Page 59 of Wed to the Devil
How excited he was when I stepped out the front door just hours before and started to walk down the aisle to where he stood beneath the trellis. He tries to hide it, but I have studied his face for months now. I know when he is secretly pleased and enthusiastic.
“Is there anything you’ll miss about your old life? And I’m not asking for or digging for complements here. There’s no need to reassure me that we will always be friends. I am not letting you go that easily.”
“Nor should you,” I reply. “And if you were to ask me what I miss most about my old life, it would be the simplicity of it all. My old life was so simple. I rarely had any cause to be angry or scared or sad. Now I have those feelings all the time.” I pause. “But I suppose I have other feelings, too.”
Olivia narrows her eyes on my face. “Such as?”
I shrug a shoulder, feeling blood rush to my cheeks.
She gets a self-satisfied little smirk on her face.“You like Dare. You actually like being Mrs. Morgan.”
Embarrassed, I look down. “I didn’t think that.”
“You don’t have to. We’ve been friends for our whole lives. You’re always so bashful about liking guys. But I’ve seen you blush and stammer before. You didn’t when we were in middle school. You did once a year in high school. And you didn’t do it once in college.” She holds up fingers to represent every crush I’ve ever had. Then she raises a finger and wiggles her eyebrows at me. “Now your latest is Dare Morgan. A little unexpected. After all, you seem so dead set against everything he stands for. But at the same time, it’s actually kind of perfect. You might as well fall in love with the man you’re married to, right?”
I groan aloud. “Don’t even say the word to me.”
“What? Love?” She slides me a sly smile. “I’m not saying that you are all the way in yet. But I have watched you fall in love over and over again. I recognize the first bloom of love when I see it.”
I roll my eyes. “Please. I’m begging you, stop while you’re ahead.”
She pushes out her cheek with her tongue. She looks a little shifty, like a henchman that is calling something diabolical. But she just stands up and jerks her head toward the hallway. “I have to go grab something. But I’ll be right back. Don’t move a muscle.”
I sink back into my chair and sigh. “That’s not a problem. Although I may fall asleep right here.”
“You want to wait till I get back. I have something for you.” She picks up the skirts of her bridesmaid dress and hurries down the hall. She’s gone for just a minute before returning with a small off white valise suitcase. She wiggled her eyebrows at me as she sits down, opening the suitcase so that I can’t see what’s inside. When she pulls out a long intricately carved T of wood with strings hanging down from each joint of the T. Hanging from the string are soft plush animal ornaments.
I narrow my eyes suspiciously.
Holding up the contraption and putting the valise aside, Olivia leans forward and shows me the ornaments. One is a rainbow, one a cat, one a dog. An elephant, a zebra, and a brown blob that I can’t quite make out. I quirk my brow at her. Every single one of the ornaments is badly stitched and has been very messily colored, as if by a child.
“What is it?” I wonder. “Some kind of dream catcher?”
“It’s a mobile to hang over a crib.” She screws up her face. “Actually, I wouldn’t hang it over a crib. I’m not sure if it’s safe for a teething baby. But maybe by a baby’s window? She touches one of the ornaments and smiles. Each toy was made by one of the kids at Hope House.”
Tears spring to my eyes. “Oh my God,” I say softly. I reach out and gently touched the brown blob which I now see has two lighter brown pieces coming out of the side of one end. “This is so adorable. You had them make it for me?”
Olivia’s grin widens. “I did. And because I know you want to know, that toy you’re holding is supposed to be a moose. That was actually made by Solana.”
I look up at her and beckon her over to me for a hug. “Thank you so much. Really. I have to admit, I haven’t actually bought a single thing for the baby yet.”
She pulls back and looks at me with the prize. “Really? Why not? You have all this money now.”
“Yeah. I don’t know. I think… I think I wanted to make sure that things with Dare would stick. When I first agreed to the engagement, he was driving me up a wall on an hourly basis. I didn’t know if I could really live like that. But he has really toned it down since then.”
Olivia nudges her elbow into my ribs very gently and winks at me. “I got that when I saw you guys all over each other today. You two seem really happy. And I am thrilled for you.”
I hug her again for good measure and then pull away. She sighs and takes the mobile out of my hand and puts it back in the little suitcase. She pats the side of it. “I’m going to go find the Butler and make sure that this gets put in your luggage. You just stay here and try to relax for a few more minutes.”
Nodding, I give her a quiet smile. “I love you, Olivia.”
She doesn’t miss a beat. “You too, Talia. Always and forever.”
She spends and heads off toward the hallway once more. I’m not in my chair for a whole two minutes before Dare opens the door and sticks his head in. He looks at me sitting down and grins at me. “There you are. If you care about me at all, you’ll come save me from being bored to death.”
“That bad?”
He rolls his eyes. “I got trapped talking to the company insurance agent. I was just trying to tell him that I wanted to make an appointment to change my life insurance policy. But he took the opportunity to give me a lot of very serious advice for how to treat a new wife.”