Page 5 of Always a Bridesmaid

Oliver never loved Sarah. He’d only been chasing the lifestyle that came with rubbing shoulders with the rich and famous. He was a leech dressed in a slick suit and Henry had been too busy with his own career to notice the guy moving in on his sister. He wouldn’t let that happen again.

Which was why this time he’d hired an investigator to do a full background check on Wayne and his family. So far, they were what they seemed. A typical upper-middle-class, midwestern family who had close ties and owned a construction equipment rental company out of Missouri. Wayne bought his first house last year, a single-story, ranch-style home, as the investigator had put it, that was located a few blocks from Debbie and Donnie.

Not that he’d imagined Wayne would want to stay there since Sarah’s flat in Notting Hill was three times the size and value. It was a present from Henry for graduating top of her class from university.

“Oliver was on me,” he said gently. “Not you.”

“I was the one who agreed to keep our relationship a secret from you for so long.”

“You were still in uni. I had my focus on the wrong things. You fell through the cracks. That won’t happen again.”

“I don’t need a keeper anymore. I just need a brother.”

“You’ve got me.”

“I know.” She went quiet for a poignant moment. “Which is why it’s important to me that you’re close with my husband. I want you to be comfortable around him and vice versa because when we have kids I want you around. A lot.”

God, kids. His little sister was old enough to be thinking about marriage and kids. It seemed like just yesterday she’d been crying in his arms asking him why their dad wasn’t coming home. Now she was a graphic designer for a mid-sized marketing firm in London and about to get hitched.

He tucked her dark brown hair behind her ear and smiled softly at the idea of being an uncle. “You couldn’t keep me away.” He reached into his back pocket and pulled out the red jewelry box, holding it out for her.

She eyed it with surprised delight. “What’s this?”

“An early wedding present.”

“You’re paying for the whole wedding.” He was paying for an entire week of wedding festivities, but he wanted the best for his sister. “You didn’t have to get me anything.”

“I wanted to.” And that was the truth. He loved spoiling the women in his family. Showering them with gifts was his love language. He couldn’t always be there in the flesh, but he could bring a smile to their faces with a thoughtful gesture.

When she didn’t reach for the box, he opened it and held it out to show her. Her eyes sparkled with appreciation, then went misty. She pressed a hand to her chest. “It’s beautiful.”

“It should cover your something new and something blue,” he said, displaying the sapphire and diamond necklace that would frame his sister’s neckline perfectly. At least that’s what the woman at the jewelry shop had said when he’d shown her aphoto of Sarah in her wedding gown. “Unless you had something else in mind.”

“No.” Lifting her hair, she turned around. “It’s perfect. Can you put it on? I want to see how it looks.”

Henry clasped the necklace around Sarah’s neck, and she raced to the mirror that hung behind the sofa. She touched it like it was as fragile as the morning frost. Her gaze met his in the reflection and she smiled.

“Thank you. And because you’re being so sweet tonight, I won’t kick your ass for threatening Wayne earlier.”

“Just because you want me to like him doesn’t mean I won’t threaten him from time to time. That’s the perks of being the big brother.”

“And the perks of being the little sister? Blabbing to Mum that you totally banged that blond actress.”

2

Jane secured the last red piece of yard with a thumbtack to the hotel room wall and sat back on the bed to admire her handiwork. Her Bride Board was complete. And it was a masterpiece, if she did say so herself. It was painstakingly compiled of photos and sticky notes with basic info—relations, age, height, hair color, etc.—on the wedding party and each and every family member.

Like a Murder Board, it started with the bride and groom in the center and fanned out from there, accounting for each person of interest. When playing a part, Jane’s partner, Roxy, took it a step further, creating a dossier on each person involved, in addition to one for the person Jane was portraying.

In this case, the file was extensive. There were the journals between Sarah and Elle, as well as the notes Jane took during Sarah’s interview about her relationship. And not just notes about Elle, but also Sarah’s fiancé, his family, her family, and the wedding party. Jane had an arsenal of the kinds of details and stories that childhood best friends and current best friends would have shared with each other. This was the role of a careerfor sure. Which was why Jane needed this extra night to prepare. The future of her company depended on it.

Bride Buddies had been hired less than two weeks ago, so Jane and Roxy had been pulling all-nighters prepping for this wedding. It had to go perfectly. Especially if they wanted that additional bonus Sarah had offered up.

“Are you actually dyeing your real hair?” Roxy asked through the computer screen.

Jane patted her hair, which was currently under a hair dye bag. “When all I have is a blond wig, what else am I supposed to do? Elle’s a strawberry blonde, not a blonde. Didn’t you get that in my description in the dossier?”

Roxy opened the dossier, shoved it in front of the computer’s camera, and pointed to the description. “Blond, b-l-o-n-d. No strawberry in front of it, just blond.”

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