Love Scars - 5: Covered Read Online Free Page A

summed it up perfectly: I hadn’t changed.
    Holly, my nemesis, had changed. She’d moved on with her life and flourished. What was I thinking? That she’d pine away with regret over the mistake she’d made with me?
    God. What a self-centered idiot.
    I called Jennings as soon as I made it back to the house—with the root beer floats—and told him to get the plane ready. I had to get back to California. I had this crazy idea in my head. If I didn’t dance with Nora at the wedding, I’d lose her forever.

Chapter 4
     
    Nora’s house. Third Saturday in July, 5:20 p.m.
    The front doorbell rang. Again. Lisa’s wedding was in forty minutes. People had started to arrive, and I was still in a tank top and shorts.
    But my head looked good.
    In keeping with Lisa’s garden theme, Stacey and I had glittery little flowers and butterflies painted on our faces and shoulders. It looked pretty cool. The hairdresser decorated our hair with origami butterflies and honeybees and piled mine on top of my head in stylized lacquered curls fixed with two silver hair picks.
    Stacey had been dressed for over an hour. She was a dangerous mix of cute and sophisticated in her pale pink bridesmaid dress, and she intended to get maximum use out of it. She’d enlisted some of the buss crew from the restaurant to help set up. At the moment she was in the backyard giving directions to a darkly handsome young guy. The famous Mason Brewer.
    “Nora, dear. There you are.” Lisa’s mom came in from answering the door carrying a huge present which she added to the pile on the table. “I told them to go around to the back instead of traipsing through your house.”
    “Thanks, Mrs. Newberry. Here, have some of the good stuff.” I poured her a glass of Duckhorn sauvignon blanc and put the bottle back in the refrigerator in the meat drawer.
    The front door bell rang again.
    “That does it,” I said. “I’m making a sign.”
    “Do you know where Lisa is?” Mrs. Newberry said.
    “Either in my room or hers.” I tore a sheet out of Stacey’s drawing pad and found a thick red marker. “She doesn’t want Frank to see her in her dress before the ceremony.”
    I wrote ß BACK YARD on the paper and took it out to the front as the doorbell rang again. It was Cindy Slater.
    “Hi, Nora.” She looked at my funky clothes. “I’m sorry I’m early. I wanted to be sure to get a parking place.” She was dressed to conquer in a simple form-fitting sleeveless black dress, her hair swept up in a beehive, and big red plastic earrings.
    “You look like you just stepped out of Mad Men ,” I said.
    “Thanks!” She beamed. “Is Brad here yet?”
    Oh, brother. Maybe Little Miss Retro could put a smile on the poor guy’s face. She certainly looked eager to try.
    “He’s in the back.” I propped the sign on a chair by the door. “Come on through, Cindy. I’ll get you a glass of the good stuff.”
    I gave her some wine and sent her out to find Brad and decided I’d better get dressed. As I passed Lisa’s door on the way to my room I heard her mom’s voice, too quiet for me to make out the words but motherly and sweet. A twinge of achy pain nicked at my heart. I would never hear my mom’s good wishes on my own wedding day. If I ever found someone to marry, that is.
    I pushed the gloomies away. This was Lisa’s happy day. I was going to be happy for her and with her.
    My dress was hanging on the closet door. I tore off my shorts and tank top and went to the bathroom to brush my teeth and check my makeup. The sparkly butterflies and honeybees were all intact. I added some mascara and redid my lipstick. I looked like a princess in a hot fairytale. I just wished J.D. could see me.
    Dammit. I would think of J.D. Of course I would. I’d been pretty good at forgetting him. I was down to thinking about him every hour or so instead of constantly. But when I did think of him, it was brutal. A full-on bombardment of the senses.
    I’m here. I would imagine his