Cassie’s wedding rehearsal would be starting soon. The inn’s suites were filled with out-of-town guests, and members of the wedding party were already arriving for the rehearsal. Bonnie had already seen and spoken to Cassie and Holly, but she hadn’t yet crossed paths with Paul. That was the ordeal Kinley was trying to spare her by offering this excuse.
Kinley didn’t know what, exactly, had gone wrong between Bonnie and Paul, but Bonnie had told her that it hadn’t been a pleasant parting. She had at the same time assured her sister that the breakup would not in any way affect her work for Cassie’s wedding.
In their meetings Bonnie had seen Cassie all but biting her tongue to keep from blurting out comments or questions about what had happened between her dad and Bonnie, but she’d managed to hold them back. Bonnie assumed Paul had laid down very strict orders to his daughter to stay out of this.
Bonnie would be just as pleasant to Paul as she had been to the others, she promised herself. She didn’t consider herself a particularly skilled actor, but she was determined that no outside observer would have a clue from her behavior that she and Paul were anything more than innkeeper and client. They would not be friends. And from now on, she swore, she would never again get involved with a client or guest. The way she’d hurt for the past twelve days, she wasn’t sure she would ever get involved with anyone again, though she wanted to believe she hadn’t let him shake her quite that badly.
She was still so angry with him that her hands wanted to clench every time he crossed her mind—which, admittedly, was often. She didn’t try to let go of that anger. She suspected it was the only thing keeping her from curling into a ball and sobbing.
She could no longer boast that she’d never had her heart broken. Paul had pretty much stomped on it. The worst part was that he’d ambushed her to do so, giving her no chance to prepare herself. At least she hadn’t cried in front of him. She had the satisfaction of vowing to herself that she never would.
She picked up a tray of tiny cakes covered in pistachio-green icing, each decorated with a piped W for Woodrow, the surname of Cassie’s fiancé and the name Cassie had chosen to adopt after the wedding. The cakes and pistachio-and-white-chocolate-chip cookies would be available on the back deck during the rehearsal, along with coffee, iced tea and bottles of water. Dinner would follow at an Italian restaurant ten miles away, where Mike had taken Cassie for their first date.
The wedding would begin at five tomorrow afternoon with dinner on the lawn afterward, served by caterers hired for the occasion.
To Logan’s satisfaction, Cassie hadn’t asked for elaborate decorations on the grounds. The event would be fairly simple but elegant, with white columns to hold baskets of pale green-and-white orchids, white folding chairs for the guests with each aisle marked at the end by knots of flowers and dove-gray ribbon, discreetly placed fairy lights and garlands of orchids and ribbon for the arch of the gazebo in which she and Mike would take their vows. The musicians would provide their own instruments and sound system, and the officiate would not stand behind a stand or podium, so setup for this wedding had been easier than most.
Tomorrow, the caterer would take care of putting up the tent with hanging chandeliers and tables with white tablecloths and pistachio-and-gray linens and decor. It was going to be a beautiful wedding and Bonnie, for one, would do nothing to dim the celebration.
It was inevitable, of course, that her path would cross Paul that evening. Apparently now was the time. She suspected he made a point to get it over with, approaching her as she set out a fresh tray of cookies just before the start of the rehearsal. He’d probably wanted to be the one in control of this meeting, too, she thought irritably, so he wouldn’t be the one caught unprepared if he turned a corner and found her there.
She gave him a glittering smile. “Hello, Paul.”
He searched her face with dark, unsmiling eyes. “Bonnie. Everything looks very nice.”
Aware that they were being not-so-discreetly watched by the very few people who knew they’d gone out a few times, she kept her smile firmly in place as she said, “Thank you. I believe the rehearsal is about to start. If you’ll excuse me, I’ll refill the coffee carafes.”
He made a quick, almost instinctive move to detain her. “Bonnie—”
Her eyebrow rose in a cool expression. “Yes?”
He paused, then shook his head and sighed. “Never mind.”
Nodding, she sidestepped him and headed inside.
She wouldn’t cry, she wouldn’t cry, she wouldn’t cry. The mantra swirled through her head as she busied herself indoors, and it helped her hold off the film of threatening tears. But still her eyes burned even as her heart radiated with pain.
Logan was in the kitchen, pouring himself a cup of coffee when she carried in an empty cookie tray. He took one look at her face and scowled. “You’re sure you won’t let me pound him? I’d catch him in a hidden nook so none of our other guests would see.”
Laughing softly, Bonnie leaned her head against her brother’s arm for a moment. “Thanks for the offer, but no.”
“Damn.”
She put her hostess smile back on and picked up a full coffee carafe to take outside, leaving her brother muttering unhappily behind her.
She was on the deck when Cassie’s wedding planner called out for Paul to practice walking Cassie up the aisle. Though tomorrow they would exit from the dining room doors and cross the deck to the steps down, tonight they waited at the foot of the stairs for the signal. Bonnie couldn’t resist watching as the father and daughter negotiated the gravel path to the gazebo where the happy young groom waited. At the foot of the steps to the gazebo, Paul tenderly kissed Cassie’s cheek. Bonnie suspected plenty of eyes filled with tears at that moment, though her own remained stubbornly dry. Had she not been so angry, she’d have probably sobbed buckets.
Standing at Bonnie’s side, Kinley sighed. “You think Dad will be in the country for my wedding?”
“He said he’d try, didn’t he? Maybe he will.” Bonnie tried to speak with her usual optimism but she found that a bit more difficult these days.
Given the signal that his role was completed, Paul turned away from the gazebo. Maybe it was just a coincidence that he looked up at the deck, that his eyes met hers at that moment. It took all the strength she had to make herself turn away.
It was late, she was tired, and she knew she needed to get some sleep that night, but she couldn’t turn off her mind. She tossed and turned in the bed for a while, then paced the apartment, finally settling on the couch with the TV remote in her hand. And then she stared at the dark screen of the television, having no interest in turning it on.
When someone tapped on her door, she thought it must be Logan. He’d probably been doing one of his midnight prowls and had seen her lights on. She sighed, figuring she’d have to reassure him again that she was fine. Maybe if she told him enough, she’d start to believe it herself.
The sight of Paul standing at her door made her heart stop beating. At least, that was the way it felt when she finally started to breathe again. “What are you doing here?”