Page 43 of Perfect Assumption

I turn away from the woman in the mirror to avoid letting the tears pricking my eyes fall. Carys spent way too many hours working this miracle. Maybe I’ll ask her if she would mind helping me with finding my way through makeup and shopping. While I’d love for Sula to be a part of it, it’s kind of hard to do that long distance.

“Knock, knock. Ward’s going to be here any minute. Are you ready?” Carys peeks her head around the door.

“Because of you, I think I am.” A small smile crosses my face. “Could I ask one more favor?”

“Anything.”

I reach into the borrowed clutch and pull out my cell phone. “Would you mind taking a picture for me? It might be silly, but all this?” I touch my dress. “It’s a pretty big deal for me. I want to share it with my best friend since there’s no one else anymore. Well, other than you.”

Carys swallows visibly before she says, “I understand better than you think. All I wanted when David and I got married was to share things with my mom.”

A moment of shared camaraderie for the most heartbreaking reason passes between us. Then Carys gets her natural spark back by demanding, “Strike a pose.”

I do just as the doorbell rings.

My breath catches. Carys and I share a complicated glance before she opens the door behind her. It’s time to see if the information we’re looking for is out there.

If there’s anything to find out at all.

Sixteen

Ward

Redemption club owner and man candy Marco Houde has been surprisingly mum about some rumored changes. Akin to asking all guests to strip before entering, we’re not certain there’s much else to improve on perfection.

— Viego Martinez, Celebrity Blogger

“Angie?” I stammer as the slim, elegant redhead meets me in my sister’s living room precisely at nine.

“Hello, Ward.” Giving me an appraising look, she turns to my sister. “I understand why I needed to go shopping now based on what your brother’s wearing.”

“Hmm. He cleans up fairly well for a suit.” Carys shoots me a quick wink while Angie looks away.

It gives me an opportunity to study her in detail without her notice.

Do I think she’s gorgeous? She might be the most stunning woman I’ve ever seen. I feel my hand tremble on the glass of soda water David handed me when I came in. Whatever machinations women get to when they’re together turned this woman from my Angie into this cool, untouchable creature I don’t know.

“You look beautiful.” It’s the truth, but when her flat blue eyes meet mine, I feel like I lost something important by offering up the compliment.

“Thank you. Should we get going?” This woman is exactly what I don’t want. She’s cold, aloof, standoffish. Then my inner voice taunts me.This is what you implied you wanted her to be, you bonehead. You can’t have it both ways.

Before I can do something— anything—to put the situation at ease, Carys pipes up. “Your name is on the list, Angie. The doorman will just wave you in when you come back.”

Angie turns toward my sister, and for just a moment, the icy veneer melts and the hint of warmth I’ve seen at the office shines through when she says sincerely, “Thank you.”

“No. Thank you.” The two have an unspoken conversation before I step forward.

I hold out my arm. “Shall we?”

Barely tucking her fingers inside my elbow, she nods.

Somehow, I have to figure out a way to apologize. But she has no idea that when she walked down the hall toward me, she stole the last of my sanity, and I’ve been trying to get it back since.

I only hope I can hold on to it long enough for the two of us to talk. Really talk.

* * *

We’re headedout of downtown toward Fort Washington, and barely a handful of words have passed between us. I open my mouth to say something, anything, but can’t string a single sentence together. I make my living with words: reading, writing, hell, arguing them. And yet, I can’t find them when I desperately need them to break the tension rising in my Mercedes. I clear my throat. “Have you ever been to Redemption before?”