Page 69 of Hers for the Weekend

“I’ll text Holly,” Tara said. “She can make sure he doesn’t leave any doors open in Noelle’s work shed or anything.”

Miriam paled. “Please try to get him to get dressed?”

“What are the parameters?” Tara asked. “Is he allowed to wear pants embroidered with lobsters?”

Laughing, Miriam nodded. “In fact, I have special ordered him brand-new lobster pants with a matching suit jacket. All he needs to do is put it on.”

“You love him so much more than I do,” Tara observed, her eyes wide with horror.

“Hmm,” Miriam said, smiling a little. “I don’t think that’s true.”

“It’s weird that you’re insightful now,” Tara told her. There had been a lot of years when Miriam barely noticed the world around her.

“Isn’t it?” Miri turned back to look at herself in the mirror and gasped joyfully.

Tara’s eyes absolutely did not well up with happy tears. Nope. Not even a little. “Your eyes are perfect, your face and hair are perfect. Are you ready? What’s next?”

Hannah opened the door. “You ready for photos?”

“Can one of you put on my shoes? I can’t bend over in this jumpsuit. I wanted to look sexy, and I flew too close to the sun,” Miriam said, sticking out one leg and pointing her toes.

Tara sighed, picking up her foot and slipping on her bedazzled Chucks. “This is a bit far, even for a lesbian. You know this is not what normal people ask of their exes on their wedding day, right?”

Miriam blinked at her, mascaraed lashes sweeping down onto her elven cheeks. “We’re not normal people. We’re Team Carrigan’s.”

“Speak for yourself,” Tara said, horribly aware that she wanted to be Team Carrigan’s, even if she felt she didn’t deserve to be. “I’m going to go check on Holly and finish getting dressed, okay?”

“I literally don’t know what we would have done without you today,” Miriam said, squeezing her hand.

Tara tried to smile. “You know me. Indispensable.”

Because she made herself that way, because she had always been certain no one would ever love her enough to keep her otherwise. That was too much introspection for the middle of this wedding.

She managed to get back to her room without being waylaid by anyone else needing her for anything, and slumped back against the door once it was closed behind her.

“Sloane.” Holly smirked from where she was sitting on the bed and zipping up her boots. She looked stunning, long burgundy lace sleeves falling past her wrists and hugging her body.

“Siobhan,” Tara acknowledged, pushing off the door. “Those people are so needy.”

“You know they’re going to want you for pictures.” Holly pushed off the bed and walked toward her. “Let’s get you into your dress.”

Tara shook her head. “Why would they want me in pictures?”

Holly blinked at her. “Uh, you’re family?”

She blew out an exasperated breath, although she was secretly what Miriam would have called verklempt. These five days had been healing in a way she could never have expected, allowing her a glimpse of what it would feel like to be unconditionally accepted in a family. That glimpse was going to sustain her for a long time when she went back into the breach. She would never have been able to feel all those things if Holly hadn’t been here, to be an anchor and a home base.

“You made all this possible,” Tara told her, trying to sound less choked up than she felt. It was ridiculous to cry over this. “Having you here, on my team, allowed me to be present for them in a way I could never have otherwise. I would have been in my head, worried about how I was coming across and what they were thinking of me.”

Before Holly could respond, Tara pulled her vintage mint and gold brocade dress over her head and turned so Holly could zip her up. She did, but then she dropped a soft kiss on Tara’s shoulder blade, left bare by the wide boat neck that dipped low in the back.

“I feel very grateful to have been here for this,” Holly whispered against her skin.

They walked hand in hand down the hallway, Tara trailing her fingers over the parrots on the brand-new, vintage reproduction wallpaper that didn’t smell at all like mold. Everything was beginning brand-new this week. Hannah and Levi were growing a new life, Noelle and Miriam were starting a new marriage, and Tara and Holly… well, they might be starting something real.

Tara believed that Holly was talented, smart, and hard-working enough that, if she tried, she could do anything in the world. It wouldn’t be simple, but Tara would happily work to convince her family that a small business owner was the ideal partner, if it meant she got to be with Holly. She just had to convince Holly that being with Tara was worth it.

She was absolutely certain that Holly would be happier if she left waitressing to bake full-time, but she wasn’t convinced that Holly would be happier with her.

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