Page 11 of First Comes Marriage

Baz turned back to the mirror and straightened his bow tie. In less than an hour, he was getting married.

He stared at the man in the mirror and hardly recognized him. And it wasn’t about the clean-shaven jawline—because Holly complained of beard burn if he didn’t shave for even a day—and slicked back hair—because Holly said it made him look more sophisticated. He wasn’t this guy. the guy who jumped into things headfirst, who let his emotions determine his next move, who was willing to give up his entire life in Aster Bay—his friends, his fledgling accounting business—to follow a woman to Brookline.

He had only met Holly six months ago when she’d arrived in town to spend the summer with her sister and great aunt. She’d shown up at the food pantry where Baz and Sabrina volunteered together and turned his entire life upside down. He’d never thought he’d be that guy, yet here he was, preparing to marry a woman who, until last week, he hadn’t known hated board games.

But he wanted to be the guy she thought he was, or thought he could be—a guy worthy of Holly Page, country club princess and rising star lawyer at one of Boston’s top law firms. Still, in his rented tuxedo in this too-expensive suite in the fanciest hotel in his hometown, he felt like an imposter.

“Uncle Baz, are you gonna throw up?” Brodie eyed him warily from his perch on the ottoman.

“I need some air.” He pushed past his friends towards the door to the suite.

“We’ll come with you,” Gavin offered.

Baz shook his head. “Give me a minute.”

He was stomping down the hallway towards the bridal suite before he even recognized where he was headed. As heapproached the room, his footsteps slowed and he tried to steady his breathing. He needed to see Holly, to touch her, to look into her eyes and remember how much he loved her, and then it wouldn’t matter that her family’s bank account had more figures in it than his family would see in a lifetime, that she was so far out of his league it was laughable. None of it would matter, because she had chosen him, because he had asked her to be his wife and she’d said yes.

“I won’t let you do this.” Sabrina’s tight voice drifted into the hallway through a crack in the bridal suite door.

Baz paused, leaning against the wall. He didn’t want to interrupt whatever sibling drama was unfolding behind that door. He knew Holly and Sabrina didn’t always see eye to eye, and his friendship with Sabrina had already caused more than a few arguments with Holly when Baz had made the mistake of trying to help Holly see her sister’s side of things. Sabrina was his friend, but Holly was about to be his wife. The last thing he wanted to do was put himself between them.

“I don’t think you really get a say here,” came Holly’s laughing reply. “You’re making a big deal out of nothing. Everybody does it.”

“Not you. Not Sebastian.”

Baz’s heart stopped at the mention of his name, at the vehemence in Sabrina’s tone.

“Are you jealous? Is that what this is about?” Holly asked. “You picked a hell of a time to tell me you’re in love with my fiancé.”

“I’m n—it’s not about that and you know it.”

“What I know, little sister, is that you are out of line.”

“You can’t marry him.”

Baz sucked in a breath, anger and confusion souring in his gut as he leaned against the wall.

“Why not? Why shouldn’t I have some fun?”

“Fun? You know this will never work. He doesn’t deserve—”

“I’ve had about enough of hearing what you think my fiancé deserves.”

What the hell was happening? He and Sabrina were friends—weren’t they? Since when did she think he wasn’t good enough for her sister? That he didn’t deserve her?

“I’ll never forgive you for this,” Sabrina said, her voice tearful.

But Baz had heard enough. He turned and walked away, the voices of the arguing sisters receding into the background of the static slowly filling his brain.

It would be fine. He and Holly would get married and Sabrina would see how much he would do to deserve Holly, how hard he would work to make her happy. He’d prove it to everyone. And if Sabrina couldn’t be happy for him, if she really believed that her sister shouldn’t marry him, then maybe they were never really friends to begin with.

***

“Don’t forget to breathe,” Gavin whispered at Baz’s back.

Baz glanced over his shoulder at his friends lined up in their matching tuxes at the front of St. Anthony’s, and gave a small nod. He hated standing there, at the front of the church he’d been attending his whole life, with all those people looking at him. He felt certain they could all tell that he didn’t belong in this life, in the tuxedo with the too-tight shoes surrounded by flower arrangements that cost more than he made in a year, preparing to marry a woman who should have never even known his name. If Sabrina could see that they didn’t fit, surely everyone else in this cavernous church could too.

The music changed and the first of the bridesmaids appeared at the back of the church in a long, pale pink dress—one of Holly’s college roommates. The one who married the doctor. She was followed by Holly’s cousin, the one who competed in dressage tournaments, not that Baz had even known whatdressage was when they’d been introduced. Another college roommate—the one who clerked for the Senator. And then Sabrina appeared at the back of the church. Her face was red, eyes puffy, and she kept her gaze focused on the ground in front of her as she walked.

---