Page 34 of Take Me to the Wedding

My stomach did that queasy thing again. I decided to tell it like it was and prepare for the consequences. “He’s good-looking and he seems nice, but I’m not interested.” I pressed my lips together, prepared for what I knew was coming.

“Sam, you always scoff at nice guys,” Ani said. “You always pick the bad boys.”

“I pick bad boys because they’re fun. And fun is all I want right now.” And maybe ever. “Besides, there’s no shimmer.” Oma was ahugebeliever in shimmer.

She heaved a sigh. “Dating a nice guy might change your life.”

Mia nodded vehemently and grinned. “No pain, no gain.”

Pain being the key here. My friends were as persistent as that little dog up at the main house. I was used to this, but I was going to shut them down quick. “Thanks for thinking of me, but no, thanks.” I had a solid backup plan—I was going to pair up with Gabe, who would save me from Quinn for sure. “This weekend isn’t about me. How are you doing?”

Ani looked anything but relaxed and unstressed.

“Out with it,” Mia said.

She went quiet.

I put a hand on her arm. “Ani, what’s wrong?”

“Things just aren’t… going well.”

“Wedding planning is really stressful,” Mia said hurriedly. “That’s why Brax and I aren’t even attempting it this year, what with me starting my heme-onc fellowship and him starting practice.”

Ani’s clear blue eyes brimmed with tears. It was clear she took no comfort from Mia’s answer.

“You can tell us,” I said. The three of us had been through a lot together these past few years. Our friendship had been one of the best things to come out of residency.

Ani sat up and crossed her arms. “We’re just not on the same page about a lot of things. Tyler seems so frustrated with—well, everything. I’m worried he’s having second thoughts.”

Mia and I exchanged looks of hidden worry over Ani’s head. We both half believed what she’d just said. Of the two of them, it was no secret that Ani got along with everyone and found humor in nearly everything. Tyler was introverted, serious, and in general, uptight.

Ani attributed that to his tough childhood. But frankly, I had as tough a childhood as anyone, and I’d retained the ability to get a joke once in a while. But I guess I had different issues. I vowed to try harder not to judge.

We loved Ani, and she obviously loved Tyler, so we wrote it off as an opposites-attract thing and hoped for the best.

But there was a little wrench thrown into all this that also gave us cause for worry: Ani had been a nurse. She’d married young, at twenty-two, and was divorced by twenty-five. Anyone could forgive a youthful mistake—except for Ani herself. She seemed to thinkshewas the difficult one in the relationship and seemed to us to go above and beyond to placate Tyler. In our opinion, she was the gem in the relationship.

It didn’t help that her parents helped to perpetuate her sense of failure, treating her divorce as an embarrassment. For a long time, they wouldn’t even tell their friends that it happened.

“This is a beautiful place,” I said, “and we’re all here to celebrate you guys. You have a whole weekend to unwind, relax, and have fun together.” That was the most positive spin I could think of.

Mia approved, telegraphing me a stealthy thumbs-up and mouthingGood job.

“That’s why I chose it,” Ani said. “But Tyler is already saying that the pollen is activating his allergies. He wants to stay in the air-conditioning.”

Of course he did.

“You guys should go explore the place,” Ani said, shooing us out. “Don’t let me stop you.”

“You want to come for a walk and explore with us?” Mia asked.

“It’s been a week,” Ani said. “I think I’m going to lie down for a while. Everything will look brighter after a nap, right?”

“Totally.” To Mia I said, “I think I’ll pass on the walk. I’ve got some work stuff I’ve got to take care of.”

“Okay then. I’m going to find Brax and see if he wants to find a place to fool around,” Mia said.

We both laughed, but Ani looked a little wistful. This might have been my imagination, but I wondered if she was thinking that Tyler was never spontaneous—or fun—like that.

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