He didn’t realize until now how badly he had been suppressing his desire for Ani. Before the flowers attacked him, he could have lived with being totally professional and shoving away all sexual thoughts of her. But then she’d mounted him and saved his life, and now he didn’t know how to act around her.
He would try to keep it simple for now.
“It worked.” Raffi turned toward her. “You saved my goddamn life, Ani.”
She seemed a bit shy. Maybe she did feel something when she was straddling him. Something good, he hoped.
“I come prepared. Do we need to get out of this van?
“Good idea.”
Raffi tested his limbs before he hopped out, not wanting to crumple onto the road. He didn’t need any further humiliations.
Ani came around to his side, which Raffi found very touching. He leaned against the van and felt a refreshing breeze ground him.
“So, you carry an EpiPen?”
Who knew that after almost dying, the thing he’d cling to for safety would be small talk?
“Not for me,” she replied. “Part of the trade. After one wedding guest choked from a hazelnut allergy during the second wedding I planned, I decided to carry an EpiPen on me at all times.”
Once again, Ani proved to be so much more than a run-of-the-mill wedding planner. He’d really misjudged her skills, and he felt embarrassed by that, especially after what he’d said to her that first day.
He noticed, then, that her hands were shaking. “Was this your first time using it?” he asked.
She bit her bottom lip and nodded. Ani had been worried, maybe scared, but she’d done it anyway. That was real courage.
Then a tiny seed of a thought appeared in Raffi’s mind, growing larger and larger. He had intimate feelings for Ani—thathe had established—but more than that, he was entertaining, for the first time in more than a decade, that hewished he could properlydatesomeone. Not someone. Ani. Court her, listen to her hopes and dreams, get to know what really made her tick, introduce her to his friends. Maybe even introduce her to his father, and not as the wedding planner.
The only thing was, he didn’t have a chance. She’d already completely shot him down, so it wasn’t like he could ask her out.
She was off limits. Just his luck.
He was at a loss as to how to proceed, but he figured, for now, he’d just talk to her.
He looked toward Ani and caught her eye. “I’m glad you did.”
“Me too,” she said quietly.
Raffi tucked away those two words in his heart so he could revisit them again and again.
8
Ani
Ani would ratherbe anywhere in the world right now, including the earth’s lava-hot mantle core, than at Belle Bridal.
Her stomach dropped as the tall glass doors of the bridal boutique sealed shut behind her like a tomb. Rows of flouncy white tulle hung high on their racks, staring down at Ani. Unfriendly ghosts. Spirits of the dresses she could have been choosing for her and Kami’s wedding. Around the corner, she heard the voices of women—among them would be Kami’s family, who she hadn’t seen in two years. She’d have to smile and chat and give well-informed opinions. With this wedding, Kami was pulling her out of so much debt, so shewasindebted, almost literally. She couldn’t run now.
Ani swallowed and caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror. She’d worn her wedding planner uniform of pencil skirt with white button-down shirt and went with a “no-makeup” look. She didn’t want to appear as if she was trying too hard. What a lie.
The screech of an older woman brought her out of her head.
“Is that Ani Avakian?” Kami’s very loud and boisterous Aunt Sima asked in Armenian.
“It’s me,” Ani replied in their mother language.
Then Kami’s mom appeared behind the auntie and rushed toward Ani, kissing her on both cheeks.
