Page 19 of One-Star Romance

She gritted her teeth. “Just take smaller steps!”

After some more halting, herky-jerky motions, they finally found their stride and walked like normal people for the remaining three feet of aisle. At the altar, she withdrew her arm from his with a breath of relief, the two of them separating to their allotted sides of the officiant.

The string quartet in the corner paused their rendition of “God Only Knows” and switched to a new theme for Angus’s entrance: the music from Indiana Jones. People in the chairs craned their heads, awareness sweeping over them as Angus appeared on the platform in the trees. He waved to everyone, then grabbed on to the contraption.

Nat had never zip-lined before. Not because she was opposed to it in its proper time and place. But so far in her adult life, she’d never had the disposable income to take the kind of vacation where one might do it. She didn’t know much about the mechanics, but weren’t you supposed to wear a harness?

Angus simply clung on to the handles. His friend had strung the cable from a particularly tall oak tree on the edges of the forest and over the property’s small pond, ending at another tree behind the altar where Angus would apparently let go.

He kicked off from the platform with a smile on his face. The crowd turned, murmuring. And though Natalie had thought that everyone would cover their faces in secondhand embarrassment, people seemed amused, poking one another in appreciation or indulgence. The kids in attendance oohed and aahed as Angus began to glide.

And as he flew through the air, Nat had to admit that…she did not hate this. She still thought he was bonkers for doing it. But this whole day had been so serious, so stressful. Weddings were supposed to be about two people expressing themselves and their love, right? Instead, Gabby had gotten swept up in concern about Will the guests be too hot? Will everything go as it is supposed to? Will other people have a good time? By doing this ridiculous entrance, Angus had chosen to inject some fun into the proceedings, to say, Look, love makes us into fools, so here I am showing you just how much of a fool I am, and maybe that was admirable in its own misguided way. It certainly wasn’t anything like her mother’s sad second wedding. Nat smiled, in spite of herself, as Angus achieved both liftoff and a strange kind of beauty.

Then, with Angus halfway across the pond, the slider jammed, caught on some sort of knot. Angus juddered to a halt and dangled. His nice dress shoes nearly skimmed the pond’s surface. The smile drained from his face, replaced by a look of terror.

Natalie’s side of the altar was closer to the pond, and Rob had stepped forward, without her noticing, standing to her right. The two of them stared in shock as the crowd gasped.

One of Angus’s hands began to slide down the handle, then grasped for purchase. And seemingly without thinking, Rob shot his own hand out and grabbed on to Natalie’s. She was so caught up in watching Angus that she didn’t register anything besides Warm, comforting, strong.

“Hold tight, buddy!” his friend Teddy called as the string quartet stopped playing in confusion. He gave the line a tug, as if to dislodge the jam. But instead, he dislodged Angus.

And letting out a strangled cry, Angus plummeted straight into the water below.

Nat squeezed Rob’s hand tighter, but he wrenched it from her grasp. Tearing off his jacket, he ran to the edge of the pond and waded in. Did he think he was a lifeguard? This pond was maybe five feet deep in the center. Already, Angus had come up for air, paddling and sputtering, wiping water out of his eyes as he found footing on the murky bottom. Rob dove under the water and, with steady strokes, made his way to Angus’s side. Coming up, hair plastered to the side of his face, he said something to Angus in a low voice, but Natalie couldn’t make it out among the whispering of the guests, all craning their necks, holding back laughter or dismay, a mix of concern and embarrassment for him and, in a few cases (the children), wild entertainment.

Angus nodded, and together the two of them paddled toward shore, Rob matching Angus’s slower pace. (So he could go at someone else’s speed! Just apparently not hers!) They scrambled up the bank, mud and algae on their pants. Waterlogged. Rob’s white dress shirt had gone see-through, clinging to his chest underneath. She could see practically everything: a whorl of chest hair; abs that, like his biceps, were firm without being ostentatious. Annoying, for a chest like that to be wasted on an asshole. He caught her staring and narrowed his eyes in confusion, then looked down to follow her gaze. Realizing how exposed he was, his eyes flitted to the rest of the gathered crowd, his jaw working. He picked up his jacket from the bank, awkwardly held it in front of himself for a moment, then proceeded to put it on over his wet shirt, which could not have been comfortable.

Then he turned his attention to Angus, who was wringing out the sleeves of his own jacket. Natalie hadn’t known if it was possible for Angus to get embarrassed—he seemed to move through life with so little awareness—but now, his mortification was clear. Rob gave Angus a fortifying pat on the back, then picked a trail of green algae off Angus’s shoulder. “You okay?” he asked in a low voice. Angus nodded. “Let’s get you married, then.”

Angus turned to the crowd and gave a little wave and a bow, an attempt to break the tension. It half worked: his extended family clapped, a couple of older uncles whistled. But plenty of other people shifted in their seats.

Natalie stepped aside to let Angus pass her and take his place next to the minister, whose face was frozen in shock. This man was old. He’d performed many a wedding in his day, so if this had discomfited him this much, Natalie could only imagine how Gabby—

Oh God, Gabby. Secreted in the entryway, out of sight. What had been conveyed to her? Did she know the scene that she was about to walk into? Surely the wedding coordinator in charge of cueing her had told her something, but what? Natalie picked up her skirt, ready to run back and talk Gabby through exactly what to expect out here, but Angus had already given a shaky nod to the string quartet, and they’d begun to eke out Pachelbel’s Canon.

So Gabby emerged from the door on her father’s arm and began to walk down the aisle. She’d affixed a beatific smile to her face and seemed to shimmer: the sun gleaming off her full dark curls, the skirt of her dress swishing around her feet.

Then she took in the scene, and it was clear that the wedding coordinator had not told her the full extent of what had gone down. Her expression changed in slow motion. The beatific smile wilted (though now that Gabby was closer, Nat could see the strain and stress in it). Her mouth began to drop in incredulity, her eyes going deer-in-headlights as they landed on her waterlogged fiancé.

And now, as she walked, she was veering.

She.

Was.

Veering.

Extricating her arm from her father’s. Turning from her path down the aisle toward a break in the chairs. Starting to cut a circular route that would take her back up to the double doors she’d emerged from.

Oh God. She was going to pull a runaway bride after all.

Natalie readied herself to run after her—to be a comfort, an accomplice, whatever Gabby needed—and though she was freaking out over the messiness and heartbreak of it all, a little part of her also thought, She is coming back to me.

Nat and Rob locked eyes for a moment, the horror written on his face. She’d warned him. He’d done nothing.

Everyone watched, frozen, as Gabby kept walking, almost as if her feet were taking her somewhere beyond her control. She headed to the path by the pond, where she’d turn back to the house.

Except she didn’t turn. Natalie kept waiting for the moment when the path would change, but somehow, Gabby just kept going down the bank, toward the water’s edge. In her poofy white gown, the most expensive thing she owned, she walked straight into the pond up to her thighs, her expression stoic. Then she turned and locked eyes with Angus. Natalie held her breath.

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