Not On The Table (Unspoken Terms #5)

Chapter 1

Taylor

“So? What do you think?”

It wasn’t hard to ignore the hesitation in Cameron’s voice when she turned from the full-length mirror to face me.

Not when all my focus was being spent on holding back my tears. One of my dearest friends… About to tie the knot.

The layers of ivory crushed silk cascaded over her form like a dream. Intricate bejeweled lace detail picked out the tasteful diamond studs she wore, set off even further by the tennis bracelet slung around her wrist.

Hair up, no veil.

Her fingers traced the edges of the simple diamond bracelet, a solitary ‘M’ charm hanging from it.

I stood beside her, my heart brimming with happiness for her and Elliot. There was something else in there, too. But it had nothing to do with them.

The pang of loneliness that stole over me didn’t need a voice. Not today.

I was content to let it linger there in silence, as it usually did, while everyone’s loves and lives moved on around me.

“I think if Elliot had any doubts about you, this would have her convinced.”

“Doubts?” The tension in the dimly lit bridal room ramped up several notches in an instant. “Has she said something to you? What do you mean, doubts?”

Shit.

I laughed softly, stroking her arm to try to calm her rampant nerves back to baseline.

“Relax, Cam, it was a joke.” I watched suspicion flash behind her eyes before she finally took a deep, steadying breath and nodded. “You’re a vision, I mean it. And Elliot will think so, too.”

“It’s just… this has been a long time coming, you know?” She blinked quickly, fighting the same battle against tears that I was. “I just want everything to be perfect.”

“It will be. It already is,” I assured her.

She turned back around and I captured a rare moment of vulnerability in her reflection.

“What does it look like out there?” Her voice was a breath of excited anticipation.

I leaned closer, my fingers gently adjusting the curls on her back. “It’s a true winter wonderland. Alex has outdone herself, if I do say so myself. And just wait until you see Reid’s installation.”

“Stop.” She held up her hand, the ghost of a smile threatening on her red lips. “Don’t spoil anything. I want it to be a surprise.”

I stifled a laugh and went to get her heels from the bench. That was when I heard her clear her throat, heard layers of fabric shifting around and then shifting again.

I deliberately didn’t turn back around, even after I had the shoes in my hands. I could feel that she was trying to say something, and knew that if I was looking at her it’d make it harder for her.

After a few more moments of inscrutable silence, she finally spoke, her voice a mere whisper.

“I wish Mark could be here to see all this. He would have loved it.”

I’d felt it all day, but now more than ever, Mark’s memory was a tender presence in the room. Nobody felt the weight of his absence more than Cam, of course.

“Did you remember to-?”

“His seat’s right up front, and we have the ‘reserved’ sign in gold, just like you wanted.” I walked back over to her, setting down her shoes so she could get them on.

Cameron’s eyes glistened with unshed tears, her fingertips absently brushing the charm on her bracelet once more. “Thank you, Taylor. It means the world to me.”

Where we stood, the weight of the past converged with the promise of the future. Both of us could feel it, and if my nervous anticipation was blooming I could only imagine what it must’ve been like for Cameron.

“Today marks a new chapter for you, Cam,” I began, my voice soft but resolute.

She wouldn’t hear any of my fears or personal hang-ups.

Not today. “You’ve waited a long time for this kind of love, and for this day in particular.

Leave the details to us, and you drown yourself in all the happiness and celebrations you can manage. ”

“A long time…” Gratitude shone in her eyes as she met my gaze in the mirror. It looked as though she were contemplating everything she’d been through to get to this point in her life.

I couldn’t help but absorb that seed, and feel it take root in my gut.

So many false starts, so many doomed-before-it-even-began romances. How many times could I keep at it before my heart gave up the ghost for good?

“Of course, you know all about that.”

When I looked up, she was still looking right at me in the mirror’s reflection, her gaze unwavering. A knowing gleam in her eye.

In the sanctuary of the bridal room I felt safe to let out a slow exhale and allow my walls to lower. By a fraction.

My smile faltered, but I made up for it by placing my hand inside hers. “Today is about you and Elliot, and the rest of your lives together.”

Perceptive as ever, Cameron interlaced her fingers with mine and turned around to face me fully. “I know very well what today is, but I asked about you. Is everything okay?”

I hesitated, my instinct to deflect the question, to protect her on this momentous day. But her concern was genuine and it tugged at the edges of my well-guarded emotions.

“Really, I’m fine. And I couldn’t be happier for you two.”

She continued to study me closely, her eyes filled with understanding. “You know you can talk to me, right? Even when I’m about to walk down the aisle.”

A lump formed in my throat, exacerbated by the strangled laugh that wormed its way out of me. “I appreciate that, Cam. But I’d much rather talk about how those heels are feeling. Think you can go a few rounds on the dance floor?”

Just like that, the mood shifted, and Cam broke into a silly little jig that sent the layers of her dress swishing this way and that.

“A few? Baby, I could go all night.” She leaned in, holding her hand to cover her mouth as though she were about to let me in on a secret. “Just ask Elliot. She’ll give you the cliff notes, I’m sure.”

“In my current drought state, I’d pay her for the expanded edition.”

Our laughter was punctuated by the piercing sound of my pager going off, which simmered us down considerably.

Cameron rolled her eyes, her laughter fading, but a wide smile lingering on her lips. “Alex wasn’t kidding about those things, was she?”

“I’m sorry to have to tell you this on your wedding day and all, but Alex no longer exists.

” I frowned at the 9-1-1 alert on my pager, then cleared it before clipping it back onto the scooped neckline of my dress.

“She looks like Alex, and even sounds like her sometimes. But it’s all a hoax.

Alex was body-snatched by a crazed wedding planner with military grade predilections. ”

The belly rolling laughter that burst from Cam had the small room practically shaking. I, on the other hand, was already on my way out. To go see about the umpteenth emergency call of the day.

The girls were already gathered in the enclave next to the main reception area when I got there.

“Nice of you to drop by,” Alex hissed under her breath, blowing a wispy curl out of her face. “We’re only trying to prevent the end of the world as we know it in… T-minus twenty-five minutes.”

“Can you stop with the T-minus stuff? This isn’t Desert Storm,” I snapped, irritated by the interruption and Alex’s insistence on panicking over the smallest thing.

“It might as well be, Taylor,” she deadpanned. “While you’ve been playing dress-up, we’ve been out here dealing with one catastrophe after the other.”

“Dress-up?”

Maybe it was the way my hands found my hips, or the octave by which my voice went up, but Reid pushed between Alex and me to physically break the rising tension.

“We all have our roles to play, and we’re all doing the best we can,” she said, holding up her hands to us. “Can we please remember that this is Cam and Elliot’s day, and we love them very much?”

I crossed my arms over my chest, the cool plastic of my pager doing nothing to calm me down. “Tell that to Alex. There’s nothing wrong with my memory. She’s the one who catapulted us into the 80s with these things…”

I snapped the pager from my dress and waved it at Reid. I was annoyed, but seeing the way she struggled to bite back laughter broke through all that.

My shoulders dropped as I let out a sigh of defeat. “Seriously, though, what’s going on?”

“For starters, short of us strapping our phones to our thighs under these formal gowns, pagers were the best option.” Alex took on a haughty, defensive tone.

It was funnier than she intended, and now it was all three of us trying not to laugh.

It didn’t stop her, and she continued with, “Second of all, when my team went ahead with the temporary structure, we worked around the storm schedule. It was only supposed to be brewing today. Brewing.”

She emphasized the last word with animated hand gestures, and Hayden was the first to break. She snorted laughter, imitating Alex in an over-the-top way.

I shook my head at her and quickly used my body to block her from Alex’s line of sight. “I take it the storm’s not behaving, then?”

“Have you heard the wind out there?” Alex was beside herself. “This isn’t brewing, Taylor. It’s definitely a couple of steps up from brewing. This storm’s coming at us fast, and my support beams aren’t happy about the change in schedule.”

Reid chimed in with her own brand of panic. “And the sequencing on my visual effects installation is glitching. I’ve tried everything, and it still won’t run the way it should.”

“Funny, everything in the kitchen is right on time, all the wait staff are prepped and ready to go.” Hayden’s voice was like cheeky velvet behind me. “I would say I’m winning, but I don’t want to rub it in.”

Alex’s nostrils flared dangerously as she glared at Hayden. “You’re not helping. The 9-1-1 call was to get you here to help.”

“How is it not helping?” Hayden feigned innocence. “At least everyone will be well-fed by the time the place crashes down and buries us all.”

“Hayden!” Reid and I whirled round on her and she bit her lip, making the motion of a zipper as she dragged her fingers across her mouth.