Chapter 26 #2
The music swelled. My gaze was drawn to Zina, who held a hastily gathered bouquet of long grass and wildflowers.
Even though everything about the moment was fake, orchestrated and totally inauthentic, seeing her at the opposite end of the aisle took my breath away.
She hadn’t even had a chance to shower that morning and she still radiated beauty.
As she took small, tentative steps toward me, my pulse ticked up, my breath shortened, and my face heated.
Her hair was swept off her face in a ponytail that swished behind her as she walked.
“Slower.” Chyna stood in the front row, barking out directions. “The bride will be walking much slower than that.”
Lacey’s dad had even joined the charade and was standing in for Munyon himself. He smoothed his hand over his T-shirt and mumbled something to Zina. She smiled at him and they resumed their trip down the aisle, at a turtle pace. A turtle who’d been fed a tranquilizer.
At this rate it might take all day for the two of them to reach me.
I tried to take in a deep breath to slow down my heart rate.
It didn’t do any good. The sight of Zina walking toward me, posing as my bride, knocked the breath right out of me.
I’d never been so uncomfortable and felt so confident in the same moment.
For half a heartbeat I let myself imagine what it might be like if the two of us weren’t just puppets going through the motions to satisfy the wedding planner of a couple of strangers.
Could I ever make this kind of commitment to someone?
Hell, I’d never committed to anything much less anyone.
But being around Zina, being part of the wedding plans, feeling like I was working with a team of people, it had gotten to me over the past several weeks.
I’d found myself daydreaming about what it might be like to stay put for a change.
Instead of making me feel like I wanted to run, for the first time in my life I thought I might be up for the challenge.
Because of her.
Zina reached me. Her gaze met mine. Her eyes bright, those full lips curved into a smile, I looked at her and everything else faded away. Lacey’s dad mumbled something and then tucked Zina’s arm into the crook of my elbow.
“Bet you didn’t see this coming,” she muttered under her breath.
“Not in a million years.” I grinned as we began to turn toward what would hopefully be where the officiant would stand to preside.
Lacey’s voice came from the back. “Okay, they exchange vows, yada yada yada. Should we practice the exit now?”
“Not yet.” Chyna rose from her chair. “I think we need to try this again. Can you add a little pep to the step of the penguins?”
I gritted my teeth.
“Easy now, she has to leave for the airport in just a bit. You can do this,” Zina whispered.
I nodded, swallowing the backlash I’d been about to release on the wedding planner. “I’m not sure what you mean by ‘pep to the step.’ Care to demonstrate?”
Chyna put her hands to her sides, palms flipped out to mimic the penguins. “Not so much meandering, just have them walk a straight line down the aisle.”
“You know penguins have a natural waddle to their stride, right?”
The pressure from Zina’s hand tightened on my arm.
“They look drunk though. Can’t you get them to waddle a little less?” Chyna demonstrated. Hands still at her sides like wings, she executed a graceful straight walk down the center of the aisle.
This had gone on long enough. The woman was beyond demanding now; her request was ridiculous. I opened my mouth to tell her just where she could shove the ideas of my penguins non-waddling down the aisle. Before I could say a word, Zina clamped her hand over my mouth.
“We’ll practice with the penguins to see if we can straighten their gait. Right, Alex?” Her eyes had taken on an almost maniacal shine. Like if I didn’t play nice and agree with her, she might nip off my nose or something.
Clearing my throat, I reached up to move her hand away from my mouth and twined my fingers with hers.
“That’s right.” The smile I forced on my lips felt strained. “I’ll see what I can do to de-waddle the birds.”
Zina bit back a grin. I could tell she was about to lose it by the way her chest moved in and out, like she was trying to breathe without laughing.
“Very well.” Chyna let her hands drop. “Now let’s do the whole ‘kiss the bride’ and let me see how you manage to get yourselves back down the aisle.”
I lifted a brow, and Zina linked her arm through mine again. “She doesn’t really mean for us to kiss, right?” I asked.
“No. Just turn around and we’ll walk down the aisle. Slow, though.”
We let our arms drop as we turned toward the front and then linked arms again.
Chyna had moved to the side, where she was trying to wrangle the penguins into a line to walk back down the aisle.
“I told you, we haven’t practiced that part yet.” I stepped toward her, passing my nieces, who still posed as bridesmaids.
“What do you do to get them to move?” Chyna asked.
“We’ll work on it. I’ll have it all pulled together by the time you come back for the real rehearsal.”
“Stupid birds. No wonder you can’t fly.” She practically spit out the last word.
“Fly. Fly. Fly.” The mimicked cry came from where Izzy stood. Her hands were still clasped in front of her, holding one of the scraggly last-minute bouquets Lacey had shoved in all of their hands.
How had I missed it? Hadn’t she learned before not to bring the damn bird around? The pesky parrot in question poked his head out of the bag hanging from Izzy’s shoulder.
“No.” I made a move to stop him as Shiner Bock emerged from the bag and clambered up Izzy’s arm.
“Fly. Fly. Fly,” the damn bird called. Then he spread his wings and drifted from Izzy’s shoulder to land on top of Chyna’s head.
The scene unrolled as if in slow motion. As Chyna’s hands grappled for him, he spooked, sailing back to Izzy, something hot pink in his grip.
Holy shit. I turned in horror to find Chyna with her hands on top of her head. The bird had stolen her hat.
Zina leapt toward Izzy, tossing her bouquet to the ground as she reached for the bird.
Izzy must have freaked out because she whirled away from Zina and tried to run.
But she tripped over the twine we’d used to mark the edges of the tent.
Izzy screamed and clutched at her arm. Char yelled as her daughter went down.
All I could do was watch the scene unfold, massive disaster after massive disaster. Before the dust began to settle, one thing became sufficiently clear.
I was fucked.