The Wedding Agreement (11 page)

Emotional Intelligence

“Finally,” Alex said, “a step in the wedding planning I can actually enjoy.” He sliced into his prime rib, dipped it in horseradish and some mashed potatoes, and put it in his mouth. “How's the marsala?” he asked.

Cass finished chewing the piece of chicken that was in her mouth before speaking. She had to agree with Alex; going to a food tasting was fun. The venue was set up similarly to how they'd seen it when they'd visited before, with large round tables decorated with crisp black and white linens. Though the tables could hold up to ten people, there was only one other couple at theirs. Around the room's perimeter were several food stations, including options that were available at an extra cost. She'd already been up to the fondue station twice, loading a plate with white chocolate–covered strawberries for her and Alex to
share. How could someone not love complimentary food and alcohol? “The sauce is fantastic,” she said. “Do you want to try some?” She picked up a piece of chicken with her fork, dipped it in the brown sauce, making sure to get a mushroom too, and held it out for Alex to try. She thought he was going to take the fork from her, but instead he leaned in and opened his mouth so she could feed it to him.

“I like that too. And we both thought the blackened salmon was good. It's such a hard decision.”

“I know, right? We're stuck too. The food is amazing here,” a male voice across from her said, interrupting their conversation. They'd made small talk with Joe and Val when they'd arrived, but since then all four of them hadn't said much to one another; they had been too focused on the food to chat.

“Yeah, but we need to offer some healthy options as well,” Val said.

“That's what the vegetarian option's for.”

“Yeah, but that's pasta. Just because there are vegetables in it doesn't mean it's healthy.”

“Can you just forget about your caloric intake for one day? It's our wedding.” Joe let out an awkward laugh, probably just remembering that Cass and Alex were there.

Val rolled her eyes, but there was a playfulness to it. “Healthy eating is a way of life for me. You know that.”

“This is true. She's constantly posting Facebook updates about her workouts and meals,” Joe replied.

Val returned his comment with an elbow to the side, but her smile never broke.

He tossed an arm around her shoulders and placed a light peck on her cheek. “And somehow I love you despite that.”

Though at first glance they appeared to be bickering, they seemed like they were actually in love. It made Cass suddenly self-conscious of her relationship with Alex. Could people tell that they weren't really a couple? If strangers could, then surely Tessa would be able to. Cass felt her expression fall at the thought. She knew how important this was for Alex.

Val gestured between them. “So, how did you two meet?” she asked between bites of tilapia.

Cass opened her mouth to answer, but Alex spoke before she had a chance to. “I'll tell it,” he said, placing a hand gently on top of hers on the table.

She shot him a glance that she hoped conveyed how much she did
not
want him to get her back for the little tale she told while they were shopping for rings. She would have just told Val and Joe that they met through friends. This didn't seem like the time or place to discuss broken penises.
Of course, neither is a jewelry store.

“It's really not that interesting of a story. We have mutual friends who were dating at the time,” Alex began. Then he looked to Cass. “I guess ‘dating' might not be an accurate term.”

“They were definitely dating. They just didn't want to admit it.”

“That's probably true,” Alex agreed. “Anyway, because Lauren and Scott wanted to prove to everyone how
non
committed they were, they had us all meet at a club. The guys got there first, and we were grilling my buddy Scott about Lauren's friends, because he was the only one who'd met them.”

“You grilled him about me?” Cass tried to act surprised, but truthfully she wasn't. It would have been more shocking if Alex hadn't asked any questions. He did it for a living.

“Well, not about you specifically. And it was actually Xavier. He just asked how hot all of you were.” Alex shrugged as if it were no big deal.

Now Cass was interested. “And what did Scott say about me?”

Alex hesitated, and Cass was unsure if it was because he really couldn't remember or if he just didn't want to tell her. “He told us you were blond and compared you to a praying mantis,” Alex said.

“A praying mantis? Why?”

“Because you were fun to look at, but if we got too close, you might bite our heads off.”

This time Cass didn't have to feign her shock. But it wasn't because she was insulted. She just couldn't believe Scott had figured her out so easily after meeting her only once. “And what did you think when you saw me?”

Alex's expression softened at her question. He'd been laughing a bit at the memory, but his smile faded slightly until just one corner of his mouth was raised. She didn't even notice he'd slid his arm around to her back until his fingers began stroking her hair lightly. “That you were the most beautiful woman I'd ever seen.”

Cass inhaled a shaky breath as she stared back into Alex's deep brown eyes. They were the kind that were so dark, she felt like if she gazed into them long enough, she might lose herself completely. And in that moment she did.

“That I had to have you,” Alex continued. “You were all I thought about for weeks.”

Cass swallowed the lump in her throat, unable to respond.

“Aww, that's so sweet,” Val said. “So did you ask her out that night?”

Cass had almost forgotten that there were other people in the room, or, more specifically, at their table. As far as she was concerned, it was just her and Alex.

He broke eye contact with Cass so he could look across the table. “No. I just kind of let things progress naturally. I guess I hoped that she'd eventually feel the same way about me as I did about her.”

Val's face lit up. “Well, obviously she does,” she said, dragging out the last word. “Or she wouldn't be here with you now.”

“Yeah, well I am pretty hard to resist.” He shot Cass a wink.

Cass wasn't sure how to interpret the gesture. Was he winking because his last comment was a joke, or because his entire explanation was the joke and he couldn't believe Val and Joe had fallen for it? Cass knew that she was reading too much into it either way, but she found that she felt kind of let down. The emotions Alex's story stirred in her quickly fizzled into a sense of disappointment Cass couldn't explain.

“What club was it?” Joe asked, and Cass was thankful for the shift in the conversation.

“Nothing Gold. You ever been there?” Alex asked.

“Plenty of times. My cousin bartends there, actually,” Joe said. “We'll probably all go there after the bachelor and bachelorette parties.”

Cass' face lit up at the idea of a bachelorette party. How had she neglected to think about such an obvious part of wedding tradition? This might be her only chance to have a bachelorette party of her own, and she certainly wasn't going to miss it. “That's a good idea,” she said, her eyes shifting to Alex to gauge his reaction. “We should do that when we have ours. You can go out with the guys, and I'll go out with the girls, and then we'll all meet up afterward.”

Alex took a sip of his drink and gave her a genuine smile. It held a sweetness to it that she'd just realized she'd become accustomed to seeing lately. “Yeah, that'd be fun.” He took his napkin off his lap and stood, placing it on the chair and holding his hand out for Cass to take it. “Now let's go get some cake.”

*   *   *

They spent the next half hour or so stuffing their faces with red velvet, chocolate chip with cream cheese icing, and lemon pound cake. Then they grabbed two cups of coffee and headed outside.

“This place really
would
be beautiful for a wedding. I always thought it'd be nice to have an outdoor ceremony,” Cass said, though she was speaking hypothetically, of course. She ran her hand along the smooth wooden deck railing and looked over the expansive grounds. The springtime grass was perfectly green, and the woods surrounding the venue gave the lawn an intimate privacy.

“Yeah, I wanted a place like this when Tessa and I got married—something outdoorsy, more rustic.”

Cass turned her head toward him, her forearms resting comfortably on the railing. “Where'd you get married?”

Alex shook his head, but laughed loudly. “The Hilton.”

“I'm guessing that was Tessa's choice?” she asked, though she knew the answer.

“You guessed right. The wedding's kind of the woman's thing. The guy's just along for the ride. You know?”

Cass understood what Alex was saying, but she didn't necessarily agree with it. “Yeah, but I never really got the whole bridezilla thing—why women get so worked up over one day when it's the rest of
the marriage that's important.” Cass pushed back off the railing and walked down the steps toward the grass.

“I found that out the hard way.”

Cass couldn't contain her curiosity. She knew the ultimate end to Alex's marriage was Tessa's infidelity, but she didn't know the whole story. “What actually happened?” she asked, but she quickly realized Alex might not want to discuss it. “You don't have to answer if you don't want to, and this time I won't even make you take a shot of tequila.”

Alex gave her a small smile, one that let her know she hadn't crossed the line. He shrugged but hung his head. “It's okay. It's pretty simple, really; I was married to my career instead of my wife. For a long time I blamed Tessa because she was the one who cheated. But truthfully, I left the marriage long before she did. It doesn't really matter that I didn't leave it for another person.”

Cass knew this wasn't something Alex shared with just anyone. He was a private person when it came to his family. And she was thankful he included her in that small circle of those who knew the circumstances of their split. “You asked me why I never wanted to get married and have a family, but I never answered you,” she said.

Alex nodded.

“Well, you basically just summed it up for me. I'm pretty career-minded, if you haven't noticed.”

“I have.”

Cass laughed quietly. “I just know I don't have the time for everything. I see all these moms like my sisters running around to work and their kids' practices. They cook dinner and help with homework, and somehow manage to still look presentable.” Cass
directed her line of vision toward the ground and dug at a divot in the dirt with the toe of her shoe. “It's just not me, you know? I can't do all of it, and something would have to get sacrificed.” She raised her head again, her hazel eyes piercing into Alex's dark brown ones. “My fear is that I'll sacrifice the wrong thing.”

She knew Alex couldn't tell her she wouldn't. He'd made the same mistake she was scared to make. So as she'd expected, he didn't say anything. He just put his arms around her and pulled her close. And somehow that was exactly what she needed.

Arson

Cass stuffed the chicken into a plastic grocery bag, tied it up, and then plopped it into Alex's kitchen trash can. “The mashed potatoes are still okay,” she said with a shrug. “Not quite sure what happened to the main course.”

Alex waved the remainder of the smoke toward the window he'd opened. “I'm pretty sure you burned it.”

“
We
burned it,” she joked. “It's your kitchen, so I refuse to take sole responsibility.” Though, truthfully, she should have. When she'd offered to make dinner for Alex and Nina, she'd said that she had a great recipe for baked chicken. And it wasn't a lie. The
recipe
was great. It was the execution that left something to be desired. Her mother had even talked her through it on the phone the day before, reminding her to take off the aluminum foil fifteen minutes before she removed it from the oven, so the skin would get a little bit crispy. But it didn't matter. By
the time the three of them had come inside from drawing sidewalk-chalk murals, it was too late. “My mom said to let it cook for forty-five minutes. I don't know what happened.”

Alex looked at the display on the oven. “On four fifty?”

Shit.
Cass bit her bottom lip. “I think I might have been about a hundred degrees off.”

Alex laughed, flashing a bright smile that comforted Cass as he handed her a menu out of his junk drawer. Then he called to Nina, who was in the powder room, washing her hands. “Do you want chicken fingers or a cheeseburger, Nina?”

“Chicken fingers,” she yelled back. “With honey mustard.”

“This is my treat,” Cass insisted. “I promised you dinner. Takeout I can do. Cooking, not so much. I'm not sure how my mom managed to make a homemade meal almost every night for five people. That right there,” she said, pointing toward the trash, “is the stuff nightmares are made of.”

“I'm not letting you buy us dinner,” Alex said. “You already paid for the chicken. And Nina's
my
daughter,” he added.

Cass lowered her voice. “If I can't
cook
dinner for my pretend future husband and stepdaughter, then at least let me buy it.” She looked up from the menu, her eyes pleading with him in a way she knew would make him cave.

“All right,” Alex said, dragging out the second word. “But they don't deliver, so at least let me go pick it up.” Then he added, “As long as you don't mind hanging with Nina for a half hour or so.”

Cass wasn't going to argue with that. Though she hadn't spent a ton of solo time with Alex's daughter,
the time they had spent together had been fun. Nina was fairly mature for her age. Combine that with Cass' immaturity, and the two of them averaged somewhere around fourteen years old. “Sure,” Cass said, glancing toward Nina as she entered the kitchen. “Your dad's gonna go pick up the food. You want to hang out with me for a little while?”

Nina's eyes lit up with what looked to be excitement. “Yeah, okay,” Nina said. “Can you paint my toenails like yours?”

Cass looked down at her light turquoise polish. Since the weather had finally started to warm up a bit, she'd just gotten a pedicure a few days before. “Um, well I don't have this color here.”

“That's okay,” Nina said. “I have purple. I brought it from home, but Daddy doesn't know how to paint nails right.”

Alex folded his arms across his chest. He'd been watching them silently until that moment. “Is that supposed to be an insult?” Alex asked. “Because I feel like it would be more embarrassing if I did.”

The fact that Nina referred to her mom's house as “home” made Cass' heart break a little for Alex. But if he noticed Nina's word choice, Alex didn't let on. Maybe he'd just become so desensitized to it that he didn't even hear it anymore. Or maybe he'd just come to accept a hard truth: that Tessa's house
was
home to Nina. It's where she spent the majority of her time and where Nina probably felt a sense of family. And that's when Cass' heart broke for Nina too. She wished Nina had that at her father's house too. “I've got the nail thing covered,” she said with a wink. “You just worry about dinner.” Then Nina grabbed Cass' hand and began to pull her down the hall toward the foyer. “I'll take the blackened chicken
alfredo,” Cass called from the bottom of the stairs before she let Nina guide her up to her room.

*   *   *

Alex had waited at the restaurant longer than he'd expected to. He'd chosen that one because he knew it was one that Cass loved. Despite the fact that it was the only spot in town that had authentic Cajun cuisine, their service was usually pretty quick. But he'd had to wait a half hour when he'd arrived, and he hoped Cass wasn't having to deal with a hungry and irritable Nina. It was already going on eight thirty, and he hadn't even given his daughter dinner yet. Maybe there was some validity to Tessa's argument that he'd have a difficult time being a full-time father.

He shot Cass a quick text when he left the restaurant to say he was on his way, but by the time he pulled in his garage fifteen minutes later, he still hadn't gotten a response.
I hope Cass survived.

He pushed open the door and walked through the foyer to the family room. His fears were assuaged when he saw the girls on the couch, so engrossed in whatever movie they were watching, neither of them even turned around to acknowledge his presence. He walked quietly to the kitchen, gently setting the bag of food on the counter. Though it was getting late, part of him didn't want to interrupt them. He felt as if he were observing a natural phenomenon that shouldn't be disturbed. He leaned back against the counter, taking them both in. Cass rested comfortably on the couch, her body leaning against the plush armrest. She must have thrown her thick blond hair up into a loose bun sometime after he'd left. Nina sat next to her, noticeably closer to Cass than she needed to be. Her dark brown hair was now in two long braids, and Alex had no doubt that Cass must have
done it; they were too perfect to have been Nina's work. He heard a chime and Cass picked up her phone. She looked at it quickly before setting it back to sleep and putting it back down next to her.

Finally he pushed off the counter and approached them slowly as he moved toward the love seat. “Food's here,” he said. Their heads snapped in his direction, no doubt in his mind that they'd just noticed he'd gotten home. “Sorry it took so long.”

Cass sat upright, stretching her arms in the air. “No problem. We had girl time. Hair, pedicures,” she said, pointing to Nina's freshly polished toes. “I let her eat a little snack though. Hope you don't mind. It was getting kind of late and she was hungry.”

Alex shook his head and gave her a small smile. “Thanks.”

“I'll still eat the chicken fingers though,” Nina said. “I only had an apple.”

As they rose from the couches and headed into the kitchen, Cass' phone chimed again. “This stupid thing.” Cass pushed a few buttons and then slid it into her back pocket.

“You need to get that?” Alex asked.

“Nah, it's just my boss sending me some info he wants me to review. It can wait.”

Alex nodded. The three of them moved through the room silently, getting out plates and silverware, pouring drinks, and setting napkins on the table, as if they'd done it countless times before. And as they sat down to eat and Alex let his eyes drift over to Cass and Nina, a part of him wished this seemingly rehearsed dance would continue.