Chapter 66
To Do:
- Give Luke the best night ever
“You’re all set, sugar.” Sharice spun Claire around in the chair.
“Oh, wow. You did such a great job with my hair. Thank you, Sharice,” Claire said, leaning over to hug her and slip her a twenty-dollar bill. She glanced at her watch. “I better get out there. Thanks again, girls.” She waved as she exited the trailer.
Golden hour was just beginning. Pink and gold light softly illuminated the rows of white chairs. The Edison bulbs gleamed. Music was already thumping. Her insides twisted. Would everything go well? Would Luke be disappointed? She stepped carefully down the stairs in the royal blue dress that Mindy had insisted on. Now she just had to focus on not getting whoopie pie on it.
Alice had already finished and left to mingle with the other guests. Claire spotted her talking to Nicole from a mile away thanks to her pink suit. She couldn’t see Roy, but if she had to guess, he was probably assisting the team that was erecting a small stage in front of the screen where Luke would give his speech. Where was Luke, anyway? He was cutting it close. He was probably sitting at home second-guessing his dress shirt options or stress-cleaning the gutters.
Dozens of people dressed in black-tie evening wear milled around. One of the studio executives was talking to Sawyer. Who knew they made tuxes that big? Mindy laughed at something he said. She had managed to change into a glittering silver dress with matching heels. Her hair was braided on one side and left long and down her back. Heather was there too, in an emerald-green cocktail dress with a scalloped hem. Ruby slippers glittered on her feet. Where did this girl get all her adorable shoes? Claire made a mental note to ask.
The food trucks were all set. The beer garden was teeming with people she didn’t recognize but assumed were friends of Luke’s. Nicole and Kyle were there though. Nicole looked adorable in a drapey peach dress. Her camera was slung around her neck, and the slightest hint of a bump was appearing in her midsection. A dozen rows of seats were lined up in front of the still-dark movie screen.
She had texted Luke twice to remind him to bring his cut of the episode, but would he remember? He’d been ignoring her all day. Probably still salty about the premiere.
Roy was chatting with Jack and Tanya, who appeared to have brought a Tupperware container of their vegan snacks. Tanya wafted something under Roy’s nose, and his head retracted into his neck like a turtle in his shell.
George, Luke’s bullheaded brother, was engaged in a spirited conversation with Rachel. Even though Luke’s mother was facing away from her, the rigid posture was unmistakable. Thank god they hadn’t stopped to say hello. She turned away before George could spot her.
Her stomach dropped when she saw the front row of seats. They had reserved five seats for Barney’s victims. Jennifer Heiser’s mother was talking to Kayley Herrold’s wife, and they were both dabbing at their eyes. Ariel Pullizzi’s mom was standing in front of her daughter’s portrait, clutching a hand over her heart.
Claire was drawn to them like gravity. Her feet carried her forward even as she stumbled over what she would say. What could she possibly say to them? Sorry for being alive?
“Hi. I, uh.” Claire stopped. The families turned around. Anxiety scrambled her stomach like eggs in a too-hot pan.
“Claire,” Ariel’s mom said gently. She laid a hand on Claire’s shoulder. “Thank you so much for inviting us. You made it really special.”
“I’m sorry, I—” she broke off again and bit her lip. Her mother would be ashamed. But there wasn’t a How to Speak to Relatives of People Who Were Murdered chapter in that book Alice had given her when she tried to convince her to be a debutante.
“We know. It’s okay.” Kayley Herrold’s wife swung in and gave her a hug. She smelled like oil-based paint. Blue speckles dotted her hands.
“It should’ve been me,” Claire said in a rush. The words poured out before she could even process them. “Not your daughters and wives.” She looked at the posters of the women in front of her. “I’m not special. I was just—lucky.”
And that was the truth of it. Claire wasn’t spared because she had some divine calling in life that demanded to be fulfilled. She was just a regular girl in a terrifying world. And she had been lucky enough to have a mother who cared about her enough to teach her self-defense. And Sawyer, who saved her life when she was ready to give up.
“Stop that,” Shawna Delong’s dad said. “The blood is on his hands, and his alone. We are so grateful for you, you know that? Because of you, that idiot is in prison. We’ve already been contacted by the FBI about the case they’re building against him. He’ll pay for what he’s done. And that’s because of you.”
“You’ve given us justice, hon,” Courtney Stevens’s mom said.
“Because of you, we get to lay our little girl to rest.” Jennifer’s mom dabbed a tissue under her eyes.
Claire sniffled. If she didn’t get out of here right this second, she would ruin Judy’s hard work on her makeup.
“Thank you. I think of you all the time. I hope the documentary helps you heal.” She smiled sadly and walked off before she put her foot in her mouth some more.
She took a couple of steadying breaths and glanced at her watch. People were starting to take their seats. Luke should be here by now. The meager amount of press on the red carpet couldn’t be expected to wait around all day. She gritted her teeth, almost welcoming the instant flood of annoyance. He was pathologically punctual. It was his most annoying trait. So why the hell couldn’t he manage to show up on time for his premiere?
Mindy was chatting with Alice. Claire marched up to them. “Have you heard from Luke? He’s never late.”
Mindy shook her head. “Maybe he hit traffic?”
Claire glanced behind her at the highway. Not a single car went by in either direction. “He’s doing this just to annoy me.”
“Probably. I’m sure he’ll be here soon.”
A knot grew in her stomach. What if something had happened to him? What if a rogue member of ESA had decided to take revenge for dismantling their organization and found him home alone? She called him, but there was no answer.
She pulled up the app linked to the doggie camera she had installed when they returned to West Haven. Rosie and Winston napped soundly in their beds in the kitchen. There weren’t any puddles of blood or sounds of a struggle. She switched to the video doorbell and checked the driveway. Luke’s car was missing, so he had definitely left.
“Just relax, Claire,” she said to herself, shoving her phone back into her clutch. “Everything’s fine.”
Maybe a corn dog would calm her nerves. She took half a step in the direction of the food trucks when a video flickered to life on the movie screen. The Edison bulbs strung over the beer garden dimmed. She stopped and whipped around. Light emanated from the projection booth. Had Luke shown up and snuck the disk to the theater staff? Where the hell was he?
The remaining people who were standing hurried to their seats. A couple of them glanced around, like they were expecting someone to make a speech. That had been the plan, but apparently Luke didn’t care about the plan. It was the tandem bicycle all over again.
Claire scanned the dark field for him, but he was nowhere to be found. What an ass. Should she take a seat and watch the episode without him?
Wait a second. This wasn’t the episode. This wasn’t anything to do with the documentary at all. A video of Claire dancing at Kyle and Nicole’s wedding was playing. Oh my god. The idiot had given them the wrong thumb drive. They were playing Kyle and Nicole’s wedding video in front of the families of Barney’s victims.
She sprinted for the projection booth and hammered on the door until it opened.
“Yeah?” A dazed-looking teenager with impressive chin acne asked. A faded red vest that read West Haven Drive-In Theater hung over his skinny shoulders.
“You need to pull this tape. It’s not the right one.”
The teen crossed his arms. “Mr. Islestorm assured me that it’s the right one.”
“How could he have? He’s not even here.”
“He dropped it off earlier. It’s the right one.” The teen slammed the door.
What the hell? This was humiliating. This was supposed to be a celebration of Luke’s documentary and an opportunity to remember the victims. Instead they were showing a video of a wedding for someone the families didn’t even know.
She glanced at the screen again. Now it was playing behind-the-scenes footage of Claire on location for Kyle and Nicole’s proposal. Before she could blink, it switched to her pirouetting on the beach with an ice cream cone, laughing into the wind. A dozen more clips flashed—Claire rolling her eyes as her mother read tarot cards. Browsing the aisles at Sephora. Dancing in the living room with her sisters. Shuffling some papers into a fresh binder. Aggressively mashing potatoes on Thanksgiving. What was this? Was this some elaborate plan to humiliate her for making him have a premiere?
Hang on—was something falling from the sky? Brightly colored spots floated down from beyond the treetops. The drone of a plane hummed in the distance. She hadn’t cleared a plane or random glowing debris. Was there some kind of sky lantern festival going on in West Haven? It hadn’t been on the community calendar. And more importantly, where the hell was Luke? Everything was falling apart.
One of the lanterns drifted and settled on the ground at her feet. She bent to pick it up. Great, now there was refuse littering Luke’s premiere. People should really be more careful. She was about to blow out the candle when the hand-painted image on the side of the lantern was thrown into sharp relief. It was her and Luke on his birthday, hoisting the beef jerky trophy. Her mouth fell open. Another lantern landed a few feet away. It was also painted, this time with a picture of them dancing at Kyle and Nicole’s wedding.
Claire glanced up. A familiar redhead smiled at her from the taco truck. Jane and Aaron, former proposal clients, waved mischievously. She rolled the lantern in her hand. Jane’s signature was scrawled at the bottom. She must have painted the lanterns. But why?
Claire waved back, dumbstruck. On the movie screen, the video flashed to a title card that said “The Proposal Planner.” The image froze. What was that sound? An engine revved from somewhere in the woods. Suddenly, there was a smell of sulfur. Was the forest burning down? Did they need to evacuate?
At that moment, fireworks exploded into the air. Someone crashed through the movie screen on a dirt bike and roared to a stop just before the first row of seats.
Her heart fell into her feet. There was no way they were getting their security deposit back now. The screen gaped and flapped weakly in the wind.
The rider took his helmet off and waved. The crowd cheered. Hold on. The rider was Steve, another past client. Claire had planned a Jet Ski proposal for him last spring. It was one of the first things Luke had ever mocked her for. And those fireworks had looked identical to the ones they shot off to celebrate Tyler and Ericka’s patriotic proposal not long after. What was happening?
Music started playing. Not just music—an instrumental version of Claire’s favorite song from the heavy metal band Nightsmear. All through the audience, people got out of their chairs. Nicole and Mindy materialized out of nowhere and began to dance in front of her. It was a stupid, wiggly dance they had invented in college after too many shots of tequila.
“What the—” But a grin was growing on Claire’s face. This couldn’t have all been a wild accident. Something was happening.
Seconds later, Tanya and Jack swooped in. Jack spun Tanya out and performed an elegant dip before they moved off to the side, exposing Roy and Alice. They incorporated a quick salsa number. Alice’s breasts nearly tumbled out of her low-cut gown. Their grins would have been visible from space.
Suddenly almost everyone was dancing in a great big mob in front of her. Kayley Herrold’s wife waltzed around the perimeter of the crowd with Jennifer Heiser’s husband. Marco, the pawn shop broker who often found specialty items for Claire, danced by with his wife. Even Rachel and George marched to the front of the crowd and did approximately two seconds of “the wave” before stomping off to the side.
As the song came to the last chorus, a horse-drawn carriage emerged from the crowd. Claire laughed and clapped her hands. This was absolutely insane.
Victoria, Barney’s former fiancée, hopped down from the carriage and walked over. Claire’s heart jumped into her throat. She hadn’t seen her in person since the proposal, but she had wanted to reach out a thousand times. Even the sympathy basket she had sent was a poor replacement for a proper phone call.
Victoria handed over a single red rose and pulled her in for a tight hug. She said nothing, but Claire could feel the well of emotions inside her. The horse-drawn carriage clopped off. Something was falling from the sky again. A flashing light approached them at high speed. The Edison bulbs came back to full power, and light suddenly sprang up from the ground.
Claire glanced down at her feet. Yards of battery-powered fairy lights had been arranged in concentric circles. She was standing right in the middle of them without even noticing. She was losing her touch.
The blinking light drew closer. It crested over the tattered movie screen, and finally, there he was. Luke Islestorm in a freakin’ tuxedo skydiving into his movie premiere. But it wasn’t a movie premiere after all.
The parachute streamed out behind him as he drifted gently over the rows of seats. As the song faded out, he cut the cord on his parachute and stepped smoothly into the ring of lights. A double baby Bjorn was strapped to him. Rosie panted happily, a pair of miniature goggles on her furry face.
If they were with Luke, what dogs had been on the camera at home? She didn’t have time to worry about it. Luke let her and Winston out of the harness, and they ran for Claire. He took two steps and dropped down on one knee in front of her.
“Oh my god,” she said, and her hands flew to her mouth in a gesture she had witnessed and carefully cultivated a hundred times.
He laughed and took her hand. “Was this enough dramatic flair for you?”
“I—I don’t even—you idiot!” She slapped him lightly on the shoulder.
The crowd chuckled.
“Do you have any idea how hard it is to propose to someone who plans proposals for a living? You should have seen the binder we had to make for this project.” His green eyes shone brightly in the light from the fairy lights.
“This was supposed to be for you,” she said, gesturing at the tattered screen. “We didn’t even get to play your episode.”
“I knew the only way to distract you long enough to plan everything was to let you think you were planning something for me. Incidentally, it worked.”
“You’re such an ass.”
He shrugged. “So. My legs are falling asleep here. Claire Aurora Hartley—Jesus, I didn’t even ask the question yet.”
Tears had sprung into Claire’s eyes the second he said her full name. She sniffed them back and composed herself. “Sorry, go ahead.”
“Claire Aurora Hartley. You drive me absolutely insane. You work too much, you bend over backward for people, and you love so fiercely. You inverted my entire world when I broke into your apartment and found you singing to your dog.”
“So you admit it! You did break in!” she cried.
He ignored her. “Somewhere down the line, between the arguing, cheating at video games, trips to Paris and the beach, I fell in love with you. And with your crazy family—don’t even get me started on Jack, he took two full weeks to give me his blessing.” He searched the crowd for Jack, who lifted a martini in a toast.
So that was why he had been so extra anti-Jack.
“Meanwhile, when I asked Roy and your mom, I didn’t even get the full question out before they said yes. Anyway, we’ve been through more than most couples go through in an entire lifetime. We’re partners in everything. I’ve never met anyone like you, someone who creates joy for a living and adopts special needs dogs and tasers bad guys like it’s nothing. I love you, Claire.”
He paused and gestured behind them. She looked where he pointed. Across the highway, on top of the overlook where she used to watch movies with her mother, were several glowing letters. They were arranged to spell out “Marry me?”
“So,” Luke said, drawing her attention back to him. “What do you think? Be my wife?”
He reached one hand into his pocket and pulled out a small box. He opened it, but she didn’t even glance inside. Her heart was so full it might actually explode. She lifted her gaze and took in the moment. She wanted to remember every second of this day for the rest of her life. Friends and family stared at her, excitement glistening in their eyes. Warmth and love emanated from every direction. There was no fear, no danger. Just one perfect moment with the promise of forever.
Mindy gestured at Luke and raised her eyebrows. Oh, right. He was still waiting for an answer.
“Yes.” Her throat was so choked with emotion she could barely get the word out. She nodded emphatically.
Luke slid the ring on her finger and pulled her straight off the grass. He twirled her around and around. They spun under the star-strewn sky, just like they had in Paris, and in the parking lot of the hospital where she had fallen into a trashcan and he had said “I love you” for the first time. If he kept going, she might vomit all down his back and ruin the moment.
He set her on her feet, and she kissed him. She listed slightly to the left, but at least she didn’t fall over. They broke apart, and she finally remembered to glance down at her hand. A massive three-carat cushion cut stone with a diamond halo was perfectly sized and nestled on her ring finger. It looked like it had been made for her. And it was so much better than a beer bottle cap.
She took another look at the people who surrounded them. Her entire extended family smiled at her. Kyle was jumping and screaming. Nicole was snapping pictures. Mindy and Sawyer were making out. Brianna and Charlie had video cameras pressed to their faces.
She kissed Luke again. He pulled her into his arms, and she breathed in his comforting scent. She was surrounded by the people she loved. Everyone was safe, and she had found her soulmate in the unlikely form of a grumpy documentary director who could master the hell out of a proposal.
All in all, the future was looking as bright as the diamond on her finger.
Will Claire finally get her own Happily Ever After? Find out what happens on her wedding day in this bonus scene !