by Christina OW
Aurora ran back into Loraine’s room like the little whirlwind she was and grabbed the bottom of Loraine’s robe, separating the front.
She quickly grabbed the two sides together. “Watch it you little hellion or you’ll be seeing more than you’re ready for!”
Aurora kept her hold on the robe, as she pulled Loraine toward the door. “Yody says hawy up!”
Loraine gently pulled her robe free of Aurora’s grip. “Alright I’m coming.”
“Now!”
“Now! Geez Louis!” she yelled back picking Aurora up by the waist and hanging her upside down on her shoulder as she made her way out of the room.
Aurora giggled, chanting, “Pin, pin!”
“No spinning unless you want to clean up the breakfast she just had,” Riana warned.
Loraine quickly put Aurora down. “Yeah, that’s not going to happen.”
“Infine, finally,” Guliana exclaimed pulling Loraine forward and pushing her down into the chair in front of the mirror. “Quick, fix her hair and makeup. There is not time, hurry, fretta!”
She barked at the two ladies who stood behind her and they jumped into action like soldiers at a drill. Guliana had been Riana’s stylist in Venice almost three years ago. She was the one who put Riana in a golden dress for dinner that apparently had all the men’s jaws dragging the ground and women glaring daggers the entire night, or so Riana says. Her best friend didn’t exactly do over the top sexy so Loraine had a hard time believing her but the disappearance of that dress did convince her some. She’d only seen that dress once when she was helping Riana arrange her closet and Allan was the chief suspect for its vanishing into thin air. Loraine never took him as a magician but he was the jealous type. So it was probably cut up into little pieces then burned or buried.
“Do something about the bags under her eyes. They are not very attractive, molto brutto.”
Loraine turned to face her but her head was quickly turned back around. “Hey, I don’t know what that means but I have a perfectly good excuse for them!”
Loraine saw Melody, Allan’s younger sister, chuckle through the mirror, seated on the couch with Aurora on her lap. “Yeah, it’s called drinking and jetlag. Who gets drunk right after getting off a seven hour flight?”
Someone who wants to have a dreamless night, Loraine thought to herself.
“We were celebrating the last days of Riana’s freedom.”
Melody snorted. “The way you were drinking, I thought we were sending you off to prison the very next day.”
Loraine stuck her tongue out at her and Melody returned the gesture in kind. A few seconds later, Aurora did the same thing making them laugh. Loraine had always had to watch herself, especially her language, around the impressionable little girl. She had a habit of repeating what she heard, especially if the word was difficult to pronounce. She would repeat it and repeat it until she got it right.
“Anyone notice the guest of honor didn’t touch her drink?” Amy commented conspiratorially.
Amy, the brunette bombshell was Matthew’s wife. Matthew the hottest man Loraine had ever set her eyes on, and, to her chagrin, happily married, and was Allan’s best friend. He was the one who forcefully brought Allan back to the States from his self-imposed exile after Riana’s supposed death. They made quite a couple, like a married Adonis and Artemis and yet quite humble—something very rarely seen in gorgeous and wealthy people. And their son Mark… wow! The kid was only three and he was already a stunner.
But Loraine didn’t see any hope in his dating future. Aurora had already laid claim to him. There was no place he was that Aurora wasn’t and she made sure he followed her around wherever she went. And he would, with a resigned look on his face like he had an invisible leash around his neck. Loraine couldn’t wait to see how that would turn out once they were old enough to understand romance.
Melody gasped. “You don’t think… Loraine!”
Loraine shook her head still before the hairdresser forced it. “I don’t know a thing,” she lied, “maybe it was just nerves, and she did want to have a fresh face when she woke up.”
“Unlike some people,” Guliana mumbled under her breath.
Loraine narrowed her eyes at her and she looked back with a wide eyed innocent look. Yeah right! “Aren’t you supposed to be pulling dresses or something?”
She shrugged and walked away with a hoity toss of her head.
“Nervous? I don’t think so. Did you see how she was this morning? She was walking around like it was any other day.” Amy shook her head. “I was a nervous wreck the morning of my wedding.”
“Nervous enough to run?” Loraine joked.
She’d always wondered what went through the minds of the brides who waited until they were a few feet away from the altar before they turned around and made a mad dash for the exit. Like, at that particular moment, when her groom was looking at her with so much love, waiting for her with anxious expectation to make her his wife, she has an epiphany and realizes the mistake she was about to make. Why couldn’t she realize that a week before or an hour before and save the groom the embarrassment of being jilted at the altar?
Amy chuckled, shaking her head. “By the time I got to Matthew at the altar, I was in the middle of a panic attack.”
Loraine laughed. “Oh, he must have been impressed with that!”
“Oh, I remember that. Allan was asking around for a paper bag for you to breathe into!” Melody chimed in with a giggle.
“I thought Matthew would be angry. But he just looked at me, took my face in his big hands and planted one on me. For the few seconds he was kissing me, I completely forgot what I was nervous about,” she giggled. “Heck! I even forgot where I was,” she said with a sigh.
Loraine caught the sweet loving look on Amy’s face as she traveled down memory lane and she felt her heart twinge with jealousy. She wished she had a reason for that look too.
“Where is the bride?” Melody asked.
“Right here.” Riana stepped into view and Loraine had to stand up and turn around to get a better look.
“Oh my God,” Loraine whispered in awe as she looked at her friend. Riana looked mesmerizing in her princess ball gown dress.
The bodice was studded with small crystals in an intricate pattern. The white satin of the skirt of the dress flowed out around her and when she turned full circle, it resembled a ringing bell. She had a small tiara seated perfectly in her hair that it looked more like a hair band. Riana hadn’t liked it much but Aurora had insisted on her getting a matching one to her own little tiara and Riana folded. But the little hellion was right—it looked wonderful with her hair style. Her white veil reached her waist, covering the back of her hair and her exposed back. Her makeup was light and natural, accentuating her facial features and not acting like a mask like it does on most brides.
“You look beautiful,” Melody sniffed.
“No! No cry. No time to redo makeup. Time for dressing.” Guliana shoved a Champaign dress at Loraine with a sarcastic smile. “I pulled your dress. Hurry, you are the only one still in your robe and the bride is the only one allowed to be fashionably late.” Then she walked away taking Aurora’s hand and leading her to the room to dress her.
The room erupted in laughter except for Loraine.
Riana stepped before a full length mirror to admire herself. “Don’t go toe to toe with Guliana, Loraine. You won’t win.”
Loraine snickered with a roll of her eyes before she stomped into her room and banged the door behind her to mute the laughter. “Damn Italian stylist!”
Chapter Two
Reno walked up the aisle toward the groom and the best man. Most men would be nervous about signing away their freedom but Allan looked completely relaxed. In fact, he looked like the ceremony of thirty of their friends, family, and Allan’s business associates was nothing but a formal party. He had no fears of the bride bolting or the nervousness that came with signing away a man’s bachelorhood for the responsibiliti
es of a family. He looked quite ready to get the entire thing over with, without the least bit hurry to say the ‘I dos’ so that he could start breathing again.
Reno remembered feeling that same way on his wedding day. It had been a small affair with a pastor and two of his resort managers standing in as witnesses. Neither of them had family in New Providence nor could he afford the plane ticket out for Riana. He’d felt like his life was about to take the next step to a wonderful journey. Like finally things were starting to go right in his life.
How wrong he’d been. The only thing that step had brought was misery. Georgia had been the worst mistake of his life and four years after she abandoned him, she was still the worst mistake. Now, just a mistake he’d found impossible to divorce. But that would soon be resolved once the court appointed time lapsed.
Two more months and I will be a free man.
The court had granted his petition of dissolution of marriage under the suit of abandonment but he’d had to wait a full year before his farce of a marriage was annulled.
He chortled. His petition had lasted longer than his marriage.
Three months into their wedded bliss she’d ran away with one of his guests at the resort. Reno hadn’t even seen it coming. No word, no sign whatsoever. Hell, they never ever fought bad enough to warrant a separation. They’d barely had their hands off each other long enough to even have a meaningful conversation, let alone a quarrel bad enough to warrant abandonment. And to think of the reason he’d married her in the first place…but thinking of it now, he was sure he’d taken on the load of another man, which he was glad to be rid of. Let some other unsuspecting man play sucker to her Jezebel charms.
But his pride had taken quite a beating. Just remembering the snickering behind his back and the pity looks from his employees made him cringe. It was hard to face the guests at the resort when the employees’ gossips of the owner’s sad and embarrassing heartbreak reached them. It had taken some time to get over and with it came a new resolution. He was going to embrace his bachelorhood and enjoy it extremely, especially if she was blonde and blue eyed. Was it petty and jaded to casually screw women who looked like his wife? Hell yes, but it did help his bruised ego some.
“What are you smiling at?”
Reno turned to Ruiz. He was still nervous but much better than he was before they entered L’Archeologia in Rome. Riana had wanted to hold the wedding in their open grounds full of archeological remains. She was an art nut, and the reception was to be held inside the restaurant. Ruiz was more nervous than when he was introducing himself to Reno. But who could blame him? He’d thought Riana was dead until Reno had told him otherwise.
It was uncanny how much they resembled each other. They were both tall and broad and from the pictures Ruiz had brought with him as proof, they took after their father. Aside from the obvious difference, and the two year age gap, they could be twins. And who would have thought he would be walking next to the reason for his mother’s heartache at his sister’s wedding? Life could be strange sometimes.
“Would you calm down? She’s the sweetest person alive and she doesn’t know how to hold a grudge.”
“Like you?”
Reno narrowed his eyes at him. “Watch it little brother.”
Ruiz flashed him a smile. “Hey, I’ll be your wing man tonight big brother. I heard the bridesmaids are usually very slutty and willing at the reception.” He waggled his eyebrows. “Are you looking forward to some slutty wedding sex?”
Reno shook his head. “Don’t even think about it. One of those bride’s maids is spoken for by the best man.” He pointed Matthew out. He’d met Allan and Matthew the night before and they’d become quick friends, to his astonishment. Reno wasn’t like the two of them—rich and without a sordid background—but they’d hit it off.
“And the other is Allan’s sister so if you want to end up dead and washed up on the beach bloated, half eaten by fish until you’re unrecognizable and the obvious amputation in your nether regions, go for it.”
Ruiz frowned with a wince. “What about the maid of honor?”
Reno whistled shaking his head. “That is a blonde, blue eyed can of trouble. I’m not going anywhere near that and neither should you.”
Ruiz sighed and pouted. “When I finally get the opportunity to behave like a juvenile, no one is available to play with.”
Ruiz hadn’t told him the full story but Reno got the impression he’d had a hard life after his mother moved both of them back to Argentina just months after his own mother took them to the States. All those years he’d spent cursing his brother out for having the life he and Riana were denied were wasted. Unlike him, Ruiz was all alone.
Reno Senior, their father, had tried to have his cake and eat it too but it all back fired on him. Good, the bastard deserved to suffer some for what he did to us, to all of us.
But he wasn’t what was important now. Reno had to think about how he was going to break this news to Riana. He knew she wasn’t going to take it well, but with Allan’s help, it might all go well.
They had spoken the night before about Ruiz. Allan hadn’t met him yet but he’d invited Ruiz to be one of his groomsmen to even the number out. Reno had been roped into being a groomsman too, though he preferred to act as the father of the bride for the night and nothing else. He’d helped raise Riana and he wanted to watch her live her special day and not risk ruining it.
The pit of his stomach still churned knowing she was about to be married. He was scared that her marriage wouldn’t work out and he didn’t want to watch her heart break for another two and a half years over the same man. His stomach churned for another reason too—he didn’t want to share his sister. He hadn’t realized how much he missed having her around until she left Bahamas for the States.
His little sister was getting married, and it made him as nervous as hell!
“Reno, how are you?” Allan greeted them with a smile.
Reno smiled back. “Great, but this guy is so nervous he’s beginning to annoy me,” Reno stood to the side and made introductions. “Allan, Matthew, my little brother Ruiz.”
“Hey! You aren’t the one who’s about to meet his sister at the altar on her wedding day!” Ruiz pulled at the collar of his shirt completely ignoring Reno’s introductions.
Geez! The kid really is nervous. He’s practically sweating! Reno thought, biting the insides of his cheeks to keep from laughing.
Ruiz looked around nervously. “Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea.”
Matthew laughed, punching Ruiz lightly in the shoulder. “You’ll be fine. And if I know Riana well, she’ll be sad you weren’t involved in her wedding in some way once she finds out who you are. Let her think you are one of Allan’s close friends until he introduces you.”
Allan chuckled shaking his head. “Why am I in the line of fire? Why can’t Reno do it?”
“Because soon-to-be-brother, you are currently walking on water and the news won’t hit as hard coming from you. From me, she’ll think…” Reno stopped giving Ruiz an apologetic glance.
Ruiz shrugged, “She’ll think you are betraying her. It’s cool. I resented you guys for a long time before I decided having a brother and a sister was much better than being alone and keeping company with resentment.”
Allan slapped his hands and rubbed them together. “Okay then. Ruiz, why don’t you take your position, and Reno, go bring the love of my life to me.”
Reno smiled at that, the weight on his heart getting lighter. “Take care of my sister Allan Sinclair.”
Allan gave him a nod. “With my life.”
With an encouraging pat on his brother’s shoulder, Reno turned around before the treacherous tears fell. He walked briskly back down the aisle, his head lowered until his eyes were clear. He never thought it would be this hard to give his sister away to another man. He was losing her all over again.
He’d just walked into L’Archeologia when he was almost knocked off his feet.
“We
no!” Aurora shrieked, hugging his legs tightly.
Reno chuckled, bending to grab Aurora up into his arms. “How’s my little angel? You look like a little princess in your beautiful princess dress.”
She giggled. “Tank you.” She pointed up at her hair. “Look, my tiawa. Mommy has one too!”
Reno kissed her chubby cheek, turning to look at Riana. He stood there, shocked for a moment as he stared at his sister. She looked so beautiful and radiant, it took his breath away. When had his little sister grown up?
He careful placed Aurora on the ground before he moved to take Riana’s hands in his. “You look gorgeous baby sis.”
She smiled with beaming happiness. “Thank you. You don’t look too bad yourself. Did you ever think this day would come for me, after everything we’ve gone through?”
Reno gave her a watery smile. “If anyone deserves happiness, it’s you. I wish mom was here to see this,” he croaked.
Riana nodded with a shaky smile, a blur of tears in her eyes. “I prefer to think that she is. She’s in my heart, in yours and in Aurora’s.”
Reno kissed her forehead. “Come on let’s get this show on the road.”
Riana hugged his arm. “You’ll get this too, Reno. With the right girl who’ll love and cherish you like you deserve, you’ll never know anything but happiness. I just know it.”
Reno just smiled down at his sister, not willing to ruin her day by disputing her wish for him. He believed only the lucky few and the most deserving found their soul mates and he wasn’t one of them. And after the disaster with his first marriage, he wasn’t very keen on going down that road again.
He turned to face the door he’d just come from, placing Riana’s hand on his arm when he was bumped from behind. He stumbled forward. “What the…”
“Oops. You really should be careful. We don’t want you to fall and break your leg so soon now do we, Uncle Weno?” Loraine spoke with a smile on her face before she turned and moved a few steps forward.
