34
ISABELLA
The wedding rehearsal was not going well. After fighting with myself about whether I was going to come until the very last minute, I’d finally boarded the plane. I was keeping my promise to Parker about being his date, regardless of the emotional danger I was putting myself in by being here.
I’d tried to stay away, but I hadn’t been able to do it. I kept imagining the look on his face when he realized I wasn’t going to show, and that had been enough to get off my risk-averse ass and into a cab to the airport.
Now, however, I was wondering why there was such a terrible atmosphere in the little wedding chapel we were crowded into. The place had definitely seen better days, and to my eyes, it looked cheap.Why anyone would want fake plastic flowers and an officiant dressed like a boat captain on dry land, I had no idea.
This afternoon when I’d arrived at our hotel, which was just as bad, I’d asked Parker if he was pranking me about us actually staying there. Part of me had believed it was payback for how weird it had been between us recently and an attempt on his part to lighten things up. He’d laughed in response to my question, those gorgeous brown eyes finally sparkling again.
He’d leaned in and whispered in my ear. “I wish I’d thought of that, but no. Anna wanted all this. Can you believe it?”
I’d shivered at the feel of his lips brushing against my ear and the heat of his breath ghosting over my skin. My thoughts were all jumbled until I’d put some much-needed distance between us. The act was back on, and he’d kept me close to his side all afternoon since we were supposed to be in love.
Having his hand in mine or his arm around my shoulders had distracted me from everything—how conflicted I was about him and even how horribly tacky the hotel was. The only thing I’d been able to concentrate on was how my heart beat faster whenever he touched me or how, like now, he only had eyes for me despite the fact that the bride was currently throwing a tantrum at the top of the aisle.
It was obvious that Colt had gone all out for what she wanted, if this had really been it, but she sure wasn’t afraid to yell at him when things weren’t exactly perfect. Red-faced and poking a blinged-up fingernail at his chest, she glared and spewed hatred for all the world to hear.
“Have you done anything but drink with your stupid friends since you’ve been here?” she demanded. Her feet, encased in a pair of clear plastic heels, stomped repeatedly as she spoke. “I told you to make sure that the poodle was here to run in the rings today. Don’t you care about this weddingat all?”
Colt caught her hands, gently circled his fingers around her wrists, and spoke to her in low soothing tones. “The owner will make sure he’s here for the actual ceremony, but she got approached to do a dog show today. Apparently, there’s a three-hundred-dollar prize—”
“Then you should’ve offered her five hundred to be here instead,” she snapped.
“I did,” he replied softly, and I nearly fell off my chair.
Five hundred dollars to have a poodle spend two minutes of its precious time running into the chapel with the rings strapped to him? That’s insane. For that kind of money for a gig that takes two minutes, I’d let her glue cotton balls to my back and I’d yip happily as I crawled down the aisle.
Parker had been doing his best to keep things moving, but this wasn’t Anna’s first tantrum and I doubted it would be her last. I admired him for his loyalty to his friends, though.
“It’s not Colt’s fault, Anna,” he said calmly. “I spoke to the owner as well and she promised to bring the dog here a couple hours before the ceremony so we can make sure he knows where to go. I’m meeting them here myself.”
She turned on him. “You better fucking be here, Parker. I know this is all a big joke for you and a chance to catch up with all your old drinking buddies, but this is mywedding. If that dog fucks up, it’s all fucked.”
And we have a winner for the sentence with the most “fucks” in it for the day.
So far.
A few minutes later, she had her next meltdown. “Are you kidding me right now? No. Just no. Those cannot be your vows. I told you to channel Elvis.”
“What do you want me to do? Fucking sing them?” Colt growled, then wiped a hand over his face and dragged in a visible breath when she started sobbing. He pulled her into his arms, rubbing her back and murmuring to her. “Sorry. I’m sorry, baby. I didn’t mean it. I’ll rewrite them, okay? After dinner, I’ll sit down and I’ll redo them until you’re happy.”
I frowned. Obviously, I’d never been married before but I hadn’t ever heard of a bride dictating the groom’s vows to him. In fact, as far as I knew, the bride heard the vows for the first time during the ceremony.
As soon as she was calm enough, they tried carrying on but things went from bad to worse. Through meltdown after meltdown, Colt, Parker, and the guys did what they could to assuage her, but she became a total wreck nonetheless.
Eventually, Parker took the initiative to put us all out of our misery. He stepped forward, put his hands on Anna’s shoulders, and massaged them as Colt held her close and let her howl into his chest. “Why don’t we head to dinner? I’m sure everything will be perfect for the big day tomorrow. Let’s just go and relax, yeah?”
Colt nodded against the top of her head. “Yeah. I think that’s a great idea. What do you say, babe? Let’s go have a drink and something to eat. We’ll talk it all over and I’ll be back here early in the morning to make sure everything goes off without a hitch.”
She hiccupped and tipped her head back to look into his eyes. Eventually she nodded, her voice still thick with tears. “Okay, but Colt? It has to be perfect. This is our one chance to get it right. It has to be perfect.”
He swiped his thumbs under her eyes, gathering her tears before wiping them all away. Lowering his head, he kissed her forehead and whispered things I couldn’t hear to her as the rest of us filtered out of the chapel.
“That was intense,” I said as Parker fell in step beside me, wrapping his arm around my waist and pulling me close. “Are they okay?”
“I don’t know,” he said, his brow furrowed with worry. “They’ve been together for a long time. Maybe that’s just making her feel the pressure of the day so much more. Everyone has been waiting for them to get married for years and years. I’m sure they’re fine.”