The World According to Vince - Jane Harvey-Berrick Page 0,63
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Then I made sure that Rachel had her boutonnière in place, and Cady pinned mine to my dress and we all looked at each other.
“Everyone ready?” I asked softly.
Cady took a deep breath. “Never been readier.”
There was a gentle tap at the door and I opened it to find Cady’s father standing there in his tux, looking handsome and nervous.
When he saw Cady, he gasped, his eyes wide, then his face crumpled and Cady ran into his arms.
“Don’t cry, Dad,” she sobbed.
His shoulders shook silently as he hugged his daughter, and I glanced at Rachel as her own eyes glittered with tears.
“Sandy,” she whispered after a minute had passed. “Darling, you’ll spoil her dress.”
Mr. Callaghan unpeeled himself from his daughter and blew his nose loudly. I helped Cady dry her own tears and dabbed on loose powder the way Nerissa had showed me. I was so glad that she and Nancy were waiting for us in the ladies powder room outside the Rainbow Room. We were all going to need their help.
Mr. Callaghan gave Cady a watery smile and then held out his arm.
“Let’s get you to the ball, princess.”
I checked that Rachel had Cady’s train, and I carried her bouquet of white roses tied with blue silk, and my own, slightly smaller bouquet.
We left the hotel suite and found that a member of staff held the elevator just for our party, congratulating Cady discreetly, and at the lobby, all the reception staff stopped what they were doing and applauded Cady who was beaming happily.
Several guests joined in and others filmed us on their phones.
The doorman escorted Cady and her father to the waiting vintage Rolls Royce and helped her inside without creasing her dress.
Thirty Rockefeller Plaza was opposite our hotel, but still not walking distance: not in heels and definitely not in a very beautiful wedding dress.
“See you there!” I called to her.
“You’d better be!” she laughed.
“Right behind you, sister!”
Pedestrians stared at the Roller with its white wedding ribbon fluttering on the front, and Cady smiled and waved.
Rachel and I had a very comfortable town car to ourselves, following behind the bride and her father.
The other members of Cady’s family and the rest of the wedding party should already be in place. I pulled out my phone and checked a few things off the schedule until Rachel took my hand and made me put my phone away.
“Everything’s fine, Grace. You’ve done an amazing job and it’s going to be a beautiful wedding. The Rainbow Room events coordinator will take care of everything now. It’s time to enjoy yourself.”
“Sorry, I can’t help it,” I said sheepishly. “I just want everything to be perfect.”
“I know, sweetheart, and it will be as near perfect as possible because pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work, and you have put your heart and soul into this for Cady. Whatever happens next, all the rest is just life, so enjoy every moment of it.”
Vince
I stood outside the Rainbow Room with Rick while he swallowed nervously.
“Have you got the rings?” he asked for the hundredth time.
“Of course, mate, right here,” I said, patting my pocket.
He was so tightly wound I could hear him ticking. I couldn’t bring myself to pretend I’d left the rings in the hotel room or dropped them down the bog.
He nodded distractedly and glanced down at the crumpled sheet where he’d written his wedding vows. I knew this because I’d heard him practice them at least fifty times this morning, and they were only three lines long.
“Mate,” I said gently. “It’s time to go inside. The woman of your dreams will be arriving in a minute and it wouldn’t be a great start if Cady caught you out here looking shiftier than the gearstick on a boy racer’s Ford Fiesta.”
Rick blinked, then nodded and straightened his shoulders.
“Have you got the rings?” he asked for the hundredth-and-first time.
“Yep, still got ‘em, right here in my pocket and safer than a squirrel’s nuts.”
He frowned. “What does that mean?”
“It means, you tosser, that it’s time to get married,” and I opened the doors to the Rainbow Room and pushed him inside. Then pulled him back out when I remembered that at a Jewish-Interfaith wedding, Rick had to walk in a procession with all the parentals.
“Just checking everyone’s there,” I said casually, leading him toward the waiting room where Rabbi Lisa was already chatting to the four