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Despite the innumerable issues that had already come up, the ceremony started without incident, and I stood at the back of the room watching RJ. In her heels, she was still shorter than both the bride and groom, and she stood on a platform I’d had placed there. Her voice filled the room, and while everyone else was focused on the grinning bride and the smitten groom, I couldn’t take my eyes off her. I couldn’t make myself move on from whatever had gone on between Mina and RJ and what they were hiding from the groom or push away the gnawing feeling that grew every time I saw the date on my phone.
Chapter 37
RJ
I CAUGHT LEARnear the DJ after the couple signed their marriage license. “You’ve been busy this afternoon.”
Lear looked up from his phone, startled. “What?” His posture was tense. He’d looked that way before the wedding, too.
“I said you’ve been busy this afternoon.” I motioned to the elaborate reception. “Which makes sense. This is a big event.”
“Yeah.” He glanced over my shoulder, but I knew the only thing behind me was a blank wall, so he was just avoiding eye contact. “I’ve been busy.”
I narrowed my eyes, and he looked over my shoulder again. This was a big wedding—the bride’s father was an oil tycoon from Texas and a client of Carl’s. It was an expensive event, but I’d never seen Lear like this. He was normally so unflappable, and as many times as I’d enjoyed ruffling his feathers, I didn’t like seeing him like this. “What’s going on with you?”
He finally met my eyes, but he looked suspicious. “What was going on with the bride before the wedding? I heard you say ‘What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him’ before I came in.”
“It was nothing. The wedding went off without a hitch.” I’d found it kind of endearing that the young bride was so beside herself over her something old, a quarter. There were so many problems inmy life and in the lives of others I couldn’t fix, it felt good to give someone a win. From one look at his stiff posture, I knew Lear wouldn’t get that, though, and I didn’t feel like taking the time to explain the complexities of why I wanted to help people, why someone looking at me like I’d fixed everything that was wrong was special. Someone I casually hooked up with didn’t need the ins and outs of my psyche. “She was going to memorize her vows and didn’t. I told her I would suggest they both have the cards in case they got nervous, which I would have done anyway.” The lie came out of my mouth easily.
Lear searched my face, though I did not know what he hoped to find. I also wasn’t sure why he cared so much about this. He opened his mouth and would have possibly shed light on the topic, but his assistant walked hurriedly toward us and took him by the elbow to manage some crisis.
I leaned against the bar and raised a finger to the bartender. I wasn’t going to stay, but I wanted to find out why Lear had such a stick up his butt, and a glass of chardonnay sounded nice.
After my trip to Chicago, I’d returned to a busy week in the office with court appearances, continued research on the Mayfield case, and three cases with complicated custody issues, not to mention the many calls from Penny to prepare for the day. The only person who didn’t seem to want any of my time was Lear. I’d been excited the night before to figure out how to sneak off somewhere, but he’d avoided eye contact like he’d done today. I refused to believe he was pouting. On the phone he’d said he was fine with the arrangement and that he understood how things stood between us. I rolled my eyes and sipped the wine. Maybe Britta was right to ask, because it seemed like I might have to walk away.
From the front of the room, knives tapped glasses. “Thank you, everyone.” The groom stood, a smile wide across his face and his cheeks dusted with the blush of alcohol and young love. “Mina andI just wanted to say a few words of thanks.” He began thanking their parents, and I glanced around the hall. They were a nice couple, but I was really only still there for one reason. Lear stood off to the side, talking in a hushed voice with his assistant and someone who appeared to be from the hotel staff. Lear stood taller than the other two, his broad shoulders filling the fabric of his button-up shirt. It was navy today, and the gray slacks he wore fit him well. I glanced at his hand. He was always so calm and collected, but his fingers were twitching, like he wanted to reach for something.
The groom’s voice cut into my thoughts, his tone changing from boisterous to a little emotional. “And of course, Mina.”
I pulled my gaze from Lear and watched the groom smile at his new wife. It was endearing. I did like that part, the part before the bad stuff came in and they were just happy, the part where they boldly and publicly expressed their love in words. It didn’t last long, in my experience, but I liked these moments.
“I met her at work. She was on the twenty-third floor and I was on the eighth.” The bride smiled and the people in the room shifted, as if many had heard this story before and were eager for its retelling. “In the basement, there was this vending machine, and it was the only one in the building that had cherry Pop-Tarts. Anyway, one day, I scrounged some quarters from my desk and headed down there and ran into the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen.” He looked at Mina, who met his eyes adoringly, and the gathered crowd let out a reverberating “Aw.”
I sipped my wine, knowing anyone looking at me would see what I wanted them to, but even I, the cynical divorce attorney bent on avoiding feelings, had to look at the couple and hope they made it.
“She was buying cherry Pop-Tarts, too. I was smitten immediately when she politely smiled at me and walked away.” He held Mina’s hand and spoke to her. “I went back to that vending machine at the same time for weeks, hoping to catch you again. I ended upwith an actual bucket of quarters in my desk, and I probably gained ten pounds after eating those Pop-Tarts every day.”
The crowd laughed, and I glanced back at Lear, who had finished the conversation with his assistant and was watching the couple. His expression was... flat. I couldn’t tell whether Lear actually liked weddings. I was pretty sure he didn’t, but he usually faked it well, and he wasn’t now. I glanced down at his fingers, still moving around restlessly.
“Anyway, one day, I ran into you again. You were wearing a black-and-white dress and red heels and you took my breath away. I’d always thought that expression was a cliché, but I actually forgot to inhale for a moment. You were that captivating.”
Mina’s face lit up, and even from the back of the room, I could see her eyes welling with tears.
“I had to think fast. I’d never thought about what I would say, so I asked to borrow a quarter for the machine. I can tell you this now,” he said with a grin. “I had, like, six dollars in change on me, and I never got around to spending that quarter you lent me or buying Pop-Tarts that morning, because I didn’t want to waste any time not talking to you.”
Again, theawws filled the ballroom, and I let my eyes dart across the room once more to Lear, whose expression hadn’t changed.
Mina stood, leaning into her husband so they could both speak into the microphone. “So, I have a secret, too. You wanted me to have that quarter with me today. It was my something old, but I accidentally left it at home.” She held his hand, and the two of them seemed to forget any other people were in the room. “I planned to give it to you after the ceremony like I did back then,” she said, looking around the room. She pointed to the back of the room, and the gathered crowd all turned in their seats to look at me. “RJ, are you still here? RJ gave me this one to use instead until I found the original.”
Heat rose on my cheeks. Even though the crowd had returned to watching Doug and Mina, I felt one set of eyes still on me.
“She said you’d never know, and maybe you wouldn’t.” She pulled the quarter from the pocket in her dress. “I know how much the original one means to you because it was the start of our story, but, here.” She held out his hand and placed the quarter in his palm. “Our story is just starting out, and I want us to have lots of quarters, old and new.” Her voice wavered, and embarrassment prickled on the back of my neck.
Mina’s father was solidly in the top one percent, and she’d grown up in lavish wealth. Watching her and her husband talk about collecting change was still moving.
The groom slipped it in his pocket. “I already feel like the richest man in the world.”
Mina smiled. Doug smiled. Everyone applauded, and the two kissed as the sound of silverware hitting glasses filled the room.
