“I’d be happy to,” he said, and left.

  “What do you need scissors for?” Laurel asked.

  She waited until he was out of the room. “I don’t. I wanted to get you alone.” It all made sense now, the way Laurel had been so different lately, the glow about her. “You’re sleeping with him, aren’t you?”

  Laurel opened her mouth to reply but it was Chelsea who answered. She’d arrived in time to hear Karen’s last words. “Have you just figured that out?” She sounded pretty amused.

  “I—I’ve had other things on my mind. Usually I notice.”

  “Actually,” Laurel said in her soft, diffident way, “he asked me to marry him.”

  “What?” both women shrieked in unison.

  And Laurel—quiet, flaky Laurel—laughed aloud, pulling them both in for a hug. “I never would have met him if it wasn’t for you two. I am so happy.”

  “But it’s so fast.”

  “I know. Honestly, I think I knew the second I saw him.”

  “Love at first sight. Huh. So it really can happen.”

  Chelsea nodded. “Happened to me, the first time I saw David. Of course, I was only fourteen at the time and he didn’t know I was alive. But I didn’t care. I loved him anyway.”

  At that moment Dexter walked in. Karen looked across the room at him, recalled the first day they’d met, and how she’d taken one look at him and felt as though time had stopped and the world stilled.

  “It happened to me, too,” she admitted.

  25

  “WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU, too?” Dex asked.

  She ignored his question. “Tell me you have news?”

  “I was hoping you’d have some.”

  She shook her head. “If only the happy couple would show up, this would be a fantastic wedding.”

  “Don’t panic until you have to,” Chelsea advised. Her brown eyes were full of sympathy. It was great having a friend like Chelsea. She knew Karen wouldn’t worry if there wasn’t anything to worry about. “Some things we can’t control.”

  For some reason, they both glanced at Dexter.

  Could Chelsea be as aware as she was that where her ex was concerned, she had no control. Not over her feelings, her actions or her heart.

  She loved him now, had loved him when she first set eyes on him, would always love him.

  “The guests are arriving,” Dexter informed her.

  But she already knew that. They, at least, were on time.

  “I know.” There had been no plan for a before ceremony mingle. This was like a church wedding. Arrive, sit down, ceremony and then reception. The harpist had already started. She could hear the soft strains of music coming from the ballroom.

  This had never happened to her before.

  Never.

  As they stared at each other, twin cell phones began to ring. She reached immediately for hers, saw Dexter do the same.

  “It’s an incoming text,” she said as Laurel and Chelsea watched. As though drawn by some invisible force, David and Ron came into the dining room just as Karen faced her worse nightmare.

  “Stuck in Italy,” she read aloud. “No way to get back in time. We’re going to get married here. We’ve paid for the wedding so tell everyone to enjoy a great party on us. Sophie.”

  “My message is shorter but pretty much says the same,” Dex added.

  KAREN MADE A SOUND she didn’t think had ever come out of her mouth before. Could you yell, moan and hyperventilate all at one time? With a little scream thrown in for good measure?

  “There’s not going to be a wedding,” Chelsea said.

  Dexter was the only person in the room who didn’t seem at all shocked, instead he chuckled. “Good for them,” he said.

  Finding an outlet for the torrent of emotions swamping her nervous system, Karen swung on him. “Good for them? What are you talking about? I planned a wedding around a bride and groom.”

  But Dexter simply looked at her for a long moment, a slow smile spreading across his face. How he could be happy in this time of her worst professional humiliation, she couldn’t even imagine.

  “And all those people out there have traveled a long way to enjoy a wedding,” Dexter said. He glanced around, spotted a bouquet of cut flowers on a side table, broke off a yellow rosebud and began stuffing it into his top buttonhole. “They gave up their Saturdays, got dressed up.”

  Chelsea regarded him with interest. “Yes, they have, it would be a real shame to disappoint them,” she agreed.

  “I’ll have to tell them,” Karen said, feeling stunned and stupid. And why, oh why was Dex sticking flowers in his lapel at a time like this?

  Laurel, who’d quietly watched Dex, seemed to have caught the bug and she’d abandoned her cake to choose a selection of blooms from the bouquet. “I need a kitchen towel,” she said urgently to Chelsea. “And some ribbon. Do we have anything in green?”

  “What are you lunatics doing?” Karen demanded.

  Dex walked forward, laughter deep in his eyes, and an emotion so strong it made her pulse pound in spite of the fact that she had really important things to do here. He reached for her hands.

  “I love you, Karen. In front of all these witnesses, I swear to you that I have always loved you. I never was unfaithful to you, never could be. You’re my muse, my insanity, the thorn in my side and the woman I dream about at night and want to wake up to every morning.”

  He laughed as her mouth opened and closed a few times but nothing came out.

  “Come on, Kiki. Accept the truth. You let your insecurities get in the way of the best thing that ever happened to either of us. What say you give us another chance?”

  “But, I can’t just—”

  “Seems to me,” Chelsea said, helping Laurel tie her makeshift bouquet, “that a good wedding planner should be prepared for every eventuality, including supplying a bride and groom if the original pair go missing.”

  “But I—”

  “What, Kiki? You what?” Dexter was still holding her hands, still looking at her with his heart in his eyes and she knew.

  Crazy, with no way to prove anything, she knew.

  “Oh, Dex, are you sure?”

  “I’m game if you are.”

  Strains of harp music penetrated the dining room as the door opened and Sophie’s aunt came in looking as distracted as a seventy-year-old society matron can look. “The guests appear to be getting restless,” she said.

  Chelsea moved to the woman to speak to her quietly since Karen only had eyes for Dexter. “But I’m impossible. I’m jealous and neurotic and a perfectionist.”

  “I know.”

  “And I’ll never get any taller. And probably not a lot thinner. I’ll probably gobble up that entire cake and get fat.”

  “I love you exactly the way you are.”

  Tears filled her eyes. “Do you, Dex? Do you really?”

  Instead of answering her with words, he leaned in and kissed her with passion and warmth. Felt like all the answer she needed.

  She nodded, decision made.

  Then, as everyone in the room was looking at her, she did what she did best. Planned a wedding.

  “Chelsea? I’ll need you to be my maid of honor.”

  “I’m touched and I accept.” Chelsea removed her apron and looked as chic as any bridesmaid could in her Paris gown.

  “Best man?” Dex asked David.

  “Happy to help. I’m David by the way.” The men shook hands.

  “But who’s going to walk me down the aisle?”

  Ron stepped forward. “I would be honored, as a friend who thinks the world of you, to walk you down the aisle.”

  “But Laurel? You’ll have to be a bridesmaid. I can’t leave Laurel out.”

  “I’m not really dressed for it.” They all looked at her in one of her usual flowing numbers and Karen thought she’d never looked better.

  “You’re perfect.”

  “What would you like me to do?” the aunt asked, seeming much less hysterical about this change of plans than Karen would have imagined.

  “Perhaps you could make an announcement,” Dex said. “If you’re up to it.”

  “I suppose it’s no more complicated than speaking to the Ladies’ Auxiliary,” she informed him tartly.

  “Then let’s go.”

  He held her hand tightly and they walked to the double doors that led to the conservatory.

  Sophie’s aunt opened the door and two hundred faces turned to look. Some were bored, some irritated and some simply enjoying the music and the day.

  Dexter spoke to her in a low voice and she repeated the words, putting her own spin on them, naturally, to the rather stunned looking congregation.

  “Dear friends,” she said, every inch the grand lady. “I’ve got some rather surprising news for you. My niece and her fiancé were unable to fly back from Italy in time for today’s ceremony.”

  There were a few startled cries and an immediate rustle of comment and shuffling. But a congregation of two hundred restless and confused wedding-goers were no match for a woman who’d been a top society matron for decades. She simply raised her voice.

  “I know it’s unfortunate, but I promised you a wedding in this house today, and a wedding you shall have.”

  She waited another moment for the latest batch of murmurs to die down. “Many of you know Dexter Crane, if not personally, then by reputation. He’s a dear friend of the family and I’m delighted to help him celebrate his wedding to Philadelphia’s favorite wedding planner, Karen Petersham, whom many of you know personally or certainly by reputation.

  “Karen and Dexter would like your support and congratulations as they celebrate their marriage here, today.”

  “Rings,” Chelsea whispered urgently. “You don’t have rings.”

  Karen had never been more glad that she always had emergency supplies. She slipped off the gold band she always wore on these occasions, kissed it quickly for good luck, then passed it to David, Dexter slipped off the signet ring he always wore and followed her lead, kissing it quickly before passing that to David.

  The aunt took one look at the homemade bouquet and shook her head. She walked over to where a gaggle of confused young women in blue bridesmaid dresses stood and took the bridal bouquet from the maid of honor and handed it to Karen. “Something borrowed.”

  She then took the heirloom pearls from her own neck and looped them around Karen’s. Who was so surprised she blinked. The older woman’s eyes crinkled when she smiled. “I wore these on my wedding day. They’ve been worn by all the brides in my family, and we’ve all enjoyed very long, successful marriages.”

  Karen glanced at Dex in panic, then back at the woman. “But Dex and I were married before and it didn’t work out.”

  “Well, whatever foolish mistakes you made before, don’t make them again,” she told Karen quite forcibly. Then she surveyed her once more. “Right, that’s something old, something borrowed, your clothing’s obviously new. That just leaves something blue.”

  “I’m actually wearing blue underwear,” Karen said, feeling a little foolish.

  “Excellent foresight.” The woman nodded briskly. “Now who is going to walk you down the aisle?”

  “I’ve offered, ma’am,” Ron informed her.

  “Good. Now,” she motioned to Dex and David, “you two skedaddle up to the front, then I’ll take my seat and motion to the harp to begin. Oh, and you’d better give the minister your full names so he doesn’t muff it up.” Then she beamed at them both. “Good luck, my dears.”

  It was perhaps the oddest wedding party Karen had ever been a part of. Six confused young women in designer blue bridesmaid gowns trooped up the makeshift aisle, followed by Laurel and Chelsea both stylish in their own ways, but very different from the other attendants. Then Karen followed on Ron’s arm, in her green suit and the most glorious bouquet of flowers. The pearls were warm around her neck, warm with tradition and generations of successful brides.

  She wouldn’t have worn them if she’d thought she’d break the tradition, but she knew she wouldn’t. She and Dex had broken faith with each other once. They wouldn’t do it again.

  Of that she was certain.

  When she walked down the aisle, before a congregation of people who seemed as delighted to celebrate her wedding as they would have been to celebrate Sophie’s, she felt a connection with all the women who’d dared to believe in love, dared to make a commitment.

  Her gaze rose and she met Dex’s, his eyes so warm and full of promise. And love.

  “Dearly beloved,” the minister began and she looked at Dexter and thought how dearly beloved he was to her.

  The service, so unexpected, so perfect, could have been designed with them in mind. Then she realized that Sophie had pretty much left it to Dex and Karen to plan her wedding.

  No wonder they’d planned the perfect wedding for themselves.

  When the minister said, “You may kiss the bride,” Dexter took her in his arms and kissed her, managing to be both decorous and passionate. As he pulled away, he held her for a moment.

  “We’ll do better, this time, Kiki.”

  “We’ll do better, Dex,” she promised. “We will.”

  ISBN: 978-1-4268-6968-6

  THE EX FACTOR

  Copyright © 2010 by Nancy Warren

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  Nancy Warren, Ex Factor

 

 

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