Page 9 of Working for the Runaway Bride

“Possibly.”

“Of what?”

“That you’re not supposed to go through with the wedding.”

She keeps her eyes on the road, but the corners of her mouth twitch like she’s trying to make the comment sound like a joke.

It doesn’t.

I fold my hands over the canvas tote bag in my lap. “Cars break down all the time.”

“Sure. They also run perfectly well all the time. Yours picked one week before your wedding to start shaking like a washing machine full of bricks.”

“It’s probably something minor.”

“Did Grayson say that?”

My stomach performs a strange little flip at the sound of his name.

I look back out the window before Jessica can see anything in my face. “He hasn’t called yet.”

“What was he doing at your school, anyway?”

“Carter asked him to look at my car.”

“Carter asked his father to look at your car?”

“Yes.”

“Instead of coming himself?”

“He was busy.”

Jessica makes a skeptical sound.

“What?” I ask.

“Nothing.”

“That wasn’t nothing.”

“It was the sound I make when I’m keeping my opinion to myself.”

“You’re very bad at that.”

“I’m trying something new.”

She turns onto my street. After my verbal lashing by Principal Hargrove, she took mercy and drove me home. Children ride bicycles along the sidewalk. Someone is mowing a lawn, and the scent of freshly cut grass drifts in through the open windows. Everything looks perfectly ordinary.

Jessica has never liked Carter. She tries to hide it because she’s my best friend and my maid of honor, but I’ve seen the looks she gives him when he makes a joke at my expense. I’ve heard the way her voice changes when he cancels plans or forgets something important.

A month ago, she asked me whether I truly wanted to marry him. I cried for two hours afterward. Not because she’d hurt me. Because I didn’t know how to answer.

“Don’t start,” I say.

“I haven’t said anything.”

“You’re thinking very loudly.”