Last Groom Standing

by Kimberly Lang

  What the hell? “I’m on my way down.”

  He dialed as he walked to the elevator. Marnie answered on the second ring. “Everything okay?”

  “Fine. Things just ran a little late, and I’m kinda tired. I’m heading on home.”

  This was beyond strange. A complete turnaround. “Did something happen?”

  “No. I’ve got a headache and all that cake has made me a little ill, so I think I just need to crash tonight. Rain check?”

  The elevator doors opened into the lobby, and as he stepped out, he could see Marnie through the windows. She sat on the bench just beyond the awning, a garment bag draped across her lap. She had the phone to her ear and a hand over her face. He went and sat beside her.

  Marnie looked over and did a double take before rolling her eyes and disconnecting the call.

  “You might want to get a better app for your phone,” he said, trying to lighten the mood. “There are faster, more direct routes to Brooklyn.”

  “You’re funny.”

  “Not as funny as you, obviously. Want to tell me why you’re sitting out here?”

  “I’m trying to think.”

  “Is everything okay?”

  “Of course,” she said brightly, but then she seemed to realize that she wouldn’t be on a bench outside his building if that were true. “Gina said something and it kind of messed with my head.”

  From what he knew about Gina, she was very blunt and very capable of doing exactly that. “What did she say?”

  “It doesn’t really matter. It’s just...” She trailed off and shook her head.

  He leaned forward and braced his forearms on his thighs. “Tell you what...why don’t you come up, have a drink and think about it there. You don’t have to talk about it, but you need to come inside. You’re starting to worry the doormen by sitting out here.”

  His point was even further made by the raindrops that began to fall.

  Marnie didn’t seem to notice the raindrops. Whatever Gina had said to her had really spun her. She sighed and toyed with the zipper on the garment bag. He recognized the gold and silver logo on the bag from earlier this summer as Amber’s bridal shop, and he’d bet it was her bridesmaid’s dress for Reese’s wedding.

  The rain began to fall in earnest. “Come on. We need to go inside.”

  She hesitated.

  “Your bridesmaid’s dress will be ruined if you stay out here.”

  That, as much as it irritated him, finally seemed to motivate Marnie. She stood and allowed him to lead her into the building and into the elevator. She stayed quiet on the ride up, but she gave herself a strong physical shake as the doors opened again.

  She draped the dress across a chair and gratefully accepted the glass he offered. Easing onto the couch, she kicked off her shoes and curled her legs under her. “Sorry. Let me drink this, and I’ll be back to normal.”

  “Finished thinking already?”

  “Yeah.”

  “That was quick.” Especially considering how upset she’d been outside.

  “Sometimes Gina is...” She sighed. “It’s complicated.”

  Even he’d picked up on that. And while Marnie was claiming to be okay now, he had a sneaking suspicion it was a show for his benefit. “What is the deal between you and Gina?”

  Marnie looked at him like he was slow. “She’s engaged to my brother.”

  “No, I mean from before. Reese said there was a big fight, but she never went into details.”

  “It’s a good thing she didn’t or I probably wouldn’t be sitting here right now.” Her mouth twisted. “I don’t come out looking too good in that story.”

  Which might also explain why Gina had the ability to mess with her head. “You all seem okay now, so it couldn’t have been all that hard to clear up.”

  Marnie snorted. “You have no idea.”

  He waited.

  “Fine. It was right at the end of the spring semester, freshman year. Right before Reese transferred out of Hillbrook and married Mason—but we didn’t know any of that was coming. Carter came up to see me, and he and Gina slept together.”

  “Oh.” That explained a little of Marnie’s rant about certain categories of people being “off-limits.”

  “That’s just the beginning. Carter was engaged to one of my best friends, Missy, and we had been raised to save ourselves for marriage. It was a double whammy. I, of course, blamed Gina. I just couldn’t see how Carter could have done that, so it had to be all her fault. I threw the biggest fit and said some really terrible things.” Marnie sighed. “By the time the dust settled, Gina had just packed up and left, I was mad at Cassie and Reese because they weren’t mad at Gina, and it drove a wedge between all of us.”

  Honestly, that sounded like teenage girl stuff, hardly worth a decade of angst, but then, he’d never been a teenage girl. And it had bothered Reese—not so much the Carter-Gina thing, but the way it had divided them.

  “It took a while for Reese and I to start to talk again, and even longer for me and Cassie. Gina, though...even though I knew she was talking to Reese and Cassie, I just refused to forgive her. Then I refused to forgive myself. Until I got to the estate for the wedding, I hadn’t seen Gina since that night.”

  She looked at him when she said that, but Marnie wasn’t actually talking to him now. Her focus had turned inward.

  “Gina, Reese, Cassie... They changed my life. I came from Savannah this sheltered, self-righteous brat, and a year with them completely changed my worldview. The fallout shifted it even more so. I’m a different person now—and I like who I am—but I wouldn’t be who I am now if I hadn’t thrown my friends under the bus then. That’s the part that’s hardest to swallow.”

  He leaned over to refill her glass. “I think they’ve forgiven you, if that helps.”

  “Yeah, but it gets worse. Carter and Missy still got married, but they were miserable—not just because of what Carter had done, but it certainly didn’t help. When their marriage imploded, I felt partly responsible because I’d nagged them to go through with it. Carter was my hero, and what part of that wasn’t destroyed by finding out he had feet of clay continued to erode because I held him responsible for the destruction of my friendships with Reese and Gina and Cassie and ultimately Missy, too. I barely speak to my brother anymore. I didn’t know he and Gina had even seen each other again until he showed up at Cassie’s wedding.”

  “No wonder you looked so shocked.”

  Marnie snorted. “Would you believe there’s even more to that story? At Cassie’s wedding, I also found out that Gina had gotten pregnant from that little fling with Carter. She miscarried, and Reese and Cassie kept that knowledge from me. Which was the right thing to do, but do you know how horrible it is to find out you were such a rotten person that no one would tell you a friend had gone through something terrible because you would have only made it worse?”

  And she’d lost her job that day, as well. “No wonder you were pounding the Chardonnay that night.”

  “Exactly. So, to say that my relationship with Gina is complicated is a bit of an understatement. But the thing is, all the bad stuff that happened to her was really good for me. It totally changed my life, made me more accepting and sure of myself, made me less judgmental and self-righteous. It wasn’t fun, but it was good for me in the long run. Gina, though, got the short end of that stick. I can’t change what happened or make it up to her, but I am trying to fix things now so that we can be friends again.” Marnie laughed bitterly and took another sip of wine. “I bet now you’re sorry you asked.”

  “I think you’re being too hard on yourself for mistakes you made when you were young and stupid. Quit beating yourself up.”

  “Easier said than done.” She rubbed a hand over her face. “Wow, I just put a real bummer on the evening, didn’t I? That wasn’t what you signed up for.”

  He hadn’t. But he didn’t mind, either. “How is that related to whatever she said that spun your head today?”


  “It means that it’s not so easy for me to ignore what Gina says. Because she might just be right again and I can’t see it.”

  “Then what did she say?”

  Marnie thought hard, her forehead furrowed. “I’m afraid she may have told me the truth.”

  * * *

  In retrospect, he really should have pressed Marnie harder for an explanation to that slightly ominous statement and not let her change the subject. But Marnie was his own special kind of Kryptonite, and the coulda-shoulda-wouldas of rational thought crumbled under her ability to distract him like a dog catching sight of a squirrel.

  When they finally did circle back to it, two hours later as Marnie slipped back into her skirt, she laughed. “It’s just stuff with Carter. Gina’s in the mending-fences groove and wants to see me and Carter kiss and make up, too. There’s a lot of work there to be done, and she gave me some marching orders I didn’t quite like.”

  It rolled easily off her tongue, but the more he thought about it, the less honest it seemed. At the same time, though, he really didn’t have the right to press her for more. It wasn’t his business.

  Even after several days, he couldn’t shake the feeling that something wasn’t right, but he had zero evidence to back it up. He couldn’t justify looking for the evidence, either, because everything with Marnie seemed perfectly fine.

  It had been a brief blip on an otherwise clear screen, an anomaly that could—and should—be forgotten. But it bugged him. He felt like he should revisit the subject, but why?

  Marnie padded back into the bedroom, dressed now. She never spent the night here—nor he at her place. He rolled to his side. “How are things with Carter?”

  She looked at him oddly. “About the same. Why?”

  “So no improvements in the fences.” At her blank look, he added, “I thought Gina had you and Carter—”

  “Oh, that. I needed to think about what Gina said for a couple of days before I could decide what I wanted to do.”

  “And have you decided now?”

  “Yeah.” She smiled. “I think I have. I just want to get through the fund-raiser tomorrow night and then I’ll tackle it.”

  “That’s great, Marnie.”

  “Yeah. I’m pretty excited about it. Nervous, too.”

  “If it’s what you want, I know it will work out exactly how you want it to. You’re practically a force of nature, Marnie Price.”

  “Thanks.” She leaned over and kissed him. “You don’t need to walk me out. I’ll see you tomorrow night.”

  “It’ll be late, so bring a bag and plan to stay.”

  She looked at him sideways. “Okay.”

  He’d expected a bit of a protest, and was strangely pleased that it didn’t happen.

  EIGHT

  Marnie didn’t believe in Fate, but she did believe that sometimes bad things turned out to be good in the long run. Sometimes the suffering was worth it in the end because you could learn and grow from the experience.

  Case in point: she’d lost a job she loved, only to turn around and land a job she loved even more. And she was good at it, too; even this gala, which was new to her, seemed to be awakening bits of dormant Southern DNA and bringing out her inner hostess.

  The hotel staff ran with competent efficiency, leaving little for her to do on the organizational side. Instead, she felt almost like a guest herself, with meeting and mingling with the donors and VIPs the largest—but certainly not most onerous—requirement of the evening.

  And while she seemed to be good at the mingle, oddly enough, she was enjoying it, as well.

  Loss turned to gain. Suffering leading to happiness. Things working out the way they should. It was a revelatory time for her.

  Personally and professionally.

  An hour into the event, the band started to play, and Marnie took the chance to run to the ladies’ and freshen up. It was silly, but Dylan had arrived a little while ago, and she hadn’t had a chance to speak to him yet.

  Dylan. A happy flutter landed in her stomach. It had taken a couple of days for Gina’s words to stop panicking her and start making sense. What she’d realized had scared her at first, but now it was a sweet secret she kept close.

  But not for too much longer, she hoped.

  If Carter, of all people, could love and appreciate Gina for what she was, then there was hope for every man. Even Dylan. And that knowledge had finally freed her from her fear and made Gina’s words ring true.

  She was falling for Dylan Brookes. Oh, it was beyond insane, but it was true, nonetheless. And, tonight, when she was back at Dylan’s, she was going to tell him so.

  Suffering to happiness. Things working out the way they should. She didn’t know where they would go, but she was willing to travel down that road and see, at least. He’d asked her to plan to stay the night. That was new. And it felt big. She didn’t feel like she was going too far out on the ledge alone.

  After checking her lipstick one last time, she went back to the ballroom.

  The Galaxy Ballroom was semi-famous for its theme—which it explored through mosaic tiles on the floors and murals on the walls. While it provided otherworldly and unusual atmosphere to black-tie events like this, Marnie also knew that many a Star Trek party had been held on the site, as well.

  At the bar, she ran into Tuck. She didn’t recall seeing his name on the guest list, but then she hadn’t been looking for it, either. Confused, she automatically looked for Reese. “What are you doing here?”

  He looked at her oddly. “I’m a donor, darlin’. Dylan makes me come every year.”

  Marnie wanted to smack herself. She automatically thought of Tuck as Reese’s cousin, forgetting he was Dylan’s best friend, as well. Of course he’d be a donor to Dylan’s family’s foundation. “Is Cassie with you?”

  “She went to check out the murals while I got drinks.”

  They were interrupted by a short, balding man who recognized Tuck and the conversation immediately turned into a discussion of football. “Tell you what, why don’t I take that drink to Cassie and let you two talk?”

  Happy to make such an easy escape, she went to the biggest mural, and sure enough, Cassie stood in front of it, studying it intently. It was beautifully done by an artist whose name she couldn’t remember but was considered important. It covered the wall from floor to ceiling, drawing the viewer in like a visitor to the galaxy.

  Suddenly nostalgic, Marnie wrapped an arm around Cassie’s shoulders. Like she’d done hundreds of times all those years ago at Hillbrook, she said, “Tell me about the stars, Cassie.”

  Cassie sighed. “They’re wrong.”

  “What?”

  “They’re all wrong. There is no place on earth from where this particular configuration of stars would be observable.”

  Marnie bit back a laugh and searched for something familiar, but it had been a long time since Cassie had taught her the constellations. “But isn’t that Pegasus over there?”

  “Not unless Pegasus is also half lion. And upside down.”

  “But it’s pretty, don’t you think?”

  “It would be prettier if it were correct. How hard would it have been to bring in a consultant from the Planetarium or the NYU astrophysics department to provide direction?” Cassie shook her head sadly. “This is more harmful than good.”

  “It’s art, honey.”

  “Then it’s bad art.”

  Only Cassie would take offense on behalf of astronomy everywhere. “Here, Tuck got you a drink. And may I say you certainly look lovely tonight.” Cassie was still learning girly ways, but she was learning. Her dress was feminine and fit well, and while her hair was pulled back, at least it was in a jeweled barrette instead of that horrid floral scrunchie. It was hard to tell in this light, but she might have even been wearing lip gloss. Marnie just wanted to squeeze her. She settled for, “I’m so glad you came.”

  With a final grimace at the offending mural, Cassie turned to her. “I should tell you that I’m unde
r instructions tonight from Gina to subtly observe your behavior around and regarding Dylan for any indications that you two are progressing in your relationship.”

  Marnie felt her eyebrows go up.

  “I am also supposed to occasionally make mention of how handsome Dylan is and what an attractive and happy couple you would make.”

  “Really?” She might kill Gina after all.

  Cassie nodded earnestly.

  “Then why are you telling me?”

  “Because I don’t know how to do any of that. And I don’t want to.”

  Cassie’s logic could sometimes be refreshing. “I don’t blame you at all.”

  “But what am I going to tell Gina?”

  “That I was here in a professional capacity and kept quite busy. Therefore, you were unable to make any observations and have no data to report.”

  Relief flooded Cassie’s face. Shame on Gina for putting her in that position to satisfy her own nosiness. “Don’t worry about Gina. I’ll handle her.”

  A dreamy haze clouded Cassie’s eyes at that moment, and Marnie did not have to look behind her to know that Tuck had escaped his fan and found his wife. It was the same look Cassie always wore when she saw or spoke of Tuck. It was sweet. Reese and Gina had variations of that look for Mason and Carter.

  For the first time, she was a little jealous of them.

  Tuck snugged Cassie up against his side and gave her a firm kiss that left Cassie swaying slightly.

  Okay, so I’m more than a little jealous.

  “Where’s Dylan?”

  Her eyes snapped to Tuck. “I’m not sure. I assume he’s somewhere around.” There were over three hundred people in the ballroom.

  “I thought for sure you’d know.”

  Her stomach fluttered a little. Had Dylan told Tuck? And if so, what had he said? “W-why on earth would I know? I’m not his secretary.”

  Tuck winked at her, then grinned at Cassie. “And that, sweetheart, is what you’d call ‘observable phenomena.’”

  Her stomach sank. “Cassie.”

  “I needed his assistance,” Cassie said by way of explanation. “But don’t worry, I only told him that you two were having sex. I didn’t theorize any further.”