“I know, I know,” Nick said, and headed into the small room where he’d been assigned to wait for his cue.
Nick entered first, Dean followed and closed the door behind him. “Man, you gotta lighten up.” Dean snorted out one of those condescending laughs of his. “You couldn’t get lucky enough for Ginny to leave you standing at the altar.”
Dean didn’t particularly like Ginny. That was no secret. Nick had hoped he’d ease up on her by now. No such luck.
Nick shot Dean a hard glare. “I’m the lucky one.”
Dean’s sharp laughter bellowed out. Once he’d contained it, he said, “Hardly.” He shook his head. “She knows a good thing when she sees it.” The look on his face said he was wondering if he’d said too much, overstepped his bounds. But as usual with Dean, the end result was always…what the hell. He gave a dismissive shrug, adding, “She’s gonna show. She’s gonna show all right.”
Well, once they were back from the honeymoon and everything had settled down, Dean would come around. Nick was sure of it. He looked Dean in the eye, and asked, “Would you go see if she’s here?”
Dean sucked in a breath, held it a minute and then blew it out in an exhaustive sigh. “Okay. Fine. I’ll go confirm that she’s here.”
Dean slipped out into the hallway. First, he had to find out where they’d stashed the bride. He shuddered. He’d tried to get behind this marriage. He knew his friend was in love. He just wasn’t so sure the feeling was reciprocated. Oh, sure, Ginny put on a good act, but Dean got the feeling that she was more interested in the money Hang Ten made than the proprietor.
Nick wasn’t exactly rich—not by L.A. standards, but he did all right. The restaurant made him a good living, and allowed him to keep the center going—which was Nick’s top priority. Too bad it wasn’t Ginny’s. That woman intended to break the connection between the restaurant and the community center. And the fact that she’d forgotten to give him the check for the computers was all the evidence Dean needed. To his dismay, the girl would meet Nick at the altar today, with bells on, which meant it was the beginning of the end for the community center.
Canvassing the maze that was the back corridors of the church, Dean finally found someone to point him in the right direction. He knew he’d found the place when he rounded a corner to see a whole slew of women loitering outside a set of double doors. Ginny’s bridesmaids? What were they doing hanging out in the hallway?
He took survey of the girls, all wearing the same black dress. Who does a wedding in black? Wasn’t that like the kiss of death?
“Ladies, why are we hanging out in the hallway?” he asked no one in particular, but taking notice that the only women missing were Ginny and Eve, her maid of honor. Maybe they were inside, having some kind of pow wow or something.
The bridesmaid closest to him said, “The door’s locked.” Her blonde hair had been perfectly coiffed. Part of it was up, and the rest lay in long curls around her shoulders. Normally, Dean was a brunette man, but this girl was pretty. Maybe he could steal her away during the reception at Hang Ten. It wouldn’t be the first time he’d had a girl in Nick’s office. Plus, it’d probably piss off Ginny. That made it even more appealing.
“Ginny and Eve must be having a serious conversation about something?” Dean hoped Eve was talking her out of going through with the wedding. But he doubted Nick would be that lucky.
“There’s nobody in there.” The girl’s frantic voice draped a veil of goose bumps over Dean.
“Seriously?” Dean was about to turn all giddy, until he realized that his best friend getting stood up at the altar wasn’t exactly an act of kindness—at least not on the surface. But her not being here, it didn’t make any sense. Ginny had found herself a decent ride with Nick, and Dean didn’t see her letting go so easily.
Unless she’d found a bigger fish.
CHAPTER SIX
NICK GLANCED AT HIS WATCH. Dean had been gone a long time. He was only supposed to find out whether or not Ginny had arrived. How big could the church be?
Just when he’d almost decided to take matters into his own hands, and find out for himself that Ginny had arrived, the door swung open. Dean slipped into the room. The look on his face was anything but comforting.
“What?” Nick asked. His heart thudded triple-time inside his chest. This was bad, he knew it. Had there been an accident? Oh, God. “She’s just running late, right?”
“I don’t know, man.” Dean shrugged. “She’s not here. She’s not answering her cell, or the phone at the house.” He gave Nick one of those looks you give a friend when there’s nothing good to tell.
All kinds of things—heavy traffic, a minor accident, the car broke down, a bad accident, Ginny had run out on him—fought chaotically to be the dominant thought inside Nick’s head. He shook out the last one. No way would Ginny run out on him.
He kept coming back to the bad accident. Oh, God. “She’s okay, right?” Nick’s voice wavered.
Dean’s head started shaking before he said, “I don’t know, man. I can’t get in touch with her.”
“What about the limo service that picked her up to bring her here?”
“I’m waiting for them to call me back.”
After a moment of silence and uncertainty, Nick said, “I should go to the house.”
“Let’s just wait and see what the limo people say. Maybe they were late picking her up. You don’t want to head over there if she’s on her way here.” The words came out of Dean’s mouth, but he didn’t look like he believed them. He looked like the kind of guy who was about to claim the right to say, I told you so.
“I just can’t sit here and do nothing.” Nick paced the center of the room, stopped and looked at Dean. “Something’s wrong. I can feel it. If she were able to call, she would.” Wouldn’t she?
Dean’s cell phone rang. He took it from his pocket and glanced at the display. “That’s gotta be them now,” he said to Nick. He tapped on the screen, accepting the call, and raised the phone to his ear. He listened intently, for what seemed like forever.
Nick perched his hands on his hips. At this point, the only thing he’d gotten out of the conversation was a few groans and a headshake or two on Dean’s part. Nick wanted to know what the limo company had to say. And he wanted to know now.