By My Side, page 1
By My Side
Dara Girard
Contents
By My Side
Dear Reader Letter
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
About the Author
Also Available
Copyright Information
By My Side
Dara Girard
* * *
Published by ILORI PRESS BOOKS LLC
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Author.
* * *
About the book
“I was with the bride last night.”
With those seven words, wedding planner, Alicia Fox, watches her perfectly organized wedding crumble into chaos.
Her hopes for her fledgling business go up in flames.
She knows who to blame and sets her eyes on the best man—Trey DeVille.
But when Trey sets his dark, probing eyes on her, Alicia discovers getting the answers she wants may be the least of her worries.
The eighth book in the “It Happened One Wedding” series.
Dear Reader Letter
Dear Reader,
Welcome to the eighth book in the It Happened One Wedding series where the best part of the story comes after “I do.”
Except if it’s an “I don’t”
That’s exactly what happens at wedding planner, Alicia Fox’s, first wedding.
The ruined wedding was only the beginning of the fun surprises I’d face while writing this story.
I had no idea why Trey had ruined his best friend’s wedding, what secret Jacob was hiding and why a woman named Sandra kept making an appearance, proving to be just as fascinating as the main character, Alicia.
Eventually, By My Side, became a story of not one, but two couples finding their way to love and happiness.
I hope you enjoy going on the journey with them.
All the best,
Dara
You can find out more about this series and learn about my other titles on my website www.daragirard.com
Chapter One
She still heard the wailing. A bone chilling sound trapped in the now empty cathedral, echoing off its majestic walls. Or perhaps the sound was just trapped inside her memory like the silent scream still caged like a wild bird in her throat.
There would be no glorious celebration this autumn day in Virginia, when the brilliant yellow and red leaves on the trees outside of the church seemed to be touched by the golden rays of a sun so high in the cloudless blue sky she’d thought the day was destined for perfection.
It would have been perfect…
Instead there would be no Americanized pae-baek ceremony, piggyback rides, tossing of chestnuts, pictures of the bride cutting the wedding cake or a buffet set to host a variety of food such as white rice, ribs, kimchee and wine.
Roses scented the silence that gripped the church. Alicia Fox sighed, surprised their fragrance lingered.
But she lingered too when there was no reason to stay.
But she hadn’t been able to leave. Not without answers.
Alicia shifted her gaze from one of the stained glass windows and looked at the man now bathed in a kaleidoscope of colors—reds, purples, blues—touching his broad shoulders and dark hair. He was the man at the center of it all.
At first glance he didn’t look like a disaster.
She would never have suspected—she doubted anyone would—that he would not only ruin the wedding, but her entire business. For her, this wedding had been the culmination of a dream—a multicultural affair, her first. A blending of Korean and American sensibilities and traditions, which hadn’t been easy since the bride didn’t seem very interested in the groom’s background. Having conducted an extensive study to make sure she mentioned where one could rent a hanbok (traditional Korean clothing) and a make-up artist who specialized in Asian American bridal makeup for the bridesmaids, the bride yawned and said she didn’t want to do anything “too foreign” because she was going to be nervous anyway and didn’t want to make a fool of herself.
Mention of a second Korean wedding ceremony (pae-baek) also initially met with resistance, although Alicia suspected it was due more to price than to disinterest. Fortunately, the groom was very easygoing and didn’t much care how the ceremony went, although Alicia suspected his parents had hoped for more of a say and were thrilled when she was able to suggest some Americanized changes so that the bride would be more comfortable with it. But they hadn’t even made it through the first part: the cathedral wedding. The bride wore a vintage floral lace print dress with tulle sleeves, the groom handsome in a tux, the aisle adorned with roses.
It was a scene from a fairytale…until…
Alicia took a deep breath and gripped her hand into a fist. That didn’t matter now. All that potential and beauty and promise had been lost in an instant.
All because of this man.
This man bathed in the light of a fading sun like a fallen angel, a man who’d forced her to accept the truth.
She was cursed.
As much as Alicia wanted to, she couldn’t blame him for everything. He came at the tail end of a long list of failures. Before becoming a wedding planner, she had worked at a florist shop, a yoga practice, an art gallery, a daycare, a print shop, and had owned a web design company. Her jobs had faced the similar fate of the unfortunate wives of Henry VIII, except none survived. She’d been fired (divorced), made redundant (beheaded) and saw businesses close (died).
She’d promised herself that if this day went wrong she would quit. She’d take it as a sign that she couldn’t make it on her own. That she couldn’t run from fate.
Now she had to fulfill that promise. She’d poured everything into this wedding. But she’d take down her website, close all accounts and start again.
But first she had to understand why.
He didn’t look like the kind of man who would sleep with the bride. Let alone the bride of his best friend. Not that a sleazebag had a certain look, but strangely she wouldn’t have thought they would look like an intimidatingly handsome black man. A man who looked like he had ice in his veins and eyes like chips of granite. The suit he wore gave him an elegance that didn’t match the hard jaw and too broad shoulders. Alicia preferred her men sleek like a panther—all smooth muscles and elegance. But this man reminded her of a shark—powerful, calculating, lethal.
He certainly was that. He’d killed everything today with one quick swipe. One cruel act.
At the moment when the pastor said in a bored tone, “If anyone has a reason why these two should not be joined together in holy matrimony speak now or forever hold your peace,” the best man—this shark—raised his hand and the groom said, “Ignore him,” and the best man said, “I was with the bride last night.”
The groom said, “Shut up.”
But the best man ignored his friend (former friend) and said in the same bored tone, “I have pictures if you don’t believe me.”
No one moved.
The bride, groom, and the pastor stood frozen. Time ticked past, the only thing that still seemed to be in motion.
Alicia remembered hearing a high pitched ringing in her ears, the sound of her breathing. She half-expected to wake from a dream.
Then everything frozen seemed to come alive at once. The cacophony of a uniform gasp from the crowd, outrage mixed with denials.
“He came on to me,” the bride said.
“I told you to shut up,” the groom said before he lunged at his former best friend and punched him. The best man didn’t resist, he could have avoided the swing, dodged the other man’s fist, but he didn’t move. He let a punch settle on his hard jaw—once, twice. The enraged groom said something low that Alicia couldn’t hear, probably no one could, before he shoved the best man hard, causing him to stumble back.
He crashed into a vase. A bouquet of flowers toppled to the ground. The groom stormed down the aisle, his parents racing after him.
The bride fell to her knees. Her family rushed to her. Three men sent the best man a look of rage, and the pastor immediately began an impromptu sermon about the dangers of anger, but nobody listened.
One of the men moved forward as if ready to attack as the groom had, but the best man sent him a look that caused the other man to hesitate. The best man didn’t look angry, but bored. It was an unsettling expression, as if he were an elephant looking at a gnat. He didn’t see them as a threat; he didn’t find them very important at all. There would be no allowance for them.
Although it would be three to one, somehow he made it look like an unfair fight, as if he could destroy them with two simple moves. They sensed it too. If they wanted to fight, it would be a war, they didn’t look willing and there was something in his dark gaze that let them know he was itching for blood so the men turned their attention back to the bride.
Alicia had been a little surprised the bride hadn’t run after the groom to coax him back or beg for his return. Alicia turned to the best man and her heart turned cold when he raised his hand and touched his busted lip.
Instead of a wince, she saw the hint of a smile.
But he wasn’t smiling now and part of her wondered if she’d imagined it. No man would take pleasure destroying a friend’s wedding day, right? It wasn’t as if he’d professed his love for the bride. It all seemed so pointless.
Alicia closed her eyes and took a deep breath before she stood. She’d never see this man again. She never wanted to, but she’d get some answers first.
She sat down in front of him, resting her arm on the back of the pew. He didn’t look at her, his gaze remained fixed on the pulpit.
“You had to do it this way?” she said.
He nodded. Quick, stiff, defiant.
“You couldn’t have made this grand announcement last night? At the rehearsal dinner? A week ago?”
He blinked. She noticed his jaw tense before it relaxed. He shook his head, his dark gaze met hers with an intensity that made her hold her breath. His eyes were not only mesmerizing but filled with an emotion she couldn’t interpret. But it was visceral, vital, real. So real that for a moment she not only held her breath, but felt her skin grow hot as she became fully aware of him. “No,” he said in a soft voice. “I had to save him.”
Chapter Two
Her brows shot up. The shark was delusional. Was he really trying to make himself the hero of this tragedy? “You had to save your best friend? Save him from marrying the woman he loved?”
The shark shifted his gaze and nodded.
“You still should have found another way to do it,” Alicia said feeling suddenly chilled, as if without his gaze she felt the cold in the air. Although he sat in front of her he suddenly seemed far away. Distant.
“I had to stop it.”
“So you stopped the wedding and lost your best friend, lost the respect of his family and yours, plus the bride’s family and you still think there couldn’t have been a better way to handle this?”
He looked at her. This time it was an unnerving moment because he seemed to be looking at her for the first time. His eyes were still cold, but calculating-assessing—then he looked down. “That is a good question. I tried to think of other ways. This seemed the best.”
“If only you’d thought of doing this at another time. You ruined everything for me too.”
His gaze flew to her face, shock briefly melting the ice there. Briefly his eyes—his face—seemed vulnerable, naive. Surprisingly kind. “I did?”
“Of course,” Alicia said, unnerved by his gaze. So much so she squirmed in her seat and looked at the fallen rose petals scattered in the aisle. “This was going to launch my career and you ruined it.”
“No one should blame you for this,” he said, his deep voice firm. “You did nothing wrong. The ceremony was amazing. I’d hire you.” He touched her hand, gave it a quick squeeze of reassurance before he drew back. “You’re brilliant.”
She almost believed him. Her skin felt hot again as it had been when he’d first looked at her.
She found him strangely intriguing and attractive, which didn’t say much about her taste since she was constantly falling for inappropriate men. Like the one who’d told her he was separated from his wife. Translation: His wife was still in Nigeria and living with her parents after the birth of their second child.
Or the one whose tragic childhood made commitment difficult. Translation: He only felt whole when he was juggling three discreet relationships.
Then there was the one who told her he loved children. Translation: As long as they were someone else’s since he’d abandoned the four he’d fathered from three different women.
So finding a man who’d slept with his best friend’s bride ranked rather low on the appropriate scale. But she couldn’t help herself, there was something mysteriously magnetic about him. Something that called to her to try to figure him out, she wanted to know more about him.
Alicia rubbed her hand wishing it still didn’t feel warm from his touch. She’d just have to keep her distance. This was the year of change. Even though it wasn’t the change she’d hoped for.
She’d hoped to live life on her terms, but life wasn’t having it. After ten years of trying she was going to have to surrender and go back to the fold as everyone in her family had expected her to. She knew she was destined to live by the immigrant child creed—don’t make anyone’s suffering go to waste. Her great-grandparents had come to America from Jamaica and struggled to make a better life for their children, it was her duty to never squander that sacrifice. To show their loyalty and dedication, everyone in her family worked in the family business, MedForm, and every generation’s goal—obligation—was to make the company better than the last. MedForm provided medical accessories and uniforms. They were uniform in more ways than one. Everyone fell in line. Her older brother and sister took interest in the business since middle school. They’d obtained the requisite university education, to show employees they’d put some effort in and weren’t just being given positions without reason, although it was clear their surname was reason enough. MedForm was their life.
But Alicia lasted two years at university before leaving out of boredom. She wanted to learn about life by living it. She’d first shocked her parents by telling them she wanted to start working right out of high school, believing she could learn anything important right on the job. That was a no-no. A degree was a must.
No dice. She knew that she wasn’t made for what they wanted for her, she needed to forge a different path. For three generations no one strayed from that path. Well, except for one uncle who’d tried to make it as a musician and after twenty years realized marrying money and working as an accountant was preferable to struggling.
But Alicia had wanted to struggle a little to find her place in the world.
“Why would you want to do that when you’ve got everything?” her friend, Deanna Marshall, had said. She’d been her college roommate and initially thought they’d had nothing in common, except disappointing their parent’s expectations. Deanna’s parents didn’t believe in academia, their daughter was a bookworm determined to own her own business. They lived for the moment; she planned five to ten years in the future.
