Her friend, Trudy Shaunessey, scrambled to keep up, getting an early start on her maid-of-honor duties by carrying the flapping train. "Jacki," she shouted. "Couldn't you have had your gown delivered?"
Jacki's dark hair whipped around her face, blinding her. "They were going to charge me an arm and a leg." The balance of her checking account was practically zero, even with Keith's parents footing nearly all of the bill. Her dress, veil, shoes, bridesmaids' gifts, and wedding gift to Keith had nearly bankrupted her.
She stepped off the curb, determined not to be late returning from lunch yet again. Their boss, Clarence, had frowned and pointed to his calculator watch as they'd left the advertising agency.
"Slow down," Trudy said behind her. "I can't — Watch out!"
Jacki's scream registered the same instant she was catapulted into the air. Funny, but when she'd shopped for a wedding gown, she hadn't thought to check its impact absorption, but she was glad she'd chosen the train with the Fiberfil-stuffed roses when she landed on her back on top of the ensemble.
She couldn't breathe and realized that all had gone dark. She was dead — dead before she had the chance to walk down the aisle in a white dress with a seven-and-a-half-foot train. Where was the justice?
But when Trudy's muffled wailing reached her ears, she realized she wasn't dead after all. Another gust tore the plastic-wrapped bodice from her face, and she blinked the blustery sky into view. Then her friend's tearful face entered her line of vision, sideways, followed by the upside-down face of a stranger, a man.
"Are you okay?" he asked, kneeling close.
"What happened?" she mumbled stupidly. Obviously she'd been hit by a delivery van or a semi.
"Skateboarder," the upside-down man said. "Kid didn't even stop."
Great — only she could be involved in a hit-and-run accident so pathetically anticlimactic.
"Can you sit up?" he asked.
She nodded, and he pulled her upright while Trudy caterwauled in the background.
"Anything broken?"
Her mobility seemed intact, although she suspected she'd be black-and-blue tomorrow — just the look she'd been hoping for in her bridal portraits. She shook her head and lifted her gaze to the Good Samaritan, then froze.
Those green eyes — Ted Thompson? It couldn't be — but it was. Same thick brown hair, same squared jaw with the scar he'd received while catching a pass in the homecoming football game against their high school's arch rival. In the span of a pulse beat, she flashed back to prom night 15 years ago, when she had experienced the single most mortifying night of her life in the company of Ted Thompson, senior and big man on campus. The memory still made her writhe in agonized embarrassment in the wee hours of the morning.
Darn it, where was a good abyss to jump into when a girl needed one?
"Ma'am, are you sure you're all right?"
Ma'am. Well, of course he wouldn't recognize her — she'd been just another girl who fell asleep with his picture under her pillow. Why he'd asked her to the senior prom was a miracle she hadn't questioned. And after the humiliating events of that night, she'd gone to great lengths to ensure their paths never crossed again. Oh, sure, she'd dreamed of an accidental reunion, but in her fantasies she'd been on the arm of a billionaire sheik, not sprawled in the street, half-addled.
"Ma'am?" Ted looked at her and a spark of … something … flashed in his eyes. "Do I know you?"
No, Jacki's mind screamed. You don't know me, not the real me. If only things had been different that night...
"I'm sorry," Ted said, stepping back. "I thought you looked famil — "
"Yes," she blurted, some perverse part of her reluctant to see Ted Thompson walk away. "You do know me." Her voice sounded squeaky to her own ears. "I'm...Jacki Harris. We went to — "
"The prom." Ted flashed a wondrous, wide grin. "Jacki Harris. Neil's little sister — how could I forget?"
"You couldn't," Jacki said wryly. She herself had considered hypnosis.
"This is unbelievable." He ran a hand over his cropped, spiky hair. "I've been in Atlanta for two days and I've already met an old friend."
Old friend? Call her crazy, but she didn't want to be old any more than she'd ever wanted to be Ted Thompson's friend. Friends didn't make babies together — after many, many creative attempts. In her dreams.
Trudy's meaningful throat-clearing jarred Jacki from her scrambled musings. "Ted Thompson, this is Trudy Shaunessey."
"Hi," Trudy said, donning a high-wattage smile. "I'm Jacki's maid of honor."
His gaze darted back to Jacki. "You're getting married?"
"This weekend," Trudy sang.
Jacki spotted another skateboarder whizzing down the street and considered giving Trudy a push. Instead, she conjured up a smile and patted the rumpled green plastic bag. "Have gown, will marry."
"Did you make your own gown?" he asked, one side of his mouth pulling back.
Jacki flushed. "N-no. I d-don't sew much anymore." That darn prom dress was the first and last garment she'd attempted to make. The twinkle in his eyes sent a shiver over her shoulders.
Ted surveyed the tousled Jacki Harris and had the most bizarre urge to grab her hand and find out what she'd been doing for the past 15 years, besides filling out in the most becoming way. Of course, she'd been plenty curvy at the age of 15, as he'd witnessed first-hand when the seams of her prom dress had failed her. Only his sympathy for her humiliation that night had kept his libido under wraps.
Man, how often he'd thought of her sweet innocence over the years, every time he dated another woman who was all wrong for him. He'd actually come close to marriage himself a few months ago — a near-death experience.
Funny how most men remembered their first time, while he recalled Jacki Harris — the time that wasn't.
Trudy tapped her watch. "Jacki, we need to get back to work if you're feeling okay."
"I'll drop you off," Ted offered. "I'm parked in the corner lot."
"We couldn't," Jacki said.
"We'd love to," Trudy said, giving Jacki's arm a yank.
He herded them toward his Ford Explorer. When he took the wayward dress bag from Jacki to store in the cargo area, he marveled at the irony of handling the wedding gown of the "one that got away." Shaking the teenage fantasies from his head, Ted climbed into the driver's seat. To his consternation, Trudy sat shotgun, while Jacki sat primly behind his seat.
"So what's Neil up to these days?" he asked when they were under way.
"He still lives in Knoxville, but he's coming in for the wedding," Jacki said.
"Ted, you should come to the wedding!" Trudy exclaimed.
"Er, yes," Jacki seconded from the back with somewhat less enthusiasm. "My brother would l-love to see you."
Ted locked his gaze with her wide baby blues in the rearview mirror. He was tempted to go, but for all the wrong reasons. "When?" he asked, buying time for sanity to kick in.
"The rehearsal dinner is Friday night," Trudy piped up. "You could be my escort — if you want."
He shouldn't. He knew he shouldn't. Why stir up old feelings for Jacki Harris when he would be a complete cad to act on them?
Jacki Harris was getting married. He needed to remember that simple fact and keep away.
"What do you say, Ted?" Trudy asked. "Will you be my date?"
Jacki manufactured a shaky smile for the small crowd gathered in the chapel on Friday evening. "I'm sure Keith will be here any moment. The weather must have delayed him."
Hurricane Roy had run aground on the Georgia coast, sending torrential rains inland. Atlanta was being pounded, and several guests had already rescinded their RSVP for the ceremony tomorrow. Her parents' flight had been rescheduled for morning arrival. If Jacki were the superstitious type, she might believe the storm was a bad omen.
Good grief, where was her groom?
Looking for an ally, her gaze inadvertently settled on Ted Thompson, sitting in the back of the church with her brother Neil, his arm draped casually along the back of the pew.
Ted wore an amused expression, as if he thought the gathering was much ado about nothing. Exasperation pumped through her every time she thought of Trudy inviting Ted as her escort. Jacki was already jittery enough without the knowledge that Ted Thompson, the only man without a medical degree to see her a la naturale, was observing the practice run for what no man could put asunder. He had invaded her dreams all week with tempting might-have-beens.
The wedding director, a man who reminded her of a nattily-dressed goat, strode toward her. "The organist and the minister have to leave soon. We simply must start."
"We can't start without Keith", Jacki protested.
The man pshawed. "The groom is the most expendable person in the ceremony, my dear." He clapped his hands twice. "Everyone, places."
Jacki acquiesced — not that she had a choice. The man was right, she supposed. Keith only had to stand in place and do what the minister said.
Keith's mother walked next to Jacki as they filed out into the vestibule. "Keith's father went to call him again." Mrs. Mabry frowned. "Did the two of you have a fight about...anything?"
"Of course not." In truth, she and Keith hadn't exchanged enough words this week to spur an argument.
Her future mother-in-law smiled. "He's like his father, such a hard worker. The time probably got away from him, that's all."
She bit her tongue. Keith was a workaholic, yes, but forgetting his own wedding rehearsal? The bad thing was, Jacki wasn't really surprised.
Neil came up beside her and gave her a one-armed hug. "Don't worry, sis — he'll be here. Darn good to see Ted again, isn't it?"
Jacki swallowed a retort, appalled at the tears threatening behind her eyes. The director clapped his hands again for attention and began to push, prod, and pull people into their appropriate positions.
Everyone filed in slowly to the music and took their places, leaving only Jacki and her brother waiting.
"You're shaking", Neil said. "Are you okay?"
She nodded, afraid to speak. Did every bride experience this prickly, scared-out-of-her-mind sensation at the rehearsal?
"That's our cue", her brother said, tucking her hand into the crook of his arm and leading her down the aisle. Jacki realized she was the superstitious type, and that the absence of her groom at the altar was an omen.
The heat of Ted's gaze touched her as they passed his pew. His energy pulled at her, practically immobilizing her. Neil shot her a strange look, and tugged her the rest of the way to the altar.
"Stop", the director shouted suddenly, wagging his head and hands at the same time. "You can't stand there, or the photographer won't have a clear shot. Step back. No, over to the left. No!" The man sighed, his expertise clearly put-upon. "We need a groom." His gaze swung over the chapel and landed on Ted, the only person who wasn't taking part in the ceremony.
Jacki's heart pounded in premonition, and with good reason.
"You there, in the back", the director shouted. "How about filling in for the groom?"
Ted Thompson felt every eye in the church turn his way. The thought of playing groom to the woman who had occupied too many of his dreams left him a little weak in the knees. Seeking Jacki's permission, he met her gaze, but she looked just as surprised as he felt. Standing next to her, Jacki's brother Neil grinned and gestured him forward. Ted realized the restless spectators considered the idea of him playing the part of the groom as an innocent request — unlike himself.
"Sure," he said with a shrug. As he made his way forward, he felt a bit like when his name had been called for the Most Valuable Player award for the football team his senior year — undeserving. Yet he wasn't about to turn down the prize.
Jacki had turned to face the altar and seemed to be staring everywhere but at him. The wedding director situated Ted just in front of her and to her right, then clapped his hands again to get things underway. The minister's voice was a dull buzzing sound in his ears.
Unable to take his eyes from her, Ted took in Jacki's flushed face and dark hair, and the years peeled away. She might have been 16, standing there in her pink prom gown, and he at her side in his gray tux, clutching a corsage and wondering how on earth he'd pin it above her breast with her father watching.
"Who gives this bride?" the minister boomed, breaking into Ted's reverie.
"I do." Neil had to shout over the howling of the storm raging outside. Then he placed Jacki's hand on Ted's.
Her fingers were soft and pink and trembling. When she looked at him, a current of electricity jolted Ted's arm. It had always been like this between them — intense, unexpected, and unrealized. And the large diamond winking up at him from her slender hand reminded him that this...chemistry...would remain unrealized. Tomorrow Jacki would marry another man who would give her babies and anniversary gifts and memories for her old age.
"Do you, Jacki, take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband, to love and cherish as long as you both shall live?"
She stared at Ted, and he squeezed her hand inadvertently. Was she thinking the same as he — that if circumstances had been different, they might have been exchanging vows for real?
"I... do," she whispered.
The minister turned to Ted. "And do you, um, Keith, take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife, to love and cherish as long as you both shall live?"
"I do," Ted said, his voice strong, his gaze fixed on Jacki. The pupils in her eyes dilated slightly, and her lips parted.
"Will both the bride and groom have rings?" the minister murmured, his eyebrows high, clearly aware of the...tension...between Jacki and her pretend groom.
"Yes," Jacki said.
She looked straight ahead while the minister repeated the ring ceremony, but Ted couldn't stop staring, overwhelmed with the thought that fate had stepped in, had given him another chance with Jacki Harris. He should say something, do something.
"And then the groom will put the ring onto the bride's hand," the minister said.
"Maybe this will do for now," Ted said, then removed his class ring and slipped it onto her finger next to her engagement ring.
Jacki stared at her hand, remembering how much she had once coveted the ring. This entire week — the reappearance of Ted, the last-minute details for the wedding, and now this unsettling rehearsal — it all seemed surreal, as if it were happening to someone else. Not someone whose life plodded along contentedly.
"And then I'll say, ‘You may now kiss the bride,'" the minister said, gesturing vaguely.
Ted looked at Jacki, his mouth twitching with want — surely they weren't going to skip the good part. The kiss, after all, was the prize. The indicator of what, if anything, was to come....
Jacki’s mouth tingled as Ted’s gaze swept over her face. She was torn between wanting him to kiss her—just to satisfy her curiosity—and wanting him not to kiss her—because if it were incredible...
He wet his lips, and she wet hers involuntarily. His class ring felt significant on her hand—had he meant for it to? Was she reading too much into this serendipitous reunion? Was the knot in her stomach pre-wedding jitters, legitimate unease about marrying Keith, or the unexpected seed of feeling for Ted?
Ted leaned closer, and her breath caught in her throat.
Suddenly the lights flickered and the room was plunged into blackness. Her own gasp was drowned out by shrieks and shouts of the guests as the storm unleashed a deafening crack of thunder. Ted’s hand closed around hers and he tugged her forward. "Come with me," he murmured, and her feet obeyed him.
She couldn’t tell in which direction they were heading, only that they were moving away from the chapel, based on the diminishing voices. With her free hand, she felt in front of her and stumbled twice, each time saved by Ted’s strong arm. Jacki had the sensation of passing through doorways, and down a hall.
And then they were in a small room on the back of the church, a kitchen of some kind, the room lit every few seconds by flashing lightning streaming in the tall, narrow windows.
Ted closed the door behind them. His kiss seemed simultaneous, but she was primed for the feel of his mouth on hers. The years evaporated as his arms encircled her, and his kiss explored the depths of her commitment to another man.
Every nerve ending sang, every dormant passion sprang to life. She looped her arms around his neck and her fingers threaded his thick hair. He smelled of soap and spicy aftershave and he felt solid wrapped around her. He groaned into her mouth, and she felt utterly female.
His enthusiasm for her lifted her to a new sensual plateau, a place she’d never visited with Keith. In the course of a split second, she imagined Ted in her bed, as a father to her children, sharing the kind of rock-solid love that would endure. If she married Keith, would she be giving up a once-in-a-lifetime chance at legendary love?
But even as Ted’s hands slid down her back, she wondered if her body was betraying her at this vulnerable juncture of her life. Keith’s kind face flashed in her mind, but if she loved him, could she be so easily distracted by Ted? Would she be consumed with the desire to make up for lost time with her first love?
A humming sound filled the air, then the room was flooded with light. They parted in surprise, then Ted clasped her face in his hands. His eyes were luminous, his expression grave. "Jacki, I’ve thought about you for years, never dreaming you felt anything for me. This is a sign, us meeting again. Tell me I’m not imagining this chemistry, this energy between us."
"You aren’t," she whispered. "But I’m so confused. I’m getting married tomorrow, Ted. To another man."
"Give me a chance to be a part of your life, Jacki. Give us a chance."
Jacki held her breath, half jubilant, half frightened that Ted had asked her to give their renewed feelings for each other a chance — a mere 24 hours before she was supposed to marry another man. Bad Timing had her number on speed-dial.
"I love you, Jacki. I think I always have. Since we met again, I’ve thought of nothing but you," he murmured. "I hope you don’t marry this guy, but I’ll abide by your decision." He kissed her again, a lingering kiss that left her boneless. Then he strode to the back door and disappeared into the storm.
"Sorry I’m late, sis." Neil rushed into the dressing room, straightening his bow tie.
Jacki was so nerve-racked, her hands weren’t steady enough to strangle him. "Where have you been?"
"I overslept. Ted showed up at my hotel room last night with a six-pack, and we stayed up talking."
Which explained why Ted hadn’t answered the number she’d obtained from directory assistance. She’d called to find out how she could return his class ring, but when the tone sounded, she’d hung up.
"I knew Ted would make something of himself," Neil continued. "He’s a hotshot engineer. Has a boat, a motorcycle, and a condo in Buckhead."
Why couldn’t he have been a used-car salesman living in a Ford Tempo? "I’m getting married in 15 minutes — I’d rather not hear about Ted Thompson setting the world on fire."
"He asked a lot of questions about you."
She averted her gaze. "Like what?"
"This and that," he teased. "I’d forgotten that the two of you went to the prom. Small world, eh?"
Minuscule.
"I asked him to come today, but he said he didn’t have the heart for it. Hey, is something wrong, sis? Having second thoughts?"
"N-no." Last night she was having second thoughts. Today she was into the hundreds. But how could she call off the wedding for a fantasy?
"Come on, Keith had a good reason for being late for the rehearsal."
She sighed. "Have you seen Trudy?"
"Yeah, she’s in the hall, bawling. I’ve never seen so many long faces at a wedding."
Jacki had snapped at everyone in her path today, Trudy included. "It’s the weather," she lied. Hurricane Roy was still wreaking havoc.
"Yeah, the weather stinks, but at least Mom and Dad made it."
"Yeah. Neil, do you like Keith?"
"Sure. But he’s not the kind of guy who elicits a strong reaction one way or the other."
The wedding director stuck his head inside. "You’re on in two, doll."
She thought she might be ill. Neil tucked her arm into his and her next conscious thought was standing in the doorway of the chapel. Faces swam before her. The organist banged on the keys to be heard over the pounding rain. A far cry from the wedding of her dreams. She inhaled deeply.
And was instantly assailed with the hiccups.
Through a haze she saw that Trudy was still crying. She’d apologize later for being so cross with her. Hiccup.
She focused on Keith. Sweet, dependable, let’s-have-a-long-engagement Keith. He, at least, was smiling.
Or was that a grimace? Hiccup.
At the altar, her brain ceased to process signals. The minister’s voice droned on and on, his voice fading in and out.
"If any person can show just cause why this man and woman should not be legally wed, speak now or forever hold your peace."
She hiccupped, making a great sucking sound. The minister lifted his eyebrow. "I changed my mind," Jacki blurted.
"I slept with Trudy," Keith exclaimed.
"I’m in love with Keith," Trudy wailed.
The pronouncements cured Jacki’s hiccups. But the shocked aftermath was overridden by a loud roar. The church roof was about to be ripped off — she’d be swept to Schenectady before she could find Ted to tell him she loved him, too.
The roar barreled down on the church entrance. She turned and her heart vaulted at the sight of Ted, soaked to the skin, riding a black motorcycle into the church. The wedding party ran for cover as he wheeled down the aisle. Except Jacki, whose satin pumps were rooted to the spot.
Ted came to a sloshy stop. Water dripped from his helmet, his nose, his arms. His chest heaved. "I can’t do it, Jacki. I can’t stand by and watch you marry another man."
Jacki’s internal organs were behaving strangely. Her life had been careening toward this moment since birth. "Is there room on that bike for a seven-and-a-half-foot-long train?"
The joy on his face answered every question remaining in her heart, and every question she could imagine for the future. Jacki tossed her bouquet to Trudy, and bounded onto the bike behind Ted. She was vaguely aware of protests from her parents, but Neil gathered the precious train and handed it to her with a wink.
She clung to the man she loved as they rode out of the church. The rain had slacked, and she lifted her face to the cleansing drizzle. A spot of blue sky shone on the horizon.
"How much of this are we going to tell our kids?" he called over his shoulder.
Jacki hugged him tighter and shouted, "Maybe we should just say that a funny thing happened on the way to Mom’s wedding!"
The End