The woman’s voice was more distant now, echoing in the nearly empty restroom. “You can wait for her down the hall on the bench where all the couples sit, if and when she decides to come out and marry you. But until then, you need to get your butt out of here, pretty boy.”

What on earth was going on out there? Pretty boy?

Tessa scrambled up and opened the door to see a middle-aged woman in a cleaning uniform, holding a large mop like a gun and aiming the head at Leo. Leo—big, tall, broad-shouldered Leo—was cornered between the wall and the sinks, hands up in surrender, a water bottle in one hand.

Being held hostage by a mop. On their wedding day.

Oh dear.

“It’s all right,” Tessa said. “He was…helping me. He’s not dangerous.”

Except somehow he was. He’d convinced her to do this, after all.

Tessa turned to the woman, who stood beside a cart stocked with toilet paper, tampons, and paper towels. “Would you mind giving us a minute?”

“Okay, but if you need something, you just give a yell. Okay?”

“Thank you,” she said gratefully.

As soon as the door shut, Leo straightened his coat.

She almost cracked a smile, but he seemed a little agitated. So no mop jokes. For now. She nodded at the water bottle. “Is that for me?”

“Drink up,” he said, handing over the ice-cold bottle.

She did, desperate to stop the acid burn in her throat.

Suddenly she heard a chuckle. She gave him a look that could kill.

“What? What could possibly be funny?”

“I’m sorry,” he said, rubbing his hand over his mouth as if to wipe off the smile. “I can’t believe you actually did something I said.”

She drank again, a long draught, then wiped her mouth on the back of her hand. “Yeah, well, don’t count on that becoming a habit.”

“If it means anything to you, I’m sorry about this.”

She flicked her gaze up to his. He did look sorry. And far too handsome. She’d always had a weakness for men in dark suits.

Whatever criticisms of him she harbored, she had to hand it to him that he’d come after her. In the ladies’ room. And survived an attack by the tampon lady.

“I’m ready,” she said.

He pulled a box out of his pocket. “I have the rings. Okay if I give mine to Jack to hold for the ceremony?”

“Sure. Of course.”

He opened the garish pink restroom door with a flourish. “After you.”

As she passed by him, an errant thought sent a shiver down her spine, and it suddenly occurred to her why she was upset. It was because whatever happened, she was leaving her old life behind. Not just her little apartment, her routine, her way of life, but everything.