The Bridesmaid (15 page)

“They loved you, you know,” Noah said, looking down at her.

“I could tell,” Abby replied.

She turned and walked slowly toward the van. “I had an amazing time,” she said. “Thank you.”

“Anytime.” He paused in front of the bakery window and Abby turned to face him.

“What?”

“We should do it again sometime,” he said, his hands in his pockets.

“Definitely.”

“I mean . . . without my stupid friends.”

“They’re not stupid,” Abby replied quickly. “They—”

Noah took a step closer to her and Abby shut up. There it was again. That insane sizzle of attraction. Only this time it was about triple the intensity. Like if Abby reached out and touched the air between them her hand would get singed. Noah’s blue eyes stared into hers. For once his lips weren’t twisted into a teasing smile or a superior smirk. He was just . . . looking at her.

“Let’s not talk about them anymore,” he said.

“ ’Kay” was all Abby could get out.

Noah reached for her, hooked his fingers through the belt loops on the front of her jeans, and pulled her toward him. She tripped on her way and started to laugh out of sheer embarrassment and giddiness. He stopped the laugh with a long, soft, lingering kiss.

Noah Spencer is kissing me!
Abby thought, elated.
I’m kissing Noah Spencer!

Somehow she got past her shock and her arms found her way around his neck. She leaned into him, exhilarated, yet inexplicably comfortable at the same time. It was a totally perfect kiss—mind-numbing and skin-tingling and heart-stopping.

“That was a long time coming,” he said softly.

“Really?” Abby asked, floating somewhere above their heads. “How long?”

“Two years, at least.”

Abby broke into a wide grin. “Are you kidding? You have not liked me for two years.”

Noah smiled. “Is that so hard to believe?”

“Well, yeah, considering how many girlfriends you’ve had in that time!” Abby replied. “Let’s see, there was Courtney, Diana, the unfortunate Brianna incident . . .”

“Someone’s been keeping track,” Noah joked.

Abby’s mind reeled. “So all this time you’ve been picking on me, messing with me. All this time you’ve—”

“Wanted to kiss you,” Noah said, flushing. “Yeah.”

“So why now?” Abby asked.

“I don’t know,” Noah said with a shrug. “I kind of thought you were flirting with me tonight.”

“Me? Flirting?” Abby protested. “I don’t even know how!”

Noah laughed. “Well, I figured after all this time it was about time I took a chance.”

Abby rested her cheek on his chest and looked up at him. “Well, I’m glad you did,” she said. Then she smiled as he leaned in to kiss her again.

This time, without the element of surprise, she was able to take the whole thing in—his soft lips, his fingertips on her face—and she smiled behind her kisses. Noah tasted like ballpark pretzels and mustard. It was Abby’s new favorite flavor.

Abby was back home, but she wasn’t ready to rejoin her crazy family. Not just yet. She wanted to hold on to this perfect feeling just a little longer—this feeling of euphoria and expectation, of excitement and weightlessness. She walked around the side of the Dove’s Roost and into the backyard. The crickets were chirping and there was a faint breeze rustling the trees.

Abby noticed that the flower-covered canopy her father had created for the wedding the day before had yet to be broken down. Abby stood under the white arch and looked up at the pink and purple flowers that dripped from the sides. She let out a long, happy sigh that dissolved into a laugh.

All her life, she’d always thought the canopy was totally cheesy with the fake-vine inlay on the poles and the little doves carved out near the top. But now . . . now as she grinned in the moonlight and leaned back against one of the supports to look up into the blanket of flowers, she had to admit it.

The canopy was actually kind of pretty.

• 10 •

One True Love

“You and Cakeboy? I knew it!” Christopher cried, turning his Honda onto Maple Avenue. “I’m, like, a chick, yo. That’s how intuitive I am.”

“Okay, I’m going to pretend you didn’t just say that,” Abby said.

“No, but really, I’m happy for you guys,” Christopher told her. “And maybe now he’ll stop being such a jerk all the time.”

Christopher pulled his car up in front of Petals-n-Stems, the flower shop Carol had chosen for her wedding.

“Thanks for the ride,” Abby said. “Once this wedding’s over I’ll actually get full use of the van back.”

“Anytime,” Christopher said. “We’re gonna miss you on the field today.”

“Thanks,” Abby said. “I’m gonna miss me on the field too.” She glanced up as she unbuckled her seat belt and saw that Carol was standing outside the shop talking to Noah. He turned around and smiled and Abby’s heart responded even more enthusiastically than usual. It had validation now! Its feelings were reciprocated!

“Aw, look. There’s your luv-ah now!” Christopher said.

“Shut up!” Abby cried, smacking his arm.

“Hey!” Noah said, coming over to the window.

“Hi!” Abby replied with a grin.
Please, please don’t
let Christopher say anything stupid.

“Carol asked me to sit in on the meeting,” Noah explained. “We work with these guys a lot and it’s good to coordinate the cake with the flowers.”

“Right,” Abby said.

Noah looked past her at Christopher. “Hey, man,” he said.

“ ’Sup?” Christopher replied.

“Thanks again, Christopher,” Abby said as Noah opened the car door for her. “Call you later.”

Christopher cranked up the hip-hop CD in his stereo and peeled out.

“So, you and Johnny Rockets spend a lot of time together, huh?” Noah said.

He’s jealous!
Abby thought, a thrill of excitement running though her.

“You know we do,” she said. “And you also know Christopher and I are just friends.”

“It’s impossible for guys and girls to just be friends,” Noah said.

“Why does everyone keep saying that?” Abby replied. “Besides,
we
were.”

Noah grinned. “Yeah, and look how that turned out.”

Carol flipped her cell phone closed and looked up. “Hey, Ab. That was Tessa. She said she and Missy are coming over tonight to try working on the shower again. You up for it?”

“I’m not going to go all
Exorcist
again, I promise,” Abby said. “I even set the meeting up myself.”

“Wow.” Carol looked impressed. “That’s great. Thanks.”

“Just trying to be a good little maid of honor,” Abby replied.

“You went all Exorcist?” Noah asked.

“Don’t worry. My head only spins around when I’m provoked,” Abby said, waggling her eyebrows.

“Okay. Let’s go look at some flowers,” Carol said.

“Cool,” Abby replied. “So where’s Tucker?”

“Oh, he stayed home to help Dad with the seating arrangements. He said flowers are not a guy thing,” Carol said. “No offense, Noah.”

“None taken.”

Abby shot Noah a look as they followed Carol into the flower shop.

“I know what you’re thinking and just because the guy doesn’t have an opinion on flowers, that doesn’t make him a bad person,” Noah whispered to her.

“Yeah,” Abby said. “We’ll see.”

“So . . . I have nothing to worry about with Johnny Rockets?” Noah asked. He glanced over his shoulder as if Christopher and his car were still there.

As Carol greeted Liam, the proprietor of Petals-n-Stems, Abby looked at Noah. His eyes studied hers intently as he waited for an answer and Abby’s stomach filled with dancing butterflies. Wow. Noah was really cute when he was threatened. And it was so sweet the way he was so willing to wear his heart on his sleeve.

Initiating physical contact had never been Abby’s thing, but on impulse, she reached out and squeezed his hand. Noah smiled.

“Nope,” Abby said. “Nothing at all.”

Abby sighed and dropped the spaghetti straps she was struggling with. She needed a moment to catch her breath. Cardio-dress-trying-on. At this rate she was going to be able to teach the class.

What was I thinking saying I wanted to shop for my
own dress?
she wondered, staring at herself in the dressing room mirror.
At least if I had agreed to the plaid
I wouldn’t have had to spend my first Friday off from school
trying stu f on at Monique’s.

“Everything okay in there?” Carol asked from outside the door.

“I’m fine,” Abby replied. “I just can’t figure out how these straps go.”

“Here. Let me see.”

The door to the dressing room opened and the saleswoman, a big-haired chick with a pinched face who was about Carol’s age, stood in the doorway. She looked Abby up and down, amused. A couple of women strolled by and peered in at Abby’s half-naked body.

“Would you mind closing the door?” Abby asked.

“You have it on backward,” the woman told Abby. She put her hand over her mouth and shook her head like it was just
so sad
that Abby was so clueless. Didn’t these people work on commission? Shouldn’t this woman try being
nice
to Abby?

Carol’s face appeared over the woman’s shoulder. Abby shot her a pleading look.

“Forget that one,” Carol said, glancing at the fabric bunched up all around Abby’s waist. “It’s not you.”

“Thank you,” Abby said, shoving the dress to the floor.

She grabbed the door away from the saleswoman, slamming it shut. Three dresses down, two to go. At least Carol had agreed to let Abby get a regular dress from a regular store instead of going to one of those shops that sold nothing but bridesmaids’ dresses, most of which looked like wardrobe from an ’80s prom movie. At Monique’s they had a few normal dresses— i.e., clothes Abby might be caught dead in.

Abby looked at herself in the mirror. Thank God it was Friday. This week she had already had two meetings with Tessa and Missy to pick out color schemes and hors d’oeuvres for the shower. Then she’d addressed, stuffed and mailed the invites and taken the first few RSVPs. And now the week of wedding mayhem was being topped off by this. At least when it was over she had something to look forward to. Noah was picking her up from the dress shop in less than an hour to take her out on their first real date. His friends were having an end-of-the-school-year party and Noah had invited her to go.

“Which one are you trying on now?” her sister asked.

“The light blue one,” Abby replied. She stepped out to show Carol. “What do you think?” she said, giving a twirl. It felt slightly itchy, and the neckline was all wrong, but she was trying to give it the benefit of the doubt. “Is it that bad?” she said, taking in Carol’s glum expression.

“Please. It’s not that,” Carol said. She looked up at Abby and for the first time Abby noticed the big bags under her eyes. “Aren’t you worried about Mom and Dad?”

Abby chewed her bottom lip. Of course she was worried. Over the past few days her parents hadn’t just stopped talking about wedding-related matters. They’d stopped talking entirely. Abby had been hoping things would just somehow go back to normal. She’d been trying to convince herself that maybe it was no big deal. But the fact that Carol was bringing it up made the whole thing feel a lot more real.

“Don’t worry,” Abby said, trying to sound comforting. “Once the wedding is over everything will go back to normal.”

“That’s just it,” Carol said. “Ab, this is my wedding. I’d rather things go back to normal
before
I walk down the aisle. I don’t want Mom and Dad fighting on my wedding day.”

Abby swallowed hard and stepped back into the dressing room, her pulse pounding in her ears as she searched for the right words.

“I know it’s bad timing,” she said as she unzipped the dress and let it fall down around her ankles. “But they’ll work it out. It’ll be fine.” Maybe if she said it enough, she could convince herself too.

“Yeah,” Carol said unenthusiastically. “You’re probably right.”

Abby pulled the last dress off the hanger and slipped her arms through the sheer cap sleeves. She zipped it up and stepped out.

Carol immediately sat up straight. “Wow,” she said. “
That
looks good.”

“Yeah?” Abby asked, feeling a little thrill of excitement.

She turned around and checked herself out in the mirror. The color was a bit more purply than she would have preferred, but the style flattered her shoulders and the length, just below the knee, was just where she wanted it. There was a lighter-colored ribbon around the waist that on the hanger looked cheesy, but on her person looked much better. It wasn’t the most perfect dress she’d ever seen, but Carol seemed to like it. And at that moment, Abby felt like doing something to cheer her sister up.

“Abby, you look really beautiful in that,” her sister said, standing up behind her.

“Great! We have a winner!”

At that moment the saleswoman scurried over and glanced at Abby. “That dress was totally made for you.”

“You don’t have to give us your spiel,” Carol told her with a smile. “We already decided to take it.”

“Good choice,” the woman said flatly. “Just tell them at the register that Annabelle helped you.”

“Commission does horrible things to people,” Abby said as the woman moved away again.

She and Carol both laughed. Just then the door opened. Noah walked in and Abby froze, her heart pounding. She wanted to dive back into the dressing room so she could change back before he’d see her. But it was too late. Noah found them with his eyes, then made a face that no one had ever made before while looking at Abby. He was stunned.

“Uh . . . hi,” Abby said.

“Wow,” Noah said. He ran his hand over his hair and pressed his lips together. “You’re gonna get that one, right? You look . . . good.”

Blushing, Abby ducked into her little closet and slapped her hand over her mouth to stifle the gleeful laugh that had bubbled up in her chest. Apparently they had picked the right dress. Maybe being a bridesmaid wouldn’t be so bad after all.

Abby stood on the deck at Michael Randall’s house, smiling shyly at the people around her. She didn’t know many of Noah’s friends, and barely recognized anyone at this party, which was good and bad. Good because she wasn’t forced to make small talk. Bad because she felt totally out of place. Abby had attended the public school in Watertown up until eighth grade, so she recognized a few faces, but this was a graduation party. The few people who looked vaguely familiar were Noah’s age, two years ahead of her.