Erik
Angie and Tom were picking up the food for the rehearsal dinner in town. Hopefully, they would be back before Jenny and Gael arrived along with the other veterans and locals who were attending.
And if he was honest with himself, maybe he was moving at a breakneck pace so he wouldn’t have to face what was coming.
The idea of Jenny and Gael going back to Boston in just a few days made his stomach twist and his chest feel hollow. He was working on his plan to make things between them real, but he hadn’t been able to put it into action yet.
And what if she says no?
He placed the flat of flowers and the box of jars carefully on one of the tables and began unloading them.
“What’s going on with these?” Fallon asked, appearing at his side.
“I just wanted to set up a couple of jars of roses at each table once I get the tablecloths on,” Erik explained.
“Why don’t you let me get all that?” Fallon offered. “Everything’s pretty much squared away now. You should probably catch your breath before Jenny gets here.”
Erik looked up and saw that another group of men and women had arrived early to help out.
“Okay,” he said to Fallon, patting him on the back. “I really appreciate it. I’m going to try and figure out the speakers.”
“Sounds great,” Fallon said.
Erik grabbed his phone from his pocket and headed to the far end of the room, where he was hoping he’d be able to have music playing straight from his own library.
A couple of minutes of fiddling with it didn’t do anything, so he decided to go into the little office on the other side of the space, where there was a desk and a water cooler. He could grab a cup of cold water, sit down for a minute, and look up how to make the connection work.
I’m still finding busywork, he thought to himself grimly.
But soul-searching before a fake wedding shouldn’t really be necessary. And he didn’t need it to know that he wanted Jenny and Gael in his life for real.
The office had a single window, but sunlight poured in. He grabbed a cup of water and then went to sit behind the wooden desk.
He had just pulled his phone out when it began to buzz with a video call.
Samantha
He picked up, feeling a pang of guilt that he hadn’t really talked with his right-hand woman this last week. She had gotten engaged herself on Christmas night, after a very harrowing couple of days. And he’d barely had time to congratulate her.
“Hey,” he said, smiling at the sight of her in the car. She must be on her way.
“Hi,” she said. “How’s it going?”
Wolf’s baby boy began whimpering in the background, and Erik could just hear Sam’s little sister Amelia trying to comfort him.
“We’re just about ready here,” he told her. “It’s looking good. But listen, I know you’ve got your hands full. You guys don’t have to come. This is a lot for a family.”
“That’s not why I called,” she said. “Erik, I know it’s not her.”
“What are you talking about?” Erik asked, his blood running cold.
“That’s not Goldilocks,” Sam said. “The photos the guys posted online. I’ve been too wrapped up here to look until now. But that woman is not your fiancée. What’s going on?”
“She’s a friend,” Erik admitted softly. “The real Goldilocks dumped me. It was actually a blessing. We weren’t right for each other.”
“So then why in the world is there still a wedding happening?” Sam asked, her expression concerned. “What are you trying to do?”
“I didn’t want to disappoint anyone,” he admitted. “Everyone at the Center has put so much love into this. I figured we’d have the celebration anyway, and just tell people afterward that it didn’t work out. Jenny was willing to step in—”
“Have you lost your mind?” Sam interjected. “You can’t do that.”
“We figured we would just tell everyone it didn’t work out afterward and she’d go back to Boston,” Erik admitted. “But—”
“But nothing,” Sam said with a finality he’d never heard in her usually sweet voice before. “You can’t do this. You have real feelings for this woman.”
Erik opened his mouth and closed it again.
“How did you know?” he asked softly after a moment.
“One look at those photos and it’s obvious that you’re in love with her,” Jenny said, a little more gently. “You need to call this off and do things the right way, before you lose your chance.”
Before he could reply, someone pounded on the door.
“Erik,” Fallon’s voice was frantic. “Jenny and Gael are here, and… I think you figured out the speakers.”
“No,” Erik breathed, imagining the conversation they’d just had amplified to the whole community center—all those people finding out they were only there to help because Erik lied to them, finding out right in front of Jenny and Gael…
“Go fix it,” Sam told him firmly. “Right now. Don’t let her get away.”