SEVENTEEN
NO CALLS. No texts. No contact.
Those were Jane’s rules. She didn’t like it.
Before that day, she’d been ignorant to her reliance on Zairn’s voice, on his words.
And, for probably the first time in her entire life, it bugged her that she didn’t have her phone.
Rather that she didn’t have it nearby. It was crazy!
Most days her phone was dead or off somewhere on its own, and she never thought anything of it.
Any time Zairn needed her, he’d find her.
On this particular day, they’d been told that wasn’t allowed.
Without the prospect of contact, she got antsy.
Was it PTSD? From that call, the one that told her Zairn’s number was no longer active. In that closet… upstairs. Shit, was that really a year ago?
“Rox?”
Astrid appeared around the stylist currently working on her hair. A squad of them worked at temporary stations set up for each individual woman, like models at a photo shoot. Her girls, and some others, had their own teams for the essentials.
“Hey, Astrid, honey. You doing okay? You should be getting your hair done.”
“Yeah, I…” As was her way, Astrid seemed a little uneasy. “The dresses are here.”
“Oh!” She leaped out of the chair, startling the stylist. “Sorry! Oh! I have to…”
Striding off with Astrid at her side, she murmured, “Has she seen them?”
“No, I don’t—”
A wail from the adjoining room interrupted, putting the bustling space on momentary pause.
“I guess she has,” Roxie mumbled then tossed out an arm. “Carry on, all! Nothing to see here!”
The busy room carried on, dubiously, but she didn’t have time to loiter. Rushing back to the bridal suite, Astrid wasn’t far behind.
“Honey…” she said, the moment she saw Jane, back to her. “It’s okay.”
“It’s not okay!” Jane threw up her hands. “This is bad! It’s awful! I can’t—the whole day is ruined!”
She put a gentle arm around her friend. “No, it’s not.”
“I knew it would be something. I tried, I tried so hard and—this is a huge disaster! I’m sorry, Roxie. I’m so sorry! They’ve sent the wrong dresses! Look!”
The gowns were still in their garment bags, hanging on a towering rail, but it was obvious what they were looking at, and there were two bridal bags.
“It’s okay,” Roxie said, twisting around, seeking Toria who… yes, her friend appeared in the doorway to give her the nod. Eek, it was exciting. Too exciting! This was it! The moment! “Someone’s here to speak to you.”
“Good! Yes! From the dress place? They’ll get a piece of my mind.
We’re not paying for this. Whoever’s responsible…
How do we fix this? How do we fix this? If they dropped off the wrong thing, maybe…
Could they come back? Fix it? We’re short a bridesmaid’s dress too.
It’s just an oversight, right? An oversight.
” Linking their fingers, Roxie guided her friend not to the busy staging room, but a door on the side wall, a door that opened just before they got there. “Why are they in—”
“Blossom…”
His voice on the other side of the half open door quieted Jane.
“Knox?” her friend asked and reached for the door.
Roxie intercepted her hand and, holding both, stopped her behind the door, ensuring it stayed between the couple, hiding each from the other’s view.
“Don’t touch it, just… listen,” Roxie said.
Okay, this was it, Knox better have his speech ready. Damn, she should’ve grabbed Kleenex.
“Blossom, you are all that is. The most important person. The way I feel about you… I can only feel this with you. No one else ever came close. I have no doubt we’re it, that we are each other’s match.
But it’s not enough…” Peeking at Jane’s rapt profile, it was difficult to read.
For the first time in her damn life. Jane usually wore every nuance of emotion on her face.
Why choose mystery now? “It’s not enough that I know that.
It’s not enough that you know or our friends know it.
I want the world to understand what we mean to each other.
And that means nothing less than forever. ”
His hand appeared around the door, ring box aloft, and from the height of it, he was definitely on one knee.
Go, Knox! He was getting this. Oh, who cared if he felt like an idiot?
The details mattered so much to Jane that he took them seriously.
And that was why he was her best friend’s perfect match.
It wasn’t about being the same, it was about embracing their differences.
“Forever,” Jane whispered, ensnared by the ring.
“This is my grandmother’s ring. It’s the ring I rushed out of bed to go get that night you thought I abandoned you. I’m sorry, Blossom. I’ve never been so sure of anything in my life. I want you, no, I need you to be my wife, Blossom. I need you to say yes so we can start our forever.”
“Yes?” Jane murmured like she didn’t get it, then her whole body jolted. “Oh my God! Yes! You’re proposing! Yes! Yes!”
“Give him your hand,” Roxie said when the box disappeared. “No, wait, no contact, I’ll do it.”
Snatching the ring from Knox’s pincered fingers, she slid it onto Jane’s hand.
“Why can’t we see each other?” Jane’s confusion was a picture. “Why doesn’t he want to see me?”
“Because the bride doesn’t see the groom before the wedding.”
“Before the wedding, but I…”
“We’re doing it today, Blossom. I can’t wait another day.”
“Wait another…”
“This is yours too,” Roxie said, backing off to present the room as the women rushed through to congratulate her.
Even the stylists and makeup artists were tearing up.
“See you at the altar, Blossom.”
The door closed and he was gone, which only creased Jane’s brow further.
“I don’t get it—”
“They didn’t get the order wrong,” Toria said, extricating Jane from the hugs that happened to her, she was too dazed to be an active participant. “There are two bridal gowns because there are two brides. “You… and Roxie.”
“Me and…” Jane whipped around to check her smile. “We’re both getting married? No, I won’t take your day from you.”
“I want to share this with you.” Roxie went to give her another hug, tighter, more secure than anyone else would. “You’ve done this, all of this. You deserve to embrace this day with me.” She leaned back to make eye contact. “Besides, the masses won’t get the gushing bride experience with me.”
“Oh, but all the people, the crowd and the…”
“I’ll take care of the crowd. You be the gushing bride and I’ll be the spectacle bride.”
Like they were different Barbies.
“This is too… But there are so many things we’ll have to change—”
“Nothing. It’s all been done.”
“Done?”
“Why do you think I hung around in LA so long before today? Why do you think Lilya kept asking for help with Zay-Jay…? Other than the fact that she needed you?”
“You knew.” Jane’s head snapped side to side as she inspected each of their faces. “You both knew about this?”
“Yes,” Toria said on a laugh.
“This isn’t because of what I said this morning? You didn’t browbeat him into—”
“What do you think Knox just carries the ring around all the time? No. We didn’t speak to him this morning.”
Jane patted her decolletage. “We’ll need a license and—”
“You have a license, you signed it with a bunch of other things.”
“I… I have a license?”
“To wed? Yes.”
“And the dress—”
“Right there. Exactly the one you chose as your dream dress in the bridal store. Customized to our means and the fairytales, of course.”
“The cake?”
“On its way.”
“But I… but we…”
“No excuses, everything is under control.”
“But how did you…”
Jane needed to process. And she’d have time for that. Some anyway.
“Let’s get champagne in here and keep it coming,” Roxie called over her shoulder at someone, anyone. “Just breathe, honey. It will all be okay.”
She and Toria settled Jane on the antique-style settee, then sat at either side of her. They hugged and stroked to, hopefully, comfort while wide-eyed, still stunned, Jane fixated on the floor.
“You won’t miss out on anything and don’t have to do this today,” Toria said, giving Jane another squeeze. “There’s no pressure. None. If you don’t want to marry him—”
“I do!” Jane suddenly became alert. “I do want to marry him… I want to marry him… today!”
“Okay,” she spoke slowly. “That’s good. Great.”
“Does Knox know? How do we tell him that—”
“He knows, sweetie. Everything is planned.”
Was Jane listening? Was she breathing? Given what she’d just been hit with, Jane could be forgiven for not absorbing the details.
“How did…” Jane looked at Toria, then at her. “You knew this was happening?”
“We did.”
Jane swallowed. “This is why…”
Toria filled in the silence. “Why he didn’t sleep with you last night?”
“And probably why he was too busy to talk this morning,” Roxie said. “He had to deal with family, and guests, finding out the news. Though it could be he was nervous to say something wrong.”
“There’s no such thing as a nervous Collier,” Jane murmured. Ah, her guy and her best friend were like one. She loved it. “Oh, no, wait! I’m nervous all the time, I can’t be a Collier.”
“They make exceptions for beauty and brains. And future-heir makers.”
“There’s no such thing as an unattractive Collier either,” Toria said. “Focus on that, baby, and start figuring out what’ll be your something blue.”
“Are you sure?” Jane bounced around to take both of Roxie’s hands. “This is your day. I don’t want—”
“This is our day.” She cupped Jane’s jaw. “I want to do this with you. I need to.”
“And Zairn won’t be mad?”
She laughed. “No, honey, he wants this too.”
If ever there was a prime moment to reveal she and Zairn were already married, it was that one right there. And there it went floating by…
She didn’t confess.
Probably never would.
“We’re… getting married.”
“We’re getting married!” she declared and grabbed Jane into a hug.
A lot of moving parts awaited them. There was a good chance something might not click the way it was supposed to. Did she care? Not for herself, but for Jane.
Either way, they’d work it out. Because they had the groom part right… Not that she’d necessarily admit that to Knox’s face.