Chapter 24
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Kate
Penny and I are the first of our group to arrive at Miguel’s. She had a great fitting, and I cried when she walked out in the final version of her dress, looking like a vision, her face alight with joy. After she changed back into her clothes, we hugged and laughed and cried together for a while before collecting ourselves and making our way over here to the restaurant.
“Logan’s going to lose his shit when he sees you walking toward him in that dress,” I say after we take our seats at the reserved table.
“Do you think he’ll cry?” she asks, wiggling in her seat.
“Definitely. Niagara Falls,” I say with exaggerated seriousness, and we fall apart, giggling like a couple of schoolgirls.
Our humor cuts off as Blaine slides into a chair across from us, surprising us both .
“Good morning,” she says smoothly with a twinkle in her eye that has the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end.
“Morning,” Penny replies, then tilts her head to study Blaine a little more closely. “What’s wrong with your face?”
“What do you mean?” Blaine asks, panic lacing the words as she pats her fingertips against her cheeks.
Penny swirls a finger in the air in her direction. “You’ve got that ‘cat that ate the canary’ look this morning. What are you up to?”
“Oh,” Blaine says, her expression smoothing out. Then her gaze darts toward me. “I just had a very satisfying morning, that’s all.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I ask, suspicion prickling down my spine.
She’s obviously up to something. And whatever it is, I’m her intended mark. She’s trying to get under my skin, but that’s not going to happen. I’m too happy–– too satisfied ––to let Blaine’s not-so-veiled insults cut me today.
Even though Tucker left me with a weird vibe this morning.
I push the thought away, taking his excuse of wanting to get back to the B&B before Miss Ginny noticed his absence to heart. Tucker hasn’t lied or tried to mislead me all week, and I refuse to get paranoid now.
“I’m sure you can imagine what it means, even if you don’t know from firsthand experience,” Blaine purrs in answer to my question, and my brain refocuses on her as she subtly licks her lips .
She’s obviously hinting that she had sex, but why is she staring at me with that expectant expression? Like she’s waiting for me to put the pieces together?
Oh.
My back teeth grind against each other as it finally clicks. Blaine wants me to believe she hooked up with Tucker this morning. My own eyes narrow as I study her, looking for signs of deceit. I mean, I know she’s lying. She has no idea where I spent my time all day yesterday, last night, and this morning. I haven’t even told Penny yet.
That awkward scene between us and Tucker’s hasty departure flash through my mind again, and I stiffen. Could he have left my bed to go jump in hers?
No.
No way.
But Blaine keeps watching me, waiting for the arrow to strike home.
“Are you trying to say you slept with J.T. this morning?” Penny asks, not beating around the bush at all.
Blaine just shrugs as her eyebrows shoot up. “I don’t kiss and tell.”
“Bullshit,” Penny grits out. “And I don’t know what you’re trying to stir up, but you can stop it right now.”
I reach over under the table and grip Penny’s knee. When she looks at me, I give her a slight shake of my head. I don’t want her fighting with Blaine the day before the wedding. Especially not over me.
And especially when it’s not necessary.
I have no doubt she’s lying. And it will be my pleasure to catch her in that lie .
“So how was it?” I ask, my voice filled with mild curiosity. “I heard he has a very interesting piercing…”
Blaine’s smile drops, and panic flits through her eyes for a moment before she regathers her confidence. “Again, I don’t kiss and tell.”
Her tone deepens to a husky purr like she’s trying to confirm the fact without saying it outright. A smirk twists my lips, and I quickly look down at my lap, letting Blaine think she’s got me right where she wants me––jealous and hurting.
But of course, Tucker doesn’t have a piercing. I know that for a fact.
Sam arrives, effectively ending the conversation. Penny looks like she wants to call Blaine out again, regardless of the audience, so I squeeze her knee one more time. When she looks over at me, I mouth the words, “Let it go.”
Logan materializes next to us, sliding into the chair on the other side of Penny while saying, “Sorry we’re late. We spent the whole morning taking care of some top secret groom and best man stuff.”
As he speaks, Tucker drops into the chair next to me and gives me a warm smile. I return it, then my eyes dart over to Blaine, whose face is unnaturally pink. She’s either embarrassed to be caught in her lies or angry that Tucker is so focused on me––I’m not sure which.
But it doesn’t matter. She doesn’t matter.
All that matters is that Tucker is acting like his normal self now, all that weird tension from this morning gone. Whatever he and Logan got up to this morning, it helped him, somehow. And for that, I’m glad.
Miguel and two waitresses approach before anyone else can speak, delivering a platter of enchiladas, a bowl of rice, one of beans, and some chips and salsa. The table is already set with plates and silverware, and a waiter comes in right behind them, handing out glasses of ice water.
“Excuse me. Can I please get a side salad, no croutons, with vinaigrette on the side?” Blaine asks the waiter as the rest of us start to serve ourselves.
Typical. Miguel whips up this feast for us, but Blaine refuses to eat it. Too many carbs, I guess. Why can’t she just take a day off and actually enjoy herself?
Then I remember what she tried to pull a few minutes ago, and screw it. Let her starve, eating a joyless meal of bland rabbit food.
“Okay,” Penny says, gaining everyone’s attention. “This afternoon’s agenda consists of mani-pedi’s for the girls at Margie’s Salon while the boys go bowling. At four o’clock, we’ll all meet up at the venue for the rehearsal, then go to our place for the rehearsal dinner. We’re grilling steaks.”
Everyone nods in agreement to the plan, and I slice a bite off my enchilada with the edge of my fork before stabbing it and pushing it through my lips. It’s filled with chicken, green chilis, and gooey, melted cheese, and I can’t stop the quiet moan that rumbles in my chest as the flavors burst on my tongue. I see Tucker go still in my peripheral vision, and when I look over at him, there’s a fire burning in his eyes that wasn’t there a moment ago .
Oh. Oops.
“Sorry,” I whisper. “This is really good.”
He shakes his head as if to tell me I have nothing to apologize for, then opens his mouth to say something, but his words are cut off when Penny shouts, “What?”
My head whips around, and I see she’s got her cell phone pressed to her ear. She’s ghost-white, and her eyes are filling with tears as she tells whoever it is that she’ll be right there and hangs up.
“What’s wrong?” Logan asks.
“That was Peg over at the bridal shop,” she says, the words broken while she huffs out choppy, irregular breaths. “Something’s happened to my dress.”
“What?” I shout. “We were just there, and it was fine.”
I’m already pushing myself out of my chair as I speak, and Logan takes Penny’s hand and pulls her up to her feet as the others follow suit. Sam calls out an explanation to Miguel as we rush from the restaurant as a group, and he calls back that he’ll wrap our meal up and keep it warm if we want to come back.
But the food is the last thing on our minds as we hurry down the street toward the bridal shop. Penny’s dress has to be okay. The wedding is tomorrow .
When we crowd into the shop, we all freeze at the sight before us. Penny lets out a keening wail as she stumbles forward, running her hands over what’s left of the wedding gown Peg is holding up. Long strips of shredded satin and lace dangle from what was once the skirt, and the bodice has been sliced multiple times, leaving gaping holes .
“What happened?” Logan demands when the rest of us can’t find our voices.
“I’m so sorry,” Peg says, tears dripping down her cheeks. “I left the gown hanging out here so I could give it a final steam after you left this morning. I went to grab some lunch, and I was sure I locked the door behind me. When I got back, the door was unlocked, and I found the dress like this. I tried to see if I could fix it before I called you, Penny, but I’m sorry. I can’t. There’s just too much damage.”
Penny starts to cry, in earnest, and her knees give out. Logan catches her before she hits the floor, then carefully leads her over to a sofa so she can sit. I rush over to sit next to her, rubbing her back and speaking in soothing tones to try and calm her. My eyes find Tucker’s, and he looks a little lost. As I watch, his expression morphs into one of determination. He pulls Peg away from the rest of us, and they start to speak in rushed whispers before they turn and disappear into the back.
Penny starts to murmur through her tears, nonsensical mutterings that quickly increase in speed and volume. She’s freaking out, and I have no idea what to do. Our only option at this point would be to find a new dress, one straight off the rack that would fit her with minimal alterations.
She’s going to hate that idea.
She spent months searching for that dress, intent on finding the perfect style and fit, then spent weeks getting it altered until it was absolutely perfect. She deserves the dress she wanted, and now, it’s gone.
I glance around the room. Logan is on Penny’s other side, whispering words of love and comfort as he brushes her hair back from her face and tries, in vain, to dry her tears. Sam’s eyes are wide and worried, and he’s pacing like he doesn’t know what else to do in this situation.
And Blaine? She just looks bored as she stares at her nails. Like she’s thinking about what color to get at our appointment later. Then she looks at Penny and smiles. Freaking smiles .
Suspicion floods my system, and before I know what I’m doing, I’m up off the couch, cinching my fingers around Blaine’s wrist in a death grip, and dragging her through the door and out onto the sidewalk outside.
“Jesus, Kate. What the fuck?” she growls, jerking out of my grip and rubbing her wrist like I’d bruised it.
“What did you do?” I demand, my voice low and edged like a knife.
Her head jerks back, her eyes wide with surprise. “What do you mean?”
“You showed up at Miguel’s, all smug and proud of yourself. You tried to pretend like it had something to do with Tucker, but that wasn’t really the reason, was it?”
The innuendo in my voice is clear, and it only takes her a moment to piece together what I’m saying. Her chest swells as she throws her shoulders back and gives me a death stare.
“Are you accusing me of destroying Penny’s dress?”
I don’t respond. I just continue to stare at her, anger boiling through my veins.
“That’s ridiculous,” she says, throwing her hands up in the air. “Do you really think I’d be so petty as to ruin my own brother’s wedding? What kind of a monster do you think I am?”
I’m taken aback for a moment at the vehemence in her voice, but I quickly recover, saying, “You didn’t look too torn up over the whole thing in there.”
A muscle works in her jaw before she spits, “Fuck you, Kate.”
Then she spins and barges back inside without giving me a chance to respond. Shit. Did I overreact? Accuse Blaine of something she didn’t actually do?
I breathe out a sigh. Am I going to have to apologize to her? I’d rather have my fingernails plucked out one by one, but if I was wrong, there’s no help for it.
I head back inside and instantly spot Penny, Logan, and Tucker huddled up. He looks over and sees me, then pats Penny on the shoulder before striding my way.
“I found a shop in San Diego that has the same dress in Penny’s size. I bought it, and the seamstress is bringing it to us. She’ll be here in a couple of hours, and she and Peg will work all night, if they have to, to get it altered and ready for tomorrow.”
Holy shit. “How did you…?”
When my words trail off, he shrugs. “Money can get you almost anything. We called seven shops before we found it, and I offered the seamstress a month’s wages if she’d bring it and help get it ready in time.”
I throw my arms around him and hug him, burying my face in his chest as the tears I’ve been holding back pour out. Tucker hugs me back, but it lacks the warmth I’ve grown accustomed to from him. Maybe he’s not a fan of PDA’s. I pull back an inch and offer him a watery smile as I sniff back my tears.
“Thank you, Tucker. That’s amazing. You’re amazing.”
He carefully disentangles himself from my embrace, gives me an almost sad smile, and walks back over to Penny and Logan. I stand there and watch, confused by the sudden chill between us.
What the hell is going on?