Page 71 of Binding Their Hearts

“Okay, okay.” Ollie pulled back but gripped Alice’s hands and swung them sideways like a game of London Bridge. Dancing in place, she glanced at Emma. “I thought I couldn’t, but somebody found a way.”

“How long—” They hadn’t even started the ceremony and already she had tears running down her cheeks. At least she didn’t have makeup on yet. “We’ve been chatting all this time, and you never said one word.”

“It’s hardly a surprise if I tell you in advance, silly.” Ollie thumbed away the tears, dragging Alice’s hands with her by virtue of not letting go. “And like hardly a week. Had to wait for schedules. I have a quick turnaround—flying back tonight—but I’m pretty sure you’re only doing this once. No way could I miss it.” She waved at Jay. “Hey, flirty bike boy. Staking my claim to a dance after the ceremony now, got it? You tell all the other well-wishers your new sister gets first dibs after the bride.”

“Got it, sis.” Jay smushed Ollie between them, wrapping shaking arms around Alice’s back and gripping her plain tee tight. “Thanks for being here. Even if you are a sneaky liar. That’s a tickling offense, you know.”

With a screech, Ollie burrowed into Alice, driving them back two steps.

“All right, all right.” Laughing, Alice fended off Jay with a stop hand, and he froze with tickle claws in midair. “No starting a war right before we get married.” Winking at Jay, she stage-whispered, “Save it for after.”

“As you command.” He bowed, only half teasing, his loving gaze on her the whole time.

Ollie groaned. “Hey now, no fair ganging up.”

Alice swallowed around the lump in her throat. This building a family stuff, sometimes it socked you right in the gut with a pure joy that knocked the wind out of you. “All right, let me get changed. Henry and Jay will be done in five minutes, and I’ll still be figuring out how to put mine on.”

Ollie popped up and gave a snappy salute. “That’s what I’m here for. C’mon, we can help each other.” She took a double grip on Alice’s wrist and spun her toward the door. “They’re both in bags, and I wasn’t even allowed to peek!”

Alice dragged her feet as she passed Emma, who still held the door. “Thank you.” She squeezed Emma’s forearm, and the older woman practically gleamed with satisfaction. Having Emma as a friend surpassed having a fairy godmother. First she’d found them a house, and now she’d magically made Alice’s sister appear from the other side of the country. “I don’t know how you managed it, but thank you.”

“Wonderful,” Emma murmured as she pulled the door shut. “I do love a good surprise.”

If Alice could manage to put Emma and Santa on the road to happiness together, that might just make them square for all Emma had done.

Ollie chattered nonstop about pulling one over on her big sister, but Alice had eyes for only one thing: the zippered garment bags hanging on wall hooks. Name tags sat in little plastic sleeves on the front. She snatched the zipper for hers and held her breath.

Beside her, Ollie did the same. “Count of three?”

“Three,” Alice whispered, and pulled. The bag peeled open like lapels, splitting to either side of something silky and silver. She brushed the covering from the shoulders, and the bag fell to the floor atop a shoebox.

Elegance hung in a shimmering waterfall before her. The simple boat neck sat above a sleek, slinky, sleeveless dress with an arched seam across the chest that mimicked corset shaping.

“Oh, Allie. It’s gorgeous.” Ollie reached out and stopped short from touching the fabric. “Henry and Jay will be speechless.”

She exhaled. She hadn’t really believed he would—but then he had on her first night at the club—and she hadn’t specified any hard limits on wedding wear, so she could’ve been striding up the aisle naked with a silver toy flashing between her ass cheeks. “Protects the nipples.”

Ollie burst out laughing and covered her mouth with both hands. “Well yikes, I hope so. Your mother-in-law is gonna see you in it.”

“I know, I know.” Curling forward, she tried to stop the ache in her stomach from her own laughing fit. “Couldn’t think about”—nope, still laughing—“anything else for the last ten minutes.”

“Except me, you mean.” Ollie planted a hand on her hip and struck an imperious pose. Might work on strangers, but impossible to take seriously from the baby she’d fed pureed banana to or the toddler who’d shouted wheeee with her arms thrown in the air as Alice pulled their little red wagon around the driveway.

“Except you, munchkin.” She swept her sister into her arms and kissed her head. “I’m thinking about you always.”

“I’m sorry Mom isn’t here to say all the sage advice things. Or get weepy and say ‘my little girl’s all grown up’ and pin your hair up.” Ollie sagged against her, her breath flitting across Alice’s throat. “Do you want your hair up? I could make it happen, probably. Messy bun? French braid?”

“Down, I think.” Jay loved the waves, and Henry would think about clenching her hair in his fist. Much better than anything an updo could achieve. “Have you been binge-watching Hallmark again?”

“It’s soothing. And it doesn’t make me think. I save all my brainpower for medicine.”

The day would be different with Mom at her side. Take a fatalistic turn, melancholy and morose, the storm clouds gathering because they never went away. “I’m not sure I would want her here.”

“She loves you, Allie.” Ollie wasn’t laughing anymore. She plucked at the hem of Alice’s shirt. “She sends love to us both when I call.”

“I know. But how is it fair that I’m on cloud nine while she’s miserable? Should I remind her of what she doesn’t have and won’t ever have again?” Flaunting her happiness would be cruelty, not love. And draw the negative energy she didn’t believe in. No one had discovered an equation or graphed a function for the arc where happiness hit the Icarus point and a person just fell from the sky, flailing, because they’d reached for too much. “When I let myself think about it, I’m terrified.”

Ollie squeezed her tight, less rib-cracking and more never-letting-go. “You mean hide in the basement with headphones terrified?”

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