Magical Weddings (139 page)

The flower girl approached them, looking woebegone. “I didn’t mean to be bad.”

“Oh, sweetheart.” Natalya opened an arm and pulled the girl close to her. “You weren’t bad. You just made a bad choice. A dangerous choice.”

The child’s lower lip slid out. “Toby said…”

“He’s three years old, Kenzi. If he told you to jump off a bridge, would you do it?” Natalya’s words held heat, but the worry underlying the vehemence was obvious.

“What are you talking about?” Akira asked the question, but the words weren’t directed toward the cluster of people around Meredith’s chair, but toward empty space. “How is it your fault? Oh. Really? That’s interesting.”

She was leaving spaces between her sentences as if she was talking to someone. Meredith glanced around the room, wondering.

Akira put her hand on her belly, resting it on the mound of baby. “I see.” She gave a half-chuckle. “Huh. I wonder how...” She caught her lip between her teeth, looking thoughtful. “Well, yes, okay.” She looked toward Meredith and lifted a shoulder. “Sure, I can see that.”

No one was talking to Akira. Zane stood behind her, his arms around her waist. Natalya was speaking to Kenzi, voice low. Dave’s worried eyes were focused on Meredith, not paying Akira any attention.

Meredith had to ask. “What can you see?” She wasn’t even sure what question she was asking. Did she want to know what Akira had learned or who was in the tent with them?

“It was very sizzle-y.” Kenzi’s voice rose plaintively. She spread her hands wide. “Like super-big-ginormous sizzle-y.”

Natalya stroked the little girl’s hair, her expression serious. “Sweetheart, you have a very special gift. But you have to be careful about how you use it. What you do takes energy, your energy. I’m worried about what could happen to you. But I know you meant well.”

“It was Rose,” Akira said, directing the words at Natalya.

“What?” Natalya asked.

“Who?” Meredith felt like she’d heard the name before, but couldn’t quite place it. And then she remembered—according to one of Max Latimer’s stories, Rose was another of the ghosts living in Akira’s house.

 “Rose,” Akira repeated. “My father, um, came to the wedding.” She looked bashful but pleased. “His spirit did, I mean. Just for a little while.”

“We thought that’s what was happening. My mom was very happy for you.” Despite the throbbing in her hand, the discomfort of her wet clothes, and her general state of misery, Meredith gave Akira a genuine smile.

“Really?” Akira touched a hand to her throat. “That’s so sweet of her.”

“What does that have to do with Rose?” Natalya rose from her crouched position, taking Kenzi by the hand.

“Apparently, opening a passage between planes takes a lot of energy. Rose scooped up the leftovers and has been playing with it all evening.” Akira glanced back at the empty space. “Okay, not playing. But—”

Akira paused and then grinned, looking amused. “If you don’t want me to use that name—you know, the one you don’t like—then you’re stuck with planes and energy and playing. Of course, if you prefer…” She laughed, letting the words break off.

“Knock, knock,” came a call from the front panel. Without waiting for a response, Sylvie pushed up the fabric and stepped into the tent. “Hey, I’m sorry to interrupt. I just need a quick consult with Meredith.”

“What is it?” Meredith asked.

Sylvie gave her a look: contemplative, analytical, perceptive. Meredith felt like Sylvie was lifting off the top of her skull and peeking inside before the other woman finally nodded. Her cheeks were flushed, wisps of her ginger hair clinging to her forehead as if she’d been dancing hard.

“So, good news, bad news,” Sylvie started.

Meredith braced herself.

“Lucas and I, um, overheard what was happening. Everyone else was watching Akira and Zane cut the cake.” Sylvie didn’t even glance in their direction, but she might have been fighting not to smile. “We went to give Colin a hand. Our timing was great. When Mark realized he wasn’t going to argue his way out of an arrest, he took a swing at Colin. What a smug asshole.” Her eyes fell on Kenzi and she put two fingers up to her lips. “Oops, sorry.”

“Is Colin okay?” Natalya’s hand tightened on Kenzi’s, the little girl leaning into her leg with eyes wide.

“Oh, yeah, he’s fine.” Sylvie waved off the question. “No damage. To him. And barely any to Mark. He might be a little sore tomorrow, but Lucas wouldn’t let me break his nose.”

“The fact that Mark’s a smug asshole is not news to me,” Meredith said. With four older brothers, Kenzi had to know the word already and Meredith was in too much discomfort to worry about her language.

“No, but he’s also a liar,” Sylvie responded.

Meredith sat up straighter in her chair. “Does that mean—”

“There are no pictures. He was lying to you.”

The wave of relief was so intense Meredith barely heard Sylvie explain how she and Lucas had read Mark’s thoughts, his annoyance that Meredith had been ignoring him and his certainty that with no evidence his lawyer would have him out before the night was over.

Meredith had always believed the pictures were gone and they were. It didn’t change the past. It didn’t even change the present—her hand was still broken, she still loathed Mark Terrell with a passion grown only stronger. But she could let go of the fear that had been twisting her inside.

“Colin wants to know if you want to try to get Mark for extortion. Colin could testify as a witness and—”

“God, no.” Meredith didn’t let Sylvie finish. She was not going to spend the next however many months or years dwelling on Mark and what he’d done. He’d been part of her past for decades and she wanted him to recede back into that past with dazzling rapidity. “Never seeing him again is good enough for me.”

“Okay.” Sylvie nodded. She added gently, “Unfortunately, the bad news then is that Colin can’t hold him on anything serious. Since he wasn’t in uniform, the most he can charge Mark with is drunk-and-disorderly.”

Dave took a step forward. “That’s not enough. That’s a misdemeanor. He deserves prison time.”

Meredith didn’t understand Sylvie’s expression. Her smile held the amused tolerance of an older sister, but there was sympathy in her eyes. “Don’t worry. The word’s out. He’ll be watched. And guys like that screw up. Next time he does, he’ll pay the price.”

Dave looked as if he wanted to grumble, but Zane spoke first. “What did he do? What happened?”

Meredith rose from her chair. She let the towel wrapped around her shoulders drop to the seat. “It doesn’t matter. It’s over and I should get moving. If someone could help me get my mom to my car…”

“Oh, no, not yet.” The worry lurking behind Natalya’s eyes had disappeared. She grinned at Meredith, a grin like that of her brother, full of mischief and delight.

“Natalya, I’m still dripping. I need to get out of these wet clothes. And my hand hurts.”

“You are going to feel much better soon.” Natalya rested her hands on Meredith’s shoulder and looked her directly in the face. “And you are going to rock the rest of this party like Mark Terrell never existed. Because you deserve that.”

Meredith let out a puff of laughter. Sweet thought. Not gonna happen.

“Is Rose still here?” Natalya asked Akira over her shoulder. “And she can help Kenzi?”

“Yep,” Akira answered promptly.

Natalya looked down at her daughter and nodded. “Go ahead.”

Kenzi eagerly reached for Meredith’s hand. Meredith shied away but the little girl was too quick. Her touch felt like carbonation, fizzing against Meredith’s skin, and the sensation was so odd that Meredith stilled, letting the girl stroke her fingers.

Kenzi’s touch was warm, then cold, then warm again. For a moment Meredith felt a jolt of something—not pain, not heat, but a deep intense shock running up her arm and into her chest—and then the throbbing in her hand eased. The pain faded down from intense to serious to lukewarm… and then it was gone.

Meredith sat down. Hard.

She held her hand up to her face. The swelling was gone, the shadows were gone. It looked like a hand. Her hand. Perfectly normal. Undamaged. Her chest felt tight and she realized it was because she’d stopped breathing. She took in a deep gulp of air. “She can…”

“Only little things,” Natalya said hastily. “It takes a lot out of her usually. She’s come close to dying because of it. We don’t talk about it.”

Meredith understood why. The thought had come to her within a millisecond of that first breath—if Kenzi could heal her hand, then why not…?

But she stuffed the idea away and turned the key on it. Wishing for miracles was like believing in Santa Claus, a childish fantasy. She was never that impractical. “I understand. I won’t say anything.”

“We’ve got the ice!”

The twins came bursting in through the door of the tent without bothering to lift it out of the way.

“And the napkins!”

“Wonderful.” Natalya turned to the boys and relieved them of their prizes. “Now go get yourselves some cake. One slice each until you’re sure that everyone has had some. Then you can have seconds.”

“Cake!”

“Woot!”

The boys dashed out as quickly as they’d arrived.

Natalya turned back to Meredith. “You and Akira need to get changed. You’ve got dry clothes hanging on the back of the mirror.”

Within seconds, she’d ushered everyone else out of the tent. Meredith was still staring at her hand, bending her fingers and straightening them. It was like nothing had ever happened. Maybe the whole night would be like that. All that drama, all that anxiety and anger and grief, and it was gone, ashes on the wind.

From behind the mirror, Akira said, “Great dress.” She emerged, already changed into a short, silky dress patterned with cherry blossoms, and carrying the sparkling green mini-dress Meredith had last seen hanging in her closet.

Meredith didn’t have surprise left in her. If Akira told her that a fairy godmother had dropped it off on her way to the ball, she would have nodded in acceptance.

Instead, Akira said, “I don’t think Dave thought to bring you anything else, but Caitlin, the wedding planner, insisted on having a hair dryer in here. I don’t know if she was worried about rain or what, but she stocked this place up like a photographer’s studio—make-up, hair spray, everything. Make yourself at home.” She thrust the dress at Meredith.

Of course.

Dave’s errand.

He’d gone to get her clothes to change into. Her mother must have given him the key. Natalya must have told him what to bring. Meredith almost felt like laughing, but instead she took the dress and thanked Akira.

“If you really need to escape, I’ll make Zane help you. But I do hope you’ll stay and enjoy the rest of the reception. It’s early yet.”

After Akira left, Meredith took her time changing and repairing the damage the water and her tears had wrought. In the quiet of the tent, she could hear the sounds of the party—people talking and laughing, glasses clinking, a call for a toast, the band starting up again.

She’d join them, she knew. She’d put a smile on her face. If anyone asked about her clothes, she’d brush the change off as the result of a spill. If anyone asked about Mark, she’d brush that off, too. Lightly. Easy words, maybe just that he’d had a bit too much to drink. Staying at the party and pretending nothing had happened was the surest way to make people believe nothing had happened.

And nothing really had happened.

She looked at her hand, opening and closing her fingers again.

Everything was just like it had been when she woke up that morning.

So why did she feel so sad?

“Hurry up, Mer. You need to see this.” It was Natalya’s voice, from right outside the tent door. She sounded amused, maybe even excited.

Unfortunately, Dave hadn’t brought her a second pair of shoes and one of hers was at the bottom of the spring. Meredith emerged from the tent, carrying her single shoe, her feet bare. “I feel like Cinderella,” she said, keeping her words light.

“Look.” Natalya gestured toward the dance floor, ignoring her comment.

She looked as directed. Her mother was dancing with Dave’s father. And not the slow sway that might be possible for a woman with the peripheral numbness and balance issues caused by the neurological lesions of multiple sclerosis, but a fast-paced foxtrot to a cover of a Frank Sinatra classic. As Meredith watched, Abe swung her mother out into a twirl and then drew her back in again, both of them laughing.

Meredith couldn’t speak. Her shoe fell from her limp fingers.

“I can’t tell you how long it will last.” Natalya’s words were soft, spoken for Meredith’s ears only. “It might just be the night or it might be the start of a remission. Or it might be more.”

Meredith couldn’t breathe. The lump in her throat was too big, too solid. Her mother looked so beautiful, so young, so happy. Even if it was only for the night, the sight was worth any price.

“If I’d thought about it, I wouldn’t have been so worried about Kenzi. I should have known Rose would come to the wedding,” Natalya continued. She paused, then added, “The word she doesn’t like Akira to use is angel. But she saved Colin’s life and mine. Probably Kenzi’s, too.”

All around them, people were moving, chatting, eating, flirting, enjoying the party as if it were a typical evening, but Meredith felt encased in a bubble of stillness. She didn’t want to move, didn’t want to break the moment. She just wanted to drink in the sight of her mother dancing.

Natalya put her arm around Meredith’s shoulders. For a moment, Meredith leaned into her, feeling the comfort of a caring friend. A whisper brushed the hair against her ear, the breath tickling, “Sylvie says to tell you to open your eyes.”

Open her eyes? What did that mean? Reluctantly, Meredith tore her eyes away from her mother and raised a brow in Natalya’s direction.

But Natalya pulled away. “I’ve got to go check on my boys. I haven’t seen Travis and Jamie since they were making their third run at the buffet. Have fun, Meredith. Drink some champagne. Eat dessert!”

Meredith let her go, turning her gaze back to the dance floor. She’d never known her mother could dance like that. Oh, she was no television dancer with spectacular slides under her partner or crazy lifts, but she and Abe flowed together like honey. It was beautiful.