She made it halfway down the aisle before her knees gave out. She caught herself on the pew, and tried to breathe.
No one was coming to her aid—this was not how Southern girls behaved. Everyone in the church was staring at her except for Mama and Daddy, who had their faces upturned to the cross like this was tantamount to crucifixion for them. Her heart was slamming against her ribs, racing so fast that she could barely breathe. There was a very, very large part of Ali’s heart that wanted to laugh, and say it was all a joke. But every time she tried, she felt Bobby’s hands pawing at her, forcing him on her, and she stayed strong another moment.
“All right, here we go,” she heard, and then Karen—Karen, who’d been helping her with the project since the beginning—ducked under her arm and helped her back to her feet. “Let’s get you out of here.”
“Thank you,” she whispered. “But you’re committing social suicide here.”
Karen laughed quietly. “Oh, Ali, don’t you worry about me. I’m a big girl.”
“Thank you,” Ali said again, and she meant it more than she’d meant anything in her life.
Until the church doors burst open, and Alejandro Rojas stood before her. “What in the world are you doing here?” Yeah, that was pretty heartfelt. Definitely.
“Ali,” he panted. He’d clearly been running. He looked good sweaty. But that wasn’t what she was thinking about right now. Nope, she was focusing on how he’d shoved her away, thrust her into another man’s arms over some nonsense idea of what safety meant. “Ali, you can’t marry him.”
Karen glanced at Ali, and saw something there that made her lips purse. “She got there on her own, darlin’. We need to go now, though. Care to help?”
Ali tried to lift herself up a bit more, but whatever Cristina had given her was hitting hard now. Her knees were made of pudding. Heh, pudding knees. Squish squish squish.
Alejandro hadn’t heard a word. He grabbed Ali’s hand and pressed it to his heart. “Ali, I love you. He doesn’t. He’s trying to ruin your business, everything that means anything to you. I know I said he could protect you, but Ali— I can’t live without you. Please.” He got down onto his knees, and in the world, miles away where parents were, Ali heard a horrified and disgusted gasp that had to have come from her mother.
She pulled her hand away and shook her head. “Everyone keeps telling me what I need to do, how I need to be, but it’s all about them. Not me. Why isn’t anyone talking about what I want, what I need, how to make me happy?” She shook her head again, harder, and the world started to spin. “I’m done with all of it. Me, and my ranch, and my horses. I don’t need any of the rest of you.” She swept by him—or stumbled, though one would never be so impolite as to say so—and let Karen guide her out of the church.
“You probably rode here in a limo?” Karen asked. No one had followed them out of the church yet. Ali felt her belly heave, and forced herself to keep from gagging through sheer power of will. Walking out on her own wedding, jilting Bobby at the altar, that was enough. She did not need to vomit on the steps of the church just to prove a point. She managed to nod, and Karen gave a little sigh. “Right, then. We’ll take my car back to your place. Think you can avoid barfing until I get you to a toilet?”
Ali’s head was spinning, swirling through the air on a dizzying cloud of sunstreaks and sparkles. It was a gorgeous Texas day, hot and bright, and she wanted to put her arms out to the side and spin until she fell into the dust like a little girl. Her skirt was so full, it would spin out beautifully.
Karen snapped her fingers in front of Ali’s eyes, and Ali reeled just a bit, blinking too fast. The world was spinning faster and faster, and her stomach—
“Oh, here we go,” Karen said, and helped Ali keep her balance as she vomited into the bushes, and held back the pretty blond curls that Cristina had spent hours on, straightening and then curling. Ali, for her part, heaved until she thought her stomach was just ejecting on auto-pilot. She knew she had tears streaming down her face, and she prayed that she wouldn’t hear the snap of cameras or the fall of footsteps. There was noise coming from inside the church now. Raised voices. She heard Alejandro, and she heard Bobby, and she wanted to just be done. She wanted all of it to go away.
Karen was making soft sounds. “What in the world did she give you, anyway?”
“Just something to help me relax. She gave me one, and then I made her give me more because it wasn’t working.” Ali straightened up again, felt one nasty little urp get caught in her throat, and then managed to take a deeper breath. Her head was clearer now, though she was far from alright. Holy God on a gracenote, she’d just jilted Bobby at the altar. She was going to be— Well, drawn-and-quartered on the society pages would only be the beginning. And she’d told everyone what he’d done. He was going to deny it, and she’d be painted the slut everywhere. “Oh, I need to get out of here. I need to go home. Please, can you take me home?”
Karen nodded without saying another word. Ali let the other woman lead her to a nice car, one of those funny-shaped hybrids that got a billion miles to the gallon. She wondered for a moment if it’d make it over the potholes in her road. But then, that was Karen’s problem, really. She’d been to the ranch before. It wasn’t anything new.
Ali went to get in the car, and then looked down at herself. “I can’t wear this,” she said.
Karen looked at her with her eyebrows raised.
“There’s sick on the hem, and it’s not my dress, and I— I can’t—”
The tears threatened again, and she worked hard to choke them back.
“Will a size twelve fit you?”
Ali nodded.
“I’ve got some capris and a clean shirt in the back. I mean to change after the reception, before I went home. They’ll fit you okay if you need to change now.”
“All right,” Ali said. She reached behind herself and found the zipper in the back of the dress, tugging at it. Karen’s eyes got incredibly wide, and Ali found herself giggling. “What’s the matter? Never seen a lady undress before?”
Karen’s eyes squeezed closed and she laughed, her tone dry. “Of course I have, and you know it. Just never expected that I’d see a bride strip off in a parking lot outside of a bad movie.”
Ali found herself glancing down at her body, her head still swimming a bit from the pills. She liked how she looked well enough. The corset gave her that hourglass shape that seemed classic, and her breasts were nice, swelling up out of the cups. She’d always felt like her thighs were a bit muscled from all her riding days, and it’d always messed up the whole skinny jeans trend for her, but otherwise, she wasn’t bad looking. “Do you think I’m attractive?”
Karen shrugged, smirking. “You’re pretty, and you know it, but you’re clearly not my type.”
“Then to heck with it. If anyone’s watching, let’s give ‘em a show. Besides, your Yankee car is too damn small for me to get dressed in.” And, dammit, she liked the statement of leaving the dress in a white satin puddle in the parking lot. It said something that Bobby would understand.
“I can’t argue with that,” Karen said, shaking her head as she got into the car. Ali fastened the capris and tugged the T-shirt over her head. She kicked off the white satin pumps and left those with the dress. After thinking about it, she didn’t add the engagement ring to the pile. She’d get it back to Bobby later. When things had cooled down a little. Maybe send Cristina over with it. If Cristina was still speaking to her. The thought of having lost her best friend made her stomach twist again, but it had to happen. There was no other way it could happen. She took the ring off, though, and slipped it into the pocket of Karen’s capris. It felt strange, having such casual clothes on over her elaborate underwear, but it would work for the moment.
Her head started to spin as soon as Karen put the car in drive, and she closed her eyes. Karen knew the way to her house. She could rest now. For the first time in ages, she was safe.