Chapter Twenty-Two Odette
Chapter Twenty-Two
Odette
“Oh my gosh. You look gorgeous.”
Izzy twirls, her dress spinning out around her calves. She giggles. “Really? You think so?”
I nod. “Yes, definitely. And if you look this incredible for your rehearsal dinner, I cannot wait to see you in your gown tomorrow.”
“You’ve already seen me in it.”
Izzy was one of those lucky brides who walked into a shop and found The Dress within thirty minutes. She had it picked out before she even had a venue.
“Yeah, but this is different. This is the real thing. Hair and makeup, and then walking down the aisle toward the love of your life and absolutely beautiful future.”
Izzy’s eyes shimmer with unshed tears. “Oh, Odette. Have I told you lately how much I love you? How lucky I am to have you as my best friend?”
“You haven’t, but I’m willing to hear you out at any time.”
She laughs, dabbing under her eyes to keep the tears at bay. “Oh my gosh. I can’t believe I’m getting married tomorrow. Finally. I feel like I’ve been waiting for this day my entire life, you know?”
Oh, I know. Maybe even better than most. I’ve only been keeping a wedding wish list since I was twelve.
I regretted throwing it away the second I woke up the next morning. Sure, I had Noah in bed beside me, which was great, but not even that could have fixed the sadness that had settled into my chest.
I had finally given up. I said for years that I was done planning. That I had made peace with the fact that I was never going to get married, but still, I clung to that wish list just in case. Crumpling up that paper and throwing it away felt like I had finally closed that chapter in my life.
But the second I did, I wanted to open it back up.
I still want to open it back up. I’ve tried to start my wish list over a few times, but nothing has felt right.
And how could it? I had that same one since I was a little girl.
I took it with me through middle school, when we moved here to Port Harbor in high school, through college, and it was sitting with me the day that I opened my business checking account.
It was there for my first wedding and even the last disastrous one we don’t talk about.
That piece of paper has been there with me through all of it, and now it’s gone, all because I wanted to prove to myself I wasn’t interested in marriage.
I was wrong. I am interested. I am very interested.
Seeing Izzy and how happy and excited she is to marry her best friend makes me want it even more, the curse be damned.
“You’re next,” Izzy singsongs, almost as if she can read my thoughts. “You’re going to meet someone at this wedding. I just know it. There are plenty of single guys we went to high school with, and Craig has so many amazing friends you’re going to love.”
“Izzy . . .” I groan. “I thought we tabled this discussion.”
“And I did. I said nothing about any of those guys being your date for the wedding. Besides, you’re already kind of sort of going with Noah anyway.”
“What? I am not!”
“Well, no. Not technically.” She blows out a puff of air, like she’s irritated with me. “But you are going to dance with him or else I’ll cry, and you really don’t want to make me cry on my wedding day, now do you?”
Of course I don’t want to make her cry. What’s even worse is that I want to dance with Noah, but I can’t. I fear we’ll give ourselves away instantly.
How I’m even going to make it through this dinner without doing just that is beyond me. It’s getting harder and harder every day to pretend like I don’t have feelings for him, and this wedding is going to be the ultimate test. I just know seeing him in a tux will completely unravel me.
And it’s not just how hot I know he’ll look.
It’s more than that. It’s how I know he’s going to look at his sister with nothing but love and happiness in his eyes, even though he doesn’t believe in marriage anymore.
It’s how he’ll swing his mother around the dance floor.
And how he’ll let the little kids of Port Harbor stand on his feet as he dances with them too.
It’s all the little things he’ll do that will make me want to break our rules more and more.
But I can’t think about that now. My sole focus needs to be on Izzy and Craig getting their happily ever after. Maybe I can think about mine later.
“All right.” Izzy claps her hands together. “I’m ready. Are you?”
I nod, and we make our way from my apartment, where Izzy will be staying tonight.
She and Craig might have done things a little backward, having already bought a house together, but they want to do the night before the wedding the traditional way.
The rehearsal dinner is the last time they’ll see each other until tomorrow’s ceremony.
I drive us along the waterfront toward the diner where the rehearsal dinner is being held. Craig didn’t seem too thrilled about the venue at first, but once he saw how happy it made Izzy, he didn’t seem to mind so much anymore.
I’m glad because I sure could use a fat stack of pancakes right about now to get me through this evening.
“No!” Izzy lets out a cry that nearly has me running off the road and straight into the sidewalk.
“What?” I slam on the brakes. “What is it? Is it a spider?!”
“What? No. My earrings.” She rifles through the small clutch in her hands. “I forgot my earrings.”
“Oh? For tonight? We can just run back to my apartment.” I flip on my blinker, ready to pull into a parking lot and turn around.
“The ones for tomorrow. They’re from my grandmother. She wore them at her wedding, and my mother wore them at hers, and now I’m supposed to wear them to mine.”
“Shit.”
“I’m so sorry,” she says. “Please don’t hate me.”
“As if I could.” I wave a hand. “It’s fine. I can run by in the morning and grab them. I could . . . crap.”
“What?”
“I can’t go in the morning. I have to be at the cidery to let the florist in.”
I check the clock on my dashboard. We’re late. I’m sure that’s not a shock to anyone, especially not Noah, but if I step on the gas, we could have time to stop by Izzy’s and make it to the restaurant, even if we are only a few minutes late.
“We can go now.”
“What? Won’t we be late?” Izzy chews on her bottom lip, ruining her lipstick, which she’ll need to fix.
“It’s fine. You’re the bride—you’re never late,” I reassure her, making a U-turn, taking Harborview Boulevard toward Izzy’s neighborhood.
Thankfully, Port Harbor isn’t known for its traffic, and we lose only five minutes by the time I pull my car along the curb.
“You stay here,” I tell her as I throw off my seat belt. “Don’t want to risk getting your dress dirty. I’ll run in and grab them real quick.”
She sighs in relief. “You’re a lifesaver.”
“Jewelry box?”
“Yes. The door code is—”
I put my hand up. “Please, I know the code.”
She laughs as I fling open my door. I jog up the driveway as best I can in my heels, then punch in the code—Izzy and Craig’s date-iversary. I don’t bother to close the door behind me, leaving it open for a quick exit, and race up the stairs toward her bedroom.
I pass photos lining the hallway, many from back in college when Izzy and Craig first started dating, and smile.
All their years together have led to tomorrow.
To the gorgeous mermaid dress Izzy picked out, to the vows she’s been working on relentlessly, and to the life I know they’re looking forward to building.
I can’t wait to see them finally get their happy ending.
I push into the bedroom, going straight for the jewelry box on the dresser.
I’m so focused that it takes me a minute to realize what’s happening behind me. To get a good grasp on what I’m seeing in the mirror.
Then I scream.
“What the fuck?!”
There, in the middle of Izzy and Craig’s bed, is Craig with a woman on top of him. Naked. Completely bare.
“Odette?!” Craig hollers as I whirl around. “What the fuck? Get the fuck out!”
He yells at me. That sleazy, slimy bastard yells at me. As if I’m the one in the wrong. As if he doesn’t have his dick tucked inside some woman who is not his fiancée.
The fiancée he’s marrying tomorrow.
Craig and his friend, who looks vaguely familiar, scramble to cover themselves, and while I’m grateful for it, it’s too little, too late. This image is already seared into my brain.
This terrible image. This horrible deed. The one I’m going to have to tell my best friend about on the night before her wedding.
My best friend who was all smiles just ten minutes ago. The one who couldn’t stop giggling when talking about her fiancé. The one who is irrevocably in love with the man before me.
This will crush her. This crushes me.
Feet pound up the stairs, and my heart plummets.
“Odette?” Izzy calls. “What is it? What happened? I heard you scream and I—”
I spring into action, rushing toward her to block her from seeing this too. This doesn’t need to be scorched into her memory like it is mine. She doesn’t deserve this, and Craig certainly doesn’t deserve her.
“It’s nothing. It’s nothing, Izzy,” I tell her, trying to keep her from going any closer to the door.
She pauses, brows slamming together, and I swear in that instant, she knows. She knows exactly what I’m shielding her from without ever having to see a thing.
“No,” she whispers, shaking her head. “No, no, no.”
She shoves past me, and this time I let her. I hate myself a little for the fact that I let her, but it’s a necessary evil.
Then I hear her choked sob, and my heart breaks right along with hers.
I knew it. I knew this was going to happen. I mean, not Craig cheating on Izzy, because I thought he loved her. I thought that they were forever. They . . . they gave me hope.
Hope.
Ugh. It’s such a terrible thing. An awful, rotten, no-good thing.