Page 10 of Kissed in the Dark

“Can you go find out if she’s here yet? Maybe check with Heather.”

I grimace and he sees it. “Can’t you two get along for just one day? It’s my wedding day, for fuck’s sake!” But I swear he mutters under his breath, “if she shows up.”

I nod my head and step out the door, closing it behind me quietly. I clench my fists and then stalk to the door where the bridesmaids are getting dressed. The bride insisted on having her own space.

I knock and it opens, Heather’s pretty face closing down, her red-rimmed eyes flashing away from me. “What?”

“Is Jess here yet?”

Her eyes come up and she fusses with her ugly green dress. I have my suspicions as to why Jess picked that dress out for her maid of honor.

“She should be? I don’t know. We haven’t seen her.”

“Can you go check?”

She huffs but steps out into the hall and then follows me to the room where Jess is getting dressed.

She knocks on the door and waits but there’s nothing. No call to enter, nothing. “Open the door,” I whisper.

Her head jerks back and her pretty pink lips tighten. “No way! I don’t want to see her.”

“Please. Chris is going crazy.”

“Fine,” she growls and then she turns the knob and pushes it open. Both of us enter the room but there’s nobody there. Only a bouquet of flowers on the dressing table and a note.

A sinking feeling hits my gut and I wince when Heather picks up the note. She reads it quickly and turns white. “Oh my god!”

“She isn’t here, is she?”

She shakes her pretty head and her dark auburn hair slips out of the halo of curls on her delicate head. “No. She’s notcoming. It says she went back to her ex that sent her the flowers.”

I wince and swear under my breath. “Dammit! Chris is gonna be gutted.”

Heather tilts her head up, her chin jutting out. “I’ll tell him.”

I stop her, my hand on her arm. Sizzling electricity burns like fire in my veins and I let her go quickly. “I’ll do it. I think he’ll take it better from me.”

I’ve had to tell him a lot of bad stuff over the years. This one’s bad but we’ll both survive.

She nods and follows me out of the room and down to where the groomsmen and the groom are getting ready. I open the door and she moves ahead of me. Chris sees us and smiles.

“Thank god! You two were making me nervous as hell! Did you see Jess? Is she alright? Are we gonna get this show on the road soon? I’m anxious to marry my girl.”

My gut twists and I see the tears in Heather’s eyes. “Oh, Chris.”

He glances back and forth between the two of us and I can see the fear in his eyes. “What’s going on?”

I hand him the note. “I’m sorry, man. She’s not gonna be here. She left.”

I don’t need to tell him why, he’s reading it. But I cringe when he crumples the note up in his hand. “Okay. Well, I guess we better let everybody know. I’ll go talk to the minister if you guys go talk to everyone else.”

Then he stalks out of the room and down the stairs.

I glance over at Heather and she sighs, “I’ll tell the girls. You tell the guys.”

We separate and then after I’ve let the guys know I walk down to where the ceremony was going to take place. But there’s nobody there. So I wander out and back to get the guys and head back to the hotel. It’s quiet as hell and I don’t know what to say.Heather’s crying quietly in the corner and I want to hold her in my arms and tell her that everything’s gonna be alright but I don’t think this is.

We get to the casino and I head up to Chris’s room with Heather but nobody’s there and the place looks like it’s been tossed.

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