She trailed off, apparently lost in thought, but Garret didn't push her. She'd speak when she was ready.
"My sister has gotten used a lot. You know that."
A weight sank in Garret's stomach, but he nodded, still intent not to interrupt. So, this was the cause for all the somberness. Eliza had found out about the bargain.
"I saw her with Lance. Saw the way he took advantage of her. And before that was a guy who was after her money. Before that." Eliza shook her head. "My parents would be more than happy to detail every single one, but I'm sure I don't have to tell you all this."
"No." The words came out raspy from his dry throat.
"After years of watching my sister used and hurt and stepped on? Watching our parents remind her over and over again what a sap she is?" Eliza hung her head.
Here it was.
The moment she called him the scum of the earth for treating her sister like a petri dish.
Worse, he was starting to realize he deserved it.
"I guess I just wanted to thank you."
"You what?" He blinked back the surprise, trying his best to keep a straight face.
"I want to thank you for being the person to make my sister believe in love. To make her feel...I don't know, special. Rachael works so hard and focuses so much on other people that I thought she'd never be selfish enough to find someone who loves her for her instead of what she can do for them."
"Right," he nodded.
Every word of Eliza's speech landed on him like a brick, weighing him down until he felt pummeled and overcome by the weight. Worse was the way she looked at him. Adoringly. Like he was the fireman who'd just saved her granny’s kitten from a tree.
Instead, he'd lit that tree on fire and the kitten along with it.
She leaned over, fingered his tie, and then fixed it around his neck. "You know, I hardly know you, and I already love you as a brother. I've never seen my sister so happy."
He nodded, swallowing hard. "I'm pretty happy myself."
"I can tell." She straightened the tie, and then stood. "Don't tell Rachael I was here. She won't believe you if you tell her I had something serious to say."
He nodded again, if only because it was the single thing he could bring himself to do. "You have my word." He finally choked out, and just like that, Eliza was gone, the door snapped shut behind her.
What was there to do now?
In the space of ten minutes, she'd managed to explain every wrong he'd done to the woman he'd come to...care for. And what had he done to show that affection?
He'd used her, just like every other man in her life.
He sat back, disgusted with himself and floundering.
He'd have to go through with the wedding. That much was for Rachael. The only thing she'd ever asked of him. Today, he would hold up his end of the bargain and do her proud.
But the rest of it? The charts and the studies and the questionnaires?
He'd do away with all of it, as a punishment to himself and a reminder.
Rachael was better than that.
* * *
Rachael continued the struggle with her wedding dress while Natalie watched from a nearby lounger, apparently nonplussed.
"Why do they make these things impossible to put on except by the team of skilled professionals?" She huffed the itchy veil out of her face, when scrunched the tulle at her waist in frustration.
"Practice makes perfect," Natalie shrugged, then got up and headed toward her. Rather than helping with the dress, though, she stepped past her, toward the champagne and poured a fresh class.
"Come here and calm down. Have a drink. The show doesn't start for a while yet. It's too soon to be getting into that thing."
Rachael sighed, then stepped from the dress, still determined not to look into the mirror. After an hour of make up and two hours of hair, both of which were deemed less than acceptable by her mother, she didn't think she could hold herself together if she had to stare at herself for another moment longer.
That and…something else.
Something else she wasn't ready to face just yet.
She took the outstretched glass from her friend and sipped, then plopped onto the leather sofa in the corner of the dressing room.
Natalie was wrong, of course. There was no time for any of this. If the wedding planner had anything to say about, it, she would have been in that frilly contraption hours ago. The photographer was already here. Guests were starting to arrive.
And she...
"Have you ever been consumed with a feeling of impending doom?" Rachael spied her friend over the rim of her flute, and Natalie tilted her head to the side, letting her wave of brown hair cascade over her lavender dress.
"How do you mean? Like, wondering if I'm pregnant?" She raised her eyebrows accusingly.
"No, no. I just mean...have you ever felt like you were going to make a big mistake and you couldn't do anything to stop it? Like you'd gotten yourself in over your head?"