Best Friends (New Species #15)(67)

“Funny.”

Mary had to admit she was grateful that Mel walked her across the large room. She kept her gaze down but still felt as if she were being watched. They stopped at open double doors and Mel jerked her thumb to the left. “It’s all the way down the hallway, turn right, and you can’t miss it. There’s a sign on the door.”

The coast was clear. There weren’t any New Species in the hallway. “Got it. Right turn. Sign. Easy enough.”

Mel squeezed her arm. “Thank you for coming to my wedding. I know you had to face a lot of fears. I appreciate it. I would have been devastated if I didn’t have you standing up with me. You’re my family now.”

Mary wrapped her fingers around Mel’s and squeezed. She’d happily take that role, since Mel’s real family sucked. “I feel the same way about you, and you know I’ve always got your back.”

“Go hide. I’ll call you.”

“I’ll return when you do.”

“Don’t go wandering off. This place is huge. It used to be a resort hotel for the rich folks who wanted to ride horses and get close to nature before the NSO bought it. I promised them you wouldn’t leave the building, or they would have assigned you a guard to stick to your side. I figured that would flip you out.”

“I’m not stepping foot outside. You just said ‘nature.’ That means wild animals. I still have nightmares about those mice. I’ve yet to be attacked by bunnies, and I’d like to keep it that way.”

Mel chuckled. “You should get therapy. It helped me.”

“You fired him and called him just about every name in the book.”

“But I had issues standing up to my folks until that guy pissed me off so much, I realized telling him where to go felt good. I can’t cuss at my mama because I was raised better, but I did learn the fine art of sarcastic torture from that jerk therapist. He was making fun of me, thinking I wouldn’t notice. I feel much better now.”

Mary opened her mouth, then closed it. She loved Mel but her friend had an unusual way of seeing things at times. They usually chalked their differences up to Mary being from Northern California and Mel growing up on a small farm in Indiana. Mel always made her laugh regardless.

“I’m going now.” Mary straightened her shoulders and walked away alone.

The bathroom was easy to find. Mary used one of the stalls, and then washed her hands, staring into the big mirror on the wall. The dress wasn’t quite her style, but she’d seen far worse bridesmaids’ dresses.

It had a low V-cut neckline, with tiny buttons down the front. The soft material hugged her frame, from the thin shoulder straps to just below her knee. Mel had simple tastes, and she had gone for the summer dress look. Cream wasn’t Mary’s color, but at least it wasn’t chocolate brown with hot pink bows sewn all over it.

She grimaced, still traumatized by her cousin Della’s wedding the year before. That gown had been so ugly, she’d burned it on the gas grill in her parents’ backyard the day after wearing it.

Mary leaned in and used the side of her pinky to fix her smudged mascara. She hadn’t worn much more than that and a little bit of clear gloss on her lips. Her hair was a bit flat without hairspray, but she’d been asked to avoid it, as well as perfume. New Species didn’t like chemical smells.

She ran her fingers through her blonde hair. It needed to be cut. The problem was, she couldn’t afford to go to the hairdresser for another few weeks. And no way was she going to allow one of her friends to hack away at it. It had taken her almost a year to grow it to the length she’d wanted after the last time she’d made that mistake.

She opened the flap on her purse and pulled out her cell phone. There were no messages or missed calls. That wasn’t anything new. All her friends from her youth had husbands and children. They were too busy to hang out with her these days.

It was a depressing reminder that her best friend now had a husband, as well. Snow was sweet, extremely hot, and Mary didn’t blame Mel saying for yes to his proposal. It just meant that Mary’s life was about to get a whole lot lonelier. Mel would live at Reservation, and she’d already quit working at the diner.

It also meant Mary spending a lot more time around New Species if she wanted to hang out with the only real friend she had left. That was going to be rough. It had taken every ounce of her courage to attend the wedding. Just thinking about going through NSO security again made her shudder. A big New Species wearing a uniform and a helmet had patted her down and searched her purse. She’d managed to not freak out by pretending he was someone else.

Mary dropped her phone back inside her purse and dug around to look for her lip gloss. It was buried under a travel-size container of tissues. She reapplied it on her lips and sighed. No one else was in the bathroom, so she wanted to stay and enjoy the quiet, but there was nowhere to sit except inside one of the stalls on a toilet seat.

Maybe the dancing part of this reception won’t be so bad. I can just sit at the table and watch. It beats sitting on a toilet all night. Resigned, she closed her purse and hooked the strap over her shoulder, then pushed open the door and stepped out, walking down the hallway.

“I know she went this way.” The man who spoke had a deep voice, and it wasn’t one she recognized. “You stay here.”

Mary stopped in her tracks.