Chapter One
RACHEL
Now
“Ican’t do this,” I whisper, leaning toward Slone, my fingers tightening around the stem of my champagne glass. My palm is slick with nerves, and I swear my voice is trembling.
“Yes, you can.” Slone bumps her shoulder against mine, her lip gloss catching the reception lights as she smirks. “You’ve practiced this a hundred times. You could recite it in your sleep.”
“Practicing in my bathroom mirror doesn’t count.” I drag in a breath, trying not to look at the crowd of laughing, glittering faces. The hum of conversation and clinking glasses feels deafening. “This is different. Everyone is watching me.”
My gaze flicks across the room, and all I see are polished smiles and expectant eyes. A stupid thought hits me: What if I mess this entire thing up for Margo?
I force a smile, pretending it’s all fine.
“They’ll love you.” She tilts her head, studying me. “Besides, it’s not about you. It’s about Anderson and Margo. All you have to do is stand up there, be your charming, slightly awkward self, and gush about how perfect they are together.”
“Slightly awkward?” I give her a look.
“Okay, extremely awkward.” Her grin widens. “But endearing. It works for you.”
I groan, tugging at the hem of my dress. “What if I forget my lines?”
“Then you wing it. You’re Rachel. You never stop talking—you’ll be fine.”
I press my lips together, both offended and… not wrong.
The reception buzzes around me. Everyone looks so happy.
The twinkle lights strung across the rooftop patio cast a golden glow over the crowd.
The view beyond the glass railing stretches wide as Atlanta’s skyline cuts across the horizon in bold, gleaming lines, each building reflecting the sun.
Being up here feels like a moment suspended in time.
One I do not want to forget. Your best friend only gets married once.
Well, I guess technically for Margo, twice.
Margo, my… I guess if you go by the textbook definition, she is my ex–sister-in-law, but she is also my longtime best friend.
Either way, she got married today. Margo met my brother in college, through me, actually, and they were soulmates.
But finding your soulmate doesn’t guarantee forever. They learned that the hard way.
Four years ago is when I think everything changed for me. There was my life before Josh, and my life after Josh. Every day since, I’ve felt his absence, missed him, carried him quietly in the spaces between thought and breath. I think Margo carries the same weight.
Still, she claws her way through grief, some days more than others, and somehow, she found another soulmate.
Anderson. She is lucky enough to have two.
And honestly, I wouldn’t want her with anyone else…
except my brother, of course. But Anderson loves her with a steady certainty that is impossible to ignore.
Slone squeezes my hand, pulling me from my thoughts. “Hey. You’ve got this. Just look at Margo when you talk. Block everyone else out. This is her night, and she asked you to stand up there because she trusts you with it. Because she loves you.”
I glance across the room at Margo, glowing in her wedding dress beside Anderson, the two of them lost in their own little universe. My chest tightens with affection.
“She does look happy,” I murmur.
Margo looks stunning, as always. Her brown-blonde hair twists into an elaborate updo, her satin gown glows under the lights, hugging her in all the right places. Anderson seems to agree; his eyes and hands haven’t left her since she walked down that aisle.
“She looks deliriously in love,” Slone corrects. “Now go make her cry in a good way.”
Before I can argue, the clinking of silverware against glass signals it is my turn. The microphone waits, an unassuming little thing perched on its stand.
“Oh god,” I mutter. “This is happening.”
“You’re gonna kill it.” Slone grins, raising her glass in salute. “Go, Maid of Honor.”
I push myself up, legs wobbly, the room suddenly stretching like a stage I never asked to walk across. My heels click against the floor as I reach the front, every head turning toward me. Heat floods my cheeks.
The microphone squeals once before settling. I grip it with both hands, my voice shaky at first.
“Hi, everyone. I’m Rachel, Margo’s Maid of Honor. I’m going to keep this speech short because I’m not a fan of crying in public. And if I start talking about all the ways I love Margo… well, crying in public will be inevitable.”
A ripple of polite laughter floats through the crowd, allowing my shoulders to relax.
“Before Margo, I had never had a sister. So, I had no idea what it was like to have someone steal your clothes or your makeup, or yell at you one minute and then act like nothing changed the next. I didn’t understand what it meant when girls talked about having someone in their corner, no matter what.
Up until that point, I only ever heard about the magic of sisterhood.
But then one day, I met Margo and all of that changed. ”
I pause, catching Margo’s eyes across the room. Her smile is already watery, which makes my throat constrict.
“Margo has been through more than most people should ever have to face. And the thing about Margo is she doesn’t just survive things—she refuses to let them steal her joy. She even found a way to laugh again, when I wasn’t sure any of us ever could.”
There is a small hitch in my voice. I swallow, pretending it’s just nerves.
I slip the familiar smile onto my face. It is practically muscle memory by now.
“She finds light where it shouldn’t exist. She finds laughter in the middle of heartbreak.
She sits with you in the dark, but she’ll also make sure you don’t stay there too long, usually by forcing you to watch bad rom-coms or bribing you with handfuls of candy. ”
A few chuckles ripple through the tables.
“That’s who Margo is. She is magic. She takes pain and turns it into strength. She loves harder, not less, after loss. She proves every single day that love is worth choosing again.”
I pause, swallowing against the lump in my throat, then add, “And let’s be honest, she’s also the only person I know who could get away with running late to literally everything and still have me waiting for her without complaint. Well, mostly without complaint.”
Laughter breaks the heaviness, and I smile, steady now.
“Anderson, thank you for seeing her. For choosing her. For being the one who reminds her every day that she deserves the happiness she has created for herself. I can’t imagine anyone more perfect for her than you.
“I’ll admit, I was skeptical at first. Not because of you, but because of how fiercely I’ve guarded Margo.
She is the most important person in my life, and I wasn’t about to let just anyone step into her world.
But then I watched you with her. The way you listen when she talks, even when she’s going on about how each shade of white paint somehow completely changes the mood of a room.
The way you sincerely laugh at her jokes, not the polite laugh, but the real one.
And most of all, the way you look at her, like she is the only person in the room you see.
You make her feel seen. You make her feel safe and loved. And I know because I’ve seen her light up in ways I didn’t think were possible again. That’s all I could ever want for her.”
I raise my glass, my voice softer now. My eyes sweep across the room, friends, family, the happy chaos of celebration, but before I can turn back toward the happy couple, my eyes freeze, and my breath snags mid-inhale.
He is here? I must be hallucinating. Too much champagne, maybe. I squint, trying to make sense of it.
Oh, shit.
He sits just beyond the second table, half-hidden behind someone’s shoulder, but completely unmistakable.
Rhett Hayes.
For a heartbeat, the words blur on my tongue. My pulse stumbles, traitorous. I don’t let my gaze linger, not even a second, but I feel him looking back at me. Calm, steady, as if my sudden unraveling doesn’t register to him at all.
Do not let Rhett Hayes ruin this moment. You’ve already let him ruin too many things.
I force my mouth to move as my grip tightens around the microphone. “So here’s to my sister, Margo, and my new brother-in-law, Anderson…” My voice steadies, mostly. The practiced rhythm returns. But my fingers tremble slightly against the glass stem, and I pray no one notices.
“To a love that endures, that heals and still makes room for joy. May your days be filled with laughter, your nights with peace and your half of the closet with only half of Anderson’s hoodies, because trust me, those are Margo’s hoodies now.”
I let out a small, shaky laugh at the last line, hoping no one can see how thrown off I am, and glance at Margo. She is smiling through glistening eyes, leaning into Anderson, and my chest warms just a little.
Glasses clink. Laughter bubbles. Applause makes its way through the room. For a fleeting second, everything feels almost perfect.
Except my glass feels too heavy in my hand, my smile too forced. I manage to set the microphone back on its stand, nodding at the polite applause as if nothing inside me has just cracked wide open.
I can’t process it. Why is he here, in the same room as me? How did my body not prick up the way it used to? Didn’t it sense he was in my orbit? My brain stutters as I try to make sense of the puzzle piece that no longer fits into my life.
I walk back toward our table on legs that don’t feel steady, rehearsing normalcy with every step. Smile. Breathe. Don’t look over to him again. Just keep moving forward.
Ben stands as I approach, ever the gentleman. He slides my chair out for me while his hand brushes my back.
“You killed it, babe,” he says warmly, kissing my temple as I sit. “Seriously, I know you were worried you’d mess up or something, but you really only tripped over your words at the end.”
I force a smile. “Thanks, Ben.”