He didn’t see that.
As such.
He watched the tear drop from my eye and fall down my cheek.
And then I said, “Dad’s wrong. I’m twenty-eight. And he’s still my daddy.”
That was when I was in Rix’s arms.
And I was weeping.
Quietly.
And happily.
I expected it to be pretty bad.
But it was worse.
Bride-idorah would have been welcome.
Blake was so past Bride-idorah, it was full-on scary.
In other words, during the rehearsal, Blake was in amped-to-the-max ball-busting mode.
Which meant Chad was deep in groveling mode.
And for some reason, Mum was in fawning mode, that being all over Chad’s parents, which made me have to stop myself from checking the Peerage to see if, somehow, they were closer to the throne than we were.
Dad was clearly plumbing new depths of his patience.
And I’d discovered almost immediately Blake’s bridesmaids were what Dru said they were.
Irredeemable bitches.
First case in point, the minute Rix, Dad and I showed, Rix had caught me with an arm around my neck, pulled me close, put his lips to my ear, and said, “Jesus, baby, the brunette at the end was who Chad was plowing.”
So that was one bridesmaid down.
And apparently during their talk, Chad had not shared who his indiscretion was with, even though that person would be standing up with his bride.
Second case in point, after we were introduced and were standing out in the vestibule, waiting to practice walking down the aisle, another attendant, named Chelsea (who, not-so-incidentally, was the one who, the instant she laid eyes on him, drank in Rix like he was a cool glass of water and she’d just run a marathon) asked, “What’s it like to be with a guy with no legs? Does it feel kinky?”
To which I’d replied, “What’s it like to have no soul? Do you feel empty?”
Her eyes went squinty.
But she got my point, or more accurately, realized she couldn’t toy with me and avoided me from then on.
Then again, she got busy with other things.
This being that the other two, not including the brunette Chad had been plowing (her name was Brea), began huddling with Chelsea and commenced whispering, snickering and throwing looks Brea’s way anytime Blake wasn’t paying attention. This making it very clear they knew what Brea had done.
Though why they were friends of Blake’s and hadn’t told her, I didn’t know.
But now I did know about Brea, so I had to decide whether to tell Blake myself.
Though, I had no shot since she was so busy making Chad feel like the piece of shit he was.
Of course, Rix was not missing any of this, so the entire time, he looked like he was in pain from trying to stop himself from laughing.
When there was a lull in the action, I hightailed it to Rix’s pew and collapsed against him in it.
“Is it as fun as it looks?” he joked.
I fought punching him in the stomach and instead threw him a look. “You should never have told me about Brea. Now what do I do?”
Rix brows went up. “Does it matter who he fucked?”
“Rix, we’re in a church,” I said low.
He smirked. “Does it matter who he drilled? She decided to marry him anyway.”
“But it’s clear she doesn’t know it was Brea.”
“Babe, tomorrow, she’s gonna stand by that guy in this church knowing he’s a punk and a cheat and legally tie herself to him in front of God. It’s not your problem that, down that line, a friend who is not a friend is standing there. These are all Blake’s choices. They are not your damage. Let it go.”
He was right.
“In your life, you got in trouble for what she did, Alexandra,” he went on, not sounding amused now. “Her shit isn’t yours anymore. It never was. But it one hundred percent isn’t now.”
He was right again.
I nodded and said, “I’m okay, honey. You’re right. It isn’t my deal.”
“You didn’t even agree to be in this wedding,” he reminded me. “Even though you offered to talk, she didn’t ask your opinion. This is not yours.”
I turned fully to him and put my hand on his chest, repeating, “You’re right. I’m good, Rix.”
“Christ, I’ll be glad when we’re outta here,” he muttered.
“Again, church,” I reminded him, pressing into his chest and smiling.
Watching me closely, he asked, “You got some friends in town you wanna see tomorrow?”
I was still smiling when I asked back, “Trying to get out of going to the Russian Tea Room?”
Chloe had put up with the sightseeing that day.
So she was planning tomorrow.
And that was our plan for tomorrow.
“No, I wanna know if you’ve got some friends in town you wanna see,” he replied.
He was slipping this in now, but asking a different question.
I answered that different question.
“I was inseparable from a girl name Aderonke. Until we were forced, with a lot of teenage angst that was very real, to be separated. She’s Nigerian and her dad was a diplomat. My world ended when she had to go back to Nigeria. We’re still friends. We talk occasionally, and I saw her in New York at Christmas last year, and earlier, in the summer, when I was visiting Mum in England, she was in London, and we met for lunch that lasted through dinner.”
“Right,” he grunted.
“Aderonke was my bestest bestie from sixth through tenth grade. Our posse, though, also included Yael and Shelby, who remained my posse until I left New York. Yael’s now a systems engineer for Google and lives in California. Shelby’s in Austin. She restores old furniture.”
“Right,” he murmured.
“I’m still tight with those two too,” I assured him. “Though I had other friends, I didn’t keep in touch as much. But we do hook up when I’m back. I just didn’t think it was in the cards this time so I didn’t reach out.”
“Okay, honey,” he said.
“As for when I was at Columbia, none of my friends were local, but me. They all scattered to the winds after graduation. But a lot of them, I keep in touch with too.” I got closer and finished, “I wasn’t alone, honey.”
Mollified, he bent even closer and touched his mouth to mine.
“Alexandra!” Blake shouted. “If you don’t mind, we’re going again! Can it be about me for maybe a minute?”
Ulk.
“What did your dad say about being the better man?” I groused to Rix.
“Brian didn’t mean to blow up my life. Your sister fully understands her reason for being is to suck the joy out of everybody around her so they can be as miserable as she is. There’s a difference. Keep your joy. Let her have her misery.”
He was so smart.
And protective.
And funny.
Love you, I thought as I stared in his eyes.
They flared, then the caramel melted.
I said nothing.
But he heard me.
“Darling?” Dad called.
I turned and saw he was standing at the end of the pew, offering his arm.
I took it, and he walked me to the vestibule, where Blake and the rest of her attendants were waiting.