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  Tomorrow night, she told herself and went back inside in time to catch what was definitely the high point of the evening, Nanette’s face when she saw the Krispy Kreme cake.

  “Hey,” David said when Cynthie picked up the phone on Sunday afternoon. “I haven’t heard from you. What’s—”

  “It’s over,” Cynthie said, and she sounded as if she’d been crying. “They’re in infatuation. It could be years before he comes to his senses. We lost, David.”

  “No, we didn’t,” David said. “I don’t lose.”

  “Cal loves her. He’s being honest with her. There’s nothing—”

  “No, he isn’t,” David said, fed up with hearing about Cal. “He’s chasing her to win that damn bet.”

  “What?” Cynthie said.

  “Uh,” David said, trying to find a way to explain that without looking like slime.

  “Tell me,” Cynthie said, her voice brooking no nonsense.

  “That first night,” David said. “I was mad. And hurt. And—”

  “David, I don’t care about you,” Cynthie said. “Tell me about the bet.”

  “I bet Cal that he couldn’t get Min into bed in a month,” David said.

  “Cal would not make that bet,” Cynthie said, her voice sure.

  “Oh, because he’s too noble.”

  “He distracted you with something else.”

  “He bet me he could take her to dinner.”

  “She left with him because you made a bet?” Cynthie said, fury in her voice.

  “It wasn’t my fault,” David said.

  “It doesn’t matter now anyway.” Cynthie’s voice dropped back into misery. “Even if you told her about the bet, she’d check with Cal.”

  “She already knew,” David said, resentfully. “I called her and told her last night. She said she’d overheard us.”

  Cynthie didn’t say anything.

  “I think she went to dinner with him to make me mad,” David said. “He sounded like she was pretty snippy, so she must have made him pay, too.” The silence stretched on until David said, “Cynthie?”

  “Does he know?” Cynthie said, her voice tight. “Does he know that she went out with him to make him pay?”

  “I don’t think so,” David said. “He hasn’t called me to tell me the bet’s off, and once he knows that she knows, it’s off.”

  More silence.

  “Cynthie?”

  “Do you know where Cal is now?” Cynthie said.

  “No, but he’ll be at Diana’s wedding tonight,” David said. “What diff—”

  “I know how to break them up,” Cynthie said, her voice like lead.

  “How?” David said.

  “Take me to the wedding. If she hasn’t slept with him yet, he’s frustrated to the breaking point. I’ll watch them, and if something makes him tense, if she turns him down again, if something goes wrong . . .” Cynthie paused again, and then he heard her take a deep breath. “I’ll tell you, and you go tell him that Min’s been making a fool of him all along. Tell him that everybody thinks he’s stupid.”

  “That’s enough to break them up?” David said.

  “That’s enough to give Cal nightmares for years,” Cynthie said, her voice miserable. “It’s illogical, but it’s been his trigger since he was a kid. Push that button and he explodes. If he does it in front of her family and friends—”

  “Wow,” David said, impressed with her once again.

  “What time is the wedding?” Cynthie said.

  “Seven,” David said. “Diana wanted it at twilight. Some fairy tale garbage.”

  “Pick me up at six,” Cynthie said, and hung up.

  Min had spent the night with Diana, who’d been so manic that she’d still been up, fixing bows on cake boxes, when Min gave up and went to bed, too tired even to miss Cal. But the next day, Di was quiet, still tense but not manic with energy anymore.

  “I just didn’t get enough sleep,” she told Min.

  When they got to the chapel dressing room, Wet, Worse, and Nanette were waiting, and Min ducked Nanette and her hair combs (“Min, you look awful with your hair like that”), took the cake boxes to the reception hall next door, and then went into the bathroom at the chapel to put her dress on. She was not going to struggle into the damn thing while Nanette made comments and Worse smirked.

  Something was very wrong, she thought as she tried to get the corset tied around her. Something besides her insane mother and the idiot wet and weeping bridesmaid in green, something beyond the cake Bonnie was now trying to decorate in orchids and pearls, something, she was pretty sure, much like the groom. I’ve got to talk to Di, Min thought, but what was she going to say? “You’re miserable and your groom is a moron and I think we should eat the cake and go home”?

  “Oh, hell,” she said and left the bathroom to go back to her sister.

  “You’re late,” Worse said, patting her ornate chignon as Min came into the room.

  “Bite me,” Min said, and went to stand beside Di. “Hey, baby, what’s up?”

  “Nothing,” Di said. “I’m just . . . glad you’re here.”

  “Yes, I am in all my glory,” Min said, holding her arms out to show off her gaping corset.

  “That corset’s not tight enough,” Nanette said, and turned her around. “Honestly, Min.” She untied the bow at Min’s neckline and then began to tighten the laces, working up from the bottom.

  “Uh,” Min said, as her lungs constricted. “Mother.” She put her hand on the back of Di’s chair to stabilize herself as Nanette yanked on the ribbons. “I have to be able to . . . breathe . . . during . . . the ceremony.”

  Nanette gave the ribbons a final excruciating pull at the top, tied them with a knot that would have had Boy Scouts staring in awe, and stood back to consider her work.

  “Well, it’s the best I can do,” Nanette said, and Min thought, That pretty much sums up our entire relationship, and turned away from her, her hand on her side, trying to breathe and see Diana at the same time.

  “Di?” Min said, and when Di didn’t say anything, she leaned over to see her sister’s face, constricting her lungs even more.

  Di was staring into the mirror, her eyes huge, the line of her beautiful jaw rigid, and Min forgot she couldn’t breathe.

  “Di? Are you all right?”

  “Fine,” Di said faintly, not taking her eyes off the mirror.

  “You look beautiful,” Min said. On Di, even the corset looked right. “Swanlike,” Min added, hoping to get a flicker.

  “She’s just got pre-wedding jitters,” Wet said as she settled her wreath of ivy and white baby orchids on her smooth, blond hair. She looked miserable.

  Worse nudged Min aside. “Go put your wreath on straight.” Her own wreath of cornflowers and orchids was perfectly centered on her head, balanced in back on her chignon.

  “Oh, Min,” Nanette said. “Your wreath.”

  Min picked up her wreath of lavender and orchids and slapped it on her head. At least it smelled good. She jammed a couple of hairpins in to hold it, watching Diana in the mirror the whole time.

  Di met her eyes and sat up straighter. “Go away.”

  “Okay,” Min said.

  “Not you,” Di said. “Everybody but you.”

  “What?” Worse said, stopping with her hands in midair, reaching for Diana’s wreath.

  “Diana,” Nanette said, shocked.

  Min took a look at Di’s frozen face. “Sister time. We’ll see you all outside in a minute.”

  “Hey,” Worse said. “I’m a bridesmaid—” Then she saw Diana’s face and stopped.

  “Out,” Min said, jerking her thumb toward the door.

  “Well, I’m not going,” Nanette said. “This is my daughter’s wedding.”

  “So go to it,” Min said. “Weren’t the pews all supposed to have flowers?”

  “Honestly, Min,” Nanette said and stopped. “Of course they’re all supposed to have flowers.”

  “Better check,�