The Paid Bridesmaid(12)

“Here I am,” I said tightly. How could I be both pissed off and wanting his lips on mine? Now all I could hear was Sadie’s words, that he was a great kisser, and I desperately wanted to test that out myself.

Which was pathetic.

“So, Rachel Vinson, what do you say to taking a stroll on the beach?”

Yes.

But that wasn’t what I said. “I have to get back to my room and send some work emails. I have had some fascinating conversations tonight. I gathered up some great intel. Good night!”

His face fell, but I didn’t stay to see what he thought about my blatant attempt to bug him. Since he’d already jumped to a stupid conclusion, he could twist in the wind and spend the rest of the night worrying about what I might have “discovered.”

I hurried across the lawn, wanting to get back to my bed and put this night behind me. To think that I’d actually considered letting my walls down with him, maybe getting to know him better.

How had I gone from being wary of him to thinking he was cute to being crushed that he was only being nice to me because he thought I was trying to steal from him?

My gut had been right. I needed to steer clear of Camden. He had been playing with my emotions because he was paranoid. Before Sadie had told me the truth, I would probably have been excited to go on a midnight stroll with him. Now? His offer felt completely hollow.

If this was the game he wanted, two could play.



I woke up in a mood and was grateful that today had been designated as a free day. Sadie and Dan were leaving it up to their guests to fill their day themselves. They had left a sheet of information listing local tourist attractions, restaurants, the number for the spa downstairs, things like that. I ended up depending on room service for the day, not wanting to venture out and accidentally run into Camden. I wasn’t interested in his false overtures.

There were two things scheduled that I had to attend—the final dress fitting and the bridal shower later in the afternoon.

Trying not to think about how much the Camden situation still annoyed me (a spy? Seriously?), I focused on work for the day. We had some inquiries about hiring our services and I spent my morning responding to emails and checking in with my girls in New Jersey to make sure they hadn’t ritually murdered their bridezilla yet. She’d chosen our company because all of her friends had refused to be her bridesmaids, a fact that didn’t surprise me in the least given what my employees were going through.

Thinking about my own unpleasant situation with Sadie’s mom, I got in touch with the hotel concierge and requested that they not refill the mini-bar in Brandy’s room. Maybe that was overstepping my bounds, but I was going to do what I could to protect Sadie. I also asked him to speak to the bartenders about not serving her. He gave me his phone number and requested a picture of Brandy. I found one on social media and sent it to him. He promised that he would do his best to take care of it and that, if Brandy did get out of control, the hotel had security.

But that was all we needed. Brandy being escorted out of an event by security because she had made some kind of drunken scene while Sadie’s camera crews captured every humiliating moment.

I didn’t know how I was going to prevent that from happening, but getting the bartenders and housekeeping service on board felt like a good place to start.

In the afternoon, just before the fitting, I called Krista and asked her to join me to go over our game plan.

She arrived quickly, looking fresh-faced and dewy. She’d spent the morning in the spa and I was glad she’d gotten the chance to relax. I should make sure that Sadie had the same chance. I reached for my big organizer, where I kept my to-do lists, and for today’s list I wrote suggest to Sadie she spend some time in the spa.

The women at my company often teased me about my lists, about how I would add things that hadn’t initially been on my daily checklist just to have the satisfaction of crossing them off. I loved lists. They made me feel in control of my life.

My master to-do list was kind of like a more practical bucket list. It was filled with things I wanted to accomplish, some of which I’d already been able to cross off. Like start my own company and help someone else start over.

Before I could talk myself out of it, I added find a soul mate to the list. It seemed important to include it. Not because I was giving in to my mother’s siege attacks, but because the first man I’d been attracted to in like, a year was only flirting with me because he thought I was trying to steal information about his company.

I needed to put myself out there more.

After I wrote it down, I added three stars to it. I rated all my entries from one to three, three being most important. I was going to focus on this next when I got back home.

I was usually surrounded by happy brides and grooms, but there was something about Sadie and Dan that seemed special. Something that made me really want that in my own life.

My internal Mom Voice said, Maybe it has nothing to do with them and everything to do with the best man.

Someday, in the far distant future, when my mom died, I wouldn’t need to worry about missing her because I was pretty sure I was forever going to have her voice in my head.

I flipped my pages over to today’s list. “Okay, so Sadie’s stepdad, Geoff, arrives today with his fiancée, Maybelle. Our mission is going to be twofold. We’ve got to keep Brandy sober and showing up for events and we also have to keep her away from Geoff and Maybelle and those livestream cameras.”