There’s a first time for everything.
3
Rhys
What did I think? That she’d be glad to see me again?
Of course not. I’m not an idiot.
The last time I was in a room with her, it was a courtroom. And a judge was delivering her a litany of bad news.
I couldn’t look at her, at the grief and hurt and frustration on her face. If I looked, I might’ve broken all my promises to myself.
All my obligations to my client.
All my ethical principles, the ones keeping me from touching my client’s ex in ways I’d dreamed about. The ones that had kept me, all those weeks, from screwing over my own client so Eden came out with more.
The ones that hadmostlykept me from screwing over my own client…
So I kept my eyes fixed on the judge’s bald spot, as I had for weeks. There was a birthmark on it in the shape of Bugs Bunny.
Now I pin my eyes on a point on Hanna’s desk where someone has written too hard and left an impression in the wood.
Footsteps sound in the hallway, and a tall, sandy-haired man stumbles into the doorway, classically handsome in aConnecticut country clubkind of way. But there’s nothing country-club polished about him right now. He’s sweating, flustered. He looks like he ran a mile to get to us.
“I’m so sorry I’m late,” he says.
He addresses this to me, not to Eden. In fact, he doesn’t look at Eden at all.
The lawyerly alarm bells go off.
Squirrelly.
I’ve met with a few other couples before this. Some are starry-eyed, others fight like cats and dogs. But I haven’t seen anyone who couldn’t make eye contact.
Don’t do it,I want to tell her.Something’s wrong.
I turn my attention to Eden. Her head’s cocked as she watches Paul: She sees it, too. But she doesn’t look worried.
Didn’t you learn anything from the last asshole?I want to demand of her.
But I think of the terms of the letter—all of them must actually culminate with the planned ceremony—and keep my mouth shut. Because no matter what I owe Eden, I owe Hanna and my other siblings more.
“Paul,” Eden says. “This is Rhys, Hanna’s brother. He’s taking over the wedding for her.”
“Ah,” Paul says. “Everything all right with the baby?”
“Everything’s fine. Rhys is just…” She looks to me.
“My grandfather’s will has some unusual terms, and one of them is that I have to take on some of Hanna’s weddings,” I explain.
Obviously, I tried to talk Weggers out of giving me Eden’s wedding. Hanna even intervened on my behalf, pointing out that the arrangement would also suck for Eden. But Weggers is like a dog with a bone. And when he saw how much I didn’t want this, he doubled down.
My grandfather could not have chosen a better proxy for his mischief.
“Welcome to the fray,” Paul says. He seems to have settled himself. “Paul Graves.”
His handshake is firm, but he doesn’t look me in the eye, either.
