Chapter 2

Job Delgado finally untangled himself and came up around the stair landing. Seeing us clustered together, he made a show of laughing it off and pulled Joshua Dickerson back.

"You like your bride that much? Don't pick on her. She's got thin skin, she embarrasses easily."

He tipped my chin up, his face all tenderness.

"See? One word and she's already blushing. Joshua and the others just like a bit of a joke, teasing a girl. Don't take it to heart."

I took a step back, away from his hand.

Job's hand hung in the air. He blinked, then smiled again, the way you'd coax a sulking child. "Now you're really angry? It's nothing. When the rehearsal's over I'll take you to that sushi place you love, hmm?"

I said nothing. I just bent down, gathered up the hem of the gown off the floor, turned, and headed for the chapel doors.

He never remembered that I only liked American food. Sushi was what Diana Fox loved to check into and post to her feed.

There'd been a time when I couldn't eat or sleep, and Job had cooked a thick, soft porridge for me, spooning it to my lips one mouthful at a time, easing me carefully into his arms.

"Celeste, I'll let you get used to me a little at a time."

"Every day and night after this, you'll be able to rest easy."

He'd even gone out of his way to bring me into his own circle, and that was how I first met Diana and the rest.

Diana and Job went back to before either of them could remember.

Those buddies were his college roommates.

And I only came along after Job started working.

Job used to say love didn't run on who came first. You could have plenty of friends, but only one person you loved, and that was me.

The sting behind my eyes spilled over and wet my cheeks.

How funny. I'd been their running joke this whole time, and I was still blushing like a girl fresh out of her wedding veil.

"Hey— sis!" Joshua called out loud behind me, with a put-on note of alarm. "Don't go! Job's just joking with you, and we were only messing around too, why would you take it seriously!"

Only then did Job sense something was off. He caught up in two strides and grabbed my wrist. "Diana never watches her mouth, you know how she is. The rehearsal isn't over, the minister's waiting. Don't give the elders a show."

His palm was warm, but the moment I thought about what those hands had just been touching, my stomach turned.

I stopped and looked back at him.

His suit was crisp, his brow gentle as ever, the same as the man who'd picked me up out of that alley on a rainy night three years ago.

But in those eyes now, I couldn't find a trace of what he'd once meant.

I spoke, my voice flat as dead water. "You told them I can't be touched."

His expression froze for a beat.

Behind me Joshua was still smoothing things over. "Sis, men drink and talk nonsense, which one of them doesn't say all kinds of things? You're being too—"

"Joshua, shut up." Job cut him off, low, then turned back to me and softened his tone. "Yes, I did mention it once, but that was because I felt for you, I was afraid they'd rile you up without any sense of limits. Trust me, hmm?"

"That's right, that's right!" Diana had drifted over at some point too, teetering on her thin heels and leaning against Joshua's shoulder, smiling with lazy carelessness. "Job dotes on you so much. Every time he drinks he talks about how good you are, how clean, telling us not to joke around with you about those messy things— hey, you don't actually think we look down on you, do you? Because if that's how you see it, then there's really nothing we can do."

She came over and looped her arm through mine, all cozy, her perfume so heavy it made me choke. "It's a new age, who doesn't have a past? As long as Job doesn't mind you, that's all that matters. Look how beautiful this gown is on you. Don't call off a wedding over a little thing like this. Think how embarrassing it'd be if word got out."