Kari: I’ll try. MUAH!
“I just made your life a little easier, Max,” I say, setting my phone down.
“How ya reckon?”
“You don’t need to worry about figuring Kari out because I’m gonna kill her.”
He laughs like he thinks I’m kidding. “I think she’d take ya.”
“She better get her part of this done.”
“She will. Now get in the shower and let’s get this show on the road.”
JADA
The flowers make the entire elevator car smell beautiful. I look at them in the reflection in the mirrors on the walls and they are so sweet. It’s almost like he’s proposing to me again.
“Will you stop bouncing around?” I turn to look at Kari. “Did they spike your champagne in the spa or what?”
“I don’t know. I just feel so relaxed. So happy!”
I roll my eyes. “I have no idea what’s gotten into you.”
The elevator stops and we exit, heading down the hallway to our adjoining rooms.
“Let’s nap and then go to that little bistro down by the spa for an early dinner. Want to?” I ask.
Kari doesn’t respond. She’s engrossed in her phone, a huge smile on her face, typing away.
“Kari?”
“Oh,” she says, her voice an octave too high. “What?”
“I said . . .” I stop at my hotel room door. There is a pink enveloped taped to it. I remove it slowly, feeling Kari’s gaze on me from behind.
A ball of anxiety twists tightly in my stomach as I open it. I pull out the card. My cheeks heat immediately at the one word staring back at me: TODAY
“Kari?” I whip my head to the side. Kari’s watching me, all of the cards in her hand. Her smile is even wider now, if that’s possible, and her cheeks are pink, too. “What’s going on?”
She flips over one card at a time and then points at my hand at the end.
I WANT TO MARRY YOU TODAY.
“He wants to marry me today?” I want to think this is a joke, some silly little thing Cane is doing for hurting my feelings a couple of nights ago. But the look on Kari’s face, coupled with the little blossom in my belly, makes me think it’s not that at all. “Is this for real?”
“Open the door.” Her voice is quiet, like she’s trying not to wake a baby.
I hold the flowers in my hand and fidget in my pocket for the room key. I swipe the card through the slot too quickly and it denies me entrance. Grimacing, I try again. It buzzes and I push open the door.
I take a few steps in, Kari behind me, and stop dead in my tracks.
“Oh my God,” I say, my hand flying to my mouth. Tears blur my eyes before I even know what’s happening.
“No crying yet!” Kari sniffles beside me. “You can’t ruin your makeup yet!”
I fix my gaze on the wedding gown hanging off a garment hanger in the living room. It’s the same gown, the same beautiful lace piece, I saw in the magazine on the way to Vegas.
“How did you? What does this mean? How did—”
“Stop, Jada,” Kari giggles, physically turning me to face her. “This was all Cane.” She rolls her eyes. “Okay, not all Cane because God knows that man would’ve been screwed without Max and I. But this idea was all him.”
“Is he really marrying me tonight?” I choke out. I’m trying desperately not to start bawling, not to break down. My legs feel weak and I clumsily place the flowers on a table so I don’t drop them.
“No. You are marrying him tonight, sister.”
“Oh my God.”
She pulls me into a hug and I can’t fight the few tears that escape. “How did you arrange all this?”
“The night he came in with the plane tickets? Well, when you went to the bathroom, he told us what he wanted to do. So we all sort of pitched in and got it done.”
“Oh, Kari. Thank you.” I grab one of Cane’s shirts off the sofa and try to dry my face. “I don’t know what to say!”
“You’ll be saying yes in a couple of hours. Right now, we need to make sure you’re ready. I have an entire suitcase in the closet of stuff for the wedding.” She shakes with excitement. “For your wedding! Ah!”
“I can’t believe this. I’m marrying him tonight!”
“You so are! Now let’s get you ready for your wedding day!”
CANE
I button my shirt, my hands shaking as I work my way from the bottom to the top.
I hope this was the right thing to do. I hope she isn’t upset that I basically just planned this fucking day for her. I hope she’s not pissed because she didn’t get to do her hair the right way, knowing what was going to happen . . . Maybe I should’ve told her. Maybe I should’ve asked her to help . . .
I leave the top button unfastened and look around for a bottle of water. I know I had one just a second ago.
“Max? Where’s my water?”
“In the refrigerator.”
“Why in the hell is it in there?”
“To keep it cold.” He comes around the corner and looks at me like I might jump out the window. “Relax, Alexander.”
“Stop fucking telling me to relax.”
“Okay. Chill out.”
I roll my eyes but let his comment go. “I keep thinking this was the wrong way to do this. Did I just fuck this up? Tell me the truth.”
He laughs loudly and tosses me a water. “No, you didn’t just fuck this up. This was a very you way to do this.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“That you do what you want, when you want, and fuck what everyone else says.”
“You make it sound like I’m an asshole.” I take a swig and watch him over the bottle.
“Go figure.”
“Fuck you.”
We both laugh, a bit of stress leaving my body. “Have you seen my cuff links?”
“Yes.”
“Can you leave anything fucking be? For fuck sakes, Max, I just sat them down!”
“Can you put anything away?”
“Uh, no. This is a hotel. Nothing has a place.”
“For the record,” he says, picking up a towel I had used earlier after my shower, “I didn’t move them.”
I ignore him and pick them up as Max’s phone starts to ring.
“Hey,” he says. He eyes me closely, like I might pounce on him. “Yeah, he’s here.”
I place the cuff links back down again and listen.
“No, you can’t talk to him. Why’d Kari even let you call?” He listens a second and starts laughing. “You’re not as different from Cane as I thought.”
“Let me talk to her,” I say, reaching for the phone.
He turns his back and ignores me. “Tradition says you weren’t even supposed to see each other at all today—”
I grab the phone out of his hand. “Fuck tradition.”
Max sighs as I walk across the room, his phone to my ear. “Hey, baby.”
“Cane . . .”
“Having a good day?” My voice is wavier than I’d like it to be. But this is the question of the day. No, this is the question of my life.
“I’ve never had a better one,” she whispers.
I can’t help the shit-eating grin that spreads across my face. A weight lifts from my shoulders. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
“So you’re okay with me just kinda doing everything?”
“That’s an oversimplification!” she laughs. “But yes. I’m so okay with this. I’m a little sad my daddy won’t be here, but I think he’ll understand.”
“He will. I’m sure of it. You’re marrying me. I’m sure he’ll love it.”
“I’m sure,” she giggles. “Either way . . . I love you, Cane. I love you so much.”
“Not as much as I love you, beautiful girl. Now get ready because in about,” I glance at my watch, “an hour and a half, you’ll finally be Jada Alexander.”
“I love hearing you say that,” she breathes.
“I love saying it. I’ll see yo
u in a little bit.”
“Okay.”
“Oh, Jada. One more thing?”
“Yeah?”
“Tell Kari we’ll discuss her lack of texting me later. She’s fucking killed me today.”
Jada laughs and I lose the touch of annoyance I had. None of it matters, really. All that matters is that she officially becomes my wife sooner rather than later.
JADA
I stand in front of the full-length mirror in the lingerie Kari purchased for me. The attention to detail that went into this astounds me.
We had a wine-fueled conversation about what to wear beneath a wedding dress a few weeks ago and I didn’t realize it was more than a random discussion. She found exactly what I said I thought I’d wear. It’s feminine and delicate, a pure white with the lightest of blue embroidery, just like Cane’s eyes.
“You ready to put on your dress?” Kari asks¸ walking up behind me. “It’s about time to get downstairs.”
I look at her in the reflection. A lump forms at the base of my throat and I try to swallow it back. I am ready, but I need to ask her something first.
“Do you think Mom would’ve liked Cane?”
Kari smiles softly. “I know she would’ve.”
“How do you know?”
It’s a question that has been weighing on my mind. I knew when I married Decker that my mother wouldn’t have liked him. Kari and Dad both didn’t. I shouldn’t have either.
Although Cane seemed initially to be so much like Decker, he really isn’t. Not in my eyes. I know Dad gave him his blessing and I know Kari likes him, but I wonder what my mom would’ve thought. I know I’ll never really know, but it’s important to me to think I’d have her blessing this time. Because in my heart and soul, I know this is the last time I’ll ever do this. Cane is it for me forever.
“I know Mom would’ve loved him because he loves you.”
I smile back at her and feel the sting of tears again. I laugh, hoping they’ll retreat, but they don’t. “Am I gonna be trying not to cry all day?”
“Yeah,” she laughs, choking back her own. “Probably.”
“I should call Dad. Not that it will help this tear situation, but I hate that he’s not here.”
Kari picks up her phone and hands it to me. “Call him. Cane talked to him about this before we left, so he knows it’s happening.”
“Were his feelings hurt?”
She shakes her head. “Nope. Dad just wants us happy, Jada.”
I dial his number and wait for him to answer, but he doesn’t. It goes to voicemail. I feel like such a baby, such a little girl, but I can’t help it. I just wanted to talk to my dad.
“Daddy? It’s Jada.” My voice cracks and I watch Kari, trying to gain some sort of strength from her. This is so much harder than I thought it would be. I sniffle back tears and realize that I only have a few seconds before the recording ends. “I love you.”
CANE
“It’s a suit, Cane,” Max laughs behind me. “You’ve worn these before.”
I straighten the gold tie and twist my neck, trying to get comfortable. “I feel like a fucking monkey in this thing. You think I could just leave the tie off and the top button of this shirt undone? If not, I might die from asphyxiation before I get there.”
Max’s hand lands on my shoulder. “Look at it this way: Jada could bail on you at the last minute. You gotta jump through all the hoops, including wearing a suit and tie, to make sure she doesn’t change her mind.”
“She’s not gonna change her mind, asshole.”
“Nah, she won’t. But you still gotta wear that.”
“You sound like my dad.” As soon as the words slip from my lips, a heaviness comes over me.
I don’t think about him a lot, not in depth. I allow myself to consider how he’d handle things from time-to-time, but normally I just push forward and stay focused on whatever is in front of me. But today . . . what’s in front of me is the rest of my life.
I turn and see Max watching me from the other side of the room. His eyes are narrowed, cautious, and I know he’s waiting on me to speak. He knows this is a touchy subject and he’s known me long enough to know how I work. He’s giving me space. And that space is making me suffocate.
I shrug helplessly. “What do ya think, Max?”
“I think he’d be damn proud of you.”
I snort and turn away.
“Look at what you’ve done with your life, man. You were in your early twenties and lost the only family you had. Instead of just saying, ‘fuck it,’ you picked yourself up, took over the company built by your grandfather and father, and made it into something more.”
“I just did what I had to do.”
“But so many people don’t. You could’ve let it all go or sold it all. But you didn’t. You kept the legacy of your family and built on it. That’s impressive.”
“Did you just call me impressive?” I grin, turning to look at him.
He rolls his eyes. “No. I said what you did was impressive. Slightly.”
There’s a comfortable silence between us, something I only have with Max. We may not be blood but we sure as fuck might as well.
I twist my neck again. “Am I supposed to wear a flower or some shit on my jacket?”
Max laughs, glancing down at the pink one on his. “Yeah. Kari did mine. She’ll be over in a minute and she’ll do yours, too.”
“She’ll probably jab me with the needle.”
“Probably.”
There’s so much unsaid between us and I know I don’t have to say any of it. Max knows. I don’t think I could verbalize all the things I’m feeling right now, but I need to try to say something.
“Thank you.”
“For what?” He takes a drink of water and watches me, looking thoroughly confused.
“For this. For putting all of this together. For introducing me to Jada.”
“Nah, don’t thank me for this.”
“Why’s that?”
He laughs and pulls on his suit jacket. “I only introduced you to Jada so someone else can deal with your bullshit. I’ve suffered long enough and am more than ready to pawn you off onto someone else.”
“Fuck you, Max.”
“Fuck you, too.”
JADA
I hear the zipper go up my back and I hold my breath, hoping this dress fits. I say a silent prayer that there are no hiccups.
I feel it climb from my waist, to the middle of my back. It stops right below my shoulder blades. The front cinches against my chest perfectly.
“It fits,” I breathe out, relief washing over me.
“Did you doubt me? I mean, really, Jada.”
“Well, you never know!”
Kari turns me to face her. The corners of her mouth touch her eyes as she gasps.
“What?” I look down. Everything looks right. It looks like it fits.
What if there’s a rip? What if it’s torn? What if . . .
“It’s perfect,” Kari whispers. “Absolutely perfect.”
“Are you sure?”
She points to the mirror and we turn, staring at our reflection.
My dress fits me like a glove, exactly how I envisioned it when I saw it in the magazine. I look demure and sophisticated, just like I wanted.
“Cane will love this,” I breathe, turning both ways to get the full effect.
“Yeah, on the floor!”
I laugh, knowing she’s right. Cane never cares what I wear. I can wear sweatpants or a miniskirt and he’s happy all the same.
He’s happy when I’m happy.
The thought causes warmth to slide throughout my body. I think back on our relationship and how much I’ve changed since I met him. How broken I was the night he walked into Blanca’s and how whole I feel now.
I hated what I went through with Decker. I cried more tears in those years than all of the tears I’ve shed through the rest of my life together. But if it took that experience to get me here today, I’d do
it all over again in a heartbeat.
I look at my sister, fitted with a gorgeous gold bridesmaid gown. It is strapless, the color of warm honey, and cinches at her narrow waist. It flutters out a touch and stops at her knees.
“Look at us,” I smile. “We look like we should be walking a runway!”
“We are. Right into the rest of your life.”
Tears swell up and I pull her into me. “I can’t thank you enough for this. You thought of everything, made it all perfect.”
“No, you made today happen. You had the strength to walk away from things that weren’t good for you. You’re the one that got you here, Jada. I just got to be the one to help you finalize it.”
“I’m going to marry him,” I whisper. “I’m going to marry the absolute love of my life.”
“You are. And he’s marrying his. That’s what makes this so special. I know I give him all kinds of crap, but you should’ve seen him help plan this. He wanted everything perfect for you. He can’t wait to see you walk down the aisle.”
“The night we met at the restaurant, he told me we would see each other again.” I think back on that night, the way I was drawn to him from the moment he approached our table. “I wasn’t sure if I wanted to see him again or not. And here I am . . .”
“And here you are, getting ready to do the deal.” She winks at me. “Now let’s make sure we have everything. Something new, your dress. Something old?”
I hold up my right hand. “Mom’s ring.”
“Okay. Something borrowed . . .” She slips off her bracelet and puts it on my wrist. “Something blue, the embroidery. I think we’re good to go.”
“Kari!”
“What?”
“I don’t have a ring for Cane! Oh my God!”
“It’s taken care of.”
My shoulders sag. “Of course it is.”
She laughs at the same time a knock raps on the door.
Kari grins. “I’ll see who that is.”
I look in the mirror again while she answers the door. I hear it open and close. When I look back up, I can’t stop the tears. I don’t even try.
“Daddy!”
He walks to me, tears glittering in his eyes, too. He’s carrying a gorgeous bouquet of pink flowers, a smaller version of the ones delivered to the spa, and is wearing a dark grey suit.
The Connection Page 5