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4
BEAU
Ishould sit down. I should take a seat with my friends and show my support for Aria. I’d gotten a lot of business thanks to her connections in the wonderful world of weddings. And now that I’d joined her group of friends, and became close with Zac thanks to additional work ties, they were all starting to feel a lot more like family.
Not that I had a ton to go on, since my family consisted of just my pops, and if he was right and the docs were wrong… pretty soon I’d have no family at all.
“Shelby just texted me,” Paul said, breaking me from my thoughts. “She said they hit traffic on the way back. They still need to drop Grayson off, but they’ll be here as soon as they can.”
“Good,” Zac replied.
Itwasgood. Even though there was nothing they could do but sit here and wait for news like the rest of us, I knew they’d rather be here than anywhere else.
Last year, Aria had hired me as Shelby’s date when she was still trying to figure out her feelings for Paul, and when they got married a few months later, Layla had been my client. As focused as they were on the weddings or their love lives, one thing was blatantly obvious to me on both occasions: These four women were so different in so many ways, but their friendship—theirbond—was powerful, and it’d been cool to see.
And that thought had me turning to the floor-to-ceiling windows, searching for their friend who’d dashed out of here without so much as a backward glance.
No, I shouldn’t sit.
“Text me if you hear anything,” I told the guys. Then I headed for the door, not even waiting for a response.
I stepped into the balmy afternoon air, my head on a swivel, looking for Lyndi. When my eyes landed on her small form facing an alley in the all-black outfit she wore to work, my chest tightened. Warmth spread through me like someone had slid me under an oversize heat lamp and left me there to bake.
Even from this distance, I could tell she was having a hard time. And it hit me as strange to see her like this when I was used to seeing her in her element. When she had her nose in a book, she was the picture of peace. Her face cycled through varying emotions as she read, but even when I figured she must be reading something sad given the downward set of her mouth, she still looked oddly happy.
At weddings, she’d snap away on that big, fancy camera. She’d move through the crowd, capturing photos people would cherish forever, even though they rarely spared her a second glance unless she asked them to pose.
Inthosemoments, she reminded me more of a ray of sunshine than anyone wearing all black had any right to. It didn’t make sense. Who looked like a ray of sunshine while wearing all black?
Lyndi did. And it killed me.
She wasn’t even a bubbly,sunshine-yperson. She was actually quite reserved. It was more like how the sun stood back, calmly observing things, shining its light without making a big fuss about it. Like it was only there to make life a little bit brighter. It did the world a favor by existing, just like Lyndi.
Or at least, that was what it felt like to me, whenever I was near her.
And even though I knew it was a total contradiction, itirkedme. Every degree of warmth that Lyndi brought with her whenever she was around made me lose sight of all the reasons I tried so hard not to think about her.
It made me forget that she’d never given me the time of day, so even if Iwantedto be with her, I didn’t stand a chance. “Bad idea,” I whispered, considering going inside to sit with my friends.
Playing the waiting game with them seemed a heck of a lot safer than the game I’d be playing out here. Even if it was a hospital, and the torturous smell of cleaning products and fear still lingered in my nose.
Before I had a chance to brave going back inside, Lyndi turned slightly and looked over her shoulder, almost as if she could sense me standing here.
Left without a choice, I approached her cautiously, trying to force down my body’s disquieting reaction to her. “How are you doing?”
She let out a choked sound—part laugh, part sigh. “Me?”
“Yeah,you.”
“I’m fine. Just nervous for Aria.”
“Aria’s in great hands. She’s going to be okay.”
Lyndi’s shoulders lifted toward her ears like she wasn’t too sure about that, but then she let them fall, the tense lines on her face relaxing. “You’re right. Aria’s going to be fine, and so is the baby.”
“Exactly.”
Silence loomed between us like a heavy mist, even though she really did look more at ease after accepting the truth about her friend. And it was a truth I’d hold onto as hard as I could because if I were a superstitious person, it would be very easy for me to believe that my merepresencein this group could cause them to lose someone they loved.
