a victim in a virgin horror flick than an attendant in a military wedding. “Kaci’s in room 254,” Cheri said with the same inflection she might’ve given to a weather report. “She’ll be down in a minute.”
The girl scurried off toward Kaci’s momma. Even though the matriarch wasn’t in sight, Anna knew she was thatdirection because of the flood of teary-eyed girls heading away from her. Cheri flashed a dimple. “Still gotta watch out for my little brother.” They entered the ballroom, where most of the chairs were occupied for the ceremony.
Exactly the same as they had been for Jules and Brad’s wedding.
She sent a silent prayer to Kaci’s daddy that this one ended better for all involved.
Cheri gestured behind the door. “Here you go.”
Jackson stood at ease, waiting. He cocked a brow at Anna. “Any other problems?” His lips did their telltale twitching in the corners.
“Nope. You?”
“Let Lance have a go with him. The good professor’s promised to be civilized.”
Anna felt her jaw hang.
Jackson chuckled and offered her his arm. “Sometimes, Anna Grace, us menfolk know what we’re doing.”
“But only sometimes.”
“Nah.” His eyes crinkled. “Most of the time.”
The wedding wentoff without a hitch, thanks, Anna was sure, to Jackson’s insistence that they flank Dr. Kelly while he watched his ex-wife marry her new love. And as far as she could tell, it took only one little throat-clearing from Jackson to keep Dr. Kelly in his seat when the justice of the peace asked if anyone objected. When the bride and groom finished their vows, Dr. Kelly headed for the door. Jackson followed, but was back beside Anna before the couple finished their first kiss.
Anna lifted an eyebrow.
Jackson nodded.
So that was that. No more ex-husband wedding crashers.
Once the wedding party departed the room, the guests were ushered out into the hallway for the open bar while thehotel staff set up the ballroom for dinner. Jackson got sucked into a discussion with a couple of captains who worked for him, but he gave her a smile that promised she’d have his attention soon enough. She wandered through the crowd talking with friends. Lance had invited everyone in the CGOA, and Kaci had invited the entire physics department and half of the other departments on campus. Because, she’d said, if her mother was paying for a party, then by golly, they were having a party.
And it was definitely a party. By the time dinner was announced, Anna had relaxed enough to have forgotten her bad memories of The Harrington.
But then she sat down at her assigned seat.
And found a face from her own past smiling hesitantly at her. Slightly crooked teeth, medals just this side of off-center, wary guilt in his eyes.
She couldn’t stifle a surprised gasp. Her heart pounded, then spun as though her chest were in a centrifuge. Her fingers and toes iced as if they’d been dipped in liquid nitrogen. Her breathing went shallow and rapid.
He wasn’t supposed to text her.
He wasn’t supposed to email her.
And he sure as hell wasn’t supposed to show up here, where he’d publicly dumped her then left her, and sit there smiling at her like he was stupid enough to think she’d consider smiling back.
