Backstage Romance: An Austen-Inspired Romantic Comedy Box Set by Gigi Blume (ebook reader with highlighter txt) 📕

of the guests to lower himself. Some words were spoken by the minister—not sure what—sounded like wha wha wha wha like the adults in Peanuts cartoons. The guests were smiling. Some were yawning. But Jaxson, in his own little world, stuffed the imaginary string into his ear, tapped his head with the heel of his hand, and retrieved it from the other ear, slowly and deliberately. Right there. In the middle of Annie and Randall’s wedding ceremony. The woman beside him slid as far away from him as she could without falling off the edge of the pew. Yet Jaxson didn’t care. I couldn’t decide which was more ridiculous—Jaxson’s silly gestures, or his concentrated commitment to the ruse.

With tears still threatening, I laughed. Snort laughed. Like a piggy with a terrible cold. The mucus that had formed from crying like a fool shot out of my nose and into my bouquet. All eyes turned on me.

In my peripheral vision, I noticed a box of tissues thrust my way. It was the mother of the bride. She didn’t need it, after all. I turned my back on the congregation to wipe my face—and bouquet—nodding with gratitude to Annie’s mum. Everyone was quiet, but the minister—who I think was really an actor—didn’t miss a beat.

What was wrong with me lately? Maybe it was the head injury—or perhaps the weird stuff Mum shoved in my overnight bag. She texted before the ceremony to insist I take it, saying it was ‘good for the gut and would make me feel chill.’ After the night I had with Jax, I needed more chill. Now I was beginning to wonder what was in that stuff. The label on the bottle was in Sanskrit or Elvish or some other cryptic language. It occurred to me, somewhat belatedly, that Mum couldn’t be trusted in the least—always jumping on the latest health bandwagon. She once hired a Chinese medicine man to cure her of hot flashes. Turned out he was a Bolivian crazy person in a silk hat.

Needless to say, I was a hot mess and in great danger of ruining Annie’s wedding. She just smiled warmly and squeezed my hand, reaching across all her bridesmaids to do so. I dared a glance at Jax to scowl at him. His head was bowed low, having abandoned his Mr. Bean impression, biting his lips. All I got after that was a cheeky wink.

The rest of the ceremony went rather smoothly by comparison. One of Randall’s cousins sang a song she’d written for the couple, and I was relieved the cringing was no longer directed at me. However, I did wish I had an imaginary ball of string of my own to shove in my ears.

After the wedding, the photographer ushered the bridal party to a gazebo on the sand for no less than eight thousand photos. The sun was setting over the horizon, melting the sky into hues of orange and a hot pink that matched the wedding colours. Annie wasn’t even concerned about getting sand all over the hem of her dress. She was just so happy. And that warmed my little heart. Nothing could take that away, not my hunger or my headache—not even the crusty dragons in the creases of my bouquet or the skin of my nose raw from wiping it too furiously. Not Jaxson… who was nowhere in sight. After the photos, once we all made our dramatic entrance announced by the boisterously loud DJ, I scanned the room in search of Jaxson’s tall frame but couldn’t find him. Where could he have gone?

As part of the bridal party, I was obliged to sit at the head table, squished between the girl I called Ruby and the guy I walked down the aisle with. Billy or Brody or something—Randall’s nephew. He was a communications student at Riverside College, had a fascination with the colour teal, and loved NASCAR. I knew all this because I was caught in the crossfire of his enthusiastic and eager conversation with Ruby across my face. After about ten minutes of that, I was more than happy to trade seats with him.

A plate of food appeared before me, delivered from behind by a strong, elegant hand. Jaxson’s crisp, white sleeve peeked out from a fine navy suit blazer, pinned in place by a dazzling cufflink. His arm brushed against my bare shoulder as he gently set the plate down. The proximity sent crackles of awareness into my core when he didn’t retract his hand from the table. He only leaned in closer to whisper in my ear, and when his warm breath and deep velvety voice tickled my neck, I barely registered his words.

“I saved you some coconut prawns before they ran out.”

I’d never been so happy about crustaceans in my life. Not because of their crispy goodness, but the bearer of said deep-fried seafood smelled palpably more delicious—like candied oranges on all my favourite things. I turned to meet Jaxson’s eyes, two twinkly olive marbles with golden speckles. And when he grinned, my gaze dipped to his beautiful mouth—at those teeth that gave me such joy, not because they were perfect, but because they were part of his genuine, lovely smile. A smile crafted especially for me.

“Savages devoured all the appetizers while you were all on your mini holiday,” he added, bending onto his knee. “This was all that was left.”

“Holiday?”

“Yeah.” He glanced at his watch for effect. “I finished reading War and Peace and grew a glorious beard while you lot took your excursion out to the never never.”

Oh. The sunset photos.

“That was painfully long, wasn’t it?”

He pretended to over-dramatically brush it off. “Nah. Not at all. I rather enjoyed the downtime. Learned to knit and picked up a bit of Spanish.”

“Glad to hear it. Rosario will be so proud.” I heard his mobile ringtone coming from his pocket. “Do you need to get that?”

“Nope. It can wait.”

“Are you sure? It might be clown college begging for you to