Magical Weddings (134 page)

Sarah Wynde

Copyright © 2015 by:

Sarah Wynde

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The bride looked like she might throw up. From her seat next to the disabled space in the last row of pews, Meredith glanced around, wondering how she could help. There were no trash cans in sight and, no surprise, the church didn't include air sickness bags in the hymnal racks.

Poor Akira. Rumor had it that morning sickness had struck her hard and heavy in the past few weeks. Stress-related, her doctor had apparently said. It made sense. Planning a wedding while in the middle trimester of a pregnancy couldn't be easy.

“Is she okay?” Meredith's mother whispered, her hands tensing on the arms of her wheelchair as if she wanted to push herself out of it to go to Akira's side.

Meredith put a hand over her mother's to stop her, feeling the bones, too thin, too fragile, under her own strong fingers. Years ago, before the multiple sclerosis got so bad, her mother had been a nurse. That innate caregiving drive still lingered within her.

It made life difficult sometimes.

“If she needs help, I'll go. You don't have to.” But Meredith hesitated. The flower girl was halfway down the aisle, carefully strewing rose petals along the carpet, her expression as serious as if she were planting an orderly English garden. Would Meredith be disrupting the ceremony unnecessarily if she went to Akira? She tried to catch Akira's eye, to ask her without words if she needed a friend to delay the proceedings for a minute or two. Or five or ten.

Akira's lips moved.

Meredith frowned. She’d barely heard the words, but it sounded like Akira had said, “I’m an independent woman, not an object to be given away.” Who was she speaking to?

The music faltered and then started over again, a little louder. The flower girl had reached the altar. Everyone was standing and all eyes were on the bride.

At least the white silk chiffon dress, with its high waist and floating sleeves, was gorgeous, Meredith thought, feeling a rising wave of completely inappropriate laughter. She pressed her lips together to hold it in. Oh, lord, poor Akira. She was standing at the back of the church as if frozen, her face pale, and Meredith knew, just knew, she was on the verge of something. Running away? Throwing up? Fainting?

She glanced toward the altar. Zane Latimer, the groom, had taken a step forward, his smile still easy although his eyes showed concern, but his sisters, Natalya and Grace, weren't moving. They were the obvious people to come to Akira’s aid, given that she had no family of her own.

Before Meredith could decide what to do, Akira looked toward her right. A smile curved her lips. As quietly as before, she said, “Yes. Thank you.” Tucking her elbow out as if offering it, she stepped forward, her head held high. But she walked, not in the center of the aisle, but to the left, as if someone walked beside her.

There was no one there.

“Who dat man, Mama?” A small boy's voice piped up from a couple of pews ahead.

“Shhh, Toby, now is not for talking.” A woman's gentle tones hushed him.

Meredith's eyes met those of her mother, who quirked a brow at her. Meredith gave a shrug. She wouldn’t speculate.

In the small town of Tassamara, a bride accompanied by an invisible escort barely even blipped the radar of unusual. Some people said the town was built on a confluence of ley lines, that it was permeated with magical energy. Others said the town was full of kooks.

Meredith had spent her entire life in Tassamara and she’d learned to accept the unexpected with equanimity. She didn’t believe in magic, but she’d seen enough to understand that science didn’t have all the answers, at least not yet. While she’d never truly encountered any paranormal phenomena herself, she chose not to doubt other people’s experiences.

As the bride reached the altar, Meredith took her seat amid the rustling of the multitude of other guests doing the same. She leaned back against the cushions of the pew, ready to enjoy the ceremony.

She liked a good wedding. Maybe by now it felt like she’d been to a few too many of them, but that was one of the perils of reaching your mid-thirties in a small town. She wasn’t sentimental about it, though. She never got teary about the romance or significance of the whole thing. Weddings were celebrations, moments of joy. Excuses for a party and a chance to dance.

Still, she couldn’t help feeling wistful. She’d known Zane since the days when he was the pesky little brother interrupting her play dates with his big sister Natalya. Seeing him all grown-up, taking the hands of his bride, his gaze on Akira steady and warm as he prepared to make a lifetime commitment…

It was sweet, but it made her feel old.

Old and single.

Her future didn’t hold wedding bells. Not now, probably not ever. Most of the time, she was fine with that. She’d made her choices. Really, she felt blessed. Working in real estate meant long hours and sometimes worryingly erratic income, but her job gave her the flexibility to be there when her mom needed her. On a bad day, Meredith could go to work late or drop by the house at lunch. On any day, she could take her mom to her appointments and run her errands.

But there was no room in Meredith’s life for a man. Or rather, for the work of finding one. She had plenty of space for a partner—someone to share the load, listen to her worries, make her laugh, maybe even take out the garbage once in a while. Finding the right guy, though, required time, energy, and freedom she just didn’t have.

That was okay, though. Really, it was.

The minister was speaking, the words familiar. “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” Corinthians, of course. He always used that quote. He ought to mix it up once in a while, Meredith thought, as her gaze landed on the back of a head several rows away.

It looked familiar.

Too familiar.

That couldn't be Mark Terrell, could it? No, of course not. What could he be doing in town? He lived somewhere else now. Miami, she thought, but some big city definitely. Well, he would. He was that type.

And he wouldn't be at this wedding. He wasn't friends with Zane. Oh, they knew each other, of course. Small town, small high school, most everybody knew everybody, but not in an “invite you to the wedding” sort of way. That blonde head sitting next to him, though—that might be Jessie, his sister. And Jessie was friendly with Zane. She even worked for General Directions, the company owned by the Latimer family and the town’s main employer. She'd be here somewhere, Meredith was sure.

A pit was opening up in the middle of Meredith's stomach. Not nausea, she wasn't going to throw up. But her face felt hot, her eyes tight. It had been...

God. Years. Lots of years.

She didn't think about Mark anymore. He was just a guy in her past, an experience worth a rueful smile for how stupid she'd been as a teenager. Maybe it had taken a while, but she'd forgiven herself. Him, though? Not so much.

Still, his family hadn’t moved away. Running into him somewhere, some when, had always been practically inevitable. It was more impressive that she’d avoided it for so long.

At the front of the church, Akira paused. She turned away from Zane and the minister. “You can’t stay?” This time, she didn’t say the words quietly.

The minister looked startled, his eyebrows arching high on his forehead. The audience stirred, people exchanging glances and whispers.

“Are you sure?” Akira persisted.

“Is there a problem?” The minister sounded uncertain. He let the book he’d been holding open in front of him drop to his waist.

“It’s okay.” Zane gave him a reassuring grin. “An unexpected guest, that’s all.”

“All right. Thank you for coming. I love you.” Akira’s eyes were bright and her smile radiant. She turned back to the minister and Zane. “I apologize for the interruption. Go ahead.”

Zane lifted her hands to his mouth and dropped a kiss on her fingers. “Good?”

She nodded. “Very.”

A murmur flowed through the church. Under the cover of the noise, Meredith’s mother leaned toward Meredith. “That must have been her father, don’t you think? It’s real nice that he could be here, even if he couldn’t stay for long. She’s a lucky girl.”

Meredith smiled in response but didn’t say anything. She’d known from the day they met that Akira belonged in Tassamara. It was satisfying to see how right she’d been.

She tried to pay attention as the ceremony continued but her thoughts kept drifting back to the man who might or might not be Mark Terrell. If it was him… well, she could be civil at a wedding. How hard could it be? A neutral greeting, a faked smile for old times’ sake, and they’d go their separate ways. But the pit in her stomach wasn’t closing.

Finally, the music started again. Akira and Zane made their way down the aisle, Zane’s smile wide, Akira glowing with a quiet contentment. Around Meredith, friends and neighbors were standing, exchanging greetings and starting to talk as the wedding party made their way out of the church. But Meredith was waiting, watching the man she’d seen. He turned and she saw his profile.

Damn.

“You okay?” A male voice from behind her interrupted her thoughts. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

She turned automatically, forcing a smile that became real when she recognized the speaker. Dave Voigt, one of the ushers, must have stepped back into the sanctuary after escorting Zane’s sister, Grace, out. He was probably looking for his dad, her next-door neighbor.

“Not me. I’m not sure you can say the same about the bride, though.” She wasn’t sure she’d ever seen Dave in a suit before. Uniform, sure, he’d been damn proud of it when he first came home from the Air Force Academy, but nothing like the formal dark grey he wore now. It looked good on him. He’d come a long way from the tow-headed boy she used to babysit.

“She married into the right family,” Dave said easily. “Not much surprises the Latimers.”

“It must be nice,” Meredith said, hearing the dry undercurrents in her own voice and pushing her smile brighter to compensate. Sure, if Mark’s presence hadn’t been a surprise, she might not have this tension running down the back of her neck. But maybe she would have spent the entire previous week with a stress-induced headache. Max Latimer and his daughter Natalya might both know more about the future than most people, but Meredith knew their foresight wasn’t an unmixed blessing.

“Dave, how good to see you,” Meredith’s mother said as the neighbor to whom she’d been saying hello moved onward.

“And you, Mrs. Mulcahey,” Dave responded with a nod. “You’re looking well today.”

Meredith’s mom avoided acknowledging the compliment. She hated using the wheelchair, but the MS had been hitting her hard lately. Instead, she chided Dave. “How many times have I told you that you’re all grown up now? You’re allowed to call me Kaye, you know.”

He dipped his head, his grin flashing. “You can take the boy out of the south, ma’am, but you can’t take the south out of the boy. My mother would turn in her grave if I did any such thing.”

“She would not.” Kaye snorted. For a moment, her face held a spark of its old liveliness. “Besides, your mother is much too busy organizing heaven to worry about your manners now. You know she’s found some way to make the place more efficient.”

Dave laughed as another neighbor paused by them, saying, “Kaye! It’s so good to see you.” She leaned forward, exchanging kisses with Meredith’s mom, not worrying about the traffic flow of people still trapped behind her.

“She probably would, you know,” Dave said to Meredith. “Beeswax polish on the halos, maybe, or re-stringing the harps with modern materials.”

Meredith smiled as expected, but part of her attention was on the aisle. Mark and Jessie had almost reached them. Should she get this over with now or try to avoid his gaze? But even as she had the thought, it was too late. Mark spotted her.

“Meredith!” He looked as if he wanted to reach over the people between them and give her a friendly hug. “Good to see you. You look great.”

She did look great, she knew—hair done, makeup perfect, dress entirely appropriate for the occasion. But great in a mature, professional, “I can be trusted to help you with what might be the biggest financial decision of your life” way, with her skirt past the knee, her neckline demure.

She had a moment of fleeting regret for the emerald green sparkling mini-dress hanging in the back of her closet. She’d only worn it once, for an evening event at a real estate conference, but in it, she’d felt gorgeous, confident, sexy as hell. She should have worn it today, instead of worrying about what her neighbors would think.

“Mark,” she said. “It’s been a long time.”

“Too long.” He looked as if he wanted to linger, to say more, but Jessie had him by the arm, and the people behind them were pressing forward. “I’ll see you at the reception?”

“I’ll be there.” She kept her smile cool.

“Good.” His eyes were warm, his smile charming. “We’ll catch up.”

With that, he and Jessie moved on.

Done.

Meredith wanted to feel relieved, but a bitter taste lingered at the back of her mouth. Not that she would have made a scene at a wedding, never. Still, it felt wrong to greet him so casually, to let him walk out of the church with a smile on his face. She wanted something more.

And damn it, he looked great himself. Tall and fit, only the faintest lines around his eyes to tell of the passing of time, his brown hair streaked with waves of gold, no gray. The years had been more than kind to him.

The hair, though—those could be professional highlights. Not that she should judge. Hell, the deep auburn of her hair came straight from a bottle. But imagining him sitting in the hairdresser’s chair, metal foil wrapped around his locks, somehow made her feel better. She gave a muffled puff of laughter.