“Righteous,” Al y whispered then gathered Indy in her arms and gave her a hug.
“Old, new, borrowed, blue. Old, new… blue.” Tod was surreptitiously studying his clipboard and muttering to himself. He leaned toward Stevie and whispered, “Shit, I think we forgot the borrowed.”
“Man in the room,” Shirleen announced, walking in fol owed by Mace who’d changed and was now wearing a tux.
I took one look at him and the sight of my gorgeous boyfriend in a tux sent my breath on a cruise of the Caribbean.
It was clear Indy wasn’t going the romantic route with Lee’s groomsmen because it wasn’t your average, everyday tux, it was a hot tux. It was black on black: black suit, black shirt, black silk tie and not a bowtie either. I could tel immediately it wasn’t rented, it was tailored to fit perfectly.
Shirleen kept talking. “He’s here for Stel a, Lana and Chloe.”
She wasn’t wrong, he was our ride.
Though it was kind of weird she brought him up to the bedroom.
I watched and wasn’t insulted when his eyes caught on Indy and didn’t move.
“Shirleen! You don’t just bring a man into a bedroom fil ed with ladies dressin’!” Daisy snapped, even though everyone was already dressed. “Especial y if one of those ladies is a soon-to-be bride!”
“What? It’s Mace. He’s taken. It ain’t like he’s out on the cruise,” Shirleen snapped back.
Indy looked at Mace through the mirror, smiled and greeted, “Hey Mace.”
He gave her a chin lift.
“Indy, honey, I don’t mean to alarm you but we forgot the borrowed,” Tod cal ed.
“What?” Daisy asked.
“We got old, her Mom’s earrings, new, Al y and Kitty Sue’s bracelet, blue, her garter but nothing borrowed,” Tod explained.
“Oh shit,” Al y mumbled.
Shirleen looked at Tod. “Borrowed is easy. Anyone can give her something borrowed. Shit, she could use a borrowed bobby pin.”
“Her hair isn’t up, Shirleen,” Ava told her.
Shirleen looked at Indy then muttered, “Oh yeah, right.”
“I’l get my jewelry box, see what I have,” Daisy announced and ran to her dressing room.
“A hankie’s good. Anyone got a hankie?” Roxie cal ed out.
Since I was watching everyone search for something borrowed, I almost didn’t catch Mace walking toward Indy.
His arms were around his neck and then the chain with his sister’s ring on it was off and dangling between his fingers.
He upended it on one side, the ring fal ing out into his palm.
He shoved the chain in his trouser pocket, stopped in front of Indy, took her right hand and slid the ring on her pinkie finger.
Only Jet and I caught this and, watching it, we both were breathing so heavily trying to rescue our makeup, we sounded like we were hyperventilating.
Indy looked at the ring then up at Mace. The she curled her fingers around his bicep, leaned into him until their faces were close and she smiled.
The sun from the windows highlighted the tears glistening in her eyes.
Jet and I looked at each other. She reached out, grabbed my hand and squeezed.
We looked back to Indy as she took her hand away from Mace’s arm, swiped under her eye, turned to the room and announced, “I’m good. Borrowed needs a checkmark, Tod.”
“What? Where?” Tod asked, jerking his head around looking at the floor as if he’d been told to capture an invisible rabbit in the room.
Mace came to me sitting on the bed, leaned in, grabbed my hand, pul ed me up and said, “Let’s go.” We got into the hal when he asked, “Where’s Mom and Chloe?”
“In the dining room, drinking champagne with Trish, Dolores, Nancy and Blanca.”
“Oh fuck,” he muttered.
I looked up at him. “What?”
“They’re with Trish. Roxie’s parents are nuts. They make Tex look adjusted,” Mace told me.
I laughed. “I’ve been noticing that.”
We were down the stairs and nearly to the dining room when I pul ed at his hand to stop him.
He halted and tilted his head down to look at me, body stil facing forward.
“Babe, I’m a groomsman, I gotta –” he started but I interrupted.
“Kai, what you just did for Indy –”
His face went hard and his body turned toward me.
Then he leaned in and clipped, “I told you, don’t cal me Kai.”
I blinked because I hadn’t even realized I’d done it but even so I was stunned at his reaction to it.
Then I felt my eyes narrow and my blood pressure skyrocket. “Sorry, Mace, it just slipped out and the only reason I can think of as to why is because what you just did for Indy was something a good man named Kai would do, not a badass cal ed Mace.”
I yanked my hand out of his, muttering under my breath about how moody he was and started to stomp away but he caught me and whirled me into his arms.
“Effing hel , are we gonna fight again?” I cried as I tilted my head back to look at him.
I no sooner got my eyes on him than his mouth was on mine.