It took a lot from me not to go back home and change my outfit, but ultimately, I didn’t want to cause an even bigger scene by showing up looking like someone’s widow.
Karma’d already got my sister nice and hard by denying her the makeup artist she was counting on.
I showed up at the church early and noticed Bear, Cruz, and Rob standing on the front lawn in their tuxes, laughing about something.
When Bear noticed me, he waved for me to come over. I couldn’t exactly turn around and flee, even if that’s what I wanted to do, so I marched along toward them.
With each step I took, the knots in my stomach became tighter and more painful. Seeing Cruz so dashing, so gorgeous, made the weight of our breakup press against my sternum.
I stopped a good few feet away from them and smiled. “How’s everyone doing?”
“Great,” Rob beamed.
“Awesome.” Bear grinned.
“Fine,” Cruz clipped wryly.
“You look beautiful,” Rob offered.
“Thanks.”
“Really, Mom. Like a princess. I love Auntie Trinity, but honestly, it must suck for her to walk down the aisle knowing the woman behind her is ten times more beautiful.”
I squeezed Bear’s arm. “Aww. That’s the sweetest yet rudest thing I’ve ever heard. Thank you.”
Rob looked between the three of us, a mischievous smirk painting his lips.
“Hey, Care Bear, why don’t you come with me to ensure Uncle Wyatt is not drinking himself into a coma?”
Bear laughed. “Okay. But does that mean you’ll let me have a sip of beer like you promised?”
Rob’s face whitened, and he gave me an innocent look. “I have no idea what he’s talking about.”
“You watch it, pal. You’re not out of the woods yet.” I wiggled a finger in his direction, and just like that, Cruz and I were alone.
It was painfully awkward. Especially because I’d tried calling him a few times and texted him every day, and he’d ignored every one.
I didn’t know how someone who claimed he liked me was able to disregard me so thoroughly. I didn’t know how his soul didn’t bleed all over his mattress every night before he went to sleep.
I couldn’t bear the pain of not being with him.
He held me with a cold, guarded stare.
“Hey,” I said.
“Hello.”
“How’ve you been?”
“You asked that a few moments ago,” he pointed out.
I was trying to work my way into an apology. No, into asking him to take me back, but he was making it hard .
“Can’t we be friendly?” I asked.
Cruz looked at me through his dark-blue, thickly-lashed eyes that I couldn’t stop dreaming about, rearranging the bow tie in his tux. “Sorry, sweetheart, no.”
“No?” I echoed weakly.
“No. I don’t want to be friendly with you. I’m an all-or-nothing type of guy, and right now, you’re offering me nothing, so I’m not going to give you the perks by pretending I don’t care.”
There was so much I wanted to say, starting with how I was absolutely willing to give him my all, but before I could speak, a hand grabbed me by the shoulder and turned me around.
“Nessy, quick. Trinity’s asking for you.”
It was Gabriella, who wore a replica of my own lavender dress and the face of a woman who was facing death row.
The sight of Gabriella and me together gave Cruz pause. He looked at both of us with open interest before letting the mask of his indifference slip again.
“Gabriella,” he said.
“Cruz.” She smiled weakly. “Save a dance for me.”
“With pleasure.”
Poisoned dagger, meet my heart.
“I’ll talk to you later,” I said to Cruz.
He turned around and walked over to Rob, Wyatt, and Bear without even acknowledging me.
I let Gabriella drag me through the lawn into the limo Trinity had rented for the occasion.
“What does she want?” I murmured on my way to the limo. “Is her something blue my face after she strangles me to death?”
“She tried doing her own makeup and failed miserably. She asked for you, but then your mom said you basically bailed and no longer wanted anything to do with their miserable asses. So Trinity decided to come to you so you could do her makeup.”
A few seconds later, I was sitting in front of Trinity in a spacious limo that smelled like lemons and champagne. Trinity’s entire face was puffy from tears, and she was hiccupping uncontrollably, looking at me like a sick puppy.
“Nessy…” Hiccup. “I…” Hiccup. “Makeup…” Hiccup. “Gone wrong…”
I screwed my mouth into a scowl, looking around us.
“The driver will have to take us to the park or something. Somewhere sunnier where I can have some natural light.”
“I’ll ask him.” Mom nodded, flicking a button to make the partition roll down as she spewed out instructions.
A few moments later, I was doing a bride’s makeup while she sat on an old, rusty swing, in full wedding gown, while ignoring her tearful apologies to me.
“Thank you. Thank you so much. Oh, Nessy, I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t thank me. Thank your lucky stars we’re genetically sisters, or I’d have left you to walk down the aisle looking like your nephew painted your face while you were asleep.”
