Chapter 6
Harlow
"I wonder what the hell is going on?" Rachel leans over to me and mumbles. "It looks like chickens running around without their heads." I look up from my chair and see that his sisters are trying to remain calm, but you can tell in their faces that something terrible just happened. It doesn’t help that an ambulance left a short while ago, and they announced that there had been a delay.
"It’s a wedding," I state. "Things always go wrong at weddings."
"How many weddings have you been to?" Victoria asks, leaning over Rachel. "I’ve been to five in the last four months and this is the first time it’s been this chaotic."
"I was at one last weekend," Lydia shares. "It was nothing like this."
"You should go and ask if everything is okay," Victoria suggests.
I gasp. "Why the hell would I go?" I look around, and ever since I walked into the ceremony space, I’ve done my best to keep my head down and avoid any eye contact that I would have with anyone. I walked with my back almost against the wall and then sat down in the closest seat I could find. My heart was in my throat the whole time and I prayed to all the saints in the world that I wouldn’t throw up everywhere.
"You know them, maybe they will tell you why an ambulance was here," Lydia says.
"I’m going to get a drink," Rachel states and looks down at me. "And you’re coming because maybe with you they will give me something."
"Ohh," Lydia says. "I’ll take a drink."
"Me, too," Victoria adds, and I look back at Rachel, who just gives me a look.
"It’s too late. You're already here. You think no one is going to see you?" I roll my eyes at her and get up. "Fine. But get the drink and then get back."
"Do you think the ambulance was here because she found out you were here and then tried to stab him?" Lydia jokes, and she can’t help but throw her head back and laugh, but the space is so open, and no one else is laughing, so all eyes come to us.
I take a second to look around, and I see his mom first. She looks at me in shock. Trust me, I know this is weird, I want to say to her, but all I can do is smile at her while holding up my hand and waving at her.
She leaves whoever she is talking to and starts to come over to me. My heart hammers in my chest as I walk out into the pathway beside the chairs. "Oh my word!” she exclaims when she gets close enough. "I can’t believe it." She smiles at me, and I don’t know what I expected, but it wasn’t the big hug she gives me. "Harlow." She says my name, and I fight back the tears that are threatening to come out. She lets go of me and steps back. "I can’t believe it’s you." She holds one of my hands in hers. She has always been kind to me, and I wondered what he told his family. I mean, I wasn’t that close to them that they would’ve reached out to me, but I did still follow them on social media. "You look stunning."
"Thank you, Deborah." I’m finally able to speak. "You look great." I smile at her, and she does in her light gray lace top, matched with a dark gray satin skirt that goes down to the floor.
"What have you been up to?" she asks as she moves me away from the chairs and toward two red barn doors that lead into what is the reception area. The doors were closed when we walked in, but then they slowly opened an inch at a time. I refused to look inside because I wasn’t sure if I would be able to keep myself composed. This whole day has been draining, and I have regretted coming every single second. But I am here, and I am not going to back down.
"Nothing much. I have my practice back home." My chest fills with pride. "Everything is great." I stop walking when I see his sisters coming toward us. Deborah's face goes white, and her eyes widen.
"I swear to everything," she says between clenched teeth. "If there is one more thing that you have to tell me." I look at his sisters, who have frazzled looks on their faces.
"Well, the waitstaff just got into an accident, and well, we have no one to help serve," Shelby says.
"What can I do to help?" The words come, and it doesn’t even register in my brain that I said them aloud.
"We couldn’t ask you," Clarabella says, shaking her head and then looking over at the door that just slammed shut. "Ugh, he’s here." I look over at the man who just walked in. He wears jeans and a T-shirt, his black hair pushed back as his eyes search the room, and then when he sees her, he stops. "I’ll be right back."