Once Upon a Marriage

He was supposed to move from the doorway, but he didn’t.

He stood toe-to-toe with her. Looking down over a foot into the eyes raised to his. And knew he had to protect her at all costs. From everything that hurt her. Even if one of those things was himself.

Lifting one hand, he pushed a strand of blond hair off the side of her face. There were always a few tendrils that had escaped from her ponytail by this time of day. “You don’t have to apologize for talking to me, Marie. Not ever,” he said.

Her gaze didn’t waver. And she didn’t step back. “I have a tendency to go on sometimes...”

“And I have an ear that enjoys listening to your voice.” Some things didn’t come with explanation. They just were.

“I’m glad you’re going to be in Las Vegas,” she said.

“Me, too.”

Her lips were lifted toward his. He needed to kiss her. To claim her as his own.

And he needed to let her go. To send her away from him.

Before he could do either, she raised herself up on tiptoe and touched her lips to his. “Thank you,” she whispered, and slid past him to hurry down the hall and back out to her shop.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

THE WEDDING WAS scheduled for ten o’clock Saturday morning. To be followed by a catered brunch in the bridal suite.

On Friday night, while Elliott and Liam went with Bruce down to the card tables, Gabi and Marie spent the evening with Barbara, in her suite. They ordered shrimp and steak and lobster. The best champagne. And girly movies. Bruce had three cosmetologists sent up with portable whirlpool footbaths to give all three women manicures and pedicures with a full array of polish colors to choose from.

Barbara chose a light pink to match the pink gown with embossed white roses that she’d chosen to wear for her wedding. Gabi’s nail color was a cross between red and orange. Pale, not bold.

Marie chose a deep maroon. With a hint of sparkle. For both her hands and her feet. By the end of the night all of them were wearing moderate-length gel-polished acrylic nails.

They ate and cried over Fried Green Tomatoes. And when Liam called saying the guys were on their way up, Gabi met him at the door and left. Marie was staying with her mother Friday night, while Bruce and Elliott both had rooms of their own.

The next day Marie would move into Bruce’s room and he’d stay in the bridal suite with his new wife.

Bruce’s older brother and his wife were also coming in the next day. Marie had never met them, but Barbara assured her the couple was lovely.

They were getting ready for bed. A king-size pillow-topped mattress on a platform.

Marie climbed beneath the covers on one side, feeling awkward. Strange. Sharing a room with her mom instead of Gabi.

The last time she’d seen her mom—when she and Gabi had taken a couple of days to go to Arizona between Christmas and New Year’s—she and Gabi slept in twin beds in Barbara’s guest room. They’d stayed up half the night talking. About being single. About the fact that Marie was never going to fall in love with Burton. They’d talked about Barbara and the way she seemed to have recovered from her ex-husband’s most recent attempt to reconcile. They’d talked about the shop and Threefold. They’d been due to finalize paperwork on the LLC when they got back after the holiday.

They talked about Liam and the way he stood up to his father’s abuse while still respecting the old man. About the woman he’d been engaged to...

And now, four months later, Gabi and Liam were married. Barbara was getting married to someone other than Marie’s father. Burton was getting married.

And Marie was...

“You okay, sweetie?” Barbara’s voice came from the other side of the bed. She didn’t sound the least bit tired.

“Fine.” Marie instilled her voice with a bit of the fatigue she’d been feeling. Not to be confused with sleepiness. No, her exhaustion was more emotional. But if her mother mistook it and left her in peace...

“You’re not lying on your stomach. You always sleep on your stomach.”

She’d been lying on her side. To stare out the fortieth-floor window at the scrolling and changing lighted billboards that lined the famous Las Vegas strip. Avoiding her mother, who was so close and yet so far away.

“You haven?

??t seen me sleep in years,” she said. They’d been sharing and talking all evening. She and Gabi and Barbara. She didn’t want to share any more right now. “Things change.”