by Rachel Magee
They were about halfway between the condo and the beach house when Paige realized Aiden wasn’t with them anymore. She turned to look for him. There, about fifteen yards behind them, he was slowly trudging through the sand with all their stuff like some sort of handsome pack mule. Sweat was beading up on his forehead, but his signature crooked grin was still in place. She stopped and waited for him to catch up.
“What’s in this box?” He motioned to the large plastic bin balanced on one shoulder.
There was a lightness to his voice that added to her joy. “Glass lanterns and shells, I think. It was supposed to go in the car with Georgia’s parents, but they forgot it.”
Aiden paused to wipe at his brow. “And Cici thought she could carry this all the way?”
“No way. We struggled carrying it down the steps. There was a wagon under the stairs we were going to use.”
Aiden stopped and stared at her. “What? Why didn’t you tell me about the wagon?”
“Well, a big, strong guy offered to help us.” She playfully squeezed the bicep that was holding the box on his shoulder. “Plus, now we don’t have to worry about bringing the wagon home with us. Win-win.”
“For you maybe.” Aiden shifted the box from one shoulder to the other, with a flowered tote still hanging off each arm. “The things I do for my little sister and her friends.”
“We are forever in your debt.” They walked a few feet in silence. “You’re avoiding the investors again, aren’t you?” Paige questioned.
“Not at all. I’m just actively choosing to be places they aren’t.”
He was trying to joke, but she could tell that something was bothering him. It was the way his normally relaxed expression tensed a little every time the investors were mentioned. She first saw it at the last wedding when she had asked about who he was sitting with. His brows furrowed and his jaw tightened, his telltale sign that something was concerning him.
She’d thought it was odd then, but with everything else going on, she’d dismissed it. However, there was no denying it now. The tension seemed to be growing with each day this trip went on.
“I thought your pitch was pretty perfect. Did you get a chance to talk to any of them about it this afternoon, after you got back to the house?”
There was a pause before he spoke again. “They loved it. From what I can tell, they’re more interested than ever.”
She thought that was good news, but the tone of his voice was anything but cheery.“Which is what you want, right?”
Aiden sucked in a deep breath. Despite his grin, she could see the muscles around his jaw tighten. “Yep, this is the dream.”
They walked for a few seconds in silence before he spoke again, and this time his tone was softer, more sincere. “Thanks again for your help today.”
His words—or was it the way he looked at her?—did something to her. It danced inside her like sunlight shimmering on the turquoise waves. Strange.
“My pleasure. Anything for a friend.” She ignored the crazy feeling. Right now, on her way to her best friend’s wedding rehearsal with the plan to get her relationship with Brody back to where she wanted it to be, she didn’t have time to try to figure out why she felt giddy when her friend smiled at her.
“Also,” Aiden continued, “I have some good news and bad news.”
“This is the real reason you came down to walk with us, isn’t it?”
“Questioning my chivalrous intentions? You insult me.” He put his free hand over his heart to feign his insult. “But giving you this heads-up is an added benefit.”
“Give me the good news first.”
“You and your dashing date will absolutely be sitting with the wedding party at the wedding reception.”
A big wave rolled onto the shore and Paige darted around it.
“Fantastic, since I am, in fact, one of the three bridesmaids.”
“You mock me, but I happen to know from experience that getting a wedding planner to reassign the seating chart the weekend of the wedding is no easy task. In fact, I still owe one planner a pair of orthopedic shoes for just such a favor.”
“True. My mistake for RSVP’ing single. So what’s the bad news?”
“It’s not bad news as much as a favor. Will you, my delightful date, do me the honor of joining me at the investors’ table this evening at the rehearsal dinner?”
Paige stared at the waves, taking in what he was asking her. She wouldn’t be sitting next to her best friend at her rehearsal dinner. But she’d promised to help Aiden with his project, too. It was unfair of her to assume she wouldn’t have to give up anything.
“This is really important to you, isn’t it?”
“It’s the biggest deal we’ve ever entertained.”
Paige ran through the timeline of the evening in her mind. The seated dinner on the beach was only one small part of the festivities planned for the evening.
“But only dinner, right? The rest of the night I can be with my friends?”
Aiden nodded. “Absolutely, as it should be. You’re here as Georgia’s bridesmaid first.”
She watched the waves roll into the shore, leaving their jagged print before rolling back out. He was her friend and he needed her. “I guess I should come up with good dinner party conversation. I think we exhausted the spa topic last night.”
He visibly relaxed and a playfulness returned to his tone. “Too bad. It was an invigorating discussion. Almost as good as the conversation about cigars we had at lunch today.”
“Apparently the wedding coordinator isn’t the only one working at this wedding.”
He readjusted the box on his shoulder. “Everyone has an angle.”
She chuckled and they continued walking in silence. Before this weekend, she knew Aiden was good at what he did, but he’d always made it look so effortless. She’d never realized how much thought, planning, and work went into it. Now that she was aware of his effort, it made her see him in a different light. In fact, this whole weekend had made her look at him differently, as if she was seeing him for the first time.
“Seriously, thanks for doing this. I owe you one,” he said.
“We’ll be even as long as they keep your sinful chocolate cake on the menu. I’ve drowned a lot of bad days in that dessert.”
“I’ll make sure we add a clause to the contract. Now, what stays down here and what do I need to take up to the house?” He stopped just before they reached the crowd that had started to gather on the beach were the ceremony would be held.
“I’ll take this.” She pulled Georgia’s flowered bag off his shoulder. “Everything else goes up. Thanks.” She watched him walk across the sand and up the private wooden staircase that led directly to the Merricks’ house. It looked newer and sturdier than the one by their condos, but somehow it lacked the charm that made their weathered staircase so picturesque. What was it about history and familiarity that made her feel extra warm and fuzzy this weekend?
She walked over to where her friends were standing and pulled the bouquet made out of bows from the bag. “You ready for this?”
Georgia beamed as she took the bouquet. “I know it’s just practice, but I’ve been waiting for this since the day I met Lane.”
All three girls gave her a questioning look. Georgia and Lane’s relationship had started off a little rocky. In fact, Paige remembered a lot of slamming doors and huffing the night Georgia came home and told them she’d met Lane. Or, to be more accurate, she told them she had met the most infuriating man on the planet.
Georgia shrugged. “So maybe not the first day we met.”
Ciera pulled the veil out of the bag and tucked the comb into Georgia’s hair. “He’s one lucky man.”
Before they could spend any more time getting caught up in the moment, the wedding coordinator clapped her hands together. “Listen, people, if we want to
get through all of this in the hour we have, I’m going to need everyone’s cooperation.”
Ciera leaned into Paige and whispered. “You don’t ever clap your hands at people, do you?”
“I don’t think so,” Paige whispered back. “But if I ever have, I’m never doing it again.”
The wedding drill sergeant snapped her fingers in their direction. “Ladies, your attention, please.”
Paige straightened her posture and turned to the lady, pressing her lips together to show she was finished talking. Ciera covered her mouth to hide her giggles and Hadley crossed her arms in front of her chest, looking defiant.
“I’m going to start with just the bride and groom to make sure we have all the important details in line. Attendants, we’ll add you in next. Stay close but not in our way. Like over there.” She waved her hand as if shooing a bug away from her.
The girls and the three groomsmen turned and walked several yards in the other direction. “Who does she think she is?” Hadley looked offended. “She knows we’ve all been to a wedding before, right?”
“I think she’s trying to get through all the details in the most efficient manner possible.” Paige tried to make her voice cheerful when defending a fellow wedding coordinator, although she had to admit this planner could use a little finesse.
“Just do what she says,” Ciera scolded Hadley. “We don’t want to ruin Georgia’s day.”
The wedding coordinator had lowered the booming volume of her voice to a more conversational level, but she still could be heard over all of the other beach noise even at the distance where they were.
“I’m going to need the rings so we can practice putting them on,” the bossy coordinator said to Georgia. “It can be tricky in the humidity, and I need to see how they fit so we don’t have any issues tomorrow.” While Paige agreed about practicing with the rings, it was the kind of thing most planners would have asked instead of demanded.
“I didn’t know we would need them. They’re in the house. Do you want me to run up and get them?” Georgia jerked her thumb at the house.
The wedding coordinator let out a sigh. “We don’t have time for that. It will delay the whole timeline.”
Hadley stepped forward. “I know where they are. I’ll get them.”
She jogged for the stairs before anyone could stop her.
The wedding coordinator shook her head, clearly annoyed by the disruption in her schedule. “I guess we’ll have to come back to the rings. Let’s discuss the vows. Have you written your own?” Before Georgia could answer, the coordinator coughed and waved her hand in front of her face.
“I’m sorry. I can’t work like this. What is that horrific smell?”
Eager to help keep the rehearsal moving as smoothly as possible, Paige searched the beach to try to locate anything that might be offering an offending odor. Her gaze swept from the water up the beach and eventually landed on the cloud of smoke drifting down from the wide front porch of the house. Jacob Merrick and the four investors all stood next to the rail with cigars in their hands. Aiden, cigar-less, stood in the middle of them, chatting. It looked like maybe they hadn’t exhausted their lunch conversation after all.
Paige pointed to the house and raised her voice. “I’m so sorry about that. Friends of the father of the groom. I’ll see if we can move them downwind.”
Paige started for the steps, but Ciera caught her arm. “That’s a lot of steps for your ankle. You stay here. I’ll go.” Before Paige could protest, Ciera was off, leaving Paige standing there all by herself.
Or maybe not so by herself. Brody stepped up next to her and slid his hands into the pockets of his navy shorts.
“They should’ve asked you to do this wedding. You would’ve done a better job.”
“I offered, but Georgia didn’t want me to feel like I was at work at her wedding. This lady came highly recommended from local vendors. She’s not so bad.”
They watched for a second as the wedding coordinator lectured Georgia and Lane on the importance of memorizing their vows and not having to read them off an index card.
Brody gave her a questioning look. “Not so bad? I’ve seen drill sergeants with more compassion.”
He brought up a valid point. “She could stand to work on her people skills, but this part is always stressful.”
This easy conversation was the first time Paige had been alone with Brody since they broke up. Sure, they had chatted a couple times since he’d returned, but it was more of exchanging pleasantries in passing. They hadn’t stood like this, just the two of them having a real conversation, in over a year.
Standing here with him felt normal in a comfortable sort of way. And yet, she had the vague feeling that something was missing.
“I’ve been so busy this weekend that we haven’t had a chance to catch up. I want to hear about your time in Luxembourg.” She turned to look at him. His hair, his smile, the way he stood, everything looked exactly the same. Standing here among their friends in a place where they had all vacationed before, it appeared as if nothing had changed in the year he’d been gone. And yet everything felt different.
“Luxembourg was fun. I did a ton of traveling, lived in a tiny apartment with the smallest refrigerator you’ve ever seen.” He shrugged. “It was good to be on my own for a while, but there’s no place like home.”
“Hilltop is a special place.” She, too, had traveled all over the world. Her mother’s career had kept them bouncing back and forth between North America and Europe. She had more stamps in her passport before she was five than most people had in their entire life and had stayed in some of the finest hotels in the world. But she’d never fallen in love with any place the way she had with Hilltop. It had felt like home from the first time she drove in to visit Ciera’s family.
“It is,” he agreed.
Wait. Somehow, she had managed to accidentally stumble on the moment she’d been waiting for. Here she was, alone with him, talking about the past. They were in stage three of her plan. All she had to do was remind him how she played a major part in his past being so great. She searched her memory for one of their favorite moments together.
“Remember that time we went hiking in Elm Ridge State Park to see the leaves changing and got lost?”
Brody chuckled. The familiar sound caused memories to flood into her mind the same way hearing an old song did. Suddenly, she could remember exactly how it had felt to stand with him. To laugh with him. To dream about the future with him. The memories were comforting but at the same time seemed strangely distant.
“There was a moment there where I thought we were going to have to learn how to live in the wilderness. Those trail markings needed to be more prominent.”
“They were kind of hard to see,” she agreed.
“I don’t think I’ve been hiking since.”
The statement shocked her and pulled her out of reliving the past. “Really? I thought you loved being outdoors.”
Brody shrugged. “I like being outside, but not so much in the wilderness. I’m more of a sophisticated outdoorsman.”
Paige pictured being among the dolphins in their natural environment yesterday or standing in the middle of that forest where the only sound was the wind rustling through the trees and the birds singing. Those were the moments that spoke to her soul. She couldn’t imagine anyone not wanting to experience it.
“But seriously, how have you been?” he asked.
She could tell by the way he looked at her that something had shifted between them. It was a more intimate look, more reminiscent of how he used to look at her when they were together. She waited for the butterflies to kick in the way they used to when she melted under his adoring gaze, but today they were quiet.
“Being the head wedding coordinator at the resort has kept me busy, but it’s been good. I’m doing what I love. I can’t ask for more.”<
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He studied her, as if he were trying to see inside her head. Or inside her heart. She held his gaze, remembering in vivid detail how much she loved to look at his eyes. They were an intoxicating shade of deep blue. The air between them…well it didn’t quite sizzle the way she remembered. It was comfortable, though, which was a good starting place.
“You seem happy,” he said finally.
Without meaning to, she glanced up at the house where Aiden was standing on the porch in the middle of the fog of cigar smoke. He was gesturing and laughing, fully engaged in the conversation around him. Even in the middle of a situation he didn’t want to be in, standing amid the smoke she knew he hated, he found a way to have fun. He caught her eye and flashed a smile meant just for her. It hit her right in the chest, the brightness radiating outward until it settled as a smile on her own face.
“I am.” She realized she was happier on this trip than she’d been in a long time. She had credited it to being at the beach, watching one of her best friends marry the love of her life, and the chance to reconnect with Brody. But what if it was something else? Something she hadn’t planned for?
Ciera walked up the stairs to where Aiden was standing on Jacob’s front porch.
“The mean lady on the beach has not so kindly demanded y’all move downwind so she doesn’t have to be offended by your stinky cigars.”
Aiden glanced down at the action on the beach. The bride and groom looked serious as the wedding coordinator lectured them about something. “That lady has a lot of opinions.”
“You’re telling me.” She nodded at the house. “I’m going to help Hadley find the rings. I think it might take us a while.” She winked and disappeared into the house.
“Hey fellas, the wedding party has requested we move down to this end of the porch.”
Aiden had one professor in college who told them, one rainy day close to finals, most business deals weren’t made in an office with the help of the theory they learned in school. They were made through relationships. Successful business men and women knew the art of conversation, were well read and up to date on social happenings. And it never hurt to have a great golf swing. Aiden took that as permission to skip studying for a round of golf.
