Chapter 15
Fifteen
What a good day.
As Claire took her seat at the wedding party’s table, she basked in the buoyant mood of her friends.
She wondered who else in their friend group would meet someone who matched them as well as Leslie matched Ryker.
The group had seemed complete before Leslie, but when she joined them, their years before her seemed to be missing her.
Maybe there were others too, whose friendship would enrich the group.
Tai could be one of those people. Mackey would connect with his passion for helping the vulnerable.
Just as Tai and Leslie connected over art—sculpture, music, both deep acts of creation—Logan would connect with him too through his art as a chef.
Plus Tai was already Ryker’s best friend.
His place in their group should have been automatic.
She was the reason the rest of them left Tai alone even now.
They were subtle about it, of course. No one observing from the outside would catch on.
But they were pointed too, the way they kept conversation flowing around the table among bridesmaids and groomsmen, all of them including each other and never quite including Tai.
Claire hated it, wanted to make it right, but a wedding reception wasn’t the time or the place.
Now that she’d seen him in a tuxedo, Tai’s black tie and jacket over a green dress shirt that matched her dress were slightly less impressive than they would have been otherwise. But only slightly. The man looked hot in a suit.
And that hot man had just been passed a microphone for the best man’s toast. He stood, and quiet fell naturally, as if he couldn’t help drawing attention even before he said a word.
“Ryker and I might never have met without a case of mistaken identity.”
With a single sentence, he had them all engaged and curious. Claire leaned against the long table for a better angle toward him. She’d never heard this story before.
“He was on a date with someone who turned out not to be his eternal, and I was at a table at the same restaurant for a work-related one-on-one. When his date described being harassed by someone who looked vaguely like me…”
Ryker clearly hadn’t known this story would be part of the toast. He made a dramatic face-palm, and laughter rippled around the room.
“Ryker charged up to me and shoved me into a wall. He said, ‘Stop bothering women,’ and then his date intervened, explained this was not the same white guy with black hair.”
The laughter rose. Ryker lifted his head and gave a sheepish grin.
“Ryker felt bad about it, so when he and his date said good night, he came and found me to apologize for a second time. I said he did the right thing, given what he’d thought I did.
We started talking—jobs first, then figured out we used the same gym, but the big thing I remember from that night was respect for a guy who’d take action the way he did in defense of someone else.
Almost seven years later, we still talk all the time, still meet at that gym, and my respect has only grown for this man’s immense integrity and the bold way he takes action.
His friendship is a gift, which I think everyone at this table could attest to. ”
The wedding party all nodded.
“Ryker is a natural troubleshooter. He’s a listening ear no matter what time of day or night.
He takes the time to figure out your dreams and then pushes you to chase them.
He’d do anything for a friend. One of his favorite things to do is to make Leslie happy, and when he talks about her, the joy and love just shine from his face. ”
Tai looked from Ryker to Leslie, and his expression grew softer.
“Dating life wasn’t always kind to Ryker.
It’s hard to see your friend get hurt by a cruel person.
I wanted him to be careful for his own sake, but when he met you, Leslie, it was different from the start.
He was so sure of you. Then I met you, and I was sure too, that y’all were the best person for each other.
And I was sure you’d be kind to my friend. ”
Leslie’s eyes were shiny with tears. She nodded, smiled.
“Now it’s my privilege to count both of you as good friends, and now y’all are married. You’ve got each other for the rest of your lives, and I know you’ll keep making each other’s eyes shine with joy and love.” Tai lifted his champagne glass. “So I’d like to propose a toast.”
The wedding party and guests lifted glasses all around the room.
“To Ryker and Leslie,” Tai said.
“Ryker and Leslie!” chimed from every table.
Claire touched her glass to Nova’s, and… “You’re crying?”
“No.” Nova sipped her champagne and blinked a few times. “Just happy.”
A smile filled her heart before it found her lips. “I’m happy too. For today, yeah, but also that they can know, can really know.”
Nova shifted in her chair toward Claire. “Know what?”
Should be obvious. “That it’s forever.”
“You mean because it wasn’t…for your dad?”
Claire darted a look up and down the table, but the turn of their conversation seemed unnoticed. She sent Nova a half-hearted glare. “Not the best venue to talk about men who change their minds.”
“I’m sorry. I should’ve kept that to myself.”
“No, you’ve made my point, actually.” Claire forced her shoulders to shrug, her mouth to curve upward.
She nodded toward Ryker and Leslie. “They literally cannot do what he did. They’re bloodbound, chosen by some benevolent something for one another’s soul.
Throwing each other away out of boredom will never enter their heads. ”
“Claire.” Nova set a kind hand on her shoulder.
Claire shrugged again, this time to dislodge the kindness, because a pressure was beginning behind her eyes that needed to stop. “Anyway I’m really impressed with the catering, and I’m really happy for our friends, and this is a great day.”
Nova studied her a moment too long, then nodded. “Agreed on all counts.”
When Claire excused herself to the restroom a few minutes later, she had wholly squelched the little voice inside that sounded far too much like her newly-eleven-year-old self, admitting for the first time that Dad was not coming home.
She was her present self again, not quite thirty, relaxed, happy, and determined to ignore the soft steps that followed her.
Philippa chased her inside, waited for the door to shut as if it would give them extra privacy from vampire ears, and even glanced around the restroom to be sure they were alone. Then she turned on both faucets and lowered her voice to a whisper.
“Woman! What is going on?”
“Are we in a spy movie?” Claire shut off the faucets.
Extra sound in a room would of course help not attract vampire attention, if said vampires weren’t already trying to listen in. But Philippa had spoiled any chance of that by stalking Claire into the restroom in full view of everybody.
“I want to know what changed, when it changed, and above all why.”
Could she answer vaguely enough not to cause a whole friend group confrontation at Ryker and Leslie’s wedding? “Regarding…?”
“You know I’m talking about Tai.”
“I misjudged some things back then.”
“How exactly does one misjudge what he did?”
Oh, let her count the ways. “It’s a long story, Pippa, and this isn’t the time or the place to get into it, and some of it isn’t mine to tell.”
“When did this new information come to you?”
“Thursday.”
Philippa stared, shook her head, and then a slow smile spread over her face. “Well. You wasted no time then.”
“Don’t.” But Claire couldn’t keep away a smile of her own.
Philippa gave her shoulder a mock shove. “This is shocking, Claire. Beyond shocking. I need details.”
“Not here. Not now.”
She seemed suddenly aware of their surroundings, of the event continuing just outside the restroom door. She met Claire’s eyes in the mirror and shook her head. “Wow. I lost my head for a second.”
“Well, it’s… a switch.”
“It’s an earthquake, woman. This conversation hasn’t even started yet.”
“Fair enough.”
“Nova knows more than I do. It’s all over her every time she looks your direction.”
Claire’s stomach tightened with the danger of Philippa’s uncanny empathy. What if she figured out the date with Tai wasn’t the only secret Nova knew about Claire?
“We had tapas this week,” Claire said, “and I told her I was seeing Tai on Thursday and a little of how it went.” A very little. All Nova knew about her date with Tai was that it had gone well enough for the truce to be permanent, not that they had…
“You kissed him,” Philippa said, pointing her finger like a weapon.
“Gosh, Pippa, are you empathic or telepathic?”
Philippa gave a crow of victory. “Thank you for confirming my wild guess. But I still want an explanation.”
“Go.” Claire shooed her toward the door. “Get out. We’re not talking about this now.”
Philippa shook her head a final time, then returned to their table. When Claire joined a few minutes later, Nova stared at her with glittering eyes and mouthed clear words. You kissed him?
Well…shoot. Claire had to talk to Tai. As soon as possible.
After a reception dinner of small plates—typical vampire party fare—and two hours of dancing in the garden, where music could be played slightly louder for the humans without bothering the vampires, around ten o’clock the guests dispersed and the wedding party drove over to Laurence and Senna Maddox’s home to continue the festivities.