“I’ve been duly warned.” A tall, hilarious, thoughtful Black man, Booker probably had some interesting opinions about Justin’s faux-fro, but I would refrain from bringing it up before the wedding. Maid of Honor duties, and all. Maybe it would be safe to ask at the reception.
I couldn’t imagine a more perfect match for my cousin than Booker. Where Eden could be a little fussy sometimes, he took things in stride. His impulsiveness balanced out her need to research and plan. Together, they made up a romantic superhero duo worthy of sighing over, which I’d done a time or two. The only real surprise was that they were about to get married less than a year after they’d started dating. But I guess the old saying proved true: When you know, you know.
I toyed with the tassels on the pink and purple afghan laid across my bed. “So…I have to tell you something.”
“That doesn't sound good. As long as it’s not about my wedding, shoot.”
If she could only see my face. “Eh, it’s not really, but it does kind of affect it a little.”
“A little?” Eden’s voice rose an octave already. “What happened? Did the books get mildewy? I was afraid they would. I knew you should have kept them in climate-controlled storage—”
“No—”
“Are the deliveries delayed? Which one? I’ve been tracking the packages. Did you send me all the tracking numbers?”
I should have known better than to open up the floodgates of her wedding worries. Best to get straight to the point.
“It’s not that, either. The books are fine, and all your orders are being delivered this week.” I’d been thrilled when she’d asked me to decorate for her wedding. I’d never staged a wedding before, but so far, everything was going to plan. All except for the one little snafu. “It’s just that I kind of broke Booker’s Best Man.”
She sucked in a breath, and I could imagine her eyebrows crinkling in the middle. “You did what now?”
I shut my eyes tight but couldn’t erase the vivid, slow-motion picture of Ty being thrown backward, landing shocked and broken on the ground. My stomach churned with fresh guilt over the image I couldn’t shake.
“I went out to Ty’s and I sort of distracted him from this horse he was working with and the horse kicked him and now he has broken ribs and can hardly move.” I blurted it all out in one breath, as though that would make the story less awful.
“Broken ribs? Is he okay?”
The impressive assortment of swears he’d muttered this morning echoed through my mind. “He’s okay in the sense that an injured bear is okay.”
Eden sighed. “What did you go out there for anyway?”
My turn to sigh.
“I don’t even know anymore.” In hindsight, it all seemed ridiculous now. As usual, I only had perfect clarityafterI’d made the wrong decision. Had I actually gone andpokedthe bear? “He wasn’t really giving me wedding information. And I wanted to call a truce, I guess.”
“I didn't realize you were ever at war.”
“You know what I mean. We’ve got tricky history together, and I didn't want your Maid of Honor and Best Man to ruin your wedding with dirty looks and snide comments.”
“Ty can be a little taciturn—”
A sarcastic laugh barked out of me. “A little?”
“But I have a hard time imagining him being anything other than polite. Aloof, maybe, but a gentleman.”
“He was.” And there lay the problem. I still thought about the conversations we used to have at family dinners when I’d been dating Bret, all the little talks that somehow made me feel more known than I had in ages. Maybe ever. Until that closeness had fallen apart and Ty had disappeared. “But we’ve barely seen each other since then. I wanted to make sure there were no hard feelings.”
“It sounds like Ty had some hard feelings today.”
“Funny.” The thread of guilt I’d managed to squash rose up in a wave. Ty never would have been injured if I hadn’t barged in on him like that. Who just shows up without a warning text?
“What about Bret?” Eden asked. “Are you going to call a truce with him?”
The wave of guilt blasted apart, turning to lava in my gut.
“It’s on him to stay out ofmyway. If I know Bret, he’ll plaster on a huge smile and act like nothing ever happened between us. If I’m really lucky, he’ll pretend he doesn’t even know me.”
“But then, you run the risk of him hitting on you, you beautiful stranger.”
