She squealed, “Chris!” but wasn’t able to finish because a huge coughing fit racked her lungs.
When she finished coughing, he brushed a soft kiss across her forehead. “Go to bed. Get some sleep. I’ll give them back to you in the morning. I promise.”
“Okay.” She looked defeated and exhausted. “But only because I’m too tired to argue with you.” She shuffled down the hall to her bedroom and he let himself out, locking the door as he went.
* * *
Later that night, Chris sat on the phone talking to Cassie while he flipped through her wedding binder. “Honestly, Cassie, have you looked at this thing?”
She laughed low. “No, and I can’t believe you managed to get it away from her. Julie doesn’t let anyone touch her binders.” Her voice took on a concerned tone. “She must really be sick.”
“She says it’s just a cold, but she looks like she feels awful. She’s let herself get too run down. Cass, I don’t think that anything we do is helping. I don’t know what to do for her. She just seems so sad all the time. Even when she’s laughing and having a good time, that joy isn’t reaching her eyes. I hate seeing her like this.”
“I know. We all agree with you, but the grieving process takes time. It doesn’t help that Aaron was killed so brutally and unexpectedly.”
His gut still twisted with jealousy when he heard Aaron’s name. That was wrong on so many levels, but it’s just the way that it was. Aaron had had the girl he wanted and loved and now he was dead. It made Chris feel like the worst kind of guy to feel such writhing jealousy about him.
After a moment, Cassie said, “So, tell me about the binder. I’m tempted to come over there just so I can see it myself.”
“It’s incredible.” He flipped through it for a moment, marveling at her levels of organization. Was it wrong that he kept hoping to see some sort of ‘Chris’ doodle in the margins? Something to give him hope that he might have a chance with her again someday. “There are lists for everything. She even has the drinks broken down by person and how much she predicts they’ll consume off the open bar. By the way, did you realize that Jake’s Aunt Clara has a drinking problem?”
“What? Seriously? How would she even know that?”
“I have no idea, but I’m thinking some federal organization like the CIA or FBI needs Julie on their team. She thinks of and considers absolutely every detail. It’s a little scary about how incredibly thorough it is.”
“I think you may be exaggerating just a little bit.”
“I’m really not. She really should become a private investigator. I think she has a gift in sniffing out everyone’s secrets.” He considered how pale and exhausted she’d appeared earlier. “But she is really sick right now. Honestly, Cass, how much more work does she need to do before the wedding is ready to go?”
“God, I don’t even know, Chris. See, this is where I’m an awful friend. I’ve just let her handle it all, especially with it being the end of the semester at Tech. I’m swamped with my students at work.”
Chris didn’t sleep any more than Julie did. There was no reason he couldn’t help her out. He was capable, right?
“Okay, I’m sure there’s a still-to-do list in here somewhere. Let me see what I can figure out and maybe I can lighten some of her load before the wedding.”
“Thanks, Chris. I owe you.”
“You don’t owe me anything. Just be ready to look gorgeous when you walk down that aisle.”
“I love you, Chris.”
“Love you too, Cass.”
* * *
The next morning, Julie panicked when she discovered Cassie’s wedding binder was missing. She looked frantically around her kitchen before her gaze caught on Chris’s front door. Wait, Chris had been here last night. Her head cold had been so bad when she’d gotten home, she’d completely forgotten. That entire scene with him seemed like it had occurred through a fog.
Exhaustion and weakness pulled at her. Closing her eyes, she steeled herself against the argument she knew was coming. No, she didn’t feel any better, but she had too much to do to give into the illness now. She’d give in to the pull of her bed next week, after the wedding was over. In the meantime, she just needed to keep Chris in the dark as much as possible about how truly dreadful she felt.