Instead Teddy pursed his lips and inclined his chin in a brief, stiff-necked nod. “Fine,” he said. His eyebrow twitched up toward his forehead, and he added ominously, “But we will revisit this when the Ferguson wedding has wrapped up. You acted against my specific orders in bringing Delaney here.”
Flynn snorted. “Nate? He didn’t even tell me I was invited, Teddy. I came off my own bat, and I’m leaving the same way.”
“Before you’re dragged out,” Teddy said.
“Yeah, well, I wouldn’t want to damage business—not until the check has cleared.” Flynn glanced at Nate and lifted one shoulder in a shrug. It might have been an apology. It probably wasn’t. “You were right. This was never going to work.”
Nate lifted his chin. He didn’t want to do this in the lobby of the hotel, under Teddy’s withering glare, but it didn’t look as if he’d get another chance.
“I told you already,” he said. “This isn’t anything to do with me. So don’t try and give me the blame. Have a good life, Flynn.”
He didn’t wait to see if Flynn had anything to say. He went back to Max, who stuck out a bloody hand for help getting up. Enough time had passed for the idea of consequences to have caught up with Max. Just like always.
“Nate, I’m sorry,” he said. His lip split afresh as he talked, and he absently licked the dribble of blood away. “I never meant—”
“Just shut up,” Nate told him. He turned Max around and shoved him in the direction of the toilets. “Not happy with you right now either.”
“I got punched,” Max said indignantly.
“You deserved it.”
Max grimaced and rubbed his jaw. “Maybe,” he admitted. “Sorry. C’mon, though, it’s best he fucks up now rather than later, right? Before you get attached.”
“Yes. Before.”
Despite his resolution, Nate looked over his shoulder to see what Flynn was doing, but Flynn had already gone.
THE RESTof the rehearsal dinner went without a hitch. That wasn’t going to stop Sheila, though, since apparently a gay man getting his ass groped in the middle of dinner was a bad omen—like a single magpie or Halley’s Comet. Thankfully she’d missed Flynn laying Max out. That was probably up there with a black cat crossing your path.
“It’s obvious the world is trying to tell you something,” Sheila said loudly. In an attempt to placate her, one of the servers had been overgenerous with drink refills. Four vodkas had turned Sheila’s conversational tone up to shrill and narrowed her focus until she forgot the rest of the table was there. “All I’m saying is maybe you should listen. I’ve said, right from the beginning, that this wedding was all about her. It was her idea to come here instead of getting married in our church. It was her idea to hire that flighty ‘wedding planner’ boy instead of listening to me.”
Nate tuned her out because he’d already heard that bit twice. He gave Katie an apologetic look. “I’m so sorry, Katie. I don’t know what Flynn was thinking—”
“Well, I know what I’m thinking,” Katie said. She took a prim drink of her wine and left the last of her lipstick on the glass. The plates had been cleared away, and only crumbs and sauce stains were left on the heavy tablecloths. “Flynn saved Bradley’s life. He can kiss his boyfriend at my rehearsal dinner if he wants. All Jim’s done is agree to be the best man, and he passed out facedown in the crème brûlée.”
Explaining that Flynn wasn’t his boyfriend—never mind that he never really had been—was too daunting an idea to take on. Katie would be gone in a couple of days. It wouldn’t hurt anyone if she left under the assumption Nate wasn’t going to die alone.
Nate looked at her curiously. She had exchanged the brittle anxiety of the last few days for an upbeat attitude and bright eyes. Some of it was probably the wine, but it was still a big change.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
Katie blinked owlishly. Maybe a bit more of it than Nate had thought was the wine. She sighed. “It was supposed to be perfect—the perfect day, the perfect dress, the perfect couple.”
“Iamsorry,” Nate repeated earnestly.
The naked bow of Katie’s lips folded in a rueful line. Before she could say anything, Bradley reached the end of his patience.
“For God’s sake, Mam, will you give over?” he burst out. Sheila went red with temper and blustered something, but he just raised his voice to drown her out. “The last family wedding we went to, in that bloody drafty old hall, Auntie Glynnis tried to glass a man in the parking lot, and you said the only one there with a full set of teeth was the dog.”
“That’s not the point. I just want what’s best for you. And she—”
Bradley interrupted her again, but he didn’t yell. “I’m getting married tomorrow to Katie, and all this stuff is important to her, so it’s important to me. If you don’t like it, you don’t have to be there, but either way, you have to shut up about it.”
Sheila pressed her lips together into a tight line and swallowed hard. She still didn’t look happy, but she stayed quiet. Bradley heaved out a long, tired sigh that puffed his cheeks. He turned to nod reassurance at Katie. She smiled back at him with eyes bright and watery, and then turned to Nate.
“I guess it can still be perfect, even if things go wrong,” she said.
“Sometimes,” Nate agreed.
He held the smile until Katie looked away. Then he felt it crack at the corners and slide off his face.
Sometimes when things went wrong, it all just went to hell.
