Next, before I could scold him, in what must have been a total psychotic break for a society lady, Mrs. Richmond took things to a whole different level… andchargedme.
You know, like a bull.
Like she was about to wrestle me out of all that polyester lace—or die trying.
And I suddenly had a flash of fear that Mrs. Richmond might beat me to death. In a church. While Pearce stood placidly by, texting his fantasy baseball group chat.
But that’s when I felt a tug on my arm—and it was Cooper turning me toward him.
And then he was bending at the waist, and moving toward me, and the next thing I knew, he’d hooked me over his shoulder and risen up to his full height, leaving me draped backward over that damned rucksack.
Then Cooper shifted into motion, stepping sideways and averting Mrs. Richmond’s trajectory—just as she stampeded past the spot where I’d been standing and crashed into the sofa.
AND THAT’S HOWwe escaped.
Cooper launched right into a jog after that.
He put all those new muscles to use—that rucksack and I couldn’t have beenlight—and jogged all the way down the church hall, out the vestibule doors he’d burst in through, and straight to an open-top Jeep that was parked half up on a curb, like he’d screeched to the church’s side entrance and just left it there.
He flipped me over, deposited me in the front seat, and tossed the rucksack into the back.
“This is your car?” I asked as he reached over to buckle me.
“This is myrentalcar.”
“You rented an open-top Jeep?”
“It was all they had left.”
“Is this why you showed up with a rucksack?”
“My laptop’s in there.”
“But why doesn’t this thing have a top?”
“This seems like an odd thing to fixate on.”
I gestured around. “The vibes don’t suit you at all.”
“Somebody took the top off at some point, okay? And I didn’t have time to wait for theoneguy at the rental counter to snap it all back on.”
“Why not?”
“Because,” Cooper said, pausing to look me in the eyes like we should all already know this, “my flight from Heathrow was delayed. And customs was slow. And I was running late to show up here and stop your wedding.”
Five
FIRST THINGS FIRST:We got out of town.
Cooper took us south down I-45 toward Galveston—only an hour away. We didn’t even try to talk. I just leaned back against the headrest, my hair breaking free of its bouffant and the puffy crinoline of the pumpkin skirt blowing everywhere, while Cooper blasted a playlist of all our favorite songs from high school.
Despite everything I knew about the gravity of what I’d just done, I felt surprisingly free.
All to say: Don’t knock open-top Jeeps until you’ve tried ’em.
I had just firebombed my life—and left my whole family to clean up the mess. Except for my dad, of course, as usual.
Later, I’d feel bad about it all.
