CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
I went back into the ballroom, still carrying Sadie’s flowers. Camden found me. “Isn’t that the bridal bouquet?” he asked.
“Yep.”
“What are you doing with it?” Another guy might have been panicked that I was carrying it, like I was trying to make some kind of declaration about my future plans, but he was just genuinely curious.
“Dan and Sadie left.” I was still a bit in shock that they’d gone early. It made sense, but most brides I’d met wanted to soak up every single moment of their special day.
“Do you know what that means?” Camden asked. He took the bouquet and put it on the nearest table. Then he took me by both hands and began pulling me toward a darkened corner of the room.
“What?”
“It means we can spend the rest of the night doing whatever we want.” The growly intent in his voice made my stomach flutter.
“Not the rest of the night,” I told him. “I’ve got a plane to catch soon. But we can hang out until then.” I knew leaving was necessary so that I could go help Desiree, but I was kind of kicking myself that I was going to miss out on spending more time with him.
“Good enough.”
“What did you have in mind?” I asked as he got us away from prying eyes, behind a column of flowers on the edge of the ballroom.
He wrapped his arms around me. “You have amazingly soft and delicious lips and I’d like to explore them very carefully and very thoroughly.”
My heart jumped up into my throat, pulsing hard. “I’m amenable to your plan,” I managed to say.
I should tell him. Now. This was the perfect opportunity. We’d still have time to discuss everything before I got on a plane back to the mainland. I again found myself wishing that we hadn’t changed our flights so that I’d have another night here in paradise with him. He was tracing the outline of my face with his fingers and I opened my mouth several times, intending to say the words I needed to say. The ones Sadie had given me permission to share.
“There’s something you should know. About me,” I told him.
Then his fingertips were running across my lips and I forgot how thinking worked.
“Are you secretly married?” he asked.
“What? No!”
“Then I can’t think of anything else that we need to talk about right this second. I have other things in mind.” His mouth followed the same path his fingers did, and burning shivers swept through me.
“Did you want to say something?” he teased, and I just shook my head. Nope, not me. No, sir.
Then his lips were on mine and I nearly groaned in relief at the contact I’d been dying for.
I didn’t know how long we’d stood in that corner as Camden did exactly what he promised, a long and extensive exploration of my mouth while we were pressed desperately against each other, before I heard yelling.
Breaking off, my lips swollen and my head spinning, I tried to focus on what was happening.
“Dan! I’m here! Dan!”
“Lilith,” Camden muttered in disbelief.
She was running through the ballroom in a wedding dress, being tailed by two security guards, yelling as she ran. “I want to have children with you! We can work things out! Dan! Where are you?”
I stood there in total disbelief, watching as the livestream cameras captured every moment. Oh, this was bad.
One of the guards caught up with her, picking her up by the waist and carrying her out of the room. I wondered what had gotten into her. While she’d seemed angry and determined before, nothing about her had said that she was unhinged.
“Well,” I said, “I guess we were just part of something called making a scene. Sadie’s not going to be happy.”
“Neither is Dan. They’re definitely going to have a conversation about this. I’m kind of glad they’re gone.” He looked around and said, “I’m going to go see what’s happening. Make sure that she isn’t let back in here.”
“Okay.” I nodded. He kissed me quickly and then went out the same doors as the guards.
I noticed Brandy off to my right. She tried to stand and swayed heavily to the left.
Uh-oh.
I made my way to her side and she threw one arm up when she saw me coming, like she was trying to fend me off. “Have you been drinking?” I asked.
“That’s none of your beeswax!” she said. I wished Camden were still here. I needed to get her out of the room before anybody saw her wasted.
“They’re not supposed to serve you.”
“People leave these cute little glasses of champagne all over their tables,” she informed me gleefully. Ew. She had been drinking people’s leftover alcohol? That struck me as immeasurably sad.
“Come on, let’s get you some coffee,” I offered.
“Get your hands off me!” she demanded.
There was a loud slam and I heard Lilith yelling again. Brandy took advantage of the distraction to slip away from me.
She was headed straight for Geoff and Maybelle, who were standing near the dessert table.
There was nothing I could do to stop her. There had already been one major scene caught on film; I wasn’t keen to add another. I tried to grab for her arm, to suggest that she come with me, but she just shrugged me off.
With every step we took the sense of impending doom grew stronger and stronger until I knew that everything was about to explode around me.
As if he’d sensed that I needed him, Camden joined me. “I think the Lilith situation is handled. What’s going on here?”
“Sadie’s mom is drunk. The good news is that I think things are finally about to get out of hand and will blow up in our faces soon, which means that it will all finally be over.”
Sure enough, Brandy started screaming at Maybelle, who was quick to defend herself verbally. I didn’t care for women calling other women names, so let’s just say that Brandy called Maybelle something that rhymes with foam-pecking boar, and Maybelle screeched back that Brandy was a bold trunk hitch and things just went downhill from there.
Geoff was already trying to calm them both down and I was about ready to use all the curse words on everybody if they didn’t stop immediately.
Instead, they escalated despite the three of us trying to intervene. Brandy actually took a swing at Maybelle and missed, but the momentum pushed her forward and she landed face-first in the cake. I watched in horror as the entire thing collapsed sideways, almost in slow motion, landing on Dan’s elderly grandmother.
Who hadn’t moved from her spot next to the table the entire evening. Until now. As all three tiers of the cake tumbled on top of her, Dan’s grandma exploded out of her seat like someone had set her on fire, screaming at the top of her lungs like a banshee and flinging cake shrapnel everywhere she went.
Maybelle then jumped on top of Brandy, spreading more cake as she reached for her hair, yanking on it.
Initially I wasn’t sure what to do first, but the two women had to be separated. I was aided by Geoff grabbing Maybelle by the waist and Camden picking up Brandy like she was a child.
“Where do you want her?” he asked, ignoring her struggles.
I glanced over my shoulder. All of the camera crews had their cameras pointed at us, capturing every moment live. Distress seeped into my skin as I registered the enormity of this. It was ruined. Everything.
Mandy ran up to us. “I just went upstairs to use the restroom. What happened?”
Her sister was shrieking at us as Geoff escorted Maybelle from the reception. Considering how drunk Brandy was, I wondered how long Mandy had left her alone for. But that was not the thing to concern myself with at the moment. I filled Mandy in quickly, and we decided that the best thing to do was to get Brandy up to her room. I had no idea how to do damage control here because there was no video that could be edited later. Everything was just out in the real world now and there was nothing I could do to stop it.
“I’m sorry,” Mandy said with tears in her eyes. “The bartender said she wouldn’t serve Brandy and I guess I just assumed it was safe. I never even considered this possibility.”
Feeling ashamed that I’d judged her even for a moment, I said, “Me neither. Let’s get her out of here.”
Brandy went completely limp, like a rag doll, and I was terrified that she’d gotten alcohol poisoning or had lapsed into a coma and we were going to top off this house of horrors by calling for an ambulance. I ran over to her, wanting to help.
It had been a ruse designed to get Camden to let go of her, which he hadn’t done. She kicked out her feet and one of them connected with my nose. There was a flash of darkness and then throbbing pain. I felt wetness on my face and looked down to see that I was bleeding all over my dress.
Huh. So much for being able to wear it again.
Camden let Brandy go, and she made a break for the doors leading outside with Mandy in hot pursuit.
“Are you okay?” he asked. He grabbed one of the napkins off a nearby table and handed it to me.
I nodded, pressing the napkin to my nose. “It’s okay. I get nosebleeds all the time. You know, whenever the air is dry or when my face gets kicked.” I pressed the napkin harder. “What part of the Old Testament do you think we’re on now?”
“It’s not that bad,” he said, trying to placate me but it felt like there was no hope. “I’m going to go help with Brandy, but I’ll be right back.”
He kissed me on the forehead and I tried to remember whether I was supposed to lean my head back or forward. I settled for holding still and hoping that nothing was broken. I noted that Krista was busy helping Dan’s grandma get cleaned up, Hank was yelling at the cameramen, and Troy was barking commands to his assistants, telling the DJ to play another song.
Sadie was going to be utterly humiliated. I had no idea what this was going to do to her online reputation. Would she lose sponsors? Followers? I tried calling her, but she didn’t pick up. I told myself that it made sense that she’d turn off her phone, given that she and Dan were running away from the reception. They wouldn’t want people to be able to get in touch with them.
That had to be it, right? It wasn’t that Sadie had seen the live feed and was furious with me? I tried to ignore the rising sense of dread that this was only the beginning and things were about to get worse.
Although how they could possibly get worse than this, I wasn’t sure.
I also had no idea how to fix any of this. The damage was done and online.
Camden joined me a few minutes later, sitting in a chair next to mine. “We got her up to her room. She was conscious and still had on most of her clothes, so I’m counting that as a win.”
“Thank you.”
“I’m here to help you in any way that I can. We make a pretty good team, don’t we?”
I considered his words. It was so nice to have someone who was here for me. Of course he cared about Dan’s wedding because they were close, but he made me feel like everything he’d done today had been because of me. It had been so long since anyone had made me feel that special.
There were smeared frosting and tiny chunks of cake stuck to his suit. “I hope that wasn’t a rental,” I told him, pointing at the food decorating his clothes. “I don’t think you’re going to get the deposit back.”
“At least it isn’t blood,” he teased as I pulled the napkin away. It seemed like the bleeding had stopped. His smile faded when he saw my expression. “What is it?”
“I should have been out in front of this. It never should have happened.”
He reached for my free hand and said, “You couldn’t have predicted that any of this would happen.”
“Sadie told me it might, that she was worried about it, and I should have prevented it.”
Camden squeezed my hand gently and it was so reassuring, even though I didn’t deserve it. “Rachel, this isn’t your fault.”
My throat felt heavy, thick. I blinked back tears. “It might not be my fault, but I definitely feel responsible. If I hadn’t been busy with ...” I let my voice trail off as I looked down at my feet.
“If you hadn’t been busy with me.” I heard the pain in his voice at my implication that he was responsible for this failure, too.
I met his gaze, feeling wounded by the upset I saw there. “Camden, no, that’s not what I—”
“Rachel?” I heard a male voice ask.
I turned to see where it was coming from and my mouth opened in shock. No.
This was not happening.
No, no, no, no.