Page 85 of Take Me to the Wedding

I grabbed a vacated seat and sat down next to her. Took her hand and looked directly into her stricken, hollowed-out eyes. “Ani, listen to me. The matchmaking test is a fake. It was something I wanted to believe to feel closer to my grandma. It’s not magic.”

“I don’t care.” Her voice cracked. “I’m desperate. Please, please do it.”

I thought about how I’d lied to Caleb about his and Lilly’s test to prove that I wasn’t interested. I was coming to realize that the questionAre we compatible?had no good answers from anyone who wasn’t in the relationship themselves. It was like a girlfriend asking her boyfriend,Does this outfit make me look ten pounds heavier?

Ani sounded so desperate, so on edge, that I felt like I was distressing her more by refusing. “Okay, fine,” I said.

But now what was I going to do?

I walked behind Ani and Tyler and put my hands on their shoulders.

Everyone, seeing me with the bride and groom, immediately began yelling for me to make a toast.

“Okay, okay,” I said when they wouldn’t let up. I’d never been good at extemporaneous speaking, but now, all my grief spoke for me, for better or for worse. “How does anyone know if a person is right for them? Well, I think you know because this person just gets you.” I closed my eyes for a second, not certain I could get through this, but feeling strangely compelled to continue, the words pouring out. “They are the best for you and sometimes the worst for you when they tell you the truths you need to hear. This person is the kindest, most wonderful person you’ve ever met, and every day they make you want to be the best person you could be. They believe in you, they cherish you, and they love you for exactly who you are. And they make you feel safe in their love.”

My voice was shaking. All of me was. I lifted my glass and looked straight at Ani. This was the only gift I could give her, far better than a fake compatibility test that I should never have hyped as a piece of magic to replace the hard work of relationships. “To true love. The only thing that matters.”

Apparently, that was quite a speech, because everyone clapped. Gabe even walked by and told me I should’ve been the officiant. But I ignored everything going on around me. Tyler rose to chat with some guests, so I sat down in his vacated seat and squeezed Ani’s shoulder. Then I turned to her, sucked in a big breath, and took both her hands in mine. They felt colder than Antarctica.

“There’s only one thing that’s real, and it’s right here.” I patted my chest. “In your heart. You don’t need me or anyone else telling you what you know deep inside you.” The bride got teary. They weren’t tears of joy. Basically, she was a miserable, unhappy bride. Why deny it? Why soothe her and tell her to marry Tyler, who probably wasn’t ever going to make her happy? I didn’t need a dead zero matchmaker test to know that. I knew it because I saw how Ani and Tyler acted when they were together. And it wasn’t good.

And I knew that because I knew what was in my own heart. Caleb was everything I’d just said and more. And I’d lost him.

“Ani, you’re a gem. But you shouldn’t marry someone just because you desperately want this marriage to work. If it’s not right, then you have to be brave and admit that to yourself and to Tyler. Mia and I will do anything to help and support you no matter what you decide. You deserve everything, the very best. Nothing less.” I bent down and kissed her cheek. “I love you.”

She squeezed my hand hard. “I love you too,” she managed.

As I went to take my seat, I knew I would never tell Ani that I felt only a dead battery between her and Tyler. I also knew that I’d never do that matchmaking test again. People had to figure out their own love lives. And I sure had messed up mine.

I’d rolled over and given up my own chance at love. I’d taken some kind of matchmaking moral high ground, and it had hurt Caleb and driven him straight into Lilly’s arms.

* * *

Caleb

“Ani’s having second thoughts,” Lilly said as we stood on an extension of the patio, watching the sun set spectacularly past the rolling hills of farmland. The brilliant oranges and pinks faded into indigo, which reflected my mood.Black.“We could barely calm her down. We told her to talk to Tyler.”

“Second thoughts?” Looking back at our golf afternoon, Tyler had been Tyler, relaxed and joking. There’d been no signs of trouble. Was that why she’d called me urgently from the rehearsal dinner, to tell me this?

Lilly gave a little shrug. “They might want different things out of life. Or she might just be panicked because she’s afraid of making a mistake again. I don’t know.”

To me, Lilly sounded like she was reporting a news story instead of relating a would-be tragedy. But then, I wasn’t in the best frame of mind. I put my hands in my pockets and walked over to where a low stone wall held a flower bed that ran the entire circular length of the patio.

Something was tugging on my brain. Why was Sam so insistent that we not come out as a couple? It seemed abrupt and also very unlike her. I couldn’t help feeling that something was really off. My anger had flared, and I’d been quick to accuse her of running away. Granted, I was hurt, but something didn’t feel right.

We were always good about talking things out—one might call that arguing, because from the get-go, neither of us had been afraid of confronting the other. But she’d avoided discussion completely. Why?

On the far part of the patio, I could see Sam sitting next to Ani. Holding her hand, talking intently with her. Again I wondered why the hell she’d backed away from the idea of us so abruptly. What scared her off? Was going public so frightening that she couldn’t handle it?

I was so distracted I forgot that Lilly was standing in front of me, her back to the stone wall, hands leaned against it, watching me carefully.

“Is that what you wanted to tell me?” I asked. “That Ani is struggling?”

She smiled—a little sadly, I thought. “No, I—I have to tell you something else completely.” She tapped her chest, as if she were choking up. Then she cleared her throat. “Sorry, I’m nervous, and this is difficult for me.”

It was unlike Lilly to be nervous. I instantly thought about how she’d jumped right in and taken over after I’d been hurt, almost like we were still a couple. My Spidey sense told me that whatever she had to say, it wasn’t going to be what I wanted to hear.

“When we first met up again, I was really wary of you. But during that weekend on the farm, I got to see who you are, and I was reminded of so many wonderful things.”

---