My Beloved: A Thin Love Novella(21)

“You have my cell?” she asked Mark, thinking the small break would finally give her a few seconds to check her messages.

The silver phone was in her hand and turning on before Mark could straighten his arm to hand it to her.

“Anxious?” Mark asked and Keira stared at him, not in the mood for more of his attitude.

“Quiet.”

Leann yelped when someone pounded on the other side of the door she leaned against. “Ms. Riley? Are you in there?”

“It’s that bitchy wedding planner.” Leann’s voice was low, whispered but Keira heard her, barely noticing how her cousin rolled her eyes.

“Better than the one trying to f*ck Kona.”

“Mark!” He laughed, catching Leann’s hand as she swatted him.

“Ms. Riley,” the shrill voice called again. Keira shook her head, nodding toward Leann and her cousin took the hint, opened the door a crack and plastered a wide, forced smile across her face. “Give her just a minute, please.”

“We must maintain the schedule and there is media asking for a few words from her.”

“What media?” Keira asked, pulling her eyes away from Ransom’s message to stare at the woman through the small crack in the door. “Who let the media in?”

The wedding planner, Rita, Keira thought her name was, cleared her throat, lifted on the balls of her feet to look at Keira over Leann’s arm blocking the woman’s entrance to the bathroom. “Mr. Hale.”

“What?” Mark and Keira said in unison.

Eyes wide, the woman nodded, tugging down the jacket of her pale pink business suit. “It’s for some sort of biographical feature on Mr. Hale. National coverage, he said.”

“That’s wonderful.” Keira ignored Mark’s sarcastic, biting tone.

“Why wouldn’t he tell me about this?”

She meant it as a hypothetical question but Leann and Mark started theorizing on their own, once her cousin had shut the door, blocking out Rita’s stern frown.

“Maybe he tried and your phone was off.”

“Maybe he was too chicken shit.”

But Keira didn’t answer either of them, ignored how Mark laughed as Leann told him to stop acting like a child. She scanned her phone, twisting against the counter when the massive underskirt pinched at her back.

“Screw this,” she said, working to untie the heavy, toile skirt.

“Keira!”

“Oh hush, Leann, I have a little bit of time and that thing is hot.” Eyes back on her phone, Keira scanned through the messages. Most were short, then they became two and three sentences as the day wore on:



Ransom: Mom, I need to see you before the wedding.

Ransom: Mom? Are you getting this?



Kona: Baby, we need to talk. It’s important. Call me when you get this.



Ransom: You aren’t at the spa. Did you go back to your room?

Ransom: WHERE ARE YOU?



Kona: Keira, answer your phone! There’s a crew coming from Sports Center to film some stuff at the wedding. Maybe do an interview. BUT I NEED TO TALK TO YOU ASAP!

Kona: Is your phone off? Shit. This is important, baby.



Ransom: Okay, the wedding is in two hours. Please call me back.

Ransom: We have to talk. I have to explain something.

Ransom: Mom, an hour left. Call me!



Kona: Baby, I need to talk to you.



“I have to find Ransom and Kona.” Keira moved Leann out of her way and stormed through the room. It seemed to have filled with even more of the bridal party and resort staff and every step Keira took, someone stepped in her way or tried to stop her.

“Cuz, come take selfies.”

“Ms. Riley, we need to line up the bridal party.”

“Ma’am, here is your bouquet.”

And then Rita pulled on Keira’s elbow, holding up a hand when the crowd around them gathered. “Please, everyone, let’s try to remain calm and give Keira a few minutes. Okay?”

Keira tried to make her expression apologetic, smile wide and cheeks aching as she kept it on her face to everyone that nodded and walked away from her. “Thank you,” she said to Rita, trying to extract her arm out of the woman’s vice grip.

“Where is your underskirt?” Keira opened her mouth, but the wedding planner interrupted her. “It doesn’t matter. They can’t start without you, now can they? I’ll have one of the staff go and fetch it.”

The woman took a few steps toward the door before Keira jerked her arm free. “Where are we going?”

“The interview, Ms. Riley. Mr. Hale was quite insistent that you give them just a few minutes of your time. It’s best to do that now before everything becomes too busy.”

“But I need to see my son… and Kona.”

“I’ll have someone fetch them.”

But Keira got the feeling that the woman had no intention of listening to her. Keira could see it in the constant frown on her face, in the heavy lines that deepened whenever she spoke. The woman was her wedding planner, but it had been clear all morning since she’d hustled Keira and the bridal party out of the spa, that Rita cared more about sticking to her schedule than what the bride wanted. She seemed to be one of those strict, anal retentive people that had to have order and structure. Always.