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And then it started to burn.
“Ow, ow, dammit woman, are you using alcohol on me?”
“I am disinfecting the wound. Chill out.” She blew over the alcohol, soothing the sting a bit. “Better?”
He grunted in response. She rubbed something slick on his skin, and he felt the tape of a band aid before she swung around to straddle his lap. “There. All better.”
He slipped his arms around her waist, pretending concern. “So I’m gonna be okay, doc?”
“Hmm, you might need bed rest, but I think you’ll pull through.”
She kissed him, and he couldn’t believe how lucky he was. There was something about Marley and him that just worked. If they could just get beyond the shit she was keeping from him, he knew they could be something special.
If only he could convince her to really trust him.
Chapter 20
The day of Sonora and Brent’s wedding was scorching by nine in the morning. This did not help the mood of the bride, who had been biting people’s heads off for hours. It was almost four and they’d just finished pictures, for which Marley was thankful. The last thing she wanted was a photograph of her on top of Sonora, choking her out.
Since their phone conversation, Marley had been trying to concentrate on making it through every task Sonora asked of her. Picking up the wedding favors at UPS an hour away when Sonora wasn’t around to sign for them. Grabbing Sonora’s honeymoon outfit from the drycleaners because she didn’t have time. All week she’d run her errands and taken her insults and kept a button on her emotions.
Today though, it was 105 degrees outside, she was wearing powder pink itchy taffeta, and the sound of Sonora’s bitching was grating on her one last nerve.
“God, it is so fucking hot, I’m melting,” Sonora screeched. “Someone turn on the fan.” When Emma, one of her other bridesmaids did, she jumped up from the bridal vanity. “Don’t turn it on me or my hair will be ruined.”
Marley could tell the other women were frazzled and felt their pain. Times ten.
“Are you stepping on my dress, you drunk hippo?” Sonora stood up from the vanity, and whirled on poor Fiona. “If there is a footprint on my one of a kind Vera Wang, I will personally take that ginormous size nine heel of yours and shove it up your—”
“Okay, that’s enough!” Marley shouted.
All the bridesmaids swung around to stare at her in horror.
“What the hell did you just say to me?” Sonora hissed.
Ignoring her, she addressed the stricken bridesmaids calmly. “Why don’t you guys head to the kitchen and get Sonora a cup of iced tea, and—”
“I don’t want iced tea!”
“At this point, I don’t care what you want! You are being terrible to all the people you call friends and I am sick of it.”
Sonora stood up with a sneer. “And I’m sick of you acting as though you’re so much better than me, like I’m just some dumb pop star who doesn’t get exactly what you think of me.”
“Everyone out. Sonora and I need to have a talk.”
They escaped as fast as their five inch heels could carry them, Emma the last one through the door.
“Bring me back a bottled water,” Sonora yelled.
When the door closed and they were finally alone, Marley advanced on her. Sonora’s eyes widened, and Marley thought she spotted real fear in them. Did she think Marley was going to hit her?
Tempting.
“Now, you and I have this last day together and then I don’t have to deal with your poor me, no one understands why I’m such a bitch attitude.”
“How dare you—”
“I dare because you treat your fiancée like a dog you need to train. I dare because you don’t give a flying fuck about your little sister, who happens to be a warm, caring person who is taking your wedding pictures for free, despite the shit you put her through. Because your parents are paying for this extravagant wedding and you don’t have the decency to be grateful. You’ve threatened me, kicked me, and tried to break me when all I wanted to do was help you—”
