Save the Date (Complete)

Chapter 2

NOW...

May looked down at her dress. It was a simple, but tasteful, white wedding dress. Another woman might have gushed over the perfection of the dress. But not May. It wasn't her dream dress. But in reality Eddy wasn't her dream man. Nothing about the day was her dream day, but she needed to just get through the day. That was all. All she needed was to make it through the next twenty-four hours and her life would finally be her own. She looked across the vestibule at the man talking with the best man. He was a man easily walked over, and that was exactly the man she wanted—someone who wouldn't imagine bossing her around. Never again in her life was she going to let any man run any aspect of her life.

All that was required was one teeny-tiny marriage.

Once more she looked up front at the man who would soon be her husband. It wasn't something she would admit out loud but she wanted to make sure she remembered what the groom looked like. Three months from meeting to marriage was quick and hadn't given Mary the time to distinguish him from the other grooms she had almost had. She frowned. The groom wasn't where he had been two minutes ago. "Bri, where's Jeremy?"

"Eddy," Brianna, the maid-of-honor corrected. "His name is Eddy. Try to get that right through at least the wedding." Although Brianna had tried talking May out of getting married, she understand why May was so insistent.

"All right, Eddy then. Where is Eddy?"

"He had to go talk to one of his groomsmen. He'll be out in a second."

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"Ten thousand dollars?" Eddy looked at the man in surprise. "You will give me ten thousand dollars to walk away from May?"

Despite the heat, Matthew Glass was dressed in a crisp black suit. He shifted his feet. "I said that, didn't I?" He held out the envelope with one hundred hundred-dollar bills. He had found that most men responded better to cash than a check. "Ten thousand dollars and you leave town for a couple of weeks."

"I don't live here." Disgust filled Eddy's face. "I'm only here because May wanted to be married in her town, but we weren't planning on staying here."

"I don't care where you go, but you need to leave," Matthew clarified. Nothing about Eddy was a concern for Matthew except for his absence at the wedding.

Eddy studied the envelope and the man holding it. "But I'm in love with May."

"No you're not," Matthew told him. "You met her a few months ago. You can take the money or not." He dropped his voice so it was now cold and hard, "Either way, though, you'll be leaving." Matthew held the money out for a second longer and then started to pull it out of Eddy's reach.

Eddy, realizing that the man wasn't joking and wouldn't offer the money again, grabbed hold of the envelope. "Deal. Do you want me to tell her?"

"I'll take care of it," Matthew replied. "Get out and don't contact her again and don't let her contact you." He watched as the groom slipped out the side door of the church and disappeared in the waiting car. Once he was sure the wedding wouldn't continue, Matthew took his place on the bride's side of the church as far away from the altar as he could, hoping the fireworks would be worth the drive down to the dinky town of Paradise.

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May shifted the gown to lay better around her feet and then glanced at the clock on the wall. They were running late. May hoped with crossed fingers that it wasn't anything serious that caused the delay. She stopped wishing when she saw her uncle coming. "Don't tell me." May said as her uncle reached her. "I don't want to hear it."

"I told you he wasn't the right guy for you," Piorret said. They weren't the right words, but he had to say something.

"Piorret, any man who happens to be breathing and a pansy is the man for me. Eddy was perfect," May delivered the insulting compliment without a thought for the man that had been about to become her husband.

Piorret shook his head. "He was not perfect. You don't want a pansy, May."

"I'm sick and tired of people running my life. Since I was eight, I've had some guy telling me exactly how much I can spend and what I can spend my money on. I'm tired of it," May whispered. She sighed. She was tired. Another botched wedding.

"Do you want to tell them, or do you want me to tell them?" Piorret pointed to the small crowd of people waiting in the church

"I'll tell them. More than half of them are expecting this anyway." May walked toward the front of the altar. She turned back to her uncle. "How much do you want to bet that my guardian messed with my life again?"

"How about ten thousand dollars?" Piorret whispered as he watched May go to the front of the altar. It wasn't the first time she had made this walk. It was actually her third. Three men whom her guardian had paid to leave the bride at the altar. Piorret did have to admit one thing, the walk up the altar seemed to get easier each time. He wondered silently what she was going to say this time.

May cleared her throat. "Welcome to my wedding day. Again. However, and I'm sure most of you were guessing this, today won't be my wedding day. Eddy and I have decided to call off our wedding. At least for now. There's food at the reception hall. Feel free to stop by. Ed's side is invited as well. You all had too far to drive not to be given some food. Eddy and I want you to still be happy today."

May left the altar. Only a few people looked shocked at her announcement, and May figured that they must have been from Eddy's side. Everyone she knew probably expected what happened. She moved back to her uncle. "I'm leaving, Piorret. I'll call you later."

"Where are you going?"

May sighed. "Some place my guardian can't get a hold of me."

Piorret glanced at Matthew sitting in the crowd. He had watched his expressions as May delivered the news. He was pleased to see Matthew slightly agitated at the snickers that went May's way from a few of the more pretty women in town, but Piorret was angry that Matthew was the one who caused it. However mad he was at Matthew, part of Piorret was grateful that Matthew had prevented May from getting herself into a marriage she didn't belong in.

"You'll be fine," Piorret said encouragingly. "Give it a couple days."

"I'm always fine." May pulled the veil from her head and dropped it in the nearest trash bin. "I hate being fine." With one last faux-kiss on her uncle's cheek May disappeared out of the side door of the church, not even aware that she was taking the same path Eddy had taken.

Piorret watched his great-niece leave the church, her white dress shifting in the wind as she walked down the narrow road that he knew would lead to the car she had waiting out there. Neither Piorret nor May was surprised with the canceled wedding, and Piorret was as accustomed to the proceedings as May was.

"Someday, May, a man will get your heart, and you won't be walking from the church so easily," Piorret whispered to the disappearing female and then turned to get the congregation to the reception hall. Someone had to do it, and the bride wasn't up to it. As the closest relation to the bride, therefore, it fell on his shoulders, and he didn't mind the load.