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“Crystals.” Marissa sniffled. “Seed pearls. It’s costing my dad a fortune. I’m so… blessed.”
“Oh, honey.” I leaned across the table to grasp her forearm. “Come sit down. I’ve got cookies—”
“Can’t. They’re also taking in the dress by an extra two inches around the waist. Apparently, my rushed wedding is fueling rumors that I’ve got a bun in this oven.” She laid a hand on her flat stomach. “When the truth is, I haven’t seen my fiancé in weeks, and I can’t even get him to return my calls.” She picked up a dried globe thistle by the business end and gasped. “Motherfucker.”
“Okay, enough. Come and tell Dr. Quinn all about it. Is this just about the dress? Because we can pick those crystals right off again.” I gently pulled her away from the disaster of a flower arrangement and sat her down on the green velvet sofa.
“It’s about everything,” she sniffed. “Trey’s mom was at the fitting, and she told me she and my mom have been working with a real estate agent to find us a house as a wedding gift. I said I’d like to help pick it out, and Aunt Bertie called me ungrateful. I mentioned that I want to go back to school next fall to study music therapy for kids, and my mom said it was time for me to grow up. Trey’s mom said if I want to work with children, I can just have some of my own, because she can’t wait to be a grandmother, but I don’t want kids for another few years at least.”
“Oh, sweetheart.” I patted her back gently.
“And I don’t know when things veered so out of control, but it’s too late to change, you know? I’m already committed to Trey. To this wedding. Everyone’s worked so h-h-hard.” As Marissa spun her engagement ring around her finger, the giant diamond flashed rainbows around us from the sunlight through the window. “And then there’s Levi…”
“What about Levi?” I demanded.
“Levi says I shouldn’t settle. If I’m not happy with Trey, all I have to do is say so. But that’s easy for him to say, isn’t it? He never does anything he doesn’t want to do…” She swallowed and looked away. “…even if I ask him to.”
Danger, danger, danger.
“Have you… asked him to do something?” I asked fake-casually.
She spun her diamond more aggressively but didn’t answer.
“You said you and Levi were close in the past.”
“Yeah,” she whispered. “I thought I was in love with him once, if you can believe that. He was the first boy I ever kissed. The first boy I ever… you know… one summer night up at the overlook.” Her cheeks turned pink, and her eyelashes fluttered closed for a beat.
My eyes widened. Marissa lost her virginity to Levi at the overlook… where she was now planning to marry a different guy while Levi watched?
When had this become a telenovela?
“Wow,” I managed.
“But then I went to college, and he started working for his dad, which meant protecting my dad, and… well, it turned out our feelings were just kid stuff. We grew apart because we wanted different things. Which is fine, of course. Of course it’s fine.”
Fucking hell.
I tried not to picture my big wedding client disappearing in a puff of Levi-shaped smoke. When I’d first noticed the tension between Levi and Marissa, I’d chalked it up to an old childhood crush. But if she was still thinking about it and talking about it in the final lead-up to her wedding to another man… that was a problem.
But, I reminded myself, it wasn’t my problem. Not yet anyway. If she wanted to call off her wedding to be with another man, so be it. But I didn’t need to be the one to help her get to that point by encouraging her.
“So! Are you excited about the SnoBall?” I asked, plastering on my best pageant smile with the blatant change of subject. “I’ve gotten a kind of behind-the-scenes the last few weeks. It’s going to be amazing!”
She scraped her teeth against her bottom lip before giving me a tremulous smile. “Yeah.” She took a breath and then smiled bigger. “Yeah, actually, Trey is coming in for it and told me he’s bringing his dad’s ’55 Cadillac so we can arrive in style.”
After a few minutes of idle local gossip and excitement about the SnoBall, Marissa seemed almost completely recovered from her earlier stress.
She patted my leg before standing up. “I’d better get back to the farm and take a shower. Mama’s coming for the dance, and she’s bringing a hairstylist from Nashville for an updo. Will I see you at home before the fun?”
She was such a kind person, and her inquiry made me feel tender affection for her. Maybe I did need to talk to her about the Levi thing, but I certainly couldn’t do it right now when I’d promised Ava I’d stop by her place to go over some last-minute details before the party tonight.
