Nothing.
I dropped my head back against the car seat, too exhausted to sit up. “Oh, Ron. What the hell.”
“I know.” He tightened his grip on my hand. “I know.”
We rode the rest of the way in silence, and when we reached my place Ron paid the taxi driver, waving off my offer of money. The second I had my apartment door open I kicked off my pink shoes. “These things cause me trouble whenever I wear them.”
He gave me a sad smile. “Wear them for something awesome next time. Clear their karma or whatever.”
I tried to smile back but I couldn’t manage it. “It’ll take more than that, I think.”
He moved forward and held out his arms, and we held each other close for a long time, without a word. I wasn’t sure I’d ever gone that long without talking, but it felt so right to be silent with him.
Eventually he drew back a little and looked down into my eyes. “How are you?”
“Better,” I said, and snuggled in close again. “Better.”
I didn’t say “because you’re here” but I was thinking it and the way he pulled me closer and kissed my hair made me think he knew it.
After another long silent embrace, I said softly, “I have to fly to Toronto tomorrow morning for work, so...”
He stepped back at once. “I’ll let you sleep.”
I made myself nod, though I couldn’t imagine I’d do much sleeping. “Thank you. So much.” He shook his head but I said, “Yes. You’re the best. I... you’re the best.”
He raised his hand and gently, so gently, brushed my hair off my cheek then let his fingers smooth over my skin. “Summer...”
“Yes,” I breathed. His touch was sending shivers through me, but not desperate frantic ones like I’d always had with Aaron. This felt more like...
As I realized it felt more like love than anything I’d felt before or after Kent, Ron began to lean in to kiss me, then stopped and pulled back. “No. Not tonight.” He shook his head, his eyes locked to mine. “But... maybe later?”
“Yes,” I repeated, knowing that though I wanted to kissing him now wouldn’t do anything but stir up my life even more. “Maybe later.”
He smiled, then leaned in and kissed my forehead. “So I’ll see you later?”
“Maybe,” I said, a real smile growing on my face for the first time I could remember. “Maybe later.”
He chuckled. “Sounds good. Good night, Summer.”
“Good night.”
He left, and I locked the door behind him and stood wishing I’d kissed him anyhow.
Aaron cheating right in front of me, my career in disarray, Ron a serious boyfriend candidate... nothing seemed certain any more.
Except that the wedding day, Saturday the thirteenth, would be the scariest day of my life.
Chapter Twenty-One
My two days in Toronto interviewing artists before and after the MusicStation awards were busy enough that I didn’t have time to think, and though they were exhausting I was glad for the distraction. When I woke up at home Tuesday morning, though, I realized I had to start looking into the business details of the swimsuits. I’d done everything I could to stay out of that, but obviously I didn’t want Kia doing it any more. If I couldn’t trust her with my man, I couldn’t trust her with my business either.
Aaron clearly wasn’t my man, though, and as I struggled to figure out how to get into the website and the database and the list of orders it became equally clear that the swimsuits weren’t my business. Making them, yes, but the rest? I didn’t have a clue.
I couldn’t bring myself to ask Kia, of course, so I dug through my email archives seeking out the account information she’d sent me over the months and eventually had access to just about everything.
Everything I knew about, at least. There could be all sorts of hidden accounts I’d never even heard of, and I didn’t like that, but what I knew about was more than enough to keep me busy for days.
I changed the passwords on everything first thing, not wanting her to get her paws on anything else of mine, then began working through one thing at a time trying to understand what she’d set up and why.
It was horrible. No part of my brain worked in this methodical business-type way, and just when I thought I understood I found something new that completely contradicted what I’d thought was happening.
On Wednesday, it occurred to me that maybe Ron would help me. We hadn’t talked since the party and our near-kiss, and I knew he was thinking the same thing I was: too complicated to go there before Kent got married. Keeping a little distance between us made sense at this stage.
But working together on the business wasn’t the same thing as getting into a relationship, and since he was self-employed he might understand all the things I didn’t, and by five o’clock Thursday I had so many questions I couldn’t answer that I gave in and called him.
“How are you?”
His voice was so warm and concerned it made me smile before I knew I was going to. “I’m okay. Too focused on my lack of business skill to worry about anything else. How’re you?”
“Worried about you. What’s up with the business?”
I wrapped an arm around myself, wishing he was holding me. “It’s down one business type and up one idiot who knows nothing about business.”
“I hope you’re not talking about you.”
“Who else?”
“Kia, maybe. But not you.”
I had to laugh. “You’ve got it backward, Ron. Trust me. She’s set up all this... stuff, and I don’t understand any of it. I never have. But now I need to and...” I sighed. “I don’t. I can’t. I’m not capable of it.”
He didn’t speak for a moment, and I tightened my arm around myself and mentally begged him not to agree that I was stupid. I couldn’t handle hearing that from him.
“Why,” he said slowly, “did you let her set it up on her own? It’s your business. She should have told you what she was--”
“Oh, she did,” I said. “Endlessly. But she might as well have explained it to a swimsuit for all the good it did. I’m not smart enough to--”
“Summer, you’re not stupid,” he said firmly. “Never have been, never will be.”
“Clearly you don’t know me at all.”
“Clearly I do.”
I wanted to believe him, but my confusion about my own business made it impossible. “I made the suits, Ron, and that was it. She did absolutely everything else and I let her so I wouldn’t screw it up. But now I don’t know how to pick up the pieces.”
“I’m expected at my parents’ place in half an hour, but that’s okay. Tell me what you don’t get.”
“Faster to tell you what I do get.”
“Summer,” he said, and I could almost see his ‘you’re making me crazy but I kind of like it’ smile. I could certainly hear it in his voice.
“Okay, fine,” I said, smiling too. “Here goes.”
I went through, bit by bit, what confused me, and he explained each thing to me as I scribbled down notes. What he said made total sense, and when we’d finished I blurted out, “Why do I understand it when you say it and I didn’t before?”
“Did Kia explain it to you?”
I rolled my eyes, though he couldn’t see it. “In even bigger words, usually. Definitely more complicated ones. You’re a way better--” I grinned. “Hey, you are a good teacher. And you’ll be a great one once you get trained.”
“Thanks,” he said, and in the one word I could hear how much he appreciated it.
We sat in silence for a peaceful happy moment, then I said, “I guess I’d better let you--” I glanced at the clock as I spoke then gasped. “Ron! It’s been forty-five minutes. You should have gone ages ago.”
“I’ll call Mom now. She’ll hold dinner for me.”
“Don’t tell them how clueless I am, okay?” I couldn’t help saying. “That I didn’t know about my business.”
“You’re not clueless,” he said. “Not
at all. You get it now. Right?”
“Thanks to you, I do. Thank you so much.”
“Have a good evening,” he said, “and you’re so welcome.”
I let him go, after thanking him again, then sat staring at the things that now made sense and wondering how many other layers there were to this business. Maybe I could convince Ron to run it for me so I wouldn’t have to keep asking him to explain it.
Or... could it be that once he explained it all to me, every last layer, I’d actually be able to run it myself?
Chapter Twenty-Two
Friday evening, I stood at Kent’s condo door waiting for MC to let me in and wishing myself almost anywhere else. I hadn’t had a choice, though: when the bride-to-be calls and asks you to come discuss whether you and the guy who cheated on you can still be in the wedding party together, you have to go.
She opened the door, and as we exchanged a small smile I noticed with amazement that she didn’t even seem nervous. I was. I hadn’t seen Aaron since the party and I hadn’t wanted to and--
As if my thoughts had called him over, he appeared behind MC looking guilty and awkward. “Summer, I’m sorry,” he said, without looking at me. “I am. I was an ass.”
“Yup,” I said, not feeling like letting him off the hook just yet.
MC closed the door behind me and said, “Aaron got here a bit early, and you’re... well...”
I winced. “I’m sorry, I know I’m late. I was working on the last touches on your dress,” I said, holding up the garment bag I’d brought, “and lost track of time.”
“You don’t need to apologize,” she said, a tiny stress on the ‘you’ making it clear she was still annoyed with Aaron. Then she smiled and added, “Especially for working on my dress. But it just means we can’t talk in here. I’d send him outside but if he stands in the hall the neighbors will get worried.”
She looked around, but since I’d lived in the condo I knew that its little den didn’t have a door and other than the bathroom there was only one private room, and sure enough she said, “We could go into the bedroom. Okay?”
Kent and I had come back here the night of our wedding and had made love for the first time in that room. I hadn’t been back in since we split, and I’d never expected to be. But I didn’t much want Aaron in there either, and MC was already heading toward the closed door, so I gave in and followed her.
“I’m sorry,” Aaron called after me. I ignored him.
When MC and I were closed in together, I looked at the bed and to my horror felt my eyes fill with tears. I’d thought Kent and I would be together forever. How had everything gone so wrong? Because I’d been stupid and over-dramatic. Was I being over-dramatic now too, with all my fears about their wedding? Probably not, but I had been stupid.
I sighed and took a seat at a desk that hadn’t been there the last time I saw the room, leaving the garment bag spread out on the floor. MC sat on the edge of the bed and said, “Okay. I do actually think he’s sorry. I agree he was an ass, but I do think he’s sorry. I need to know that the wedding’s going to be okay, Summer. Will you be able to walk back up the aisle with him?”
I didn’t much want to, but I was taking a breath to say yes when she added, “If you can’t, I’ve already told Aaron he won’t be in the wedding party.”
That she’d be willing to remove him from the party instead of me touched me so much I could hardly breathe, and made me feel even more disgusting for the damage I might have done to the wedding, but I took a deep breath to calm myself and said, “No, I’ll be fine.”
“You’re sure?”
If I bailed out, I could be far away on their wedding day and not see whatever happened. The thought of that felt good for a moment, but then it didn’t. It was so sweet of them, especially her, to have me involved, and if Mimi and Simon did cause trouble I might be able to stop them. But only if I was there. “I am. I’ll make it work.”
She gave me a sad smile. “Thank you. We could rearrange the partners walking up the aisle, but you and Aaron are the same difference in height as Sam and Holly, so I’d rather not.” She grimaced. “That sounds stupid. I... is it okay, though?”
I had no idea why she cared about our heights, but she clearly did, so I said more firmly than I had before, “It’s fine. It really is. I will walk with him and not talk with him and everything’ll be fine.”
She nodded. “Okay. Thank you. And my dress is good?”
“Definitely.” I had managed, a bit at a time, to ease her into agreeing to a dress Madeleine-Cora would have adored. “Want to try it quick?”
“Doesn’t have to be quick,” she said, giving me an unexpectedly snarky smile. “Aaron can wait.”
I chuckled. “Indeed he can.”
MC, as always, turned her back to me as she took off her clothes and climbed into the dress, and once she was in I zipped her up then said, “Let’s see you.”
She turned, and I grinned at her. “You look amazing.”
Holding up the full silk skirt, since it was too long for her in her bare feet, she shuffled over to the full-length mirror and stood staring at herself. “Yeah,” she said slowly, “yeah, I like it.”
“Just like it?”
She turned to me, and my heart skipped a beat when I saw her eyes were full of tears. “I never wanted all the lace and sequins and stuff, but--”
“I’m so sorry,” I said, horrified at what I’d done even though my intentions had been good. “I just thought it’d look great.”
“You pushed me,” she said as if I hadn’t spoken. Then she smiled. “And you were right. My idea was way too plain. This is so much better than anything I’d imagined. You did such a good job. Thank you so much.”
I had to blink back tears too, but mine were of relief that she didn’t hate the dress and sadness at why I’d had to push her so hard. “You’re welcome,” I said, hearing my voice shake. “I want your wedding to be perfect for you. I really do.”
“I know.” She sniffed. “And it’s so nice of you.” Then, to my amazement, she shuffled over and gave me a hug. She’d never hugged me voluntarily, only when I grabbed her first, and I couldn’t hold back my tears.
“MC?”
We both froze at the sound of Kent’s voice, and MC gasped, “Stay out!”
“I’m not coming in,” he said from outside the door. “I promise. You’ve got the dress in there?”
MC pulled away from me and turned her back so I could unzip her. “We do. Give us a minute.”
“No problem,” he said, and I heard his footsteps moving away across the hardwood.
I fought hard to get myself back under control, and by the time MC was dressed in her regular clothes again I was able to grin at her and say, “Can we trust Kent not to peek in the bag?”
“Absolutely,” she said, with not a hint of doubt.
I knew she was right, and I couldn’t help feeling jealous. Everyone around her was trustworthy.
Except maybe Aaron.
And me.
Chapter Twenty-Three
The day before the wedding, after a week of working hard on suits and the business and my celebrity research and spending every spare moment worrying, I stood fidgeting at the front of the church waiting for the rehearsal to start and dreading one definite and one possible arrival.
The definite one was Aaron. When I’d left Kent and MC’s bedroom the previous week he had immediately apologized again, and I’d made myself accept it but had added, “I’d rather not interact with you much, though. I’m sure you understand.”
“Yeah,” he’d said, looking miserable. “I get it. And I am sorry.”
We hadn’t had any contact since then, and I couldn’t say I was eager for any.
I was a million times more eager to see him, though, than to look up and see Mimi and her crew arriving. I’d said nothing to Simon about the rehearsal and he hadn’t brought it up either, but the idea that he might have guessed when it would be and decided to send a crew terrifie
d me.
Liv came up beside me and gave my arm a squeeze. “Haven’t seen you since the party. How you doing?”
I turned to her and smiled. “Okay. Better. Thanks.”
She shook her head. “No more than you deserve.” She looked around at the church, decorated with pale pink ribbons and bows. “It’s going to be so awesome, I think.” She smiled. “MC asked me to watch out for anything going wrong, but there won’t be a thing. It’s all so tightly planned.”
I could warn her, I realized. Even just a hint of ‘if any reporters figured out where the church was they could show up’ would make sure she was watching for that. She could... could...
What could she do if Mimi and the crew arrived? Not a damn thing. Their mere arrival would tear the wedding apart, and she wouldn’t be able to prevent that. I had done everything I could, and now I just had to hope.
I nodded at Liv, and she smiled then said, “Oh! Did MC tell you about the shoes?”
I shook my head.
She grinned. “Holly and I both loved your pink ones at the... well, on the weekend, let’s say.” Her grin vanished. “Sorry. I know the party sucked for you. But your shoes were great. And we found the same ones so we’re all going to wear those now with our bridesmaid dresses instead of the silver ones that weren’t really a good match. Cool?”
My bad-luck shoes at MC’s wedding? “Cool,” I managed, since there’d be no way to explain why it wasn’t and they wouldn’t be able to get new shoes this late in the game.
The pastor cleared his throat then to get everyone’s attention, and I managed to get through the rehearsal without screaming and through the dinner afterward too.
When we all said goodbye, Kent hugged me hard and said into my ear, “Thank you for everything, Summer. Truly. You’re awesome.”
I squeezed him tight, fighting back tears. “You too. Congrats.”
He set me back, smiling at me, and turned to hug his mom, and Ron stepped up and said, “Ready for a ride home?”
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