He was everything on her damn list.
They walked into the wedding chapel reception area, which was bright white with flowers everywhere. Wedding pictures were plastered across one entire wall. Next to the reception desk stood Elvis.
In drag.
“Hubba hubba,” the guy said. “We got a live one, folks.” He grinned at Zoe. “You want your groom to dress like Elvis, too, darlin’, or just me?”
Zoe opened her mouth and then managed to close it. “We’re not . . . getting married.”
Elvis sized up Parker. “He not getting the job done? Do we need to put more men on the job?”
Parker started to speak, but Zoe quickly put a hand in his and squeezed, talking hurriedly before he could. “We’re looking for someone. She’s—”
“Ah,” Elvis said, understanding crossing his face. “So you’re who they’re waiting for. The two mentally retarded kids, yeah?”
“Down syndrome,” Parker said. “They have Down syndrome.” He spoke quietly. Calmly.
But Zoe knew him now, knew the tells, and he wasn’t feeling quiet or calm.
“Whatever,” Elvis said with a shrug. “They’re inside.” He gestured with his chin to the open door to the chapel.
Back in charge, Parker took Zoe’s hand and pulled her along with him. At the back of the chapel was one guy. A kid, really. He was sitting on the back row bench, head bowed, but when they entered, his gaze went straight to Parker. With an audible gulp, he stood up and shuffled his feet a little bit, his dark hair falling into his sky blue eyes. “You made it,” he said with what sounded like great relief.
“Where is she?” Parker asked.
The kid pointed to the front of the chapel. “They don’t have any other weddings today. The lady—er, the guy—um, Elvis said we could stay as long as we wanted.”
Parker nodded and strode down the aisle. Zoe watched him head toward a girl sitting huddled in misery on the front pew.
Zoe turned to Amory’s boyfriend. “I’m Zoe,” she said. “And I’m guessing you’re Henry?”
Henry nodded. “We didn’t do it.” He shoved his hands into his pockets. “Parker said to wait. So we waited.”
Zoe smiled. “That’s good.”
He gave her a tentative smile back. “Yeah. Except probably it’d be even better if we hadn’t come at all. Everyone’s upset.”
“How about you and Amory?” she asked. “Are you guys upset?”
“No,” he said. “We’re in love.”
Zoe’s heart squeezed at the sincere honesty in the kid’s voice, and she smiled. “Then everything else will work out,” she said.
Henry nodded, and when his glasses slipped down his nose, he shoved them up again. “I told her that. And I told her we have time, too. But Parker wanted her to be a grownup and stuff, and so yeah . . . here we are.”
“I don’t think Parker meant she should get married to show she’s an adult,” Zoe said carefully.
Henry nodded. “Sometimes she gets mixed up between her parents and Parker, and confused on what they want her to do.” Poor Henry immediately looked stricken and guilty as soon as the words were out, like he felt awful saying anything bad about Amory’s family.
Zoe looked down the aisle, at the two heads bent together. Parker had pulled Amory up to a seated position and was next to her, his arm around her shoulders, speaking quietly.
Amory was listening carefully and then speaking in return, the polar opposite of the body language of her brother. Her arms waved, her face became animated, and her voice got high and excited. She was seriously adorable.
And though Parker wouldn’t like to know it, so was he. Cocking his head, he listened to everything she said without interrupting her. When she’d wound down, he spoke again and Amory clearly hung on every single word with rapt adoration.