CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER FIVE
Stefan quickly finished with the dresses for me, Krista, and Mary-Ellen. This was our first time meeting with him, but we’d already sent in our measurements. I hadn’t known what to expect when we arrived, but Sadie had selected some beautiful gray silk dresses that draped like they’d been made for us.
Which, I supposed, they had. It was just nice to get a dress that was so pretty. I actually could wear it again, unlike most bridesmaid dresses.
As Stefan circled around me, moving the fabric this way and that, he tutted and sighed loudly. He made me feel like I should apologize for having hips.
Then he started muttering to himself about things he had to change and I tried to be helpful.
“I think it looks great just the way it is.”
His imperious glare let me know that I was wrong. Technically his company was paying for the dresses, so I decided to keep my mouth shut and just go with the flow. So often the bridesmaids’ dresses selected for us were hideous, even though the brides repeatedly assured us that they were “like, so pretty!” and we could “totally wear them again.” Unless I planned on going to the future marriage of Big Bird and Barbie, the hot-pink dress with yellow feathers from the Hemmings’ wedding was definitely not something I was ever going to put on my body again.
I took off my dress and handed it to Stefan’s assistant. Who was also shooting me dirty looks. I changed into my regular clothes, smoothing my hair in its french twist so that I didn’t look too messy.
Sadie said, “I’m coming out!” I stepped around the screen to see her, and her dress was stunning. It was fitted with a lace overlay on the bodice and was open in the back. The bottom half of her dress surprised me—she’d gone for a poofy skirt with a tulle overlay.
“Does it not look good?” she asked me.
“No, you look gorgeous! It just surprised me that your dress has such a princess feel to it.”
“I considered a lot of different styles, but in the future, I’m going to wear formal, more traditional dresses. When will I ever get the chance to wear a Cinderella-esque ball gown like this again?”
She was right. Her designer, Stefan, walked around her making more noises.
“It looks like it’s all finished,” I offered, not wanting him to stress out Sadie, and he brushed me aside with another icy stare.
“Of course it’s finished. I’m making sure that we don’t need any last-second alterations. You don’t know how many brides put on five pounds the week of their wedding because of all the stress eating,” he replied.
Oh, trust me. I did.
A camera operator panned up and down Sadie’s dress, but I knew this wasn’t being broadcast live. They wanted the footage for later, and for the wedding itself to be the big reveal of the dress.
Sadie teared up and I was right there with a tissue, to make sure she didn’t get any mascara on her dress.
“Happy or sad?” I asked her while Stefan ordered his two assistants to get the dress off right away as he fretted aloud about possible tearstains.
“Sad,” she said, moving her arms out of the sleeves and stepping out of the dress. She grabbed her white robe that had bride emblazoned across the back and sat down in an armchair.
“What are you sad about?”
She let out a shaky breath, like she was trying to hold off big sobs. “When I imagined this moment, I thought my mom would be here. But she’s off somewhere with my aunt.”
I immediately felt guilty for not anticipating this. “You didn’t tell me you wanted her here.” If she had, I would have personally poured coffee down Brandy’s throat and then made sure she’d behaved.
“I know. I just thought she’d want to see me in my dress, and she said, ‘I’ll see it when you get married.’”
I pressed my lips into a thin line. Her mother was so selfish.
“But,” Sadie continued, “I think she was afraid Maybelle would be here today. I hate that my mom’s making me choose. Geoff is the only father I’ve ever known and I want both of them to be here and to just be happy for me.”
“I understand that. And I’m going to do my best to help that happen.” Her mentioning Geoff as a father made me realize this was another part of her life she’d glossed over and that I needed more information in case Camden went digging around again. “He married your mom when you were thirteen, right?”
She used the tissue to wipe away some tears. “Yes. Life was so hard before they got married. We were poor. Like, living in a mobile home with aluminum over the windows and gaping holes in the floor kind of poor. My mom always went from one man to the next, trying to find someone to take care of us instead because her drinking made it so she couldn’t hold down a job. Then she met Geoff, and she was on her best behavior for a few years. Our lives were so much better. But then she started drinking again and he couldn’t deal with it. So he left her and moved on.”
“That’s rough,” I told her.
She nodded, blowing her nose before continuing. “I decided that I was going to make my own money and never depend on someone else for survival. So I’m paying for this wedding through sponsorship and it means I’m giving up a lot of say-so, but it’s worth it to me to have this. I love Dan, and I don’t ever want him to think I’m after him for his money. Or that I can’t take care of myself.”
I one hundred percent understood this, but for different reasons. “He knows that. It’s easy to see how much the two of you love each other.”
“Sadie! Where are you?” Stefan stuck his head around the dressing screen. “Shoe time. Let’s get your dress back on and make sure the length is right!”
Sadie smiled at me and headed off to do as she was told, again, for the sake of her sponsors. To be honest, I’d thought her decision to use sponsors for her wedding had been self-aggrandizing, but it turned out that she’d done it to prove something sweet to her groom.
She was a bit different than what I’d first initially imagined her to be.
What if the same was true for Camden? Maybe there was something beyond the spy stuff.
I straightened my back, lifting my head. It didn’t matter if he was the world’s greatest guy and this was all a misunderstanding. I didn’t date men I’d met at weddings. A rule I’d set for the whole company.
I couldn’t ask the women who worked for me to follow one important rule that I was ready to ignore because of a pair of pretty eyes. As president, I needed to lead.
When I went looking for a soul mate, I’d have to find him somewhere else.
Later that afternoon Krista and I walked down to the bridal shower together, gifts in hand. We hadn’t picked them out; they’d been provided to us by event sponsors. I hoped Sadie was going to be excited about getting a bunch of alcohol and lingerie.
The first thing I noticed on the south lawn was the decorations. There were massive balloon arches of pale-pink and gray balloons, banners with Sadie’s name and their hashtags, a dessert table laid out with treats in various shades of pink, white couches with pink and gray pillows. It was like walking into somebody’s Pinterest board.
The next thing I realized was that there were men here.
“This is coed,” I said to Krista as an employee put a lei of pale-pink flowers around my neck.
“So?” she asked.
“So ... it would have been nice if someone had brought that to my attention before right now.”
“Why? Oh,” she said in a serious tone. “Because of your boyfriend.”
“Seriously? I’m going to get more of this from you?”
“I can’t help myself. It’s hilarious. From my perspective, anyway. Plus, I never have things to tease you about and this is too much fun.”
Her calling Camden my “boyfriend” made me question whether he was seeing someone. If he was flirting with me solely to seduce information out of me, that meant he wasn’t interested in really pursuing me. He might have someone back home waiting for him.
The thought made me uneasy.
This party was listed as being “casual.” Not sure what that meant in wedding planner Troy’s world, I’d opted for my favorite lavender sundress. Most of the women were in skirts or dresses and a bunch of the men were wearing linen shirts and cargo shorts. Like some kind of uniform.
Knowing Sadie’s sponsors, it might actually be a uniform.
“There’s Dan’s mom. I’m off to socialize,” I told her. Krista said goodbye as I approached Irene. Dan’s mother looked peaceful, her headscarf a pink and gray mixture, just like the wedding colors. I thought it was a particularly sweet touch.
“Irene, right? I’m Rachel. The maid of honor. May I join you?”
“Please do.” I sat down next to her on the couch, putting my purse by my feet. “So you’re Rachel! You’re the one Camden’s been going on and on about.”
My heart did flips at her words. Until I realized that it might not have been positive. “Good things, I hope.”
She patted my hand. “Nothing but good things!”
It would be wrong for me to accuse someone who had cancer of being a liar, right? Because this was something I’d dealt with a lot before—weddings did tend to bring out the matchmakers in people. All that love and happiness. They wanted to spread it around, like Sadie had been doing. Apparently Irene was on board.
I settled on, “I find that a little hard to believe.” I had no idea how far he’d spread his corporate-espionage theory.
Irene gave me a motherly smile. “He said he thought you were beautiful.”
Whoa, that sent my stomach into free fall. “Did he? Well ... I’m sure his girlfriend wouldn’t appreciate that.”
I couldn’t help myself. Even if I couldn’t date him, even if he suspected me of trying to ruin his company, I wanted to know if, under different circumstances, there might have been a chance for us.
“Camden doesn’t have a girlfriend. He hasn’t seriously dated anyone in ... well, it’s been quite some time.”
“Oh.” I didn’t have a better response because I was far too happy about her statement and knew I shouldn’t be. What if she was just guessing? How could she have any real insider information into Camden’s love life?
While I was wrestling internally with trying to figure out if I could trust what she said, Irene asked where I was from and our conversation grew from there. I genuinely enjoyed getting to know people and talking to them. It was one of the things that made my job so enjoyable. I’d been defensive and on edge at this particular wedding only because of Camden’s shenanigans.
She had just finished telling me an adorable story about her knitting club and how they made hats for infants at the local hospital when she tacked on, “If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to find a restroom.”
I’d noted earlier that she’d either been sitting or on Dan’s arm whenever I saw her and so I said, “Do you need any help?”
“You’re a dear, but no thank you. People fuss over me all the time. I can manage.”
She scooted carefully to the end of the sofa and had a bit of a struggle standing up. I wanted to assist her but didn’t interfere because it seemed important to her to do it on her own.
My phone dinged with a notification and I flipped it on to see the final score of the Michigan game. Yes! They’d won! That meant they were moving on in the March Madness tournament.
“Is this seat taken?” a man asked, and I looked up to see that it was Camden.
I had this strange mixture of emotions—I was internally celebrating over the Michigan win, annoyed that Camden had found me and was looking too handsome for his own good in a green linen shirt that matched his eyes, and ... excited to see him again. Like I’d spent so much time thinking about him that I was happy he was here and I got to see his face.
Weird.
I should have told him to go. Instead I said, “I was saving it for Ben Barnes, but he looks like a no-show.”
Camden sat next to me on the sofa, closer than was necessary. I could feel warmth radiating from him and smell that delicious clean scent of his. I was tempted to get up and walk away but Irene would be coming back and I didn’t want her to think I’d abandoned her.
“What are you up to?” he asked.
I held up my phone. “Checking the scores.”
“For?”
“The game.”
“Which one?”
His constant, persistent questions made me briefly wonder how many years I’d get for assault. “Michigan.”
“Please tell me you’re not a Michigan fan.”
The disdain in his voice was obvious. “Let me guess, Ohio State fan?”
“My dad ran track at Ohio State,” he said.
“My dad went to Michigan.” We sounded like little kids on a playground comparing whose father was better.
He nodded, looking far too amused. “I think this means we can’t be friends anymore. Our houses are at war. Like Romeo and Juliet.”
“Well, if it makes you feel any better, we weren’t friends to begin with.”
Camden put his arm across the back of the sofa and I could feel the heat of it next to my shoulders. “Are you really a fan or are you one of those girls who pretends to like sports?”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Are you one of those guys who thinks it’s his job to gatekeep fandoms?”
At that he grimaced. “I’m sorry. My friend Vance is huge into fantasy football and he dated a girl who said she was into it and it was all a ruse and she was using him.”
I briefly wondered if Vance was the lead engineer that Sadie had mentioned, the one who a spy had used to try to get info about Camden’s company. “So now you’re worried that every girl who says she likes something is a liar?”
“It’s probably more sports specific.”
“If you need me to rattle off rebounds or steals or assists for the Michigan team, I can do that.”
He raised his eyebrows. “That would be impressive.” But his tone indicated that it was more than just impressive. Like he would find that ... attractive. “Again, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be that guy.”
“That’s good, because you were basically in the running to be the CEO of That Guy Incorporated.”
I wondered if me saying CEO would be a red flag for him, but he barely seemed to notice. Maybe I shouldn’t be trying to mess with him. He had apologized, after all.
That impressed me. In the regular sense of the word and in the I-found-it-attractive sense of the word.
Then, like he was trying to change the subject away from the uncomfortableness of supporting rival schools, he said, “You know, we never did get to talk about our mutual maid of honor and best man responsibilities last night.”
“That’s because one of us was busy cheating at a board game and taking multiple phone calls on his antique from the Civil War.”
He grinned at me. “You say cheating, I say ensuring victory.” Then he added, “Potato, tomato,” with a wink and I admit it, I melted a little.
I knew he was flirting with me because he was trying to get me to reveal that I wanted to steal from his company. I knew this, and I was still falling for his act. I wondered what that said about me.
Or maybe it said more about him. That he was very charming and good at making women fall in love with him. I found myself wanting him to drop his arm around me and pull me in close.
Determined to go back to my original course of action and ignore him instead of engaging with him in his game, I pointedly looked at my phone. I started scrolling mindlessly through the scores of other games but I wasn’t paying attention.
“I like college basketball, too,” he said. “In case I didn’t make that clear earlier. I’ve got tickets to the National Championship.”
I was torn between wanting to tell him to be quiet and asking him about those tickets. Like exactly how many he had and what he wanted in return for one of them. Whether he might accept a firstborn child as payment. I continued my silence, thumbing across the screen of my phone.
“So ... I’m getting the feeling you don’t want to talk to me.” He said this with a hint of disbelief, as if such a thing were impossible. That he was irresistible.
Which I got, because trust me, it wasn’t easy. “Thanks for picking up on my blatant social cues.”
My sarcasm might have chased a less determined man away, but Camden stayed put and smiled at me.
And I liked that he did.
Ugh.
Now I felt bad for being snarky when he was at least pretending to be polite. “Do you have a question for me?”
“What?”
“Whenever you see me you have a million questions.” I wanted him to know that he wasn’t being nearly as smooth as he thought he was, and I’d noticed his pointed questions from the beginning, even before I knew that he suspected me of planning some nefarious scheme.
He looked slightly uncomfortable. “I don’t mean to pry.”
“Don’t you, though?”
He didn’t refute my statement. He couldn’t, because it was true.
Part of me wondered if I should tell him that I knew exactly what he was up to and bring all of this to a screeching halt.
Or if I should keep letting him dangle on this hook.