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“Something like that. I’m freaked by the idea that I could go back to the room and it wouldn’t really be Jeff up there.”
“Yeah. This whole damn thing bothers me. I’m with you. The timing’s beyond strange. By the way, have you gotten your bridesmaids lined up?”
“Um, no. Why?”
Reader sighed. “I knew he hadn’t told you yet. Jeff’s already got his side asked.”
“Who?”
“Christopher’s best man.”
“Naturally.”
“Right. Jeff’s also asked Paul, me, Tim, and Jerry.”
“You and Paul I expected. But Tim and Jerry, too?” Not that I minded. After all, if I figured out how to hide that I was marrying an alien from Amy, Sheila, and Caroline, I’d have five girls. If all of them could make it, which hadn’t been confirmed yet because I was so far behind.
“I stopped him before he asked the rest of the flyboys.” I looked at Reader’s expression. He was serious.
“Oh, my God. Is this normal for them?”
“I don’t know. Paul and I aren’t really married. Same reasons no one else is. He offered me the Unity Necklace, by the way, but we discussed it, and it just seemed as though we’d be creating problems. Either it would’ve started a lockdown on A-C and human relationships, or we’d have been okayed by Richard because we weren’t going to have children, and that would have made things worse for everyone else. Jeff’s sisters were all married before I joined up, and Paul’s sisters are younger than Michael and, shocker alert, they want to marry humans. So I have no idea of what a typical A-C wedding looks like.”
“No weddings have happened in the time you’ve been with Centaurion?” This seemed hard to swallow.
“They have, but none that I’ve been invited to.”
“I might not have five girls.” Wow, that made me sound like the most friendless soul in the universe. “I mean, I have five. I think.” I had plenty of friends, just not that many I wanted in my wedding.
“Who besides Claudia and Lorraine?”
“My friends Amy, Sheila, and Caroline. Only . . . Amy’s in Paris, Sheila’s got three kids, and Caroline’s in D.C.” And Caroline would ask why I wasn’t marrying Chuckie. Again. She apparently hadn’t liked the reason I’d given her already. “And none of them know I’m marrying an alien.”
I started ru
This brought up another problem, which was how Martini was going to handle my sorority sisters’ attendance at our wedding. Only some of the girls would go with the idea that Martini was so great looking that it was natural I’d said no to Chuckie. The rest of them would point to four years of him and me being inseparable and really question what the hell was wrong with me. Guilt—always ready to remind me that I’d been too dense to realize Chuckie had been serious when he’d proposed the first time, when he’d taken me to Vegas for a week—was joined by its new bestest bud, Stress.
“I’m so screwed.”
“We’ll figure something out,” Reader said reassuringly. “If Tim, Jerry, and I have to be unasked, we’ll all survive.”
“I want you up there.”
He stroked my face. “You don’t have to be scared. I’ll be there, whether I’m nearby on the altar or in the pews. I promise.” He pulled me to him and hugged me. “Jeff’s not picking up how frightened you are, is he?”
“I think he thinks I’m worried about other things, not the getting married part.”
“You’ll be good at it. Being married. I know you think you won’t be, but you will.”
“But I still like Chuckie. I . . . I’m afraid I might be in love with him, at least a little.” I hadn’t meant to blurt it out, hadn’t pla
I was relieved that I’d managed not to add the word “still” around the “be in love” part. The realization that I’d been waiting for Chuckie until Martini had shown up wasn’t one I was proud of, even if said realization had come after Martini had proposed and I’d said yes. A part of me really regretted Chuckie proposing, clearly and comprehensibly to me, after I’d already met and fallen in love with Martini. And all of me felt like a rotten person and a worse fiancée for thinking about any other man when I was engaged to the greatest man on the planet.
Reader kissed my forehead. “I know. It’s obvious.”
“Oh, great. So I’m hurting Jeff for sure?”
“No. It’s not obvious to him, not even empathically, or if it is, he understands. I don’t even think it’s obvious to Reynolds. It’s obvious to me.”
“Why?”
He sighed. “Because the pressure you’re under would make it incredibly appealing.” He gave a bitter laugh. “My parents have no idea of what I do, they just hate the fact that I gave up a great career—a career I’d been working at since I was three years old, by the way—to do something vague with people they have nothing in common with. They don’t understand what I see in Paul, other than the fact that he’s great looking. But it wasn’t as if I’d dated dogs before. They’d just managed to accept that I was gay when I ran into the A-Cs.”
I hugged him tightly. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay. But I know what you’re going through. I have a couple of old boyfriends I’m still sort of in touch with. And they’re in touch with my parents. And there are days, hell, girl, there are weeks, when I wonder if it would be easier to just go back to my old life.”
“Why don’t you?”
“Same reason you haven’t left yet. I love the man. I also know what we do is a lot more important than standing in front of a camera looking good and making clothes and accessories look good.” He hugged me again. “And instead of getting to just fall in love with Jeff and deal with all the normal things a couple goes through, like I did with Paul, you two have been busy saving the world from bigger threats than Paul and I had to deal with during our first year together. Not to mention you have the fate of every A-C under thirty riding on your nuptials. Kind of a lot of pressure, at least from where I sit.”
“His mother hates me, too.”
“Well, maybe not hate, but I know what you mean. And I’ll bet Reynolds’ parents love you.”
“They do. I’ve known them since we were thirteen.” And I knew, without any doubt at all, that they’d make awesome in-laws, great grandparents, and they already got along fabulously with my parents.
“I’d guess they knew their son was in love with you, too, and were happy about it, or at least hoping you’d come around.”
“I don’t know. Probably. Everyone but me seemed to know.” My heart felt tight. “I did so many things because of him, things I didn’t even realize would be important when I was older. I never say the wrong thing to him, I never have to be something I’m not, no one’s going to give me a test to see if I’m good enough to marry Chuckie. And I’m going to hurt him so much by marrying Jeff.”
“Or hurt Jeff by marrying Reynolds. Yeah, that’s the way it works. But,” he leaned me away from him a bit so I could see his face, “I think you made the decision already. Before you knew you had the option. You’ve always had an option other than Jeff. More than one.”
“Christopher.”
“That’s one. Or just leaving the whole business behind.”
“I guess.”
“Of course, I think if you did, he’d come after you.”
“Yeah, Jeff does have a little bit of stalker boyfriend in him.”
“You like that.”
“I guess so.”