Do You Take This Man (67)

“Thanks,” the baker said, wiping his brow with his sleeve. The cake would be huge, five tiers covered in fondant and what looked like edible lace. He and his assistant were already unpacking the delicate sugar paste flowers to affix to the surface, and I admired their work as they began the cake’s construction, staring at the creation that was what the couple wanted down to the last detail.

“Yeah,” I said. “No problem.” I glanced at my watch again, because RJ was supposed to arrive in ten minutes. I set my lips in a firm line and checked on the progress the hotel staff had made in getting the secondary ceremony location all set.

I pulled my phone out of my pocket when it buzzed, a stupid hope that it was RJ texting. It had been a week since we’d spoken, and I had almost replied to her zombie text three hundred times, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. Every time my finger hovered over the send icon, it was like my memories hit me in the chest with a hammer.


Caitlin: You okay?



I shoved it back in my pocket, really tired of people checking up on me. But the text helped as a reminder of why it was good I hadn’t replied to RJ, no matter how much I’d wanted to. The emotional entanglement wasn’t worth it. The night before, at the rehearsal, she’d been efficient. She’d smiled at me and it made me want to wince—it was a fake smile, a stiff, professional one, and we’d both found reasons to be busy at the end of the evening. I’d taken a deep breath when she’d walked out, but I hadn’t relaxed since.

The lighting tech jogged toward me. “Hey, Lear. We got a problem with the power.” I nodded and followed him away from the entrance where RJ would come in, glancing at my watch again.

I hate this fucking day. I spent fifteen minutes with the guys trying to figure out the issue with the power, only to get pulled into a new crisis with the caterer. My phone hadn’t stopped buzzing between vendors, my sister, and Penny. Now I reached for the door handle to the bridal suite. I raised my knuckles to knock but heard a panicked voice from inside.

“Hey, it’s okay. It’s not a big deal.” RJ’s voice was calm and kind of throaty.

“No, you don’t understand. This thing means everything to him. This will gut him.” The bride’s voice was the frantic one. I shook my head, about to knock again. RJ always met with the couple before things got started. I’d forgotten she was meeting with them separately.

“Here,” RJ said in a hushed tone.

“He’ll know it’s not the real thing,” the bride said, voice rising. “This means so much to him. Oh, God. How can our marriage make it if I can’t even keep one promise?”

I narrowed my eyes, knowing I shouldn’t be listening in.

RJ spoke next. “It’s fine. What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him. It’s a little lie. If he finds out, you can confess, but otherwise, he’ll never know.”

Her words rattled in my head, and I clenched my jaw as I knocked on the door. The two women were standing close together in the middle of the room, the bride’s eyes wide as her fist closed around something. “Everything okay?” I asked, stepping inside and striving for an even tone.

The woman nodded quickly, tucking whatever she was clutching into a hidden pocket in her dress.

“I think we’re good, right, Mina?” RJ gave me her professional smile again and patted the woman’s bare shoulder.

“Yes. Yes.” She nodded again, eyes still wide. She looked to RJ again, who nodded, and my jaw ticked. The secret between them and whatever RJ had talked the bride into hiding from her fiancé made an uncomfortable sensation linger in my chest.

“We’re all set and guests are seated. Tina will come down to get you in a few minutes with your dad and you can get married, okay?” I bit back the edge that threatened to creep into my tone. “RJ, shall we?”

She gave Mina an encouraging smile and followed me into the hall.

“What was that all about?” I tried to sound casual as we walked toward the ceremony location, RJ’s black heels clicking on the tile.

“Nothing, just nerves.”

I nodded, pushing back the increasing unease in my gut at her lie. I glanced at her face, her expression cool and calm, the lie rolling off her like it was nothing. My phone buzzed in my pocket and I reached in to silence it. My sister’s name flashed on the screen and I clenched my jaw again. “Sure,” I said as we reached the entry. “Game time.” She smiled, the stiff smile I’d come to hate in the course of twenty-four hours, and walked in the other direction to get the ceremony started.

Despite the innumerable issues that had already come up, the ceremony started without incident, and I stood at the back of the room watching RJ. In her heels, she was still shorter than both the bride and groom, and she stood on a platform I’d had placed there. Her voice filled the room, and while everyone else was focused on the grinning bride and the smitten groom, I couldn’t take my eyes off her. I couldn’t make myself move on from whatever had gone on between Mina and RJ and what they were hiding from the groom or push away the gnawing feeling that grew every time I saw the date on my phone.





Chapter 37


    RJ



I CAUGHT LEAR near the DJ after the couple signed their marriage license. “You’ve been busy this afternoon.”