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“Let’s get our bride back to her groom,” Adira says into the microphone.
We’re almost done now. And the panic has receded. Uma Cookie is in the house and the more time I spend letting her take over the more my confidence grows. A couple of months ago I could barely talk to strangers and yet somehow Adira cajoled me into playing the role of the bride when the girl they’d booked called in sick this morning. I just wish Rogue were here.
“Head in the game, sweetie,” Ermine whispers in my ear as he ushers me back toward my groom.
He shoves me from behind and I trip over my Lulu Blues and straight into the hard wall of David’s chest. “Sorry.”
“All good.” He steadies me with a hand to my elbow and a friendly smile. “Are you ready?”
I take a breath and collect myself. Nod. “Let’s finish this.”
Adira pretends to hip check the minister out of the way. “Shall we finish marrying these two, folks?”
A cheer goes through the crowd. A deep masculine roar of a cheer pierces the fog of all those voices and captures my attention. I turn to it like I’m searching out a beacon in the dark.
Rogue Maddox. He stands just inside the doors. A pair of aviators cover his eyes and he wears that baseball cap like it can make him disappear into the normal people. I would find him wherever he was. Always.
My chest swells and grows warm. Butterflies fill my belly and make it flip-flop.
He asked me to tell him a secret when he left me the other night, and I did. But I kept the biggest one to myself. Alec Hawthorne is my brother. The devil is on my shoulder and he wants me to betray the man who has my heart. The very thought squeezes every drop of air from my lungs.
My gaze drifts to the second Maddox that has joined him. His blue-gray eyes meet mine like he hears my thoughts. Riot rolls his jaw like he’s trying to ease some stiffness there. We don’t know each other well, and I’m not sure we’re friends yet, but at least he isn’t Rebel.
“Ivy Uma Love Cookie,” Adira whisper-hisses at me, like a parent with a wayward child who needs their full name yelled at them.
I blink several times as I drag my attention back to my best friend. The one I thought I knew so well.
“Is the bride ready? Can we continue?”
Inhale. Exhale. I hold up a finger. “Just one moment.”
“What’s the hold up?” Ermine calls out from behind me on the stage.
“It’s just…” Okay, I can do this. Uma has this whole situation under control. And I promised Adira I would save his ass today with this offbeat bridal fashion show. Because I am strong now. Stronger. Oh screw it, I’m working on it. And he basically didn’t give me a choice. I lay my hand on David’s shoulders and make a show of circling my groom. I tap a finger to my lips. “I think we can do better, don’t you?”
“What do you think?” Adira asks the crowd.
They cheer again. It’s deafening.
I start a second pass, stopping behind him and pulling the jacket from his shoulders, turning it inside out to reveal another Danica Garfield one of a kind. It shimmers under the lights. Magenta and aqua metallic thread creates a brilliant pattern in the otherwise dark jacket.
Magnolia hands me a top hat.
I lean against David as I place the hat on his head. He grips my waist to keep me steady. He kisses my cheek. “You’re doing great.”
Over his shoulder I catch sight of Danica Garfield herself. She smiles her encouragement. Almost done now. And honestly it’s not so bad being Uma Cookie in front of all these people. I can almost pretend they aren’t here at all.
There’s only one person I want to be with right now. As Ivy. I focus on him even as I play my part. He’s the best distraction from the sheer horror of talking in front of this crowd. Plus, the butterflies he gives me are the giddy kind. “We are ready.”
“Uma Cookie, do you take this sex-tastic man to be your husband as long as you both stand on this stage?”
“I do,” I say into the microphone he holds out for my answer.
“David, do you take this hot and oh-so-fabulous bride to be yours until the end of this performance?”
“I do,” he says cockily, and then makes a show of squeezing my ass.
I yelp and jump sky high the way Adira asked me to.
