“Excellent! I need all of the groomsmen now! We’ll do a serious, formal shot and then one that allows your personalities to shine through. Everyone over here, now!”
As the photographer continued to shout orders, Anna fiddled with her sky-blue dress, smoothing down the stiff fabric as she stared ruefully at the glittering monstrosity. Kristen’s mother had finally steamed it, to get out the last of the wrinkles. At least her bridesmaid ensemble was limited to just this billowy, satin mess. She could have been forced to carry a parasol.
But she still felt odd, out of sorts, and she had all day. Jake had come back from his morning coffee run strangely subdued, and they’d sat out on the veranda without talking about much of anything. When Kristen had swooped in not a half hour later to announce that she was commandeering Anna for bridesmaid’s duties, Jake had let her go with a friendly shrug and a smile, and it seemed to Anna way too polite. As if what had happened last night had really just been about having a good time on the beach, and in the warm light of morning he was just there to carry on a charade. As if he hadn’t told her serious secrets about his past—secrets she still wasn’t sure how to process. Did Jake still have anger issues? Did she have anything to worry about?
Of course she didn’t. They were hanging out for the weekend as part of a completely public wedding. What was he going to do, punch out the priest?
And of course what had happened last night had just been a hookup. Nothing more. She’d been telling herself that all morning. Todd, still vaguely hung over but recovering fast, had been around her the whole damn day, reminding her of this deadline or that. She knew, rationally, that it was because that’s all he had to talk to her about. While she and Jake had been downing coffee outside, Todd had woken up in their room and slunk away. She’d thought he’d have the good grace to stay subdued, but no such luck. Instead, he was acting like he hadn’t just embarrassed himself fifty-seven ways to Sunday, and it was only Saturday.
Now, finally, the wedding was underway. She’d ridden in the limo, secretly wishing she could have caught a ride on the back of Jake’s bike. Secretly wishing that he would have demanded that she ride with him, although of course that was ridiculous, and not his MO at all. Jake didn’t seem like the kind of guy who made demands. He showed up when he wanted, he took what he wanted, and he left when he wanted. After all, he was about to take off for Mexico, maybe for a year … just because. He didn’t need to worry about his job. Hell, his job wasn’t even a job—more like getting paid to tinker and play.
Then again, Jake also had been that kid who picked fights as a hobby, getting the stuffing beaten out of himself just because. The bully hunter. The lone defender. How did that square with everything else she knew about the guy? What really made him tick?
Whatever, it didn’t matter. The guy was everything she wasn’t. No responsibilities, no regrets. She couldn’t keep hanging out with him, or eventually she’d try to change him. To make him conform to a schedule, to live up to his potential. And that’d be no good. Eventually he’d resent her, maybe even grow to hate her.
Well, maybe hate was a bit much. But still, Anna needed to focus on what he was—her date. And not what he wasn’t—her boyfriend. She should just leave it at that and stop—
“Okay, now we need all the bridesmaids!” exclaimed the photographer.
Anna dutifully filed back out of the small chapel to pose in blue satin. Smiling, she noticed that her fairy-rose bouquet perfectly matched the pale-pink shade of polish she’d consented to have coated on her nails. She’d had to do something while the other girls were getting their hair tortured into elegant updo hairstyles that had ended up being more hairspray than hair. Anna had held firm about not having hers touched, other than to sweep it back off her head with a few clips.
The fact that she’d done so mainly to allow for the possibility of Jake’s hands in it later that night was very much beside the point.
But Jake hadn’t been at the guesthouse when they’d finally returned from the day at the spa. He’d been nowhere, actually, his bike gone and her own helmet sitting in the room, a lonely reminder of the great fun she should be having on a beautiful Saturday at the beach, instead of being poked and prodded, painted and primped. Where had he been the whole day, she wondered. Was he wandering down some other beach? Had he met some other vacationing girl? She wouldn’t have blamed him, of course. She had no hold on him, no reason to keep him with her beyond tomorrow afternoon.
God, was the end already in sight? Less than twenty-four hours away and poof! Her weekend would disappear like Cinderella’s coach.
“Turn a little to your left and look at Kristen,” called the photographer. Anna shook herself, following the woman’s lead and smiling toward the bride. She’d begun working out her good-bye conversation with Jake, trying somehow to get things back to normal. They’d have a nice evening tonight, she was pretty sure. He wouldn’t leave her hanging out at the reception by herself, especially around Todd. He really had taken a dislike to Todd, and Anna found that kind of … endearing, really. Sweet. Desirable.
Then again, she found everything about Jake desirable.
“Pull it together,” she muttered to herself. Jake was just a guy, had always been just a guy. He was nothing more than a glorified motorcycle mechanic who apparently had the kind of job that he could leave for several months at a time to do things like fix up his grandmother’s brownstone or travel across Mexico. He probably made just enough to get by, probably didn’t have insurance or, God forbid, a 401(k), probably hadn’t even begun to think about retirement or planning for the future—any kind of future—or what would happen if he crashed one of those enormous muscle bikes of his. He had a family, of course, and families generally wanted to be there for you, but what happened if they couldn’t be? Ultimately, you had to take care of yourself. You had to be the person in position to help others, not the person who always needed to be helped.
“Anna! We need you smiling, sweetheart. This is a wedding, remember?”
Kristen looked over, alarmed, and Anna forced her sunniest smile onto her face. She really did need to focus. Today was not about her, it was about Kristen. Kristen, who was getting married to an even sharkier shark than Todd, in Anna’s opinion, but nevertheless. Her college roommate was happy. She had what she wanted—the big wedding in the South, surrounded by her friends and family. The ex-athlete husband who was slated to work as a Wall Street trader once he finished his fast-track MBA. Her own high-intensity job with a promotion that would follow the completion of her own MBA, golden handcuffs locking her down tight even though Kristen was only in her early twenties. Kristen and her soon-to-be husband had already picked out several different options for their future neighborhood, the apartment in New York that would be replaced by the condo overlooking Manhattan one day, which would in turn give way to the gorgeous home in Greenwich, complete with private schools, tennis friends, and island vacations. Kristen had it all worked out—and so did Anna, for that matter. She’d skipped the MBA and gone straight to work, but there was still the possibility of those three initials after her name in the future, and with it the lure of yet bigger assignments and yet more frequent-flyer miles, traveling around the world for work so she could, one day, travel around the world for fun.
Anna frowned. She sounded downright bitter! And she of all people had nothing to complain about. She had an amazing job, her mom was safe and secure, and she had her whole life in front of her. She pushed the negative thoughts out of her mind and moved through the rest of the poses for Kristen’s wedding pictures, from the ridiculous to the sublime. They completed the shoot just as music started playing, and everyone scuttled inside the chapel, flounces flying in the breeze.
“You first, then you, then you …” Kristen’s maid of honor, one of their mutual friends from school, lined up the bridesmaids with the hand of a pro. When she got to Anna, she smiled suddenly, fluffing Anna’s hair out from her shoulders and off her face.
“You have the best of both worlds, Anna,” she said, surveying her with a satisfied nod. “I can’t decide which of your men I want more, your date or your ex! You have to let me know which one you choose so I can go after the other.”
“I’ll be sure to do that.” Anna smiled and held her chin high, determined to carry off her role as a happy bridesmaid. She turned and glanced at the sky-blue line of women trailing her. Behind them, Kristen looked stunning, in a white satin gown trimmed in pale satin roses that molded itself to her figure and ended in a short, tailored train. She was the epitome of Southern elegance, and Anna needed to look her part, too. If only for the next hour or so.
The music started and she whipped her gaze forward, watching one, then two of the women step out with military precision to take the long walk up the aisle. On cue, she moved out into the aisle, and tried not to step on her gown as she walked forward. The small chapel was filled with guests. They turned and smiled back at her, waiting for a view of the bride. At the front of the church, Scott stood, his eyes trained on the back door where Kristen was soon to appear. Despite all of her angsting from just minutes earlier, Anna’s insides slushed up at the groom’s rapt attention as he waited for Kristen’s appearance. Biting her lip, she slanted her gaze to the side, scanning the crowd like a waitress looking for an empty glass to fill.
And found herself staring straight into the darkest brown eyes she’d ever seen.
Jake sat several rows back from the front, nearly in the middle of the chapel. He wasn’t wearing khakis, though, and he wasn’t wearing jeans. Instead, he had donned a soft gray suit with a white open-necked button-down shirt, and once their glances connected, it was all Anna could do to keep walking. He seemed to outshine everyone around him, as if he were surrounded by cardboard cutouts. And he was looking straight at her with an expression not unlike Scott’s as he’d searched the back of the chapel for Kristen.
Anna snapped her head forward and managed to get up the aisle without stumbling. Somehow. She joined arms with her assigned groomsman—not Todd, thank heavens—and climbed the short set of steps to the altar. Her mind was on fire, and within a few seconds, the rest of her began heating up, too.
Jake was her date for the wedding. That was what was important. Some small part of her mind had been sure he wouldn’t show, that she’d have to fend for herself, to explain away his absence with a smile and a shrug, taking in stride the sympathetic looks, the commiserating nods. Some part of her had expected everything to go to hell. But none of that was necessary now, none of that mattered. Because he was here.
He was here.
Anna’s heart suddenly felt too big for her chest, her throat now suddenly too tight. No, no, no, she told herself. Don’t fall for him—don’t fall for anyone. You know better than that! And she did know better than that—knew that even good people could sometimes leave you, leave you with your heart shattered and your world upside-down. And yet … and yet …
He was here.
After the ceremony, Jake stood outside the chapel, waiting for the building to empty. He’d thought about how he’d planned for this evening to go—pleasant, easy. A date with a lot of laughs and maybe a little heat, ending up back at the guesthouse, intertwined with Anna, drinking in the soft scent of her hair, feeling the heat of her skin, the curves of her body. But nothing serious, nothing intense. No more flashes of anger or protectiveness. She deserved to have a fun night out, a weekend vacation to remember, to put up on her shelf alongside all of her binders and reports, after their time together was through and she was back to being who she was, and he was back to being who he was.
So, just for a second, as an experiment, he tried to imagine spending the following month without Anna Richardson. Or even the following week.
Jake laughed out loud, shaking his head. From the moment Anna had stepped into the aisle as part of the long line of bridesmaids, he’d just stared at her, as if she might disappear at any moment. Her blue gown, so odd-looking crumpled up in the motorcycle saddlebag, had somehow transformed into the perfect packaging to showcase her long, curvy body and cascading curls.
He’d tracked her progress all the way up to the front of the chapel, unable to even notice the other bridesmaids, the bride, or any part of the ceremony. He’d stood up, sat down, and bowed his head at all the right moments. But his mind had been filled with nothing but Anna.
Waiting for her now just seemed right. He glanced up at the newest group of wedding guests. At least two of them were wearing identical sky-blue dresses. Jake’s pulse picked up. Then Anna crossed the threshold of the chapel and saw him. They immediately strode toward each other, and the sight of her face lighting up with pleasure made Jake feel like he’d just returned from saving the world.
“Hello, beautiful,” he said, grinning like an idiot as he pulled her into an embrace. He could tell by the awkwardness of her hug that she was startled, but that was just fine by him. He planned to keep Anna Richardson just a little off-balance, the whole evening through.
“Hey there, yourself,” she said, her smile wide and completely open. Her sunny blue eyes danced at him, set off brilliantly by her dress. “And don’t even talk to me about my appearance.” She glanced down at her dress, shaking her head. “I look like a junior miss late for her own pageant.”
“Well, as junior misses go, you were the one on everyone’s mind. Even your buddy Todd’s.” And it was true enough. Todd had watched Anna from his vantage point on the other side of the altar with the kind of hunger that Jake hoped he wasn’t displaying on his own face. He’d tried to keep the edge out of his voice when he mentioned the guy’s name, but clearly, he wasn’t successful. Anna drew herself up, her face pained, but Jake cut her off before she could say anything. “It’s all good, Anna. I’m good. But let’s not waste any time. I’ve got the prettiest girl in the place, and now I can show her off.” He held out a hand to her. “What say we go see what all the excitement is about at the wedding reception.”