Nothing changes, apart from Rachel’s heartbeat, as Paige shakes her head.
As much as it pains her, she’d rather Paige and Jack just come out with whatever they know, than feign ignorance. Right now, it feels like she’s an animal that needs to be put out of its misery and she can’t, for the life of her, understand why they would deny her that.
“She’s doing okay,” she says warily.
“No last minute nerves?” asks Paige, handing Rachel the glass.
“No, she seems pretty set. I don’t think she’s the type of girl to have second thoughts,” says Rachel.
“Well, if nothing else, you’ve got to give it to her for being so calm. I was a wreck on my wedding day.”
Rachel looks at her. “Well, you’d never have known. You seemed an assured, confident vision as you came down the aisle.”
“Isn’t it funny how different people perceive the same situation?” muses Paige. “As I said yesterday, all I could think about was whether it was what he really wanted.”
Rachel feels the first flutterings of discomfort in her chest; like slowly falling sand in an hourglass, each granule gently shifting against one another to push through.
“Why wouldn’t it be?” As soon as she’s said it, she wants to take it back to rephrase it. Asking a question, especially one to which you don’t want to know the answer, is not a strong position to put yourself in.
Paige looks at her with raised eyebrows and it feels as if that hourglass has been turned upside down.
“I’ve never known Noah to be as sure of anything in his life,” Rachel offers.
“He looked like a deer in the headlights,” says Paige, half-laughing. “And all the while I was walking down the aisle toward him, I was just waiting for him to put his hand up and say, ‘Stop!’”
Rachel smiles. “That’s ridiculous.”
Paige knocks back half her glass, closing her eyes as the effervescence tickles her senses. “What’s even more ridiculous is that when we got to the ‘If any person here knows of any just cause why these two should not be joined together,’ I was honestly waiting for you to stand up and shout, ‘It should be me!’”
Rachel chokes on her champagne, in the hope that it will distract from the color that is flushing her cheeks.
“What? With my husband and toddler by my side?” Rachel laughs, but she can’t help but think it sounds false.
“That was before we became good friends and I got to know you properly,” says Paige, making Rachel feel even worse, if that was at all possible.
Unable to stop the tears springing to her eyes, she turns to look out the kitchen window, toward the ocean that is shimmering in the midday sun.
“Hey, hey,” says Paige, going to her, sensing something’s wrong. “What’s up?”
Where would she start? How can she tell Paige that the problem that had seemed insurmountable twenty-four hours ago is now the least of her worries? That, if Ali so chooses, she, Paige, Jack and Noah could be about to have their worlds blown apart? She can’t help but acknowledge that however big a mountain looks, when you put it against a bigger one, you realize how easy the first one is to climb in comparison.
“Is this about Ali?” presses Paige.
Rachel nods. “I think you might be right,” she says, sniffing.
“About?” asks Paige, looking at her blankly.
“I think there might be something going on between Ali and Jack.”
Paige’s hands drop to Rachel’s sides and her jaw spasms involuntarily.
“I … I can’t say for certain,” Rachel goes on, falteringly. “I’m not a hundred percent, but there’s so much that points in that direction, that I have to face the possibility.”
“Is it because of what I overheard last night?” asks Paige. “Because I’ve thought about that and they could have been talking about anybody. I bet half the men in that restaurant are having affairs and keeping it from their wives.” She attempts to laugh.
“There’s been other stuff too,” says Rachel. “Stuff I haven’t told you about.”
Paige narrows her eyes. “Namely?”
“I saw her coming out of our room yesterday,” says Rachel. “When we got back from shopping.”
“What?” exclaims Paige, holding Rachel at arm’s length.
Rachel nods. “It could have been nothing, but when I walked in a few minutes later, Jack was wearing nothing more than a towel.”