Cinderella Screwed Me Over (35 page)

Jake wound his fingers through my hair. “So, do I actually get a title now when you introduce me?”

“You want me to introduce you as my lover?” I said with a smile. “Seems a little personal, but okay.”

“Hey, as long as other guys know to keep their hands off, I’ll take it.”

I ran my fingers down his stomach. “You still want to be my boyfriend after what I put you through?”

“What you put me through tonight was good.”

I shook my head but couldn’t help smiling. I propped my chin on his chest so I could see his face. “I’m all in. So if there’s anything important I should know, now’s the time to tell me.”

“I used to have an obsession with turtles as a kid.”

I tilted my head and gave him the best evil eye I could manage under the current no-clothing, just-had-amazing-sex circumstances.

“It was a problem, I’m telling you. Do you have any idea how smelly a couple of turtle aquariums can be?” He placed his hand on my back. “Okay, the serious stuff. You know about my last relationship…” He paused almost as if he was checking to see if we needed to talk about it more before he continued. “You know about my family and my work—which I love, by the way. There’s nothing better than taking a run-down place and turning it into a spot where people love to eat. I’m damn good at it, too. On top of the restaurants, I also work with Virginia, taking care of the business side of her Hammond’s Children’s Hospital Charity.

“Let’s see…what else?” He ran his fingers down my back, tickling me enough that I pressed into him. He smiled and did it again. “I’m so crazy about you that if you asked me to give up watching sports for the rest of my life, I would.” Another brush of his fingers and another grin. “Except maybe the World Series, ’cause that’s more religion than sport.” His fingers stilled and his eyes locked onto mine. “And in case I didn’t make it clear enough yet, I’m in love with you, Darby Quinn.”

I scooted up to place a kiss on his lips, so much happiness bubbling up in me that I suddenly understood why someone might burst into song. For all I knew, cartoon birds were circling my head. I sighed as I sunk into his kiss, his embrace.

Then I caught sight of the alarm clock and groaned. “It’s already tomorrow. I’d better go.”

Jake put his arm around me, keeping me against him. “Stay.”

Leaving was the last thing I wanted to do, but life—unfortunately—didn’t stop simply because I was in love. “Thanks to your being a genius with numbers, Nadine and I have a meeting with Patricia tomorrow, and I’ve got to be in early to prepare.”

Still keeping me tight against him with one arm, Jake grabbed his alarm clock with his other. “Just tell me what time you need to get up and I’ll make sure you’re on time.”

Staying the night in Jake’s arms or going to my own lonely bed?

As if there was really any choice.

Chapter Thirty-five

Normally, I consider myself organized; this morning as I rushed around my bedroom, I felt anything but. “Have you seen my other shoe? I swear it was right here.”

Jake squinted against the morning light and sat up in bed. His hair was sticking up on one side. “If I told you I was wearing them last night, would you think it was cute or creepy?”

I laughed as I smacked his arm. “This isn’t funny. Steph will kill me if I’m late.”

Jake grabbed my hand, pulling me down so he could kiss my neck. His deep voice rumbled in my ear. “Well, if you’re going to be late anyway…”

“Don’t tempt me,” I said. I gave him a quick kiss, then dropped to the floor to search for my other shoe. I’d put all my bridesmaid stuff together, but somehow, between last night and this morning, one of my dyed-pink-to-match shoes was missing.

A shoe was thrust in front of my face. “Is this what you’re looking for?”

I took the other shoe from Jake, tossed it in the bag next to its mate, and kissed his cheek. “You’re a lifesaver.”

Jake and I had spent the last week getting to know each other better. We’d celebrated the fact that Nadine and my meeting with Patricia had gone so well that we were going to be able to take on only clients of our choice as soon as we wrapped up the Red Lion account. I dropped into Blue almost every day after work so we could have dinner together. We talked late into the night—or more like early into the next morning. He told stories about growing up, his family, and I did the same. We talked about interests, goals, everything and nothing. About the only thing we hadn’t done much of was sleep.

There’d been a slightly uncomfortable phone call with Porter, where I thanked him for the flowers and for helping me with my relationship with my dad, told him he was a great guy (I know, it sorta killed me to pull out that cliché line even if it were true) but informed him my situation had changed. That I was taken.

Drew had called, too, apparently to apologize, but ended up gloating more than anything that he was right about Jake. A few last-minute bumps had come up with Stephanie’s wedding, but she and I had taken care of them and made it through the rehearsal. And now it was the big day she’d been counting down for months.

Jake followed me into the living room. I draped my plastic-encased dress over my arm, then peeked in my bag one more time to check on my shoes and makeup. I’d taken the rest of it down to the car already.

“I’m pretty sure that’s everything.” I turned back to Jake, soaking in the image of him standing in my living room in only his boxers, and wishing that I had an extra hour to kill. I wrapped my free arm around his waist and leaned in for another kiss, taking a moment to linger and run my hand down the strong line of his back. “See you soon.”

“I’ll be there.”

As I reached for the doorknob, I realized I’d forgotten to warn him about the people he was going to encounter at Steph’s wedding. Worried I might not get another chance, I figured I better say something. “Just so you know, the people in my town are a little crazy. Since it’s small and everyone knows everyone, they all think they should be involved in my life. So don’t believe everything you hear, and don’t freak out if they ask you when you and I are going to tie the knot.”

“I’ll just send them to you for the answer to that question,” he said with a smile.

I rolled my eyes but couldn’t help smile back. I waved good-bye and headed for the elevator, feeling surprisingly cheerful about attending a wedding.

…

“I’m hyperventilating,” Stephanie said, fanning her face with her hand. “Why is it, like, two hundred degrees in here?”

I grabbed a magazine off a table and used it to create a breeze. “Everything’s fine. You’re just nervous.”

“You would say it’s cold feet.” Steph put her hand over her heart. “I’m excited to marry Anthony. I
want
to marry him.”

I could tell by her shaky voice that she was trying to convince herself as hard as she was trying to convince me. “Steph, I know you want to marry him, and I know this is the day you’ve been dreaming about. Still, it’s perfectly fine to be nervous, even if you’re excited. It’s a big deal, and I’m sure it’s nerve-racking thinking about all those people staring at you.”

“Oh, shit. I forgot about all the staring people. What if I trip?”

“Your dad won’t let you. Neither will Anthony.” I put my hands on her shoulders and locked eyes with her. “But if anything goes wrong, I got your back. I’ll do something crazy…like flash everyone.” I looked down at my dress. “As soon as I can figure out how to.”

Stephanie laughed. “You do need to do something big to outlive the slapping story.”

“Yes, well, it’s my goal to do something crazy at everyone I love’s wedding.”

Steph took a deep breath. “Okay. Freak-out over. I’m getting married, I can’t wait, and everything’s going to go smoothly.” She flung her arms around me and I nearly toppled over. Once I was sure I was steady, I hugged my best friend back, thinking about all the good memories we’d had over the years and how my life would’ve totally sucked without her.

I grabbed my bouquet and handed Steph hers. “Let’s do this.”

Fifteen minutes later, Karl and I were marching down the aisle together, just like we’d practiced the night before. Already, several people were crying and dabbing their eyes with tissues. A couple weeks ago, I might’ve made a joke that they were crying because they knew that Steph’s and Anthony’s lives were over. But I was feeling like a glass-half-full girl today.

The audience members stood as the wedding march filled the air. Stephanie and her dad walked down the aisle. My best friend, the girl I considered my sister, looked beautiful. The beading on her bodice caught the light, her blond hair was curled and pinned up, and her smile lit the room.

Before I could prevent it—even sense its coming—a traitorous tear rolled down my cheek.
Pull it together. You can’t join the rest of the hopeless romantics crying at a wedding. You’re better than this.

Another tear ran down and Laura slipped a tissue into my hand.

How embarrassing. If anyone asks, I’m crying because I’m losing my best friend.
I swore I could feel Jake somewhere in the audience looking at me, too. I didn’t dare try to see if I was right.

Stephanie reached Anthony and they came the rest of the way together. As she spun to face her groom, I bent down and rearranged her train.

The priest looked at the two of them, a smile on his face. “We are here to celebrate the union of Stephanie and Anthony. These two people are here to commit to spending the rest of their lives together…”

I was working on reforming my opinion of forever relationships and all, but those words still made my stomach clench. But then I happened to glance out at the audience. My eyes went to Jake as if they knew he was there before I did. He smiled at me and I turned into a bit of a mushy twitterpated mess despite myself.

…

Searching the reception hall for Jake, I ran into Karl. “Hey, have you seen Jake?” I asked. Karl had officially met him last night at the rehearsal dinner.

“No, but I’ve been busy talking to Erin,” Karl said, a love-struck smile curving his lips.

I followed his gaze to the blonde, the same girl he’d met at Shots. “It seems like that’s going well.”

His smile widened. “She’s never told me that my profession was a farce or gotten me into a bar brawl, so yeah, it’s going pretty well.”

“Man, you’re so picky about that stuff.”

He laughed, and I smiled, enjoying that we could joke like this. Then I spotted Jake. Talking to Mrs. Hildabrand.

Oh no. Anyone but her
.

“Good luck with Erin. I’ll catch you later,” I said, already moving toward Jake and Mrs. Hildabrand.

Mrs. Hildabrand smiled at me as I approached. “Darby, I just met your beau. He’s very nice and
very
handsome.” She grabbed my hand and patted it. “And you wanted to give up. I told you he was out there.” She twisted to face Jake. “Can you believe she tried to tell everyone she was happy on her own?”

Jake shook his head in mock disbelief. “I can’t. I guess it’s lucky I got to her.”

“Oh, such a gentleman. You don’t let her get away.” She smiled at me again, and I knew whatever she was about to say was going to be bad. “You know, after you two get married, you’re going to have to start your family right away. After a certain age, it gets a lot harder.”

I grabbed Jake’s hand. “Excuse us, Mrs. Hildabrand. I’ve got to go introduce Jake to some other people.” I led him away from the woman as fast as I could.

Before I could say a word to Jake about what had just happened, Mrs. Taylor came up to me. “We’re going to do the toasts after people have had some time to eat. Just go on up after Karl.”

She eyed Jake.

“Mrs. Taylor, this is my boyfriend, Jake. Jake, this is Stephanie’s mom.”

Jake extended his hand to her. “Nice to meet you.”

Mrs. Taylor shook his hand. “You two aren’t going to get in a fight, are you?”

“Not planning on it,” I said.

Mrs. Taylor shot me a look. I’d been at her house enough she didn’t mind putting me in my place.

“Sorry, Mrs. Taylor. No fighting. I promise.”

Jeez. You make a scene at one wedding and you’re marked for life.

I led Jake over to the table where my family was seated. It really was nice to not have to worry they didn’t like each other or have to take control of the conversation, but simply sit back and enjoy being around so many people I loved.

As dinner was wrapping up, I noticed Mrs. Taylor walk over to Karl and tap him on the shoulder. His toast was first, which meant I’d be going next. My stomach churned as I thought of standing up in front of everyone and giving my toast. When I first started putting my speech together, I’d searched online for help. Total waste of time. How was I supposed to read something aloud that made me gag?

There was one quote that said, “Love is when you look into someone’s eyes, and see everything you need.” Seems like a lot of pressure to put on someone. And everything? Really? Like, do you have a cheeseburger in there, because at some point, someone’s going to get hungry.

The best one I’d read, the one I’d been thinking about, said, “A great marriage is not when the ‘perfect couple’ comes together. It’s when an imperfect couple learns to enjoy their differences.” I’d use it, but Steph might interpret it as me saying she and Anthony weren’t the perfect couple.

Karl took the microphone out of its stand and cleared his throat. “Hello, everyone. I’m Karl, the best man, and it’s my privilege to toast this happy couple. Earlier today, I witnessed one of my best friends marry the woman he loves. I’ve known Anthony for several years now, and he’s always been a kind, generous person. In Stephanie, he’s found someone who has those traits and complements him perfectly.

“As a marriage counselor, I’ve seen lots of couples in every stage of their relationships, and I can tell you that Stephanie and Anthony are a great couple. They communicate well, which everyone knows is a key to having a good relationship.” Karl glanced at me and smiled. “Someone recently informed me, though, that communication isn’t the key to a good relationship. It’s realizing that we all communicate differently. She might’ve been onto something. I guess it’s about figuring out how to communicate with someone different from you. So, may you learn to understand each other, even when you don’t.”