Chapter 16
Chapter Sixteen
brUNO
She emerges from the bedroom transformed. She’s champagne bubbles and scattered stars and a full-dimple grin, full-on radiant.
The dress hits her curves exactly right. Like it was made for her. And the way the color sets off her skin. And then there’s the plunge of the bodice. I’m still taking inventory when I find myself looking at her mouth. I stop doing that.
“What? You don’t like it?”
“It’s perfect.”
“Thank you.” She does a little twirl and the skirt blooms out around her and settles back. “I feel so happy in this.”
They don’t deserve her.
“Are you mad about something?”
I go to her and free a thread from the strap, smoothing it flat. A small thing. The only useful thing I can think to do. “There.”
She beams at me. “Thank you, Mr. Exactitudinal.”
“That’s not a word,” I whisper.
The ceremony is held in the garden overlooking the water. White chairs arranged in precise rows. A string quartet plays Mozart.
Apparently, rain came into the forecast this afternoon—it’s been threatening up and down the entire East Coast, dark clouds gathering and dispersing, but the sky above the Hamptons stays clear for the wedding.
I settle into my chair beside her and try to focus on the ceremony. The bride appears. The groom tears up.
But I can’t stop looking at Kelsey, eyes bright with unshed tears, hands clasped in her lap, fingers moving slightly, unconsciously, like she’s counting beats.
The officiant speaks. Vows are exchanged. At some point Kelsey reaches over and squeezes my arm. I don’t think she even realizes she’s done it.
After a short break in the program, people are led to a vast seating area under the tents. The tables have elaborate centerpieces. Strings of fairy lights like fanciful spiderwebs overhead. Waitstaff glide through with yet more champagne.
“Oh!” Kelsey’s face lights up when she sees our place cards. “We’re at the front. Near Danielle and Tyler!”
Interesting.
I feel somebody watching me. I look up. Tyler catches my eye from across the tent and gives me an enthusiastic thumbs up.
I’m starting to hate these people.
We take our seats next to some of the most favored cousins. Dinner is adequate. Dessert appears. The speeches drone on. And through it all, a steady stream of relatives and friends of the family move past our table, drawn by curiosity about the reclusive watchmaker and his unlikely date.
“So how did you two meet?” somebody asks.
Kelsey launches into the story with her usual enthusiasm. “He saw my show. Anything Goes—I’m one of Reno’s Angels. He waited at the stage door after.”
“You waiting at the stage door?” The woman—an aunt, I gather—looks skeptical. “At a Broadway theater?”
Kelsey glances nervously at me.
I take her hand. “I couldn’t look away.” I address the aunt. I address all of them, the growing cluster around our table. “Have any of you seen it? Have you gone to see the show she’s in?”
People mumble excuses, mutter promises that they hope to.
“It’s okay!” Kelsey chirps.
“She’s not one of the leads, not technically.
But she has incredible presence. Charisma.
And every move is deliberate—she knows exactly where her weight is, where her attention is, what she’s doing with both.
” As I speak, my eyes slide from one of them to the next, burning with contempt, and it makes each one of them break eye contact and look away.
“You tell yourself to follow the story, to pay attention to the program—and then you realize you’ve missed three scenes because you’ve been watching her instead.
” I pause to look them over like misbehaving children.
“So yes. I waited at the stage door. Forty-five minutes. She came out last. I had no good explanation for what I was doing there.”
Kelsey’s cheeks are pink. “If I’d known you were out there that long, honey—”
“You didn’t even know me.”
She blinks. “Well, true.”
“But wouldn’t you have people do that?” the aunt presses. “Someone like you—surely you’d have an assistant reach out to arrange something.”
“When a man sees a woman like Kelsey, he doesn’t outsource a goddamn thing.”
The table goes quiet.
Kelsey opens her mouth, closes it.
The aunt clears her throat. “Well. Wonderful.”
The interrogators drift away. Kelsey leans in close. “Wow. Somebody is just full of surprises.”
“In for a penny, in for a pound,” I say.
“So cool. Mr. Bruno Blackwood wouldn’t outsource that shit! No siree!” she teases.
I lower my voice. “Not a thing.”
She studies my face. “You might’ve made them feel a little bit bad, though, for not seeing my show.”
“They should feel bad.”
“People are busy,” she says. “And we’re just coming back together, you know? They might not even have known about it.”
I give the middle distance a dark look.
She lays a hand on my arm, with a warning glance. She does not want me to malign her family.
Fair enough. Stay in your lane.
Tyler appears at my elbow. “Bruno! Man, I’ve been dying to ask you about the new moon phase complication I heard you’re developing...”
I let him pull me into a conversation about gear trains and lunar cycles, which is probably good, because I am getting invested. Involved. Nobody wants that; least of all, me.
Kelsey turns to chat with one of the cousins, and they go to check on something.
Eventually Tyler’s dragged off for some wedding-related activity, and I’m left standing at the edge of the tent, hoping nobody recognizes me.
Too much to ask for, as it turns out.
A man stumbles into my peripheral vision. One of the uncles, I think. Red-faced, listing slightly to the left.
I pull out my phone, as if I’ve just gotten a call.
“You’re the watch guy,” he announces, too loud. “The billionaire boyfriend.”
“I am. Sorry, I have to take this.” I head out of the tent and across the dark lawn.
He laughs and catches up, clapping me on the back. “A vape? Lemme join you.”
“A call. You’ll excuse me.” I continue to the far end of the space.
He’s like a parasite, following me.
I stop at a tree and turn to him. “Leave me.”
He jabs a finger in my general direction. “I’m just saying, you’d better watch out with that one.”
Something cold settles in my chest. “Excuse me?”
“I’m just saying that you seem like a smart guy. Probably got a lot of nice things. You’ll want to watch your valuables with this one is all I’m saying.”
I pocket my phone.
“Whoa-whoa-whoa.” He backs up, alarmed by whatever he sees in my eyes.
I grab his lapels and slam him against the tree, letting his head knock into it.
He has to tilt his head back to meet my eyes.
“Now,” I say, “what was that you had to tell me?”
“N-nothing.”
I cast my voice low and hard. “She did nothing wrong.”
“Well. She would say that.”
The cold thing in my chest crystallizes into something harder. “And the family’s position? I was under the impression that people had rethought their stance.”
The uncle laughs. “What? No. Nobody thinks she’s innocent.”
I grind him harder against the tree. “Then why is she here?”
He narrows his eyes.
I push him higher, letting him feel the rough bark. His feet are dangling in the air.
“Okay, okay, Granny Ernie forced it. Said Danielle had to give Kelsey a part in the wedding and invite her. She’s paying for this whole wedding, you know.” The liquor on his breath nearly makes my eyes water.
I keep him there, pulse racing. “So Granny Ernie believes her?”
He casts a hazy glance off to the side. “Uh...working theory is she just wants everyone in the pictures.”
“This reunion. It’s all for show.”
He seems to register something in my expression and tries to pull away. I crush him harder. I can’t punch him, but I can make him hurt. “Say one more word about my date, and I will make you sorry.”
“I was trying to do you a favor—”
“Do you understand?”
He nods.
I let him go. He stumbles away.
“Go. Run.”
He turns and runs around the tent.
I stand there in the dark. What the hell am I doing? I am not a man who loses control. That’s all I need, to get arrested for assault.
I smooth my jacket. Straighten my cuffs.
Stay in your lane.