Page 84 of One More Time
‘The Nineties were a special, special time,’ Kim mused, gazing wistfully out the window at the bright desert sky. She turned to Chloe. ‘Doesn’t your generation have a motto?’
Chloe looked at them both like they’d sprouted horns and fangs.
‘Don’t worry, be happy?’ Lucy offered.
‘No.’ Kim shook her head. ‘That was the Eighties.’
‘Ah,’ Lucy said. ‘Yeah, that tracks.’
Chloe stared at them, mouth agape. ‘This explains so, so much,’ she said, gesturing between Kim and Lucy. ‘Also, it’s a miracle anyone in your generation made it out with their sanity.’
‘But did we really though?’ asked Kim.
‘Sanity is so subjective,’ Lucy quipped to Kim.
To which Kim quoted, ‘“Sanity is a little box. Insanity is everything.”’
‘Oh, that’s good. Who said that?’ Lucy asked.
‘Charles Manson,’ Kim replied matter-of-factly.
Chloe chuckled darkly. ‘Aaaandthat’s my cue.’ She patted Lucy on the back. ‘You two are twisted and not good for my mental health.’
Kim and Lucy nodded in agreement.
Chloe backed away. ‘I’m going to go get my hair done now.’
‘Love you, sweetheart,’ cooed Lucy.
‘Love you, too, you maniac,’ Chloe replied.
Kim leaned into Lucy, resting her head on the other woman’s shoulder as they observed the melee of beauty and wedding-day joy. ‘These younglings don’t know how good they’ve got it.’
‘Nope.’ Lucy sighed. ‘Lucky them.’
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
NICKY
Fancy weddings were nothing new for Nicky. He’d had two and a half of his own. Between the rest of the band there had been five more. (Or maybe it was six?) If he added in the other band-adjacent weddings of friends and colleagues over the years, the number was well into the double digits. Though, truthfully some of those hadn’t been fancy, only expensive. The one with a village of overpriced yurts and another where the groom dropped in from a helicopter sprang to mind.
This one, though, felt different.
He was led to a spot in the front row, just as he had been at the rehearsal, seated between Brandon’s wife, Jenna, and Lucy’s ex-husband Sam. An open seat to his right was where Lucy would sit when she finally made it back to him.
Nicky hadn’t slept well without Lucy wrapping her long limbs around him. Had he been so inclined, Nicky might have wondered at how quickly she had become essential to his life. Only days had passed since that first bumblingconversation surrounded by dick lollipops, but it hadn’t felt fast to him. He wasn’t in the beginning with Lucy, but the juicy heart-pounding middle of a story he’d waited twenty-eight long years to continue.
Devin had yet to make an appearance, but Nicky had already decided to simply ignore the man. He still wanted to put him in the ER for the way he’d treated Lucy, but wasn’t about to ruin Chloe’s wedding no matter how satisfying it would be.
The Cristallo Salon was filled with the smell of flowers and the liquid-soft sounds of a string quartet playing classical versions of modern songs. The bouncy chords of Maroon 5’s ‘Girls Like You’ made Nicky wonder if they might play ‘The Breathing Room’ or if, perhaps, Lucy had barred it from the set list.
As the officiant took her place at the front of the room, the chirp of happy chatter dialed back to a quiet hum. Nicky felt, more than saw, Devin settle into his seat some ten feet away.
Chandler, beaming like a klieg light, walked up the aisle with his mother on his arm, depositing her on the groom’s side of the room before taking his spot beside the officiant.
Moments later, the double doors at the back of the room opened. And Nicky stopped breathing.
The bright staccato swell of Bruno Mars from the violins played in time with his heart, pounding as it was at the sight of Lucy. She shined. Glowed. She was a pink, flickering light. He could feel her warmth in his chest as she smiled at him and took slow measured steps down theaisle. Her hair was pinned back on one side by a jeweled flower, the other side flowing in loose waves that begged for his fingers.
