Alex held the mirror up and looked at the back of her head. “Yes. Perfect. Thank you.”
She held her hands over her eyes as Daisy sprayed hair spray, then she slipped on her ivory-colored sheath style dress. Valerie helped her zip it.
“It’s a little tighter around the middle than it was just a few days ago,” she remarked, running her hands over her still mostly flat stomach. “I’m glad it still zips.”
“Oh, you still have a little bit of room,” Valarie said. While Valerie helped fasten the necklace that Rosaline had loaned Alex, and which Valerie had also worn in her own wedding, Daisy used Alex’s professional camera to take pictures. She thought about how recently Alex had come into this family’s lives, and how so quickly they made her welcome. She realized that they’d done the same for her.
Of course, they didn’t know she was pregnant with another man’s child. That would make a big difference in what they thought of her.
“I appreciate both of you. I appreciate your help so much,” Alex said. She slipped her feet into the gold sandals adorned with crystal flowers along the top strap. Daisy bent to help her fasten them. “I know the guests are probably tired of waiting.”
“You’ve only been in here for forty-five minutes. That’s probably some kind of record for a bride getting ready.”
Alex sent a text to let everyone know she was ready, then walked to the door and hugged first Valerie then Daisy. “See you out there,” Valerie said, handing Alex her bouquet then slipping out the door. Daisy followed as the minister called the guests to order.
Daisy stared up toward the front, toward Ken, who sat on the front row next to his mother, an empty seat beside him. She knew he had saved it for her.
You don’t belong up there with him. You don’t even belong here at all.
She started walking in that direction but fumbled. If they knew the way her thoughts had gone for the last thirty-six hours, they’d never want her anywhere near their family again.
As Alex and her uncle took their places in the back of the crowd, Daisy quietly made her way back into the pool house and back to the bedroom where she had just spent precious time with Alex and Valerie. Makeup containers in varying sizes and styles were strewn in a chaotic jumble on a small table. A hairdryer hung over the back of a chair, and a container of hairpins sat on the seat. A garment bag and hangar lay discarded on the bed.
With shaking hands, Daisy hung the hangar and garment bag for the dress in the small closet and then lay on top of the bed, pressing the heels of her hands into her eyes.
Kenwatched Valerie take her seat next to Brad as Alex and her uncle moved to the back of the crowd. He looked around and spotted the edge of Daisy’s dress as she went back into the pool house. By the time he realized she wasn’t coming back out, the ceremony had begun. As much as he wanted to get up and investigate, he sat still and waited through the exchanging of vows, rings, and finally the first kiss as husband and wife. As soon as Mr. Jonathan and Mrs. Alexandra Dixon walked down the aisle together, holding hands, he slipped out from the crowd and went into the pool house.
The smell of cooking filled his senses as he stepped into the small building. He threw Calla a quick wave of greeting and kept walking through the house toward the bedroom in the back.
Daisy had missed the entire ceremony. Something was wrong, something important enough for her to remain in here throughout the entire wedding. She had looked okay during the baptism. He searched his mind for any possible explanation and didn’t like any of the conclusions he reached. His anxiety grew with every step. Finally, he tapped on the little door twice, then opened it to find Daisy curled up in a ball on top of the bed.
His middle felt suddenly empty and hot all at once. He had been right. Something was wrong. He rushed forward. “Daisy? You okay?”
When he touched her shoulder, she jerked away from him. “Leave me alone,” she said on a sob.
He knelt next to the bed and asked, “What’s wrong. Did something happen?”
Choking on tears, she spit, “You don’t want to know.”
He brushed a damp tendril of hair away from her face. “Course I want to know. Talk to me.”
The bed shifted as she pushed herself into a sitting position. She wiped at her face, and he snatched some tissues out of the holder on the nightstand. She wouldn’t meet his eyes as she took them from him. “I was at the emergency room Thursday afternoon.”
His heart started pounding, and sweat beaded his upper lip. A thousand possibilities raced through his imagination, and he pushed them back, needing more information. He carefully sat next to her but made no move to touch her… yet. Softly, he asked, “Are you okay?”
She bowed her head and pressed the tissues against her eyes. He felt helpless and hopeless and wanted to fix whatever was wrong for her, but he didn’t know what he needed to fix. “The ER doctor said I have a subchronic hematoma.”
He wracked his brain and couldn’t even begin to guess what that meant. “Did he give you a prognosis?”
“She.”
“She?”
Daisy nodded. “The doctor was a woman.”
Ken grit his teeth. He could not care less about the sex of the physician right this second. He took a slow breath and intentionally relaxed his jaw before he spoke. “Cool. Did she give you a prognosis?”
Daisy stared at her hands in her lap as they clutched the soaked tissues. She started ripping little pieces of the tissue and spindling them between her finger and thumb. “It’s something that could be major if it gets worse, but it probably isn’t going to. My symptoms made me think I was having a miscarriage.”
