“Okay!” I said, doing jumping jacks. “Three amazing wedding dresses coming right up! We are thinking lace! We are thinking embroidery! We are thinking silk! We are not thinking about Mark!”
I selected an audiobook on my phone and let it play while I started to stitch. I had downloaded a free collection. The stories were pretty good, and I sank into them as I stitched up the seam where I had marked earlier that day.
I tied off a thread and started the next seam as the next book came up in the short-story collection.
“Dirty Deep Desires: A Hot Incest Alien Billionaire Romance.Chapter 1. Her hot brother was—”
I furiously mashed the skip button then thunked my head on the desk.
“This is going to be a long night.”
49
Mark
Brea still hadn’t contacted me the next day. I was becoming very worried. To distract myself, I had worked all morning then headed over to the Holbrook estate for the wedding rehearsal.
The ceremony was going to be out in the garden. I was grateful, because I still hadn’t been inside the building since the fire almost two years ago. I had been hoping to have Brea by my side for the experience. However, when I saw her at the rehearsal, she looked wan, like she hadn’t slept. I smiled and waved at her, but she just looked away.
That’s more than stress, I decided. Brea looked sick, as if she was going to faint, while we ran through the wedding rehearsal.Maybe you were too rough. I was sick at the thought that I had hurt her the night of the bachelor party. Brea was the stand-in for Liz, and she stood, wavering slightly, at the other end of the aisle. As she walked down the green path flanked by white chairs, I envisioned her walking down the aisle to me.
But Brea was slipping away.
I tried to catch up with her after the rehearsal was over, but my mother pulled me away to the restaurant at which the rehearsal dinner was taking place later. With all the people from out of town, my mother had insisted that Uncle Walter host a reception dinner for anyone who wanted to attend.
Mark:There are snacks here. And coffee.
No answer.
Brea’s just busy. The wedding is tomorrow.
People started trickling in to the rehearsal dinner as my mother was putting the final touches on the table arrangement. “That chair isn’t even, Mark.” She pointed.
I moved the chair over a centimeter.
“And make sure there is a prix fixe menu card at every table, dear. We can’t have people up and down during the speeches. I don’t want your grandfather to have any excuse to grab the microphone.”
The outdoor restaurant was packed when I walked out after helping my mother. They were doing a cocktail hour on the back deck looking over the bay. I stayed on the lookout for Brea. I had to talk to her, but I also had to greet various out-of-town relatives and friends of my parents, who all felt the need to bring up the last time there had been a big gathering and, oh, wasn’t it a shame about that fire, and how are you holding up?
My jaw was tense from clenching a smile, and the rehearsal dinner hadn’t even officially started.
There she is.
I spotted her across the room. Brea wasn’t even eating. She was just looking around nervously and fiddling with the buttons on her jacket.
Just when I had disentangled myself from one of my mother’s great-aunts, my uncle announced that everyone should go inside to take their seats. Fortunately, Brea and I were seated at the bridal party table.
“Brea,” I whispered, leaning over to her. “Why haven’t you been talking to me?”
She dipped her head. “I’ll—I’ll tell you later, okay?”
“Okay.” I grabbed her hand. She jerked it back. “Can you please just tell me, did I hurt you or anything? I’m so sorry.”
She looked as if she was about to cry. “No,” she said. “No, Mark, you’re fine. You’re perfect. I’m just... I’ll tell you later, okay? Promise.”
“We are gathered here today,” Walter said, raising his glass, “because my son Wes and his girlfriend Liz are getting married. And having a baby! In that order, though it’s going to be close, isn’t it, Liz?”
Everyone laughed. Brea managed a wan smile.
