Kiss the Bride (42 page)

Yes. Shane Tremont was indeed her true love. Now all she had to do was convince him of it.

“Häagen-Dazs is not the answer,” Tish’s best friend Delaney scolded her as she pried the empty cup of what had once contained coffee-flavored ice cream from her hand.

“Creamery-ista,” Tish said to the woman behind the counter at the Häagen-Dazs kiosk in the Galleria mall, “I’ll have another round. This time serve up a double scoop of Dulce de Leche.”

Delaney shook her head at the woman and narrowed her eyes. “Don’t make me stage an intervention, Tish Gallagher. Put down the sample spoon and step away from the Häagen-Dazs.”

Tish gripped the spoon tighter, anxiety clotting her throat. She knew her friend had her best interests at heart. She also knew gorging herself wasn’t an antidote. She’d screwed up big time and now here she was, trying to drown her sorrows in high-fat premium ice cream.

Two weeks had passed since the incident with Addison James. Two miserable weeks dodging bill collectors and begging rides to work from friends and neighbors. Her cable service had been shut off for nonpayment and she’d had to cancel both her Netflix subscription and her broadband service.

She’d been without television or online access since her car had been repossessed. She’d nixed her morning trip to Starbucks and stopped picking up newsstand copies of
People
and
Entertainment Weekly
to read during her treadmill workouts. Hell, she couldn’t even go to the gym because she was behind on her membership dues.

Tish felt isolated, cut off. She had no idea what was going on in the world. For the last two weeks she’d spent her leisure time listening to mournful CDs and leafing through old photo albums, trying to figure out where things had gone so wrong. Addison James was correct: She
was
pathetic.

Stop whining
, commanded the voice in the back of her head.
You’re not a whiner. Pull yourself up by the bootstraps.

But the straps were gone off the proverbial boots and she had nothing left to pull herself up by. She was divorced from a man she was still in love with, her car had been repossessed, she carried over eleven thousand dollars in credit card debt, and she hadn’t been on a date in six months. Young and single in the city was not what television cracked it up to be.

“Give me the spoon.” Delaney waited, palm outstretched.

Biting down on the inside of her cheek to keep from crying, Tish put the tiny pink plastic spoon in her friend’s hand.

“Thank you.” Delaney tossed the spoon in the trash. She took Tish by the elbow, propelled her past Victoria’s Secret and The Gap to a wooden park bench underneath a trellis of fake yellow roses positioned beside a cement mermaid fountain. “Sit.”

Tish sat.

“Why don’t you let me loan you some money?” Delaney pulled a checkbook from her Prada purse. “To tide you over.”

“Friends shouldn’t borrow money from friends.”

“What kind of friend would I be if I let you flounder?”

“A smart one.”

“Tish, stubborn pride won’t help you.”

“I’m the idiot who dug myself into this hole. It’s not your problem.”

“But you ran up the credit cards getting your business going and surviving after your divorce. Those are extenuating circumstances. I know you’re going to come out on top in the end.”

“Most people would tell me to get a real job, to stop pipe dreaming.”

It’s what she’d been telling herself, too. But she hated so badly to give up on her dream that she’d ignored the mound of debts piling up and simply prayed it would all go away.

“I’m not most people and you know that I understand. Getting your own business up on its legs isn’t easy.” Delaney did understand. She had her own house-staging business, but she also had a trust fund.

“Maybe some people aren’t meant to have their heart’s desire,” she mumbled, thinking of Shane.

Delaney patted her hand. “You’re just in a down cycle. You’re a fabulous videographer, Tish. If you can just hang in there, your career is going to take off big time. I know it.”

“I appreciate you, Delaney.” Tish shook her head. “But I can’t let you bail me out of this.” The same stubborn pride that had kept her from asking Shane not to walk out the door clutched her tight as a closed fist.

“Why not?”

“I’ve got to do this on my own,” Tish said, knowing she was tripping over her pride, but not knowing how to get out of her own way. “But thank you.”

“So what do you plan to do?” Delaney asked softly. She tilted her head and Tish felt the heat of her gaze.

“I’m going to get a real job. Two if it comes to that.”

“And how are you going to get to those jobs with no car, and no money or the credit rating to buy one?”

There was the major kink in her plans.

“Well,” Delaney said, putting her checkbook away. “If you won’t take my money, at least let me loan you a car.”

“How are you going to get around?”

“My parents have a spare car I can borrow.”

“No, it’ll be too big an inconvenience.”

“I don’t expect you to have to borrow it for long, because I’m going to put a bee in the ear of every dowager with a marriage-minded daughter in River Oaks and tell them what a wonderful videographer you are.”

“You didn’t much like it when your mother helped your business.”

“That’s because my mother was trying to meddle in my life. I’m your friend. I don’t want to control you or tell you what to do. I just want to help. It hurts my heart to see you in distress.”

Her friend’s kindness was too much. Tish felt tears pushing at the back of her eyes, threatening to flow down her cheeks. Aw, damn. She wasn’t a crier. She was tough. She prided herself on it.

Delaney reached over and hugged her. “Everything is going to be all right. I promise.”

When Delaney said it, Tish could almost believe it. But there was a small ugly voice inside her that kept whispering,
Who do you think you are? Daring to dream big dreams? You don’t stand a chance. You’re just like your mother. Every time you get something good you ruin it.

Like your credit rating.

Like Shane.

Two years later and the pain still washed over her, fresh as the day he’d walked out—the day she’d let him go forever. It was the biggest mistake of her life. She knew it now and she’d known it as she was letting him slip away. Something in her weird psyche kept thinking that if he loved her, he would understand her. That she shouldn’t have to say anything. He should just
know
what she was feeling. But he hadn’t known and he’d left because she could not tell him how much he meant to her. And she could not forgive him for not being there when she needed him the most.

Delaney jangled her car keys. “The Acura’s yours for as long as you need it.”

Swallow your stupid pride for once. Take her up on this.

She’d been unable to fix her marriage, but maybe she could fix her career. Humbled, Tish held out her palm, and closed her fingers around the keys. What else could she do? “Thank you.”

“There’s more, isn’t there? Something else is bothering you.”

Tish felt strange talking about the wedding veil, about the odd vision she’d seen and her irrational fear that Shane was in some kind of trouble. Two weeks had passed and she still couldn’t forget what she’d viewed in the mirror. She’d been too afraid of what she would see to put the veil back on again.

“It’s safe. You can tell me anything.”

“Do you really think your wedding veil has magical powers?” Tish whispered. “Do you really believe in all that wish fulfillment nonsense?”

“You had a vision.” It was a statement, not a question.

“How did you know?”

“It’s what happened to me in Claire Kelley’s consignment shop, the first time I touched the veil.”

“How come you never said anything?”

Delaney shrugged. “How do you admit something like that?”

“Point taken.” Tish stared across the mall unseeingly, thinking about her disturbing vision.

“You saw the face of your true love, didn’t you?”

“No.”

“No?” Delaney arched an eyebrow.

“I saw Shane. And I got the awful feeling he was in trouble. Tell me I’m just being silly. It’s stupid to think the veil has some kind of magical power, right?”

Delaney shifted on the bench. She looked uncomfortable. “I’m not sure how to answer that. In my vision I saw Nick and then when I met him in person I knew instantly he was the man I was supposed to spend the rest of my life with, even though I was engaged to Evan at the time.”

“No fantasy man for me. Just Shane.”

“Do you think your mind could have created the vision as a smoke screen for your problems? That you’re projecting your fears onto Shane so you don’t have to face what’s going on in your own life?”

“Maybe.”

“It’s time to let go of Shane.” Delaney’s eyes were kind. “You’ve been holding on to the possibility that he would come back. It’s been two years. He’s not coming back, Tish.”

“I know,” she whispered. “We were too different. The
maverick wild child and the stalwart soldier. But the deal is, whenever we were good together, we were really,
really
good. Shane connected me to a part of myself I didn’t even know existed. He grounded me. Made me feel secure in a way I never felt before or since. When I was around him I felt like more. You know?”

Delaney smiled with understanding. “I do know.”

“I screwed it all up, Delaney.” Tish’s breath hitched.

“There are two sides to every story, Tish, and it seems to me that Shane doesn’t know how to forgive. And if he couldn’t forgive you for being human, how could he have truly loved you unconditionally? We all make mistakes. Shane’s mistake was letting his anger rule his heart.”

Tish wanted to cry, but she’d learned a long time ago tears were a weakness she couldn’t afford. Delaney was right.

It was time to let go.

The next time Shane surfaced things seemed brighter, lighter. Was that sun on his face? Had someone opened a window?

A soft touch squeezed the fingers of his left hand. A woman’s hand. His heart leaped with hope.

“Tish,” he whispered, barely able to push his wife’s name across his dry, cracked lips.

“It’s Elysee.” Her voice was quiet, reassuring.

Disappointment locked him in a stone fist. It wasn’t Tish. “Elysee?”

“I’m here. Open your eyes. Open your eyes and look at me.”

He wanted to look at her, but it wasn’t as easy as she made it sound. His eyelids lay heavy as gold medallions. Stubborn. Hanging on to the darkness.

Slowly, he managed to force them open and he saw Elysee Benedict sitting at his bedside, her fingers clasped around his. There was a forlorn expression in her gentle blue eyes that he’d never seen before.

He noticed something else. His right hand was bandaged like a mummy, his whole arm cradled in a sling that slipped over his neck, and it hurt. Throbbing, blinding pain blunted from his fingertips, up through his wrist. He gritted his teeth and forced himself to ignore the pain. He was Secret Service. He knew how to accomplish it.

Elysee sucked in a breath through the cute little gap in her front teeth. “I’m afraid that I have bad news.”

“Wh…?” His mouth was so damned dry, his tongue was glued to the roof of his mouth. “What happened?”

“You don’t remember?”

He tried to shake his head, but movement hurt too much. “No.”

“The groundbreaking at the University of Texas?”

His memory was foggy. He frowned, trying to call up the scene.

“You saved my life.” The smile on her face was wistful, but warm. The sight of it caught him low in the gut. He felt as if he’d stumbled in from a frigid blizzard and she was a hot, crackling fire welcoming him home.

“I did?”

“You did. And I’ve been here with you ever since.”

“How long?” Shane tried to moisten his lips with an arid tongue.

“Thirteen days.”

“Thirteen days?” It seemed impossible. How could he have checked out for so long?

“Almost fourteen, actually.”

The news flattened him. He felt at once both restless
and leaden. “You’ve been here with me for two weeks? But you have duties, appointments, and responsibilities.”

“All canceled. Nothing is as important to me as your recovery.”

“It’s not necessary.”

“Shane, you’re not only my bodyguard, but my friend. I’m staying.”

She looked so fiercely loyal that he had to smile even if it hurt.

“You gave us quite a scare in the beginning,” she went on. “When the backhoe bucket hit you, it caused your brain to bleed. You had surgery.”

Her voice went softer and he could tell by the tears swimming in her eyes that he’d been close to death. The realization didn’t frighten him, but her emotional reaction did.

“Surgery?”

“They shaved your head. All that beautiful dark hair.” She sighed.