She’s right. It was worse. I’ve seen the pictures of that too.
“Best friend!”
I turn just in time to catch Izzy in my arms as she launches herself at me.
She’s wearingherwedding dress too.
This one makes a little more sense, given what this day was supposed to be, but still. I don’t understand how she’s not curled up on the couch with a tub of ice cream. That’s precisely where Iwant to be after what happened with Noah, and we weren’t even officially together.
“How are you?” I ask, my eyes searching hers. I haven’t seen her since she left this morning. She said she was going for a walk and never came back. I called her six times before she finally picked up and let me know she was okay and told me about this party.
“Miserable.” She smiles brightly, contradicting her words. “But this party is helping—my liberation celebration!”
Several people around us cheer, raising their champagne flutes into the air.
Those were supposed to be for the toast, congratulating the new bride and groom, and now here they are celebrating her singlehood.
“Come on,” she says, dragging me farther into the barn I spent so long working on with Noah. “Come enjoy the fruits of your loom.”
“Don’t you mean labor?”
“Bah.” She waves at me. “Whatever.”
I wonder briefly how many drinks she’s had tonight, but then I remember what she’s been through and realize it doesn’t matter. I couldn’t blame her either way.
I wave to Lucille, Jody Ann, and all my other cousins on the way through. Peaches shakes and shimmies, a cat I’m sure is going home with someone else tonight in her arms. Brian swings Lydia around on the dance floor to a song I recognize, only there are no lyrics, and I’m just so utterly shocked by how happy everyone seems.
I’m also shocked by how amazing this place looks. I tried to contact the rental companies this morning about deliveries, but nobody returned my calls. I figured when they hadn’t called back, it meant they had gotten my messages.
I wanted to drive out to the farm to make sure none of them had arrived anyway, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I was too afraid to run into Noah.
I’m still too afraid to run into him.
But I can’t focus on that now. The only thing I’m focusing on is how amazing this place looks.
The chairs and tables are set out exactly as we had planned, with tall fake candles in the center of each surrounded by flowers. Upon closer inspection, they aren’t the white, soft blue, and peach arrangements of calla lilies, lisianthus, roses, and sunflowers I had ordered.
No, these are dahlias, gerbera daisies, roses, hops, and celosia in shades of autumn. While I love all those types of flowers, it’s not at all what Izzy wanted.
Shit. I can’t believe they messed that up so badly, and I’m actually relieved I didn’t have to deal with that disaster during a real wedding.
Big round Edison bulbs surround the exposed beams, giving off soft and low romantic lighting. But for some reason someone has hung something off them. I press to my tiptoes to get a closer look, and it takes me a moment to realize what I’m looking at, because it’s so poorly crafted—a paper crane.
“What the . . .”
“Come on,” Izzy says, still dragging me along.
We pass the dessert station, and it’s impossible not to notice that it’s filled with fritters, cupcakes that look eerily similar to the cotton candy ones from For Goodness Cake, and peanut butter M&M’S instead of the delectable cream puffs, gorgeous chocolate-covered strawberries, and macarons I had ordered.
These are all things thatIlove.
In fact, there are many things around this barn that I love, from the floral arrangements to the paper cranes and even the band playing Taylor Swift’s instrumental tunes.
I don’t know how, but I know instantly who was responsible for this.
Noah.
I skid to a stop, and Izzy nearly bounces back to me like a rubber band.
