Irina was a chameleon.
So was his mother.
He shook his head. That line of thought would do nothing but make him question decisions he’d already made.
Besides, his mother and Irina were nothing alike. Irina used her powers of persuasion for entertainment and good. His mother? Well, she did do good work as a prosecutor, putting the bad guys behind bars. But she wasn’t Irina. Didn’t have that streak of kindness he’d seen in his future ex-wife.
A quick tap-a-tap on the bedroom door and Tanner joined the Mommy and Me party.
“Hey,” Tanner said, eyeing Knox’s mom sort of funny.
Mach followed him, doing the same thing. He gave two thumbs up. “Good news, we found your bride.”
“Where is she?” Knox wished he had a tray of those cucumber sandwiches with him.
“We have good reason to believe she is running late.” Mach leaned against the wall, like they were discussing what they’d order for dinner. Not where Knox’s future ex-wife was when she was supposed to meet him on top of a pirate ship.
“Because she told us she’s running late. But she’s with Courtney and Becca,” Tanner said. “They’reallrunning late.”
“Literally, running.” Mach nodded and made a motion with his index and middle finger like a bride scurrying through the air.
“What the hell was she doing that was more important than this?” Knox asked, sort of hoping it involved baking pie.
“No idea, the answers to those questions were not included when we talked,” Tanner said.
Mach snorted. “Talked.”
“We talked,” Tanner gave his buddy a what-the-fuck look if Knox had ever seen one.
“You asked where she’d been and Becca said to mind your own business,” Mach gave the play-by-play.
“Exactly.” Tanner fell back on the bed with no care at all that he’d probably wrinkle his tuxedo coat or mess up Knox’s carefully made bed. “She said she’ll see you at the wedding.”
Things moved pretty quickly after that, and he took his time heading to the pirate ship. He figured he’d be more nervous, but oddly his blood pressure didn’t seem high, he wasn’t sweating abnormally, and he felt like he’d eaten a whole bowl of retirement-home guacamole, because this wedding felt right.
“I’m here.” Irina hurried down the hallway, Becca beside her, somehow adding lip gloss to Irina’s lips while Irina still hustled.
Knox stilled because she was stunning.
“We’re all here,” Courtney said, holding a veil in her hand and arranging the tulle.
The bustle of activity that coincided with Irina’s arrival all faded into the periphery when their eyes met.
She wasn’t wearing the dress she’d clipped and added to her vision mural.
No, she wore the red gown he’d said he wanted.
He did a full tip-to-toe perusal of the gown. He probably looked like an internet meme with the amount of blinking that went on right then for him.
Irina went with blonde hair today and green eyes. He dug it.
She pinned her hair up at the crown of her head, and she looked like a princess—if princesses wore red poufy dresses that showed off a helluva lot of cleavage and had a substantial train behind them. Becca finished with the gloss and moved to arrange the train.
Something about the way Irina looked made him not care the ceremony would start late, or that he’d been sort of worried about where she might’ve been. Fine, he hadn’t beenworried, worried. Just a little concerned that maybe she’d decided to go eat pie without him.
“You bought my dress.” He strode to her, not able to stop the grin spreading across his face.
“Well,youboughtmydress.” She pulled at the sides of the skirt. “But I figured since it’s the one you wanted, I should listen.”
