“You’re being shy,” Annelies said. “They’re your text messages. Own them.”
Paige bared her teeth, her mood making a drastic change from remorseful to vicious. “Cunt.”
Annelies continued in her subdued manner, “I recently heard you’re a whiz with headlines from your mystery job at the paper, especially in the wedding announcement section. I’d hate for anyone to find out. Plus, the fifty other secrets I know about you.”
“Is that a threat?” Paige hissed.
“I’m standing here, wearing a wedding dress in front of three hundred people, announcing my fiancé fucked my best friend. Do you really want to test me on this?”
I was afraid to move or even blink.
“You aren’t innocent either, Annelies,” Eli’s loud stare countered his quiet voice. “Who invited McCullough in as best man? You forced me to call Nate. That’s some shady shit right there.”
“Oh!” Annelies reached into the cleavage of her dress and pulled out a second piece of lavender paper. “Eli, here’s your copy. Thought you guys could, you know, read them out loud and roleplay. From the costumes I found, sounds like you two are into that.”
Sweat dotted Eli’s forehead as he mumbled a string of f-bombs before swiping the scrap of paper from Annelies’s hand.
Considerable time passed, the buzz from the audience escalating.
“If you think I’m reading…” Eli shook his head, his eyes boring into Annelies’s.
Annelies balled her fists and whispered, “I have enough illegal dirt to bury you and your entire family six feet under. I can start with announcing you were involved in a foursome with Sherriff Atwood, her girlfriend, and that waitress to avoid jail time last year.”
Eli stammered. “H… how did you...”
“Push me harder,” she said. “Let’s see what else I know.”
Annelies wasn’t bluffing.
Paige didn’t hold back her tears, knowing there wasn’t another way out. She had to make a choice. If she ran, rumors would flood the town for years. If she stood her ground, she’d speak one horrific truth and everyone would know that single disgrace existed. “Let’s end this,” her voice shook as she spoke rapidly. “Eli, from the moment we met—”
“Enunciate slower.” Annelies tilted Paige’s chin upward an inch with her hand. “Loudly. And with feeling.”
Paige’s upper lip curled. “I knew we were meant to be more than two people who shared Annelies as a friend. From the first night you showed up on my doorstep to talk,” she paused, swallowed, and watched Annelies who encouraged her to continue, “to the first time we screwed, on your grandparent’s bed when they were out of town…”
The audience gasped. Parents covered children’s ears. Elderly groaned in disgust. Cranston’s face turned beet red, nearing a shade of purple I didn’t know existed.
Eli frowned. “…Annelies doesn’t suspect a thing. The dumb bitch actually thinks I want to marry her. I have to, though. You know I won’t inherit the money unless I follow through. A ring on her finger won’t change things with us. I’ll meet you at The Kraken at 6:00 p.m. tonight, in the bar. It’s dark there. No one will see us.”
I thought back to Wednesday night outside The Kraken with Bo.
“Is that Paige’s car?” I glanced across the busy street and squinted.
“Paranoid much?” Bo shrugged.
The moment when Eli walked in the restaurant and stopped by our table hit me next.
“Meeting up with a buddy in the lounge. A last hurrah before the old ball-and-chain clamps on and doesn’t let go.”
Last hurrah. That familiar term should’ve clued me in sooner. Paige was there that night, the buddy waiting in the bar for Eli. He’d spoken the same phrase to me outside The Salty Seaman.
“Tonight’s my last hurrah, you know.” Parts of his sentence crashed and collided in my head as his frame closed in on mine.
And on the beach at the bonfire.
“You know… that last hurrah?” He winked and his voice melded between a rumble and a whisper, “You are so fucking hot on that video.”
With each uncomfortable, X-rated transition they spoke, the dirty details of their relationship came to light.
We are gathered here today… became we are divided here today.
A great blessing… became a greater malediction.
Holy matrimony… became a sinful parting.
Love, honor, and cherish… became hatred, shame, and abandon.
Time of celebration… became time of mourning.
Your vows… became your betrayal.
Declare your intentions… became declare your ill will.
Paige scanned the crowd. Every eye bore revulsion while mouths matched, bending in hatred. I watched Paige’s fingers tremble as she let the purple paper flutter to the ground. Sucking in a sob, she gathered the bottom of her dress and ran toward the chapel, the wooden double doors slamming closed to signify her blameworthy exit on what should’ve been a pure and innocent event.
Paige was right. “This will be the most exciting event Cannon Cove has seen in decades.”
“Wait!” Eli shouted and took off after her.
But Annelies’s show wasn’t over yet.
She turned toward the men in the wedding party, her voice filled with confidence, “Nate. Spirited, playful Nate. I’m so happy you made it today. You’ve always held a special place in my heart.”
Nate smiled. “I—”
“Until now. I met Eli through you, but I later learned how that introduction started. It was a game, based on a bet to see who could claim me as a lay first. You were a loser with the bet back then, and you’re a loser now.”
Regret crossed Nate’s face as he averted his eyes to the ground.
Annelies shifted her stance. “Bo. Funny, good-time Mambo. Every time you encouraged Eli to down ‘just one more shot’, guess who had to clean up the aftermath when you went home? Me. When he pissed the carpet. When I found him humping a blow-up doll in the bushes. When he got that misspelled tattoo on his ass. All me. I found the text message string on one of those nights, so thanks for that.”
Bo tilted his head toward the sky and shut his one good eye.
Annelies walked over to me next. “Jade. Accommodating, cautious Jade.”
Crap. I fought down my rise of panic flaring across my skin while waiting my turn to be crucified in front of the town.
“You did…”
I scrunched my eyes shut.
“Absolutely nothing,” Annelies concluded sadly, but she didn’t elaborate, leaving what’d happened hidden from the world. “Just like Sienna. That hurts, too.”
She knew we were also the moon. Another round of regret held on tight while shame poured into me.
“And Seth…” She turned toward a man in the audience I hadn’t spotted sooner. “Earlier today, do you know why I rallied for you to not be in the wedding?”
Seth slumped down in his chair a few inches.
Annelies hiked up her dress and walked his way. “Everyone up here has wronged me in some way… except for you.” Tears spilled down her face as she fell to her knees in front of him. “I need to apologize to you for that.”
“Annelies.” Seth shushed her. “This isn’t the time or the place.”
“Don’t you see? It is. I’ve called out everyone else.” She gestured up to where Bo, Nate, and I were. “And now,” she took a deep breath, “it’s time to call out myself.”
“I’m sorry,” she said. “So unbelievably sorry. For the way I treated you. For what happened with…” She touched her stomach. “For the pregnancy stuff. For all of it.”
Another round of shock and awe erupted from the nearest wedding guests.
She wiped her cheeks. “I didn’t defend you,
and I let everyone believe the lies.”
He closed his eyes and pressed the heel of his palm against his forehead.
“Say something. Anything,” Annelies begged.
The invisible hurricane officially hit landfall as a category five shitstorm.
Seth’s lips tightened. He stood up, grabbed her hand, and pulled her down the aisle, away from the crowd, unwilling to make eye contact with anyone.
I glanced over my shoulder from near the archway. Nate and Bo were gone. There I stood, alone and centerstage, under the inspection of three hundred people with Annelies’s bouquet dangling in my hand. The murmurs escalated into audible questions, all aimed at me with the expectation of answers. My mind and body negotiated my next action, stupidly deciding standing stone still would be best.
My father marched up to where I stood and grabbed my arm. “Jade A’Lynn Nash, if I find out you were involved with this farce in any way, so help me…”
I yanked free from his grip. “Would it matter?” I asked.
“It most certainly would.” He blinked ten times. “The amount of money I invested in—”
I let the flowers drop to the ground. “You said it yourself at Poseidon’s last night, ‘Sometimes, deals fall through.’”
The level of resentment emitting from him left me standing in his line of fire with no ammunition. “Listen to me, young—”
No ammunition but my own voice.
“No, you listen. I may not see eye-to-eye with Annelies on much of anything, but at least she avoided a marriage where she would’ve been stuck with a Cranston of her own. So, if I’m in any way responsible for what happened today, good for me.” I chose my next five words carefully. “You’re no better than Eli.”
His brow wrinkled in a race against his down-turning mouth, all while trying to formulate a response I didn’t care to acknowledge.
“I’m done.” With my quota of assholery exceeded, I chose to keep my head held high. Zero regrets. That was a pivotal moment for me. I broke away from my relationship with Cranston Eugene Nash and never spoke to him again.
Sienna unexpectedly made the next move by motioning for me to join her on the sidelines.
Although impossible to achieve it under the conditions, I did my best to slink over to where she stood and hoped to draw little attention to myself. “What?”
“It’s safer out of the crossfire.”
“Safer’s a stretch.” I watched her kneel to affix the plastic cap over a camera lens.
A couple strode behind us, muttering outlandish speculations about the chaos that transpired minutes ago. “Abduction”, “sledgehammer”, and “domestic abuse” stuck out most in the grapevine’s latest undertone of randomness. There was no telling what stories would flourish from it.
“I said safer, not safe. Pick your poison.” She unzipped a backpack. “With the color on that dress, you looked like a lion about to be picked apart by a vulture.”
I saw my father’s penetrating glare from afar and sat down on an empty chair near her. “You’re not wrong.”
“I’m usually not,” Sienna replied.
“But I’m still trying to process what happened up there,” I whispered.
People milled around us, staring as if we were goldfish swimming in a glass bowl.
She looked over her shoulder at Annelies gesturing at Seth in the distance. “It’s what should’ve happened long ago.”
“So, you knew about,” I waved around at the air with my arms, “this?”
“All of the wedding stuff that just happened? No. The Seth parts?” she asked. “Yeah. Even though he does his best to not talk about most of it.”
I hesitated in broaching the subject and then buckled, “Speaking of talking, you and I really haven’t done much of that. About what you saw in the alley the other night and what I walked in on today. What I mean to say is… you and Eli… were…”
“He and I were different than Eli and Paige.” She glanced up at where I sat. “I didn’t know he was engaged, but I won’t deny I should’ve said something when I figured it out. After I saw you two at The Seaman? It felt like my history started to replay. I had to ditch.”
“I assumed… you thought I was the one who... and then you made the pretty face comment…”
Man, when did I get so bad at speaking?
“I meant both of us were those pretty faces concealing something.” She shook her head. “With Eli, I learned quick how he operates. That’s why I took this job. I wanted to blast him for what he did, with or without photographic evidence,” she gave the camera a wiggle before glancing Seth’s way again, “but I didn’t know how or when. Then, Lord Dipstick Von Dick Whistle over there kept talking me out of it.”
“Just so we’re clear, I’m only agreeing to the wedding because I need to watch this one.” Miles eyed Sienna.
“Trust issues much?” Sienna lowered her voice, “Don’t go there, Seth. Swear to God. I’m warning you.”
“That’s why he decided to be in the wedding, to stop you,” I said. “And all of your guys’ arguing.”
“Yep. It put him in a weird position, for sure. I get it. Seth’s protective and didn’t want to see me get in over my head.” Sienna glanced up at me from her crouched position. “Eli’s family has stockpiles of cash, which isn’t new news. But they’ll crush anyone who crosses them. Annelies better watch her back after today.”
My mind trailed back to Seth’s and my conversation from earlier that morning— because he’d reacted the same way when I talked about dishing to Annelies, yet, I’d accused him of defending Eli.
“Whoa.” Seth stood up on the couch cushion and hopped over the back in a fluid motion with his long legs. “I don’t think that’s a good idea, Doc.”
“Rumor has it, her mystery dad, whoever that fuck torch is, paid off anyone in town who heard the truth about what happened with the abortion and encouraged the other gossip stories after Seth was gone. Like some kind of insurance so he wouldn’t come back.”
So, this wasn’t recent.
Cranston. My shoulders sagged knowing that fuck torch was my flesh and blood, the responsible party for something so unforgivable.
“And we all know how chit-chat twists and swirls around Cannon Cove. No doubt you’ve heard the worst of the million stories. Imagine people thinking you were run over by a runaway parade float and died or you were put in prison for stabbing someone in a bar fight.”
“Holy…” I said.
“Total cluster.”
“I’m afraid of what you’ve heard about me.”
She appeared thoughtful. “Little of this. Little of that. Mostly tame stuff.”
“I hope you’re not upset,” I said, “with me.”
She placed the camera inside the bag. “Why would I be?”
“Because I took Seth to Ocean Shores when his truck got dick’d and docked at Eli’s. For him spending the night at my house and when he had you help get my Jeep last night.”
“I got over it; I always do.” She shrugged her shoulders. “I mean, I wish he’d have called and told me about his truck, or that he bailed and went to OS. For all I knew, some uppity gang on the classy westside of Cannon Cove popped a cap in his ass and kidnapped him in their convertible or some crazy shit. Lucy,—”
“Wait.” My eyes widened. “You know Lucy?”
“Lucy Thompson? Adore her.”
This gets weirder and weirder.
Sienna cinched two strings on the backpack. “How do you know Lucy? From a cruise?”
“Hardly.” I thought back to the voided check and the envelope. “It’s a long story, but I… delivered some paperwork for her earlier this week.”
“She’s the best. We talk about everything.”
I doubt that. “Everything?”
>
“Absolutely. Her job as a sex therapist is an added perk. If I ever tell her about something lacking in my relationships, she can always tell me how to get it. Usually, she’s spot-on, too.”
Holy… Just wow.
I changed the subject, knowing no good could come from it. “What do you think will happen now?”
Sienna let out a deep breath through her nose. “Seth’s a lot like a kid you send off on the first day of school. You hope he makes good choices, he doesn’t eat paste, and he and learns from his mistakes. Because that guy? He was messed up for a long time after the Annelies thing.”
“Doesn’t it bother you? Not knowing what’s going on over there right now?”
“Sure, it does,” Sienna replied, “but I can’t face his demons for him.”
The distant vision of Annelies next to Seth while wearing a designer wedding gown intended for another man was too much for me to take in. Air I tried to breathe compressed my lungs instead of filling them. The pleading, regret, and hope that filled her eyes made hot tears spring to mine. I hated him for it. I hated her for it. Worst of all, I hated me for it.
Sienna remaining so calm made me jealous, knowing her boyfriend had a heart-to-heart with the woman who’d wronged him. I wanted to know what both of them said, but it’d never be my place.
A waiter walked past with a tray full of champagne flutes. I grabbed two, downing the first in three gulps and the second in two. So much for my new day one. My eyes burned as the bubbles stung my nose.
“Don’t look so worried,” Sienna said. “He—”
“I gotta go.” Much like when Sienna saw me with Eli, I had to ditch, too. I needed time to reflect, to process, to feel. Everything. Inhaling hurt. Thinking hurt. Living hurt. My only solace would come from the welcome pain swimming provided.
I rushed inside the chapel for my tote bag and quickly headed toward my Jeep when I saw Seth and Annelies talking under the gazebo on a large wooden swing.
Too much. Need out. Immediately.
My head swam on the way home. Why? Why did I care? For so long, I’d counted down the days and wanted the wedding to be over so I could move on with my life. That finality didn’t seem like a worthy consolation prize anymore.
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