Playing for Keeps (29 page)

She stepped up to Nell and put a restraining hand on her arm. “You know, I was in Nordstrom’s the other day and they had the most beautiful Jimmy Choos. I bet we could find the perfect pair for you to wear tomorrow.”

Nell’s eyes brightened. “You think?”

“Of course, dear.”

I stared at Clarice. Holy crap—a woman who spoke Nell’s language.

“Do you have a manicure and pedicure booked already? What time is the rehearsal dinner?” She steered Nell away from the table.

“Seven.”

“I’ll call the woman I usually go to. I’m sure she can squeeze you in. She’s wonderful.” Clarice winked at me and guided Nell right out the door.

I whistled.

Daddy nodded. “She’s incredible.”

That was for sure. I’d never seen anyone handle Nell that well before.

“I’m taking her to the dinner tonight.” Daddy gave me an intractable glare as if daring me to argue with him.

Frankly, Clarice deserved to come to the dinner just for diffusing the situation. “I don’t think it’ll be a problem for the restaurant.”

“Good,” he said gruffly. Frown still in place, he kissed the top of my head and stalked out.

“Wow.” Sarah stared wide-eyed after him. “I had no idea.”

I sighed. “And I live it everyday.”

“You’re lucky.”

Maybe. I still had a dinner and the wedding day to get through, so for the moment I was reserving judgment.

Chapter Twenty-three

Use anger to throw the enemy into disarray.

— Sun Tzu, The Art of War

By the time Sarah and I put away all the flowers, cleaned up the kitchen, and spritzed the bouquets and lapel flowers with water. I had half an hour to shower and get ready for the rehearsal dinner.

Because there wasn’t much room in our fridge, Sarah took the bouquets home with her. There was room for the boutonnières so I kept those.

I hugged Sarah goodbye and ran upstairs for a rinse.

Clothing was a problem. I went through my wardrobe, wondering what I was supposed to wear. A dress? Could I wear pants? Would Nell care?

I decided pants were the way to go. No one would expect me to wear a dress, so I settled on a pair of red tight-fitting pants that had lots of pockets on the sides. All those pockets made me feel prepared for anything life could throw my way. I grabbed one of the nicer T-shirts Nell had made me buy and slipped into a pair of black mules.

No time for makeup. A swipe of mascara and some lipstick would have to do. There was nothing to be done for my hair. I left it down, ignoring how messy it looked, and headed out the door.

I was only five minutes late to the Pavilion. I rushed inside and took a deep breath. The coordinator for the Pavilion was checking off things on her clipboard. Riley and Pete stood at the altar, along with Riley’s other groomsman—I couldn’t remember his name, but my excuse was that we only met briefly a couple nights ago. Daddy was laughing with the guys. I saw Fawn and Leif wandering through the garden outside, hand-in-hand.

No sign of Chloe, Clarice, or Nell.

I walked up to the planner. “Hi, Rose.”

“Grace.” She shook my hand with a smile. “Are we ready to do this?”

“We will be as soon as my sister gets here.”

She glanced at her watch. “Why don’t we get the guys in place in the meantime.”

“Sure.” I followed her to the altar they’d set up for the wedding. I imagined the flowers surrounding it. “It’s going to be awesome. You guys did a great job.”

“Thank you.” She barely smiled before she became all business. She clapped her hands together to get everyone’s attention. I was surprised she didn’t have a referee’s whistle. “Okay, take your places everyone.”

I could feel Pete’s eyes on me. I glanced at him, and the way he stared back took my breath away. If he had superpowers, I’d be butt naked right now then.

Chloe sauntered in on Brian’s arm. “Am I late?”

I shook my head. “No.”

“Damn. And I was trying so hard to be fashionable.” They walked down the aisle to where we were all standing. “Everyone, this is Brian.”

I smiled at him. “You work fast.”

“No other way to be.” He kissed me on the cheek.

Which made Chloe frown. “You guys know each other?”

“You could say that.” I winked at him.

“Okay.” Rose’s clap was sharp and loud, making us all flinch. “Groom and groomsmen up front.”

“Are we late?” Fawn and Leif ambled inside, smiling dreamily. I thought it was their son’s wedding that had them so happy until I caught a whiff of herbal happiness on them.

Chloe smirked and arched her brow at me. I elbowed her so she wouldn’t say anything.

“You are?” Rose asked, checking her clipboard.

“The groom’s parents,” Fawn said.

“Why don’t you sit over here for the time being.” She pointed them to a couple seats right up front on the groom’s side.

The way they obediently took their seats made me surer than ever that they’d been smoking funny stuff out back.

“Where were we?” Rose consulted her clipboard again, marked off a couple things, and looked up. She shook her head at Pete. She took him by the arm and moved him two inches to the left. “You need to stand here.”

I bit my lips to contain my grin.

Rose tapped her clipboard. “Now, where’s the officiant?”

Officiant? I stilled, a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.

“Am I late?” Nell wove her way through the chairs set up for the guests, Clarice hot on her tail.

She came to a sudden stop. Clarice only narrowly avoided colliding with her. “Where’s the officiant?” Nell asked.

All eyes turned to me.

I could feel myself burn red, starting at my chest all the way up to my temple. I knew that if I looked in a mirror, even my earlobes would be crimson.

A wild look crept into Nell’s eyes. “Grace, where’s the person who’s going to perform the ceremony?”

Gulp. “I’m not sure there is one.”

Nell started to hyperventilate. She sank onto a chair and dropped her head in her hands.

Riley rushed to his bride’s side and tried to gather her in his arms. “Nell? Don’t worry, honey. We’ll figure something out.”

“Figure something out?” she screeched, batting him away. “What is there to figure out? We have no one to marry us, I didn’t find new shoes, and my nails are a mess!”

I glanced at Clarice. She shook her head at me and I winced. Shoot. I was hoping the shopping would mellow Nell out. Instead, she was more worked up now than she had been all week.

“I’ll handle this,” I said.

Nell scowled. “Like you handled it to begin with?”

Low blow. “I’ll find someone. I promise.”

That mollified her enough to get us through the rehearsal, which seemed more like a trial run for a funeral than a wedding, the prevailing mood was so somber. We all sighed in relief when Rose dismissed us and eagerly headed to the restaurant and the alcohol that’d be waiting.

The dinner included more people than were at the rehearsal. Nell reasoned that she wouldn’t get to really talk to some of her good friends who’d come to town especially for the event, so she invited them to the dinner as well.

We decided to have it at our favorite Italian restaurant, Nonna’s. They had a back room and accommodating forty people was no big deal to them. They had families who came in once a week that were bigger.

When we got there, the party was already underway.

My nerves were frazzled, so I grabbed a glass of prosecco and set out to find Pete. I needed contact with him for reassurance that everything would work out. Because, frankly, I had no clue how I was going to find someone to conduct the ceremony tomorrow.

I found him at the bar. Perfect. I could get a refill on my wine. I sidled up beside him. “Hey.”

His smile started at his eyes and slowly spread to his lips. “Hey yourself. How’re you holding up?”

“Pretty good considering I’m this close”—I held up two fingers millimeters from each other—“to destroying my sister’s wedding.”

“It’s not that bad.”

“Right.”

“You’ll find someone to do the ceremony.”

I felt a small measure of reassurance. At least someone believed in me. Nell clearly didn’t.

There was a commotion across the room. Pete and I looked up at the same time.

Nell and Riley were in a corner, close to the entrance of the room. We shouldn’t have been able to spot them—they were completely hidden in the shadows—but Nell’s voice carried and attracted every pair of eyes.

Disaster ready to happen. Handing Pete my glass, I said, “I’ve got to go.”

At least people didn’t go silent to listen in on Nell. Most of them probably thought she and Riley were having a spirited discussion. But as her sister I could hear the distress in her voice. All was not right in Nell’s world. Based on how she’d cracked at the rehearsal, things could get ugly.

“—so clingy. You’re suffocating me. I can’t
breathe
.” She put her hands to her throat like she was choking.

I glanced at Riley and felt my heart bleed, he looked so crushed. I tried to imagine how I’d react if Pete said that to me. I’d probably jump off a bridge.

Rushing to their side, I took Nell’s arm. “There you are. I’ve been looking for you.”

“Well if it isn’t my super organized sister.” She scowled at me. “Come to do more damage? Maybe slash my wedding dress?”

“Ouch.” I hadn’t exactly handled everything with the smooth aplomb of our mother, but I didn’t think I merited this kind of abuse.

I tried to understand though. She
was
going through a lot of stress. “Why don’t we go get a little wine? Have you had anything to eat?”

Her eyes speared me with daggers.

“Okay, a snack too, and then you’ll feel much better.” I smiled at Riley. “I’ll take care of Nell.”

“Thanks, Gracie.” He looked beyond relieved.

It was the least I could do. It was partly my fault Nell was in this state.

A server walked by carrying a tray of prosecco. I grabbed two glasses from him and handed one to my sister. She downed her glass, snatched mine out of my hand, and drank that too.

“You know, Gracie. This was a good idea. Excuse me.” She headed straight for the bar, the two empty glasses dangling from her fingers.

Pete had been discreetly watching the whole time. I waved to get his attention and then pointed at Nell. The great thing about Pete is that he knows me, so he instinctively knew I wanted him to intercept Nell and keep an eye on her.

I took a deep breath, plastered a smile on my face, and went to mingle. Someone had to act as hostess, and Nell was obviously not going to do it.

Chloe and Brian were huddled at a table. Chloe was talking and gesturing animatedly. Brian hung on to her every word, rapt. A group of Nell’s friends from high school were having a mini reunion across the room. Since they were laughing and taking advantage of the open bar, I figured they were cool too.

At the main table, Clarice and Fawn sat, talking. Daddy stood over Clarice’s chair with a frown on his face.

I looked around. Where was Leif? I eyed my dad. He wouldn’t have done anything to the father of the groom.

Would he?

No—he wouldn’t.

Actually…

I strode over to him and took his arm. “Daddy?”

The expression on his face softened. “Baby girl.”

“Where’s Leif?”

The scowl came back in full force. For the first time I noticed how much Nell resembled him. Usually, I would have said she and Chloe looked just like our mom, but Nell’s scowl was all Daddy.

Fawn overheard me. “He’s gone to help with our problem.”

“What problem?”

“With the officiant.”

“What he is going to do?” I asked carefully.

“He’s going to fix everything.” Fawn patted my hand. “We’ve got it under control.”

Why did that not reassure me at all?

Clarice must have noticed the panic rising because she reached up and patted my hand. “Don’t worry, Grace. It’ll work out.”

It was nice of her to say that but at the moment I had some serious doubts. But I think I managed to give her a smile before I walked away.

For the next fifty-four minutes I schmoozed like a pro. I listened to inane anecdotes, I laughed, I was witty. It was torture. Despite the bubbly I was guzzling, I couldn’t relax. The whole time I had a sense of impending doom, like a big black cloud hanging over my head. I kept looking around, trying to figure out where it was coming from and how I could avert it to no avail.

Finally, the head server came over and whispered to me that dinner was about to be served. Relief—the sooner we ate, the sooner we could go home and forget this day ever happened.

As people took their places at the tables, I realized I couldn’t find Pete anywhere. I scanned the crowd.

Riley stopped next to me. “Gracie, have you seen Nell?”

“Nell?”

“You know, the shrewish woman I love?”

My lips twitched a little. I probably should have defended my sister but after the way she’d treated him earlier he was entitled. “I haven’t seen her. But if you make sure everyone sits down and starts eating, I’ll find her. She’s probably in the restroom.”

“Thanks, Gracie.”

I walked through the doors that separated our room from the rest of the restaurant and down the hall to the women’s lounge. With the way she’d been drinking, I figured she was either sick or had to pee nonstop. I turned the corner and froze.

Pete was pressed against the wall next to the ladies’ room door, holding a wildly weeping Nell. He looked up at me with the panicked look of a man dealing with tears.

I decided to take pity on Pete and step in. “What’s going on?”

Nell whirled around and stumbled. She hiccupped once as she tried to wipe the tears from her face. “Gracie, I’ve made such a big mistake.”

I shouldn’t have given her the wine. It’d made her a little tipsy.

She took a step toward me, tripped, and sailed into my arms.

Okay—a lot tipsy. I took her in my arms before she fell and hurt herself. “What’s this mistake you’ve made?”

“I’m marrying the wrong man.”