Page 80 of Nothing to the Wedding

“Well, I’ll be damned,” Roxie said, stopping just in front of him.He hadn’t flinched.“You are alive!Alive and here.Didn’t expect that.”And from him, the unexpected was kind of a given.“Are you going to kiss me or say congratulations?”

“Hair thing makes you look like a diva.”

“Brooding in the corner makes you look like a terrorist,” she said and swept her hair from her shoulder.“And I am a diva now.”

“You always were.”Good thing she knew him well enough to recognize the joke through that deadpan expression.“Congratulations.”

“That wasn’t so hard, was it?”She steadied herself with a hand on his arm while pushing to her tiptoes to accept his kiss on her cheek.“Want to dance?”

Leveling his gaze over her head, he just kept on examining the crowd.“Don’t push it.”

“Okay, then come meet him.”

“I don’t want to meet him.Did I see that dickhead Porter around?”

“He’s not a dickhead and you may have done.He’s here.Along with a lot of other people.It’s not easy to keep track of thirteen hundred-odd guests.You didn’t sit with family.”

“I didn’t want to sit with family.”

Lips sealed, she inhaled through her nose and let the breath out slowly.“Always Sad Sack Sam.”

“I’m perfectly fine—why are you doing this in LA?”

Not so flat now, his confusion was almost affront as his focus went up and around the room again.

“Where should we have done it?Chicago?”she asked.“Not like I’ll believe you were sitting around there waiting for my wedding day.Wherever we did it, you would’ve had to travel.What am I talking about?You love traveling, especially if it’s in a direction opposite to your family.”

“I don’t like LA.”

“You don’t like anywhere.”Okay, that maybe wasn’t true.“I’m surprised you’ve ever been here.Have you ever been here?”Truthfully, he had probably been everywhere.“Why would you have cause to hang out in LA?”

“You quit your job.”

Was he just ignoring her completely?No change there then.

“I got a new job,” she declared, maintaining her smile.

“You moved a thousand miles.”

“Depends how you travel.”

“You left your girls.”

“They moved with me.”

“You left Porter.”

“Who you don’t even like and that was way before I met Zairn.”At least a couple of months.“He had nothing to do with it.It’s a little late to be voicing objections, don’t you think?Maybe if you called more, we could’ve had this conversation, oh, I don’t know, a year ago.”

And it was then, on softening just a fraction, that his scowl faded to concern and his eyes dropped to hers.

“You changed yourself, Talks-Alot.You remember your promise to me when I left?”

“Yes, I remember.And I didn’t change, I grew.If I am a different person now, I’m a better one, a happier one.”She snagged his hand and went in close.“I’ve never been happier, Sam.I love him.I love our life.He’s good for me and I’m good for him.”

“Hasn’t stopped him screwing around.”

“That was bullshit.He’s never cheated on me.The media stuff is, it’s pantomime.Come on, saying something out loud doesn’t make it true.You know I’d never stand for that shit with a guy if it was real.Trust me, it isn’t.He’s never even met that woman.”