“You look stunning,” Carmela said when Rhiannon emerged in a form-fitting gray dress and black heels.
Rhiannon’s cheeks flushed pink as she looked down at herself. “Thanks. I don’t wear dresses that often because I have nowhere to hide my skinny legs and flat ass.”
Carmela laughed. “You look perfect to me.” Rhiannon inched closer, bringing the perfume that had entranced her so many times before with her. “Though, I should have brought taller heels and—”
“You’re perfect as you are,” Carmela said, interrupting.
“You really do look absolutely gorgeous.”
Rhiannon placed her hand in hers. “I guess that’s good, since you’re so beautiful it’s hard to look right at you.”
The compliment stunned Carmela into momentary silence. “I’m glad you’re here,” she blurted before her filter
could stop her.
Rhiannon’s eyes brightened. “Me too.”
A moment later, they were sitting in a closed in golf cart being driven to dinner. They’d really thought of everything when planning this wedding.
Before they emerged from the cart, Rhiannon had Carmela’s hand in hers and placed in her lap. It was incredible how quickly Carmela become accustomed to the sensation. Like it was always meant to be kept warm like that.
The fact that it was getting harder to see clearly through the illusion of their theater wasn’t lost on Carmela. She was just powerless to fight it. . . or maybe she didn’t want to resist anymore.
“Champagne?” a woman asked, holding out two flutes of bubbly as soon as they walked onto the space overlooking the pool where the happy hour was being held before the actual meal.
“Thanks,” they said in unison as they accepted the glasses, both drinking a little too fast as they waded into the crowd.
“Do you know anyone else here?” Rhiannon asked, resting her hand on Carmela’s lower back.
The touch was a current of heat pulling at her belly.
Shaking o the distraction, she nodded. “Jackie’s mom, her best friend and her husband,” she replied, using her glass to point to a small group talking near an ice sculpture of a heron in flight.
“Were they nice to you?” Rhiannon asked as she swiped something to eat o a passing tray and placed it delicately in her mouth.
No one who saw her would think she usually shoved things down her gullet like a teenaged boy after soccer
practice. Carmela smiled as she watched her elegantly wipe just the corners of her mouth to preserve her red lipstick.
“What is it?” Rhiannon asked, looking confused.
“What’s what?” Carmela tried to shake the slightly disoriented sensation after being forced back to the present.
Instead of explaining, Rhiannon looked at her, a smile slowly turning up the corners of her lips. In a flash she leaned forward, her breath warm against Carmela’s ear as she whispered. “We should carry out a preemptive strike,”
she whispered. “Catch the mom and bestie o guard before they’ve had a chance to see you. I’m sure it’s a whole thing that you’re even here.”
“I didn’t know this was warfare,” Carmela replied when she forced her eyes open after realizing they’d closed reflexively at the close contact.
“You know me well enough by now to know it’s all warfare, and I play to win,” she replied, before taking Carmela by the hand again and waiting for her to lead the way.
“You’re really crazy,” Carmela decided as her heart hammered in her chest and her knees wobbled so hard she was afraid to fall.
“And you love it, so who’s really the crazy one,” she replied with a wink.
The first few minutes of conversation with Jackie’s mother were some of the most uncomfortable of Carmela’s life. Her ex-mother-in-law had never been particularly welcoming or loving toward her, even knowing she had no other family. It had been disappointing for Carmela initially, who thought the woman could be something of a mother to her. It was frightening how wrong she’d been.
After initial introductions, the group exchanged glances as if one of them had lost a bet. She wondered which one of them was sure she wouldn’t show. Maybe all of them.