Beautiful Day(101)

“Okay,” Doug said. He liked the idea of passing the buck and of having this suggested and sanctioned by Roger. “I’ll do that.”

The logical person to fetch Pauline was Rhonda. Doug saw her, now talking on her cell phone, at the edge of the church parking lot. Was she talking to Pauline? Was she trying to convince Pauline to come back to the wedding? Doug crept up on Rhonda, not wishing to disturb her, but also hoping to eavesdrop.

He heard Rhonda say, “I want your hands on my body. I want that so badly. And then I want your tongue inside of me…”

Rhonda glanced up and saw Doug, and her expression immediately became one of horrified embarrassment. She said quickly, “I’ll call you later, Beast.” And she hung up.

“What?” she said to Doug.

Doug was speechless. He’d interrupted Rhonda’s private conversation with… whom? Someone she called “Beast,” whose hands she wanted on her body. Was it possible Rhonda had a boyfriend and Pauline didn’t know about it?

Doug said, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean…” He took a step backward.

“What?” Rhonda said. Her voice was like a single slap to the face. “What do you want?”

“I thought maybe you were talking to your mother,” Doug said.

“No,” Rhonda said. “That was not my mother.”

Doug took a breath; he was floundering here. “Listen, Rhonda, I wonder if you could go get your mother? She’s supposed to be in the photos. Do you know where she is?”

“She’s at the house,” Rhonda said.

Doug noted that both Pauline and Rhonda always referred to the Carmichael family homestead on Orange Street as “the house.” Never “home.”

“Can you get her?” Doug asked. “Please?” He turned around and, with a sweep of his hand, indicated the guests milling around. “I have all this…”

“She doesn’t want me,” Rhonda said. “She wants you.”

“Yes, but—”

“Doug,” Rhonda said. “I’m not going. I’m a bridesmaid. Jenna asked me to stand up for her. I want to stay here and enjoy being a part of this wedding. I’m not an errand girl. It isn’t my job to clean up your mess.” She blinked at him.

Doug nodded. In the five years that he had known Rhonda, she had been combative, sour, and unpleasant, and on more than one occasion, snarly and mean. But now she wasn’t any of those things. Now she was right.

“I’m sorry,” he said, and he walked away.

Across the lawn, Doug spied Margot. They made eye contact, and Margot hurried right over.

“Daddy,” she said.

“Hey,” he said, thinking, Margot will help me.

“Did Edge bring Rosalie as his date?” she asked. “Like his date date?”

“Oh,” Doug said. He had temporarily forgotten about Edge and Rosalie, although they were a problem, or they had seemed like a problem half an hour before the ceremony, which was when Doug had first seen Edge and Rosalie together. “You know what, sweetheart, I’m not sure what’s going on.”

“Edge RSVP’d for one!” Margot said. Her cheeks pinkened and her eyes flashed. Those ice-blue eyes, they unsettled people. “He RSVP’d for one and he showed up with a date!”

“He told me Thursday before I left the office that he was bringing a guest,” Doug said. “And I e-mailed Roger to let him know.”

“He told you on… Thursday?” Margot said.

“Thursday, yes,” Doug said. “At lunchtime on Thursday.” It had been rather late to add a guest, but Edge was doing Doug an important favor by covering the shitshow Cranbrook case, and he had seemed keen to bring this “guest,” and Doug had agreed. Certainly, Doug said. Doug suspected the guest was the reason for Edge’s calm and focus; he always worked tougher and smarter when he was seeing someone. What Doug didn’t know was that the guest was Rosalie Fitzsimmon, the firm’s top paralegal, who was working alongside Edge and Doug on the shitshow Cranbrook case. Doug didn’t approve of dating within the firm, although there were no specific rules against it. Now he feared that things between Edge and Rosalie would go very well or very badly, and either way, Rosalie would leave the firm, and they would lose a superlative paralegal.

“But why didn’t you tell me?” Margot asked.

“Like I said, I told Roger,” Doug said. “Roger is the wedding planner.”

“Oh, for Christ’s sake, Daddy,” Margot said. She stormed off—and not in the direction of the receiving line where she belonged. People were still streaming out of the church, and the receiving line was marked by more Carmichael absences than presences. Jenna and Stuart were there, along with Ryan, and Jim and Ann Graham. Doug needed to take his place right now.