Page 86 of One More Time
He stood, and smiled, and clapped for the happy couple as they practically skipped back down the aisle. Then he watched Lucy’s back as she followed Brandon and Jenna out of the room.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
LUCY
Lucy’s emotions were all over the place. She was ecstatic for Chloe and Chandler, beyond pissed at Devin, and sad. So unaccountablysadthat she was convinced that she was a terrible person. She was wrung out. Exhausted.
Kim approached her in the vestibule outside the reception hall and Lucy all but collapsed into her hug.
Wedding guests streamed around them, happily chatting as they shuffled off to the rest of the evening’s wedding events.
‘Jesus,’ Kim fussed. ‘Are you okay?’
‘No,’ Lucy replied. ‘I either want to dance with joy, curl up in the fetal position, or attack the top shelf of liquor at the reception. Maybe all three. Nicky was being really sweet in there. Considerate. Kind. And I don’t know how to handle it. It’s dumb. I’m dumb.’
‘Take a breath,’ Kim instructed.
Lucy, completely at a loss, did as she was told.
‘Fucking Devin,’ she mumbled as she exhaled.
‘He’s an idiot,’ Kim added. ‘His head is so far up his ass the man could do his own colonoscopy.’
A laugh escaped Lucy’s mouth before she even knew it was coming. She tried to get a hold of herself, but failed. Only wheezing, ‘That is so gross,’ before her laughter pulled her under again.
Kim smiled at her warmly.
‘I need to talk to him,’ Lucy said finally.
‘Yeah, you do.’ Kim looked around. ‘Hey, where’s your rock star?’
‘I don’t know. Probably in the cocktail hour. Unless he’s running for his life, as he should. I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing with him, Kim.’
‘Ido,’ she replied in her all-knowing Lady Boss tone.
‘Don’t,’ Lucy snipped, pointing a finger at Kim. ‘Just because we’ve developed this twisted psychic-friends thing over the last thirty-plus years doesn’t mean you get to use it any damn time you please.’
‘Of course it does,’ Kim said flatly.
‘You have to have permission to read my thoughts, witch,’ Lucy (mostly) teased.
‘As if,’ Kim replied. ‘Anyway, it doesn’t take witchcraft to see what’s going on with you, Luce. You’re emoting like Daniel Day-Lewis with a camera pointed at him.’
‘I’m a fucking mess.’ Lucy sighed.
‘Yeah,’ Kim said, throwing her arm across Lucy’s shoulders. ‘But you’re a beautiful mess, and I think he’s up for it.’
‘I can’t, Kim.’
‘Love him? Why the fuck not?’
‘I don’t know what I’m doing. What is evenhappening? Look at what happened with Devin. Like, what the fuck did I do to Devin? How did I screw that up so spectacularly?’ Lucy roared, before silencing herself as she began to draw looks from Brandon’s business associates passing by. She mumbled, ‘I’m too old for this, Kim. Shouldn’t I have some shit figured out by now?’
‘Nobody has anything figured out, Lucy. Nobody. Anybody who says they do is a fucking liar. The best any of us can do is put one foot in front of the other and try to keep the collateral damage to a minimum.’
Lucy fumed, ‘You are the worst at advice.’
‘I’mbrilliantat it,’ she retorted with a lightness that made Lucy want to scream.
