“I knew that night I was going to marry him,” she told us and Mary-Ellen sighed so loudly and wistfully that I wondered if I should tell the bartender to slow down on serving her.
Sadie shared more stories about their courtship, how he’d proposed to her by flying her back to Italy and asking her to be his wife on the Spanish Steps, which was where they’d first kissed.
She had gone over this information when she hired me, but it had been matter-of-fact then. It was like I was seeing a different side of her—she was so unguarded and free, and obviously in love. Again I felt that pang, that sensation like I was missing out on something big.
After drinking a sixteen-ounce glass of soda as quickly as I had, I needed to use the restroom. I excused myself and stayed longer in the bathroom than was strictly necessary.
I glanced up at my reflection as I washed my hands, not able to come up with a reasonable explanation for my current feelings. I’d been to dozens of weddings and had seen so many people happily in love who promised to spend the rest of their lives together. I’d never felt like this before, like I’d lost a limb and wanted it back. How could I be missing something I’d never had?
And why did Camden’s face keep popping into my head?
“You’ve got a job to do,” I reminded myself, reaching for the paper towels. It was time to stop throwing my private pity party and get out there and support Sadie.
I walked back into the bar and smiled when I saw how much fun Sadie and the bridesmaids were having. They looked happy. My shoulder twinged slightly, probably from my purse pulling on it, and I switched the strap over to the other side. I rubbed my shoulder slightly, my mind drifting back to when Camden had massaged it, and the reason he’d told me that he’d had to stop.
“Do you need help with that?” Camden asked.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
As if I’d conjured him up, Camden was standing behind me. I twirled around and saw the way his eyes darkened, how his chest went up and down a bit faster, like I was the one making him feel like there wasn’t enough oxygen in the room.
“Wow,” he said. “You are stunning.”
I resisted the urge to preen a little, enjoying his appreciation more than I should have. It wasn’t too long ago that I didn’t want any men to look at me, but like I’d told him, he was different. “Thank you.”
“Didn’t anyone ever tell you not to wear a red dress to a bullfight?”
I laughed and asked, “What does that even mean?”
“We already established that you’re a smart woman, Rachel.”
Was I about to get run down by a randy bull? Maybe Camden would pick me up and throw me over his shoulder to have his way with me. I tried to tamp down the little thrills rising up inside me.
While I was busy trying to calm my rampaging heartbeat, he pointed at my shoulder. “Maybe I should finish what I started. It looks like I didn’t do a good job of massaging your shoulder.”
If he’d done it any better, I might have died. “It’s fine, thanks.” I noticed that he was carrying a bottle of water. “You’re not drinking tonight?”
“Sadie asked me not to. I’m not the designated driver since we’re not going anywhere, but I’m the designated nobody-gets-a-face-tattoo-or-a-black-eye guy. I’ve got to protect those pictures, right?” When I smiled at him, he asked, “What about you?”
“I’m drinking soda to spite Mary-Ellen.”
He just nodded and I actually kind of loved the fact that he didn’t even ask me why. Krista would have done the same thing because she knew me so well. It felt a little like he did, too.
“So,” I said, “what are you guys doing here? I thought you had some big boys’ night planned.”
“We did. But Dan didn’t want to be away from Sadie. She told him she was going to drink tonight and I suspect he was afraid things might get a tad out of control.”
“He doesn’t trust her?” I asked.
“Of course he does. He’s just protective.”
“Nothing says ‘I trust you’ like a combined bachelor and bachelorette party.”
Camden shrugged and said, “I told him not to worry, but he didn’t listen. I knew that you were here and that you’d have things in hand.”
His words stung a little. Like I was some fuddy-duddy stick-in-the-mud. “Because I’m the boring one?”
“What? No. Because you’re the loyal one who puts her friends above everything else.”