Page 20 of Face Off

“I know.”

Her colorist folded another section of hair into foil while Bliss kept her head still and watched me through the mirror.

“Cade picked him up from the airport this afternoon.”

Something low in my stomach tightened. I crossed one leg over the other and forced myself to remain still. “He’s here?”

“He arrived early to help Cade with the final best-man things.”

I understood why Ryan came before the rest of the wedding party. Cade and Bliss had become his family long before any of us understood how deeply he needed one. Ryan wouldn’t appear at Oheka twenty minutes before the rehearsal wearing a rented suit and pretending his only responsibility was standing near the groom.

Ryan showed up even when showing up hurt him.

“Where is he staying?” I asked.

“At our place.”

“So I won’t see him before the wedding events, right?”

Relief and disappointment arrived together, irritating enough that I refused to pretend either one wasn’t real.

“No,” Bliss said. “Cade thought it would be easier if the first time you saw each other happened after everyone settled at Oheka.”

“Cade is managing us.”

“He’s preparing.”

“He changed the wedding-party arrangement because Easton threatened to stage a coup over Aura walking with Ryan.”

Aura turned her head again. “I didn’t ask Easton to do that.”

“You love a territorial asshole. His behavior reflects on you now.”

“He expressed a preference.”

“He told Cade another man wouldn’t be touching his girl while she wore a dress that exposed that much of her body.”

Aura smiled without regret. “It was romantic.”

“It was primitive.”

“Those things overlap more than people admit.”

Bliss released a careful breath. “Ryan knows you’re walking together.”

The words still affected me.

I had known about the pairing for three weeks. Seeing our names beside each other on the final processional list made the wedding feel real in a way the fittings, flowers, and travel plans hadn’t.

Ryan Decker — Best Man

Charm Harlen — Maid of Honor 1

Four years of circling each other. Almost six months of loving him badly. Fifteen months of absence. Then one line on Bliss’s wedding schedule placed my hand back on his arm.

“What did he say?”

“Cade said Ryan was fine with it.”