I dropped my bouquet on the coffee table and started to search the room, beginning with the vanity table and its drawers. There were a couple of half-drunk glasses of champagne, a crumpled tissue, and a bit of spilled powder, but no bag.

“We’ve always done weights,” Quinn groused. “Do you ever listen to anything I say?”

She walked to the window facing the front of the church and pushed the drapes aside to glance out. Then she placed her own flowers aside, whipped her phone from her tiny purse, and quickly sent a text.

“I don’t see a makeup bag,” I told her, checking the couch cushions and the chair. “Are you sure she left it in here?”

Quinn stared down at her phone.

“Quinn?”

She looked at me, startled, like she’d forgotten I was there. Then someone knocked on the door and Annie stuck her head inside.

“Did you find your mom’s purse?” she asked.

“It’s not her purse,” Quinn said through her teeth. “It’s her makeup bag.”

“No. It was her purse,” Annie shot back through her teeth, shoving the door open wide and crossing her arms over her chest.

“Okay. What is going on?” I demanded.

“Nothing!” Quinn replied shrilly. She brought her hands to her head and her pillbox hat shifted to the side. “I just— I can’t—”

She grabbed her flowers, pulled Annie out into the hall, and slammed the door behind them. I groaned in frustration. This was ridiculous. Whatever was going on, I was missing my mom and Gray drive off, and Quinn and I had to get in our Town Car and get our asses over to the country club, stat. We were in the wedding party. We had pictures to take and we were supposed to be announced at the beginning of the reception. If we weren’t there when we were supposed to be, my mom would freak. I was about to yank the door open when I heard Annie whispering furtively.

“But he’s not there yet!” she hissed.

“Well, you were supposed to talk to him, not me,” Quinn whispered back. “Where is he?”

“I don’t know! He’s not answering my texts!” Annie said, frustrated.

I had no clue what they were talking about, but a foreboding chill went down my spine and I felt goose bumps pop up along my arms. I opened the door. They both went silent and stood up straight.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

“Nothing,” Annie said.

“Nothing,” Quinn echoed.

“Good. Then I’m leaving,” I told them.

I pushed right between them and headed back inside the church. The worship space was almost empty now, only the florist and her assistants running around, dismantling the flowers so they could be brought over to the club. I walked down the side aisle and turned purposefully toward the door.

“Ally, wait!” Annie called out, jogging to catch up with me.

“You can’t go out there yet!” Quinn added.

“Why not?” I said suspiciously, quickening my pace. I glanced over my shoulder at them and they were both gunning for me, like a couple of well-dressed bounty hunters. I gripped my bouquet, prepared to fight them off with it, if it came to that. “What’s going on out there that I’m not supposed to see?”

“Nothing. There’s not something out there that you are supposed to see,” Quinn replied, so desperate and frustrated she was turning pink.

Even Annie looked confused by that one. She made a final lunge, but there was no stopping me now. I ran outside into the bright afternoon sunshine and saw … nothing. Nothing but a bunch of cars full of wedding guests clogging the narrow street.

Annie stood next to me, panting for breath, and looked around. “Shit.”

“Where is he?” Quinn whined.

“Where’s who?” I asked, throwing my hands up and letting them slap down at my sides. Petals showered from my bouquet. “My dad? Because in case you haven’t noticed, it’s too late for him to swoop in and stop the wedding.”

“No, not your dad,” Quinn said, like I was just so stupid. “We’ve been trying to help—”

“Wait,” Annie said, touching Quinn’s arm. “There.”

Her brow crease flattened, replaced by a victorious kind of smile. I turned to look where she was looking. An Escalade edged forward in the traffic, revealing an army green Jeep parked across the street. And leaning back against the Jeep, his legs crossed at the ankle, his hands pushed casually into the pockets of his suit pants, was Jake Graydon. He looked breath-stoppingly gorgeous in a slim-cut suit and light blue striped tie, his hair gelled up a little bit in front.

Jake smiled slowly. I didn’t know what to do with myself. I felt this weird, tingling mix of excitement and apprehension, of hesitation and pure giddiness. I laughed, I couldn’t help it, and Jake pushed himself off the car, crossing the street to meet me at the bottom of the steps. Annie gave me a nudge and I tripped my way down there. Up close, the color of Jake’s tie made his eyes look almost impossibly blue, and he smelled clean and freshly shaven. I could feel my pulse thrumming in my wrists.

“Hey,” he said.

“It’s Sixteen Candles,” I blurted.

Jake nodded. “Annie made me watch it, like, ten times before she agreed to help me.”

I glanced over my shoulder, but Annie and Quinn had already disappeared. “I knew those two were up to something.”

“Ally, listen.” Jake paused and looked down at my flowers. For a second I thought he was going to take my hand, but he changed his mind. “I’ve been a total jerk,” he said, gazing into my eyes imploringly. “You tried to tell me, but I wouldn’t listen. It was like I didn’t … almost like I didn’t want to let it go. I just wanted to be mad at Chloe. I wanted someone to, like, hate for everything that had happened. I don’t know.”

He rubbed his brow with his hands, like making this speech hurt his brain.

“But you were right,” he continued after a moment. “And I only realized it after I told Chloe I was sorry. I just felt better, you know? And then I felt like an ass again, because you knew. You knew that it would work that way and I didn’t listen.”

I stared at him, my heart welling with something that felt like pride. Then he ducked his face and shook his head.

“This sounded a lot better in my mind,” he told me.

“You’re doing okay,” I encouraged him.

“Really?” he asked. “Because I wouldn’t blame you if you never wanted to talk to me again. But I … I just wanted you to know that you were perfect. You were amazing, actually. And I know I didn’t appreciate it. I treated you like crap.”

I swallowed hard. Part of me wanted to argue, but I couldn’t. Because in a lot of ways it was true.

“I almost didn’t come here because, I mean, how many chances am I gonna ask for, right?” His voice was throaty and his eyes were hopeful as he looked at me. “But then I realized it was too important … that I … loved you too much not to try. So is there any way, I mean … could I have a third chance?”

My heart pounded in my chest. I looked carefully into his eyes. This was the Jake I knew. The Jake I loved. But how was I supposed to know that he wouldn’t change again? That the guy who’d tortured Chloe and seemed to take so much pleasure in it wouldn’t suddenly come back? I vividly remembered that darkness that would come over his face whenever he saw her. The memory of that transformation still made me shudder.

“Jake—”

“Oh. Shit,” he said, just hearing my tone. He started to turn away. “I’m such an idiot.”

“No! I mean, don’t go … yet.” I closed my eyes, trying to figure out how I felt, what to say. “I just … I can’t do this right now. I’m supposed to be at the country club already. My mom …”

“So blow it off,” he said with a tentative smile. “Like in the movie.”

In that moment he looked so vulnerable, so open, it made me want to just take him up on the offer. Go somewhere and be alone with him and cuddle and kiss and talk and kiss some more. But I couldn’t. I didn’t entirely trust him. And not only that, I’d made a promise to myself that this day was not going to be about me.