“You need to apologize for the things you just said to him. And then you need to tell the truth,” Michelle said in a firm, but warm voice.
“Oh. It’s that simple?”
“No. It’s that hard. It will be incredibly hard to speak your truth, and to take ownership of the things you said to him. But isn’t it better than the alternative? Feeling crappy and keeping it all inside?”
Casey inhaled deeply, then breathed out. She did it again. The big breaths spread through her, cooling her jealousy, calming her angry heart. “Why do you have to be so wise about everything?”
Michelle smiled, and grasped Casey’s hand. “I’m not so wise. I’m just trying to help you see your way through. And look, I know it’s not easy to open up to someone you love. It can be incredibly scary. There was a time when I thought I had lost Jack from being too open with him. But it turns out being open was exactly what he needed, and what we both needed to have what we have. I wouldn’t be where I am today without having gone through that uncertainty. And I couldn’t be any happier to be where I am now,” she said, squeezing Casey’s hand in emphasis.
“But I don’t know what’s going to happen if I open up. I don’t know that I’m going to have the same thing you have.”
Michelle laughed. “Of course you don’t. And neither does he.”
“He might be pissed at me. I was a bit, how shall we say, bitchy to him. Just a teeny bit,” Casey said, a tiny smile creeping back on her face as she made fun of herself.
“I don’t think you’ve done anything that you can’t recover from.”
Another deep breath spread through her chest, fueling her with something other than the anger that had steered her wrong a few minutes ago. “I’m so glad you’re marrying my brother,” Casey said.
“Me too.” Michelle beamed, unable to contain a bright, shining smile.
“And you know,” she said, flashing a toothy grin and wiggling her eyebrows, “don’t forget I was kind of a matchmaker for the two of you. Hopefully that’ll keep you from being too mad at me for behaving terribly before your rehearsal dinner.”
“One, you did not behave badly. You behaved like a woman in love. And two, I will happily give you all the credit in the world. Jack is wonderful, and I know a lot of that is because he has you as his sister.”
After Michelle left, Casey took a minute to compose herself, touching up her powder and reapplying her lip gloss. Then, she joined her family and friends on the veranda. Torches flickered in the early evening light, casting pretty shadows across the deck and the sandy beach mere feet away. She found her place card, and a waiter pulled out a chair for her. Her stepmother would be sitting next to her.
She scanned the group for Nate, but didn’t see him anywhere. Reaching for her glass of water, she took a sip and waited patiently, peering at the other place cards to find where he was seated. Across from her, two chairs down. She’d have to grab a private moment with him as soon as she could. She’d talk to him without tears or agenda, and simply speak the full truth. All this time of saying less than what she felt wasn’t helping anyone.
A minute later, her spine straightened and goosebumps rose on her arms as his mouthwatering scent drifted by. He took the chair next to her. “Michelle just told me the seating had changed. I hope you don’t mind,” he said, moving in next to her.
She didn’t wait a second longer. “I’m so sorry,” she said softly, because there was no time like the present. She went for the truth, and she hoped those three words could begin to convey how contrite she was. But they were only the beginning. “I shouldn’t have said any of those things. When I saw you with that woman, it made me so incredibly jealous.”
A flicker of a smile appeared on his lips, those gorgeous, delicious lips she loved to kiss. “Like that night I was in Miami and you thought I went to a club,” he said, speaking in a hushed whisper.
“Yes. I was so jealous then. And now I feel that way ten times, fifty times, a thousand times more. I can’t stand the thought of anyone else with you. Except me.”
He parted his lips, and a sexy sigh escaped. “Casey,” he said, breathing her name like she was precious to him. “I feel the same. I completely feel the same.”
But there was no more time for any conversation, because Jack and Casey’s father stood up, clinked a glass, and thanked everyone for coming to the other side of the world to celebrate the wedding of his son. After that, their father’s wife commandeered Nate’s attention. Seated on the other side of him, she peppered Nate with all sorts of questions about the resort, asking about the scuba diving, where she might see turtles underwater, and if there was a way to swim with the dolphins.
When the appetizers cleared, Jack rose and cleared his throat. Quickly the noise died down, and the only sound was that of waves gently lapping the shore.
“Thank you so much for joining us here. We hope it wasn’t too much of a hardship to come to the Maldives,” he said with a smirk.
“It was a piece of cake,” someone called out.
“But seriously, we know we asked a lot of you to have you come here, and I’m delighted to see so many friends and family with us. It is an honor to be able to share this moment with all of you.” He stopped talking to lock eyes with Michelle, who was watching his every word with a huge smile on her face. “I could not be happier or more ready to make this amazing woman my wife. Nothing has ever felt more right or true to me than loving her. It’s the easiest thing in the world to do.”
Casey catalogued the reactions at the table to Jack’s speech. Davis beamed with pride and love at his sister, Julia brought her hand to her heart then wiped a tear from her eye and Clay dropped a kiss on her cheek. Casey sneaked a peek at Nate, who was intently listening. He must have felt the pull because he turned to meet her gaze, and the look in his eyes melted her. It was the way he’d looked at her in London, in New Orleans, in her apartment. His gaze zeroed in on her collarbone, that spot he loved to kiss, and instinctually she raised her fingers and touched it. She heard a hitch in his breath, then forced herself to focus as Jack continued.
“I’ve often said I’m the luckiest man in the world to have this woman,” Jack continued, and reached for Michelle. She threaded her fingers through his, and the tender and passionate love between them was evident even in how they held hands. “And yes, there’s some luck to it, and some chance, but there’s also my sister.”