Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 91058 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 455(@200wpm)___ 364(@250wpm)___ 304(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91058 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 455(@200wpm)___ 364(@250wpm)___ 304(@300wpm)
Later, the reception will take place inside the largest of the Langham’s ballrooms. I poked my head in earlier to see how it was coming along. My mother was standing in the center of the room in a cute coordinating sweatsuit with her hair pinned up in rollers, ordering people around, polite but panicky.
Her attention to detail has no doubt paid off. I can’t wait to see it.
“Okay, you know what you’re doing here?” Hugh asks me, nodding toward the aisle.
We’re standing with the rest of the bridal party and groomsmen just inside the hallway off the terrace, awaiting our cue to get this show on the road. Hannah’s at the back, taking a few photos alongside her father. It makes me wistful looking at them. I can’t imagine what it will be like when I walk with my dad down the aisle. Oh, he’s definitely going to cry. I’m going to cry. It’ll be a mess.
“It’s easy. Just like we rehearsed,” I assure Hugh. “We just follow the people in front of us.”
The aisle is made from a white silk runner that’s been hand-embroidered with Hannah and Conrad’s signature wedding monogram. A thick white floral arch sits at the end where Conrad stands, handsomely waiting for his bride.
“Not too fast though,” Hugh confirms.
“Right. We have to be cool about it. Pace ourselves.”
“Okay, you do the leading. I’m a great follower.”
I chuckle. “Noted.”
There are close to 300 people in attendance—small by my mother’s standards—but Conrad and Hannah were insistent that they didn’t want it to get too out of hand. The terrace is packed to the gills as the pianist begins to play.
Guests shift in their chairs, turning back to look at us. Thankfully, Hugh and I are toward the end. I get the benefit of watching most of the bridesmaids walk in front of me as I hang back at the edge of the doorway, mostly out of sight. I scan the sea of chairs, searching like I’m on a Where’s Waldo? assignment.
Hudson’s surprisingly easy to spot in the crowd. He’s tall, which helps. Also, most of the Elwood Hoyt employees have banded together in the back rows. Lucy sits on the aisle seat wearing a cheery yellow dress that I instantly love. Hudson sits to her right, his head slightly bowed.
Lucy sees me and waves. I smile and give her a little wave back. She turns, murmurs something to Hudson.
He lifts his head and shifts in his chair to look over his shoulder. His brown eyes meet mine. My stomach flips. The easy joy I felt seeing Lucy is inflamed and turned to ash, replaced with heart-racing, nausea-inducing nerves. Seeing him makes it so every other man feels inconsequential, boring, lackluster. Hugh says something and I smile because it feels like I should smile, but I’m not listening. I’m looking at Hudson.
It’s a formal wedding and he knows how to dress. I love his black tie, black jacket, the slope of his broad shoulders, the sharp contours of his handsome face. He’s still looking back at me but he hasn’t smiled, hasn’t given me any sign of anything.
The last two weeks have been a new kind of strange for us. He hasn’t been avoiding me, but our encounters have been stilted, condensed down to small talk, really. He’s seemed almost nervous around me, though it’s hard to believe Hudson Rhodes has the capacity to be nervous around anyone.
The bridesmaid and groomsman in front of me link arms and start walking down the aisle. Hugh steps up, offering me his bent elbow, and I smile and take my place.
There’s an uptick in murmurs as I appear in the doorway. It’s not surprising considering how many people I know here.
“…haven’t seen her since she was a baby…”
“…looks just like her mother…”
“…Barrett’s twin…”
I smile down at Lucy as I pass her by, but I resolve to not look at Hudson, at least not until I’m safely up front, standing in line with the other bridesmaids, holding my smile, calming my nerves. The flower girls and ring bearer trickle down to a chorus of laughter and oohs and ahhs. The cutest little things. And then Hannah steps up with her dad and everyone stands. In the chaos, I look at Hudson, and while everyone’s looking at Hannah, he’s looking at me.
He looks troubled by something. I keep waiting for a smile or some kind of nod, a secret word or mouthed joke. It doesn’t come. His eyebrows stay furrowed. His mouth keeps to a flat line, leaving me with an ominous feeling of dread, but at the very least, I console myself with the news that he didn’t bring a date. Bethany and her husband are sitting on the other side of Hudson. Unless you count Lucy, Hudson’s here alone.
I turn to watch Hannah take her final steps toward Conrad. Her father lifts her veil, grips her arms, and kisses her cheek with a final thoughtful parting word. Then the ceremony begins. I didn’t think I’d get choked up and emotional during it. Conrad is so stoic, the most serious one out of the bunch of us Elwoods, but I watch him turn to Hannah and absolutely crumble. His eyes brim with tears as he smiles down at her. I love you, he mouths, and I reach up to swipe a tear from my cheek, overjoyed for Hannah and my brother. Maybe also a little envious, though the feeling is so foreign I don’t recognize it for what it is right away. I’ve never been someone particularly in a rush to be married, or even in a rush to be in a serious relationship. It’s why I didn’t immediately notice the red flags with Jasper. I thought it was perfectly reasonable that I wasn’t interested in moving in with him just yet. The burning desire to be with him all the time, the need to check in, the yearning for that connection—all of that would come later, I thought. Now I realize I have all of those things, all for the grumpy man sitting near the back of the crowd. The man I was warned to stay away from. The one I never saw coming.