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scornfully.
    She looked back at Chip. If he noticed the woman in yellow, he gave no indication of it, not with his gaze still aimed at Zae. A blush warmed Zae’s face, and she was so discomfited by it, Cinder had to nudge her twice to get her to take her bouquet.
    “Beloved family and friends,” the officiant began, her strong, clear voice softly echoing in the quiet chamber, “we gather here today to celebrate and honor the love between Cinder White and Giancarlo Piasanti…”
    The officiant’s voice became background noise to Zae. Without moving, she tried to peer around Cinder and Gian to see if Chip was returning any of the hot stares of the female guests. His gaze remained on Zae, his lovely mouth pulled into a tiny grin. Zae almost smiled in relief. Chip was too occupied trying to distract her to notice other women. Not that it mattered. Chip was a magnet for dumb, nubile blondes. Odds were he’d be going home with one of them before the night was out.
    Zae was unsettled by that thought, and she wasn’t quite sure why. Chip was a grown man. He could do what he wanted. He could do who he wanted. Zae suddenly envied Chip and men in general. It was so easy for a man to hook up with a woman to satisfy his physical needs. If he hung around afterward, great. If he didn’t, well, what did anyone expect? He was only a man, and everyone knows that most men are dogs.
    Must be nice, Zae grumbled to herself. Having people throw themselves at you and begging you to use them however you wished. Having wild, uninhibited sex whenever you wanted it.
    She mentally shook herself. She was at her best friend’s wedding, standing with her as she pledged her heart, soul and body to the one man she promised to love for the rest of her life. And here I am, Zae thought, a horny old widow wishing I was a man so I could run around screwing everything that moves.
    She forced her attention back to the ceremony. She listened to the officiant’s words of love and understanding, compromise and forgiveness, now and years from now. Like so many others, Zae dabbed tears from her cheeks. But Zae wept not for the beauty of the moment in which her friends became one, but for herself. She had made vows similar to Cinder’s and she had honored them. She honored them still, nearly nine years after her husband’s death. Zae wept because for the first time, the vows she had cherished for so long now seemed to be burying her alive.

Chapter Two
    Beneath crystal chandeliers catching the light of the sunset, Zae watched Cinder and Gian dance their first dance as husband and wife to Yolanda Adams’s silken rendition of “Alwaysness.” The newlyweds seemed to exist in a world of their own as family and friends looked on, some shedding fresh tears of happiness for the couple who had endured so much in the past year.
    Cinder’s gown, a strapless ivory silk sheath with a simple bow at the waist, was even prettier as she danced than it was standing still. To Zae, Cinder looked like she’d be more at home in a castle than the austere elegance of the Piper Palm House. And Gian…his movement gave no indication that six months earlier, he’d been lying in a hospital bed with two gunshot wounds. If love was the best medicine, Cinder had heaped massive doses on him, healing him in every way.
    The DJ called for the mother of the groom and father of the bride. Clearly reluctant to do so, Cinder and Gian separated to take their new partners. Gian executed a neat bow to his mother—a squat vision in a sequined yellow cocktail dress that put Zae in the mind of a chubby canary—before spinning her into his arms. Cinder’s father, openly weeping, danced with her, giving her a hug that earned a round of subdued applause.
    “Maid of honor Zae Richardson and best man Charles Avery Kish, Jr.!” the DJ called.
    Zae stepped onto the dance floor. From the opposite side, Chip approached, his posture as upright as that of a king. He met Zae halfway, bowing to her as he