Do you take this rebel - By Sherryl Woods Page 0,57
were being carried into the backyard, a small tent was being set up with tables beneath it. Lauren, wearing shorts, a T-shirt and rollers in her hair, was directing traffic. Cole grinned despite himself.
“You’d better hope there are no paparazzi around,” he teased. “The tabloids would pay a fortune for this picture. You are not at your glamorous best.”
“If you only came over here to harass me and get in the way, you can leave,” she said, frowning at him. “Why anybody would insist on having a wedding in less than a week is beyond me.”
“We didn’t want a lot of hoopla,” he said defensively, aware that she must not know the whole story.
“Maybe you didn’t, but Cassie deserves a lot of hoopla, and, by golly, she’s going to have as much of it as we can pull off on short notice.”
Cole withstood the icy glint in her eyes and the barely concealed criticism. One of the things he’d always admired about Lauren and the others was their fierce loyalty to each other. He’d never had friends like that…except for Cassie. Somewhere along the way, through no fault of his own, he’d lost that. Among the regrets in his life, that one was right at the top of the list.
He sighed at the thought and went in search of his bride-to-be. He found her in the kitchen getting a manicure. Pink flooded her cheeks when he walked in, but Gina barely spared him a glance.
“You’re not supposed to be here,” she said, and went right on painting Cassie’s neatly filed nails a pale shade of pink.
Cassie cleared her throat. “Actually, he is. We’re supposed to talk to Jake, explain things.”
“Well, you can’t do it now,” Gina said briskly. “I’m not finished.” She waved Cole away. “Go in the living room or out back and make yourself useful. I’ll let you know when she’s free.”
Cassie shrugged. “Better do as she says. I’ve given up fighting with them.”
Amused despite himself, he nodded. “Yes, I can see why it would be a waste of breath. Where’s Jake?”
“Hiding out in his room, if he’s smart,” she said dryly. “Lauren brought him a tuxedo.”
So that’s the way it was going to be, then, Cole concluded. They were going to make this wedding into a special occasion for Cassie’s sake, or die trying.
“I’ll look for him,” he said.
Alarm flared in Cassie’s eyes. “You won’t say anything, though, not till I can get up there?”
“No,” he promised. “I won’t say anything.”
He found Jake in his room, staring not at the computer screen as Cole had expected, but out the window at the frenzied activity down below. He glanced up when Cole came in, but his expression was bleak.
“Hey, kiddo,” Cole said, joining him at the window. “What’s up?”
“You and Mom are gonna get married today, right?”
“That’s right.” Something in Jake’s voice alerted him that the boy found the news troubling in some way. He studied him intently, then asked, “Is that okay with you?”
“I guess,” Jake said, then regarded Cole with a serious expression. “How come I didn’t know anything about it till practically the last minute?”
“That’s when we decided,” Cole said. “I thought you might be happy about it.”
He regarded Cole earnestly. “I think it’s pretty cool that you’re going to be around all the time,” he admitted, then added, “but there’s something I don’t get.”
“What’s that?”
“Nobody seems really excited, not even Mom. In fact, she looks kinda sad.”
Cole winced. “I think maybe it’s just a little overwhelming,” he said. “It all happened so fast, and there was a lot to do.”
“But Grandma keeps crying. I heard her tell Mom that this was all her fault.” His brow puckered with a frown. “But I don’t know what that means. How can having a wedding be anybody’s fault?”
Cole put his hands on the boy’s shoulders and gave him a reassuring squeeze. “It’s just some grown-up stuff. It’s nothing for you to worry about, pal.”
“You love my mom, though, right? I mean that’s why you’re getting married, isn’t it?”
Cole closed his eyes against the tide of pain that that innocent question sent through him. There was no easy answer. A part of him, a part he had worked like the dickens to bury, did love Cassie.
“Yes,” he said, giving Jake the answer he needed to hear, even if it was only half-true, even if the whole truth was far more complicated. If he couldn’t understand it, how could this nine-year-old boy?
Jake nodded, looking relieved. “I thought so.” Suddenly