Secondhand Bride (The Almost Wives Club Book 2)

by Nancy Warren

  In that moment Ashley remembered that the last time they had seen each other, Kate had given her the gel falsies Evangeline had provided to help Kate fill out that dress. Naturally, Ashley didn’t need them to fill out the dress, but they were fun to wear.

  Before she could introduce her guest, Nick was holding out his hand, “You must be Eric.”

  “I am not Eric,” Ben replied. He held out his hand. “I’m Ben. And this is an awesome wedding.”

  Ashley said quickly, before anyone could get any ideas, “Eric couldn’t make it today. He had a prior commitment. Ben is a friend of mine. He’s teaching me to drive.”

  “Good. It’s about time you learned to drive,” Kate said. She turned to Ben. “Although Ashley did help me steal a bike one time.”

  She laughed. “I did, didn’t I? Did you keep it?”

  Kate shook her head. As if. “I think Ted put it back in the shed and no one ever even noticed it was gone. It wasn’t much of a life of crime, but I enjoyed it while it lasted.”

  She would never forget the sight of the brokenhearted Kate getting on one of the old ten speeds wearing a reflective jacket that was both moldy and miles too big for her over an elegant dress, and pedaling away in high heels as though the hounds of hell were after her.

  “That was the night I met Nick.”

  Of course it was. No wonder they were connected.

  They walked, all of the wedding party together, up to the spot where the wedding would take place. It was on a bluff overlooking the ocean. There was no flower-decked arch, no bridesmaids and groomsmen. There was the bride, the groom, her maid of honor, a vibrant looking Latina woman named Lissa, and Nick’s best man, who turned out to be his brother. The wedding guests stood around however they liked, or, if they wanted to sit down, there was plenty of room on the grass. The officiant was an older man who wore a blazer over a Grateful Dead T-shirt. He kept the ceremony short, but even so, she felt a lump in her throat as these two people who were so clearly in love pledged their love and their lives to each other.

  The wedding reception was held at a local restaurant. Everyone was happy. There was an informal vibe, like this was just a group of old friends and new friends meeting and enjoying each other’s company and the happiness of this beautiful day. After a while, in a gesture that seemed more spontaneous than planned, Nick had the proprietor of the restaurant bring out chilled champagne and waiters carried around trays of the sparkling wine. When everyone had a drink, Nick grabbed Kate’s hand and brought her into the center of the restaurant.

  Everyone circled around them and a hush fell over the crowd. As Ashley looked across at Nick and Kate, she knew what love felt like. Just watching the two of them stare at each other she felt that gut-deep resonance. She turned to search out Ben and found him walking towards her, an intent expression in his eyes. He drew up beside her and took her hand. She didn’t care at the moment if they were just friends, more than friends, or I-wish-we-could-be more than friends. She linked her fingers with his, enjoying the warm current between them.

  Nick cleared his throat, looked at his bride and said, “I will never forget, for as long as I live, the moment I first saw Kate. It was in a restaurant on a busy Friday night. When I saw her, I was first blown away by her beauty, as everyone with eyes can see.” Kate rolled her eyes and shook her head but all the same she blushed. Nick grinned at her, and continued, “Then she looked up and caught me staring at her. Normally, when a girl catches you staring, you pretend it was an accident and you look away. But I couldn’t. She gazed at me with those big blue eyes and I felt like a bomb went off in my chest. Nobody ever tells you that falling in love’s going to hurt, that it’s as uncomfortable as a bomb going off in your chest, but trust me, if you’ve never experienced it? That’s what it feels like.

  “So I’m sitting there, with this massive detonation going on inside me and I somehow know that my life just changed forever. There are all kinds of songs and poems and I won’t embarrass all of us by reciting any of them but they’re all about love at first sight. Frankly, I never believed there was any such thing, I thought somebody made the idea up to sell greeting cards and heart-shaped chocolates on Valentine’s Day. But then it happened to me. I took one look at you, Kate Winton-Jones, and I fell in love.”

  His voice choked up at that moment, and she felt her eyes tearing up and imagined that every other person in that room was struggling with emotion too. Nick cleared his throat once more and said, “Kate, I don’t know what the future holds. I hope it brings us nothing but joy and happiness. But this I do promise you. I loved you the first moment I saw you, and I will love you until the end of my life. I promise you to be the best husband I know how to be, the best friend I know how to be, and God willing, the best father I know how to be. On this special day, in front of our friends and family, I want to say it loud and clear. I love you.” Then he raised his glass and said, “To love.”

  It was an unusual toast. In her experience of weddings the toasts were to things like the bride, the bridesmaids and the happy couple. Who toasted love? And yet, at this moment, the toast seemed so perfectly right, as all of them raised their glasses and echoed, “To love.”

  She heard the echo of those words from the man holding her hand. As the afternoon wore on there was laughter and backslapping and more champagne and cake. She thought of all the weddings she’d been to that cost hundreds of times more than this one, and how much more fun she was having at Kate and Nick’s very casual party.

  She found a few moments to chat with Kate alone and was able to say, with all sincerity, “This is one of the best weddings I’ve ever been to.”

  “Thanks,” Kate laughed. “This is absolutely the best wedding I’ve ever been to.”

  “This is probably a really inappropriate time to ask you this, but I really need to ask your advice.”

  Kate immediately grew serious—Ashley remembered that in her professional life she’d worked for a foundation that counseled troubled girls. “Do you want to go somewhere private and talk?”

  She shook her head, smiling. “No, it’s nothing like that. I feel so stupid even asking you this, but I found this article online.” She paused. “No, wait, I have to go back. When Aunt Millicent and Uncle Duncan found out I was engaged to Eric, they were super excited. I don’t know if you know this, but I’ve always been the person in the family that everyone thought would never amount to much. So, to find them actually thinking I had done this great thing was pretty awesome. Anyway, next thing I knew, Millicent was giving me,” she glanced around making sure no one was in earshot and dropped her voice even further, “your Evangeline wedding dress. The one you didn’t wear.”

  Kate’s eyes opened wide. “Wow. I never even thought about what happened to that dress. Well that’s great, it’s a beautiful dress.”

  “It is. It is a beautiful dress. But, please don’t think I’m crazy, but I read this article online that said that dress is cursed.”

  If she’d expected Kate to laugh and assure her that the curse was a piece of nonsense to get more eyeballs on a gossipy website, she was wrong. Kate was quite serious when she said, “I don’t know where they picked up the story, but it’s true.”

  “It’s true that my wedding dress is cursed?”

  Kate didn’t say anything for a moment, then replied, “It was a truly awful moment. I was being fitted for the dress, and Evangeline started yelling at this poor seamstress and suddenly she rose up like something out of mythology or a horror film and cursed both Evangeline and the dress and then stormed out.”

  Ashley could feel her eyes growing round. “So, do you think that’s why you didn’t get married? Because the dress was cursed?”

  Kate shook her head. “First, I don’t believe in curses. But then, I don’t believe in ghosts either, but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t be terrified if I saw one. You know what I mean?”

  Ashley nodded. She knew exactly what she meant because that was her whole approach as well to this
cursed dress thing.

  “I did end up running away before my wedding, causing a lot of upheaval and ill will. But I’d do the same thing again in a heartbeat. The truth is, it wasn’t the dress that was cursed. If anything was cursed, it was my engagement to Ted. Ted is a great guy, but he is so much happier with Marlene. We were both fooling ourselves.” She took Ashley’s hands in her own and gave a quick shake. “If you love Eric, and Eric loves you, then no pissed off seamstress is going to get in the way.”

  If you love Eric, and Eric loves you… “Right. Of course you’re right. I’m just having, you know, jitters.”

  “Perfectly normal.” Then she put her head to one side. “But then, I didn’t have a single jitter leading up to this wedding. My whole body and my mind and my heart all said yes every time I thought about this day. I know I’m doing the right thing, and marrying the love of my life.” She glanced across the room at Nick. “In my opinion, a curse doesn’t stand a chance against true love.”

  ***

  The ferry back to the mainland was about to leave and all the wedding party including the bride and groom were lined up along the dock ready to board. Ben suddenly turned to Ashley. “You know, I’ve never even seen the island. There’s another ferry back in two hours. You want to stay?”

  Ever since she’d held hands with him during the wedding, she’d had this sense of unreality as though this were a magical island and the regular rules didn’t apply. She had a strange feeling that he felt the same way, and that once they boarded the boat back to the mainland, the magic would disappear. Still, she hesitated.

  She watched Nick and Kate board the boat, laughing and holding hands and she nodded. “Yes. I want to walk on these pretty little streets and go to the botanical garden. I wish I was wearing my hiking boots; it seems like there’s great hiking here.”

  He took her hand and once more she let him. “Come on, then, let’s go exploring.”

  It was a steep, upward climb to the botanic garden that there is something so magical about the island . Above the gardens was the Wrigley memorial. They wound their way along the paths, admiring the plants and flowers, and then climbed up to the memorial which offered a stunning view of the island and the ocean.

  They didn’t talk much, and her usual joking camera battery, but strangely absent . She felt that he was preoccupied, and in truth she was a little preoccupied herself.

  As they stood side by side, staring out at the view, she said, “I’m so glad we came today. That was one of the nicest weddings I’ve ever been to.” She turned to him. “Thank you for bringing me.”

  For an endless moment he looked at her, and she couldn’t look away. She thought of those words Nick had said about the impact of looking into the eyes of someone you’re falling in love with. He moved closer until they were almost touching. “Ben, I…” She had no idea how to finish the sentence and then it didn’t matter. He slipped a forefinger under her chin, raising her face. She didn’t resist. This moment had been inevitable since that awkward almost kiss at her engagement party. She knew that whatever happened, she couldn’t go through the rest of her life without at least having kissed Ben.

  He put his mouth on hers and for a moment she felt nothing but the warm pressure of his lips against hers, and the feel of his body adjusting to fit against her. Her arms came up and wrapped around him, and then, like a delayed reaction, fireworks exploded all over her skin. She’d never felt so alive, or so wanting, and suddenly the light, easy kiss transformed into this mind-blowing meeting of bodies and minds and souls and she was helpless to stop it. She felt swept away on a tide of passion she couldn’t even understand, never mind control. He pulled her closer. She pulled him closer. She wanted to climb inside his skin. As her mouth opened to him and he slid his tongue inside her, she wished that he was inside everywhere. They kissed for a long, long time and when he pulled away slowly she found that she was breathless.

  He looked down at her with a sad, rueful expression. “I was afraid of that.”

  She knew exactly what he meant. There was no point in talking about what had happened. Nick had talked about bombs going off in his chest and she knew exactly what he meant.

  She clutched at her engagement ring, pushing her thumb against it until the sharpness hurt, to remind herself of her reality, the diamond-hard reality that she was engaged to another man.

  Chapter Fifteen

  ASHLEY AND BEN WERE A LOT QUIETER on the ride home than they had been on the way down. There was so much she wanted to say to him, to ask him. So much she felt coming from him. All this unspoken emotion was stifling her so, without even asking him if he minded, she pushed the top down on the car. It was dark and the rushing wind on the freeway was cold, but she didn’t care. She wanted to blow away all the craziness of this day. Maybe if she could replace the feel of his warm arms around her with cold, biting air, her skin would forget how he’d felt.

  And maybe if she brushed her teeth enough times, she’d scrub out any memory of his kiss. Yeah, that was going to happen.

  When they drew closer to the Carnarvon estate, she put the top back up. The silence seemed huge. Like a cavernous, empty space waiting to be filled. She said, “It’s not only me, is it?”

  “No.”

  “I still remember that horrible crazed obsession I had for you when I was a kid.”

  He reached for her hand. “It was the most flattering thing that ever happened to me.”

  “Thanks. But I’m not a kid anymore.”

  “I know.”

  “When I was fifteen it was one-sided.”

  “Mostly.”

  “Now—?”

  “Now, it’s not.”

  At least she had that to hang on to. “But me being engaged isn’t the only thing between us, is it?”

  His hand tightened briefly on hers. “No.”

  She didn’t feel like asking endless questions and receiving one-word answers so she remained silent. It was a while before he spoke, but when he did she heard pain in his tone. “I had to promise my agent I would stay away from women for a year.”

  “A year?”

  “Yes.” He blew out a breath. “You know about Vanessa. That story is slowing down, but she’s a great media manipulator. I could maybe date a woman quietly if she had no public profile.

  “But my engagement is all over the place.”

  He nodded. “Grace Van Hoffendam is almost as good at handling the media as Vanessa is.”

  “And if I left Eric for you, that wouldn’t look good for your career.” She sounded bitter, she knew she did, but she didn’t care. She felt bitter.

  Ben had shown up within days of her engagement. She wondered now whether, if Eric had waited a week to propose, she’d have been so quick to say yes.

  As though he’d read her mind, he said, “The timing really sucks for both of us.”

  “I know.”

  “There are lots of good, practical reasons for you to marry Eric.”

  “And only one reason not to.”

  “Can we not do this right now? Please? I want to finish my screenplay, and have coffee with you every morning by the pool, and continue our driving lessons.”

  A rush of emotion threatened to choke her, so she merely nodded.

  ***

  What was his problem? Ben wondered as they drove the last few miles toward home. Fear , that’s what. He was scared. When he had been twenty and Ashley was only fifteen, pushing her away had been the right thing to do. But now? Now that she was a woman of twenty-five and he masqueraded as a man of thirty? Did he really believe that his career was more important than his happiness? Because Ashley made him happy. More importantly, she made him authentic.

  This was not something that happened a lot in LA; he’d noticed that the more successful he became, the more people told him how wonderful he was. They piled on effusive compliments, called him a genius, gifted, brilliant, groundbreaking. After a while, it was too easy to believe the flattery. But not with Ashley. From the
moment she had scoffed at his clichéd female character and his stilted dialogue, he had begun imagining her as the person sitting in the darkened movie theater watching his story unfold. When he crafted a line he felt was funny, he wondered whether she would laugh. If the scene was sad enough, could he make her cry? Maybe she wasn’t a mermaid or Cinderella. Maybe she was his muse.

  He was lost in thought when they pulled up in front of the gate. He found the remote and punched in the code. The gates silently opened, letting them in, and then just as silently closed behind them. She drove forward, her capable hands controlling the vehicle. She pulled into his parking spot behind the pool house and turned off the engine. It was so quiet.

  She glanced over at him, her eyes seemed big and luminous and glistening with emotion. With hurt. She passed him the keys. “Thank you for coming with me to the wedding,” she said softly.

  He did not know what he’d been thinking, but he couldn’t let her go, not like this. “Ashley—”

  She threw open the car door, not letting him finish. “I have to go.”

  He reached out and grasped her wrist. “Ashley, please, I’m a fool. Everything I said back there was about me being scared.” And now he felt foolish even admitting such a thing.

  She shook her head and pulled her wrist out of his grasp. “No. You’re right. The wedding and all that emotion just made me crazy. Thanks for bringing me back to earth. Really.”

  By the time he was out of the car, she was already striding away.

  He cursed silently as he watched her walk away. He was convinced he had never done anything in his life that he would regret more. But what could he do? It was late, she lived with her mother. It wasn’t like he could barge into their cottage and have a confrontation. He would have to wait until the morning and hope that she came for her regular swim. Maybe by then he’d think of something brilliant to say to her, something that would convince her that he did want her in his life.