“That’s true,” Noah said. “I don’t think that she’d hurt Fawn, though.”
“Maybe she’s going to team up to open a new location.” I said.
Noah looked at me and sighed.
“I don’t know if that’s better or worse.”
He walked away shaking his head and I laughed, cuddling closer to Hunter.
“So what else needs to be done?” I asked.
“The ceremony is almost set up,” he said. “The reception still has a bit to go, but they have some time.”
“And our honeymoon suite?” I asked with a lilt in my voice that came from my excitement at what we had planned for our first night together as husband and wife.
Hunter nuzzled the tip of my nose with his and smiled.
“That’s coming along nicely as well.”
“Good.” I looked up at the sky. “Now we just have to wait and see if it’s going to rain.”
“Well, if it does, it would be appropriate,” Noah said. “Rain has done us well.”
I grinned at him.
“Maybe we should have sent it an invitation.” I kissed him one more time. “I’ve got to go get ready. I’ll see you in a few hours.”
“Standing at the altar,” he said.
I smiled, letting out a murmur of happiness at the thought. Everything was coming together perfectly. Virgil was finally gone from my life. Lucille wouldn’t be bothering Snow any longer. The island resort was more successful than I ever could have dreamed. Above all, Hunter and I were together, happy, and would soon be married. Everything was settling into place and giving me a glimpse at the type of life that I had dreamed of having for so long.
“Walk me to the tent?” I asked.
“Of course.”
He took my hand and we started toward the large white tent closer to the entrance to the woods where I would be getting ready for the wedding. As we went we passed by the ceremony site, a perfect clearing flanked with wide-stretching branches that dappled the ground with light and filled the air with the scent of autumn leaves, and I noticed one of the workers using a rubber mallet to sink what looked like a small sign into the ground a few feet away from the head of the aisle.
“What is that?” I asked, trying to stop so that I could read it.
“Nothing,” Hunter said, wrapping his arm around my shoulders and steering me away.
Not in time, though. I had read it. “Pick a Seat, Not a Side.”
Dammit all to hell.
It turned out that I didn’t need to send the rain a formal invitation to the wedding. It came anyway. I was sitting at the edge of the chair in front of the vanity set up in the tent, ensuring that my makeup was in place, when I heard the first tell-tale drops hitting the fabric roof. I turned and looked out of one of the small clear plastic windows in the side of the tent and saw streaks of water streaming down. I should have been upset. All of the bridal instincts in me were saying to freak out and start flailing just for the sake of showing my disdain for the fact that my perfect wedding day was being ruined. But all I could do was smile.
Fortunately, all around me my bridal party was picking up the slack for me. High pitched voices were squealing and I heard one of the very few friends that I had managed to hang on to throughout my young adulthood and marriage to Virgil starting to hyperventilate. I stood and rushed toward her, gathering the skirt of my gown up to keep from tripping on it. That was one thing that I was not about to compromise on. I might be getting married out in the woods, but I wasn’t giving up the chance to wear a gown. It might be silver and be a more fitted style than my original vanilla fluff cupcake supreme style that I had worn when I was twenty and marrying Virgil, but I felt sexy and beautiful, and most certainly looked like a bride rather than a mother-of.
“It’s alright, Vera,” I said, reaching out to take hold of the woman’s shoulders to try to calm her down. “It’s going to be fine.”
“But it’s raining,” she wailed.
I nodded.
“I know,” I said. “I hear it. But that’s OK. It’s just rain. Just water.”
“But your wedding!”
“My wedding is going to go on no matter what. It doesn’t matter what kind of weather is happening. I am marrying Hunter today even if there is spontaneous eclipse and earthquake and I have to roll down the aisle to the light of cell phones. I’m getting married. And I’m going to be happy. A little bit of water isn’t going to stop me.” There was a rush of wind from outside and the rain started pelting the walls of the tent. “A lot of water isn’t going to stop me.”
Vera nodded.
“OK.”
“OK. Now, how long until the ceremony starts?”
“Twenty minutes.”
“See? Plenty of time. I bet that by the time the ceremony starts, the rain will have passed us by and we’ll just get to enjoy all of the wonderful smells and cool air. Let’s just go have some champagne and toast my last few minutes as a single woman.”
That seemed to perk Vera up and we headed for the lounge area that had been set up with plush white couches and ottomans at the other side of the tent. I settled onto one of the couches and accepted a crystal flute of champagne from the attendant, happy for the blend of my style and Hunter’s style that we had achieved when planning our wedding.
By the time that I was finished sipping the champagne and had enjoyed a few last-minute hugs and congratulations from the women in the tent with me, I knew that I had been absolutely right about the rain not being as bad as it was once the ceremony started.
It was twice as bad.
“What do you want to do?” Sarah, the wedding coordinator, asked as she approached, gripping her walkie talkie in her hand like it gave her life.
“Where are the guests?” I asked.
“We herded them into the lounge tent,” she said.
I sighed. Well, this was all going straight to hell. The lounge tent had been designed as a mid-point between the ceremony itself and the reception, but now it had become a gathering vessel for my soggy wedding guests, who were undoubtedly imbibing in some of the drinks that were stored there.
“And Hunter?”
“Standing at the end of the aisle with an umbrella”
That’s all I needed to hear.
“Bring me out there,” I said.
“Are you sure?”
“Look, nothing is going right already. It’s all kind of fallen apart.” I had a fucking ‘Pick a Seat’ sign. “Why not just go with it?”
“But your dress,” Vera said, starting to fall apart behind me again. “And your shoes.”
“It’s a dress and shoes,” I said, remembering the shoes that I had tried so desperately to cling to when I was first on the island with Hunter and Gavin. “It’s going to be fine. You don’t have to come with me if you don’t want to, but my wedding started five minutes ago and I’m not going to wait around anymore. I’m going to walk out there and marry the gorgeous man who is waiting for me.”
I reached out and grabbed the bouquet from the table beside the entrance to the tent. Straightening my shoulders, I stepped out of the tent and into the pouring rain. It streamed down on me and I laughed into it as I hopped into the decorated cart that would whisk me to the path near the ceremony site. The rain was still thundering around me when the cart stopped and I stepped down onto the soft leaves at the head of the path. Hunter was standing at the end of the aisle, the chairs empty on either side, talking to the officiant from under the umbrella he held. As I started down the aisle toward him, the officiant nudged him and Hunter turned to me.