Hearing Ari’s name spoken so casually over salmon and champagne made Tom’s heart freeze in his chest, and he gripped the table edge between tense fingers.Sasha is right there,he told himself.Keep it together. You can’t fall apart every time you hear her name.
“Ari?” he asked through a mouth that had gone paper dry. “That’s, um, an interesting name.”
“Yes,” Sebastian answered slowly, and Tom could feel himself being watched carefully. “You don’t hear it often, do you?”
“No. I guess not.”
“She’ll be here at any moment with Luis. Like I said, he had car trouble. Something about the rear differential. Well, I guess having trouble with your rear would stop you in your tracks.” Sebastian shrugged, putting another mouthful of fish in his mouth. “Do you have trouble with your rear, Tom? Does it stop you in yourtracks?”
“Sebastian.” Sasha laughed, hitting him playfully on the arm. “Don’t tease Tom.”
“I would never.” Sebastian smiled back, playfully tapping Sasha back. “I just like to make sure my brides are getting the full package before their wedding day.”
“You don’t need to worry about mypackage,” Tom replied drily, sucking back another mouthful of wine. “My package is just fine.”
“I’m sure it is,” Sebastian replied instantly. “Like I said, you look to be a perfectly healthy and fertile specimen.”
“You’re a strange man.” Tom watched the wedding planner cut up another piece of fish.
“Tom!” Sasha muttered under her breath, but Tom ignored her.
“And you’re planning our wedding?”
“Well, yes,” Sebastian popped salmon in his mouth, “with Ari.”
“Ari,” Tom said, the syllables coming out as more of an exhale than a word. It felt so good to speak her name again, after all these years.
“Ari is charming,” Marnie announced.
“Isn’t she just?” Sebastian nodded enthusiastically. “Well, she’ll be here once she’s fixed Luis’s car. A dab hand with a wrench is our Ari. Of course, I would have preferred a sister who could dress hair, but you take what you’re given, I suppose.”
Sister.Once again, Tom felt his heart pause within his chest.Sebastian. My Ari had a brother named Sebastian.Shaking slightly, Tom forced himself to take a deep breath, forced himself to cut up a piece of fish and put it between his lips, the moist flakes like rubber. It had to be a coincidence, he told himself. It couldn’t be her.
“A mechanic?” he asked, fishing for information. “How did a mechanic end up a wedding planner?”
“No, not a mechanic as such, she’s actually an artist, our Ari. She just happens to be an artist with an interest—”
“In engines,” Tom finished numbly, his stomach dropping.Oh my God, it was her. Ari. It was Ari.
His fork fell back to his plate with a clatter, and when he looked up again he found Sebastian’s eyes resting on him intently.
“I drove past a stopped car on the way here,” he said, his voice strained. “A man. He had a little girl with him.”
“Yes,” Sebastian nodded, and now the silence in the room was thick. “That was probably them. Luis is travelling with Reine.”
“Who’s Reine?” Tom asked, although he knew.He knew.
He’d known since he first saw her.
“Ari’s daughter.”
Tom inhaled sharply. He turned to his mother, who was staring at him with wide, understanding eyes.
“You didn’t know,” she whispered. “You didn’t know, did you?”
Beside him, Tom felt Sasha stiffen. “Know what?” she snapped. “Tom, what didn’t you know?”
* * *
