The rehearsal dinner was that night. The five other bridesmaids and Wiley's six ushers plus the best man and matron-of-honor with the ring bearer in tow arrived at Sara's Place promptly at seven PM, in semi-formal attire.
Sara was led this way and that by either Polexia or Wiley, being introduced to anyone she had not met yet. First was the wedding coordinator, a plump Philippino woman named Giovanna ("Oh, just Gia, if you please") Marcaida who talked with her hands and frowned at Sara's pale complexion. Polexia then introduced Sara to the matron of honor, her sister Crisli, and the ring bearer, Crisli's small son Troy. Wiley also made Sara acquainted with the usher who would be walking her down the aisle.
"We're pairing everyone alphabetically," Wiley said, "save the matron of honor and the best man. So, Sara Sidle, meet Cade Sheffield."
Cade Sheffield was tall and good-looking with stern brown eyes and slicked back dark hair. "Sara, a delight to meet you." He shook Sara's hand gently and Sara was charmed.
"Cade is a professor of Russian lit at Alliant International University in San Diego," Wiley said to Sara. To Cade he said, "My kid sister Sara is a crime scene investigator in Las Vegas."
"Fascinating," Cade said. He held a martini glass in one hand and wore a slate-gray suit. "How long have you been in Las Vegas, Sara?"
"Almost six years," Sara said casually. "I used to be a coroner's assistant in San Francisco but I was transferred by the orders of Dr. Gil Grissom. I'm sure you've heard of him?" What? Where did that come from?
"Yes, yes I have. I've read about him in the paper a few times," Cade said, surprising the hell out of Sara. "Brought Clark County out of the investigation shithole, from what I understand. You must feel privileged to work for him."
"Very," Sara replied dryly.
"People, shall we get started?" Gia announced loudly. She clapped her hands sharply like a kindergarten teacher.
Sara found out Gia ran a tight shift, very much like Grissom. Her way, no ifs, ands or buts. Like a drill instructor, she clapped her hands to a beat only she could hear as two by two the party marched down the "aisle"—or rather, a strip of carpet set up in the backyard of Sara's Place that led from the porch steps to a podium about eight yards away where the minister was standing.
"Left, right, together. Right, left, together," Gia chanted tirelessly. "Come on people, the sooner we do this, the sooner you can eat. Wait, wait…where's the flower girl and ring bearer? Crisli, could you go get them?"
"Jeez, what a pain in the ass," muttered Cade.
"She's just doing her job," Sara replied.
"And she's very good at what she does. I just didn't know you got paid for being a pain in the ass."
Sara rolled her eyes when Cade looked away, all the adoration she'd felt for him quickly flying out the window.
The rehearsal paused as Crisli Adare, Polexia's sister, went off in search for her son and Kirya.
"Damn kids," yawned Cade. "You got kids, Sara?"
"No. Thank God," she sighed. "I love my nieces and everything, but…"
Cade laughed. "Yeah, I know what you mean. I can go without kids. They just fuck everything up, don't they? I mean, the only reason why we're not down the aisle right now is because of those little bastards."
Sara couldn't believe her ears. "What? How could you say something like that? They're just kids!"
"You know, Cade, she's right. Shut the hell up, okay?" said a soft male voice behind Cade.
Cade whirled around. "Excuse me, Delmore, but the last time I checked, nobody hit your buzzer," he said nastily. He faced forward again.
Sara craned her neck to take a look at the guy who took Cade down a notch. He was short, at least a head shorter than his bridesmaid, Lilith, who stood five foot eleven. His face was boyishly handsome, his hair was ruffled and light brown, almost blonde, and his eyes were big and green.
"Hi," he whispered. "Aren't you Wiley's sister?"
"Yeah," Sara whispered back. She couldn't shake his hand but nodded a little. "My name's Sara."
"I'm Del, Del Gray."
"Hi."
"I'm sorry your escort's a dick."
"You're not helping, Delmore," Cade snapped without turning around.
Del scoffed a little, showing an abhorrence for his full name. Sara giggled a bit.
"Okay," rang Gia's voice, clapping madly. "We've found our little munchkins! Thank you, Crisli, for going to go get them."
"No problem," said Crisli, sauntering back to the head of the line. She looked exactly like her sister, except leaner and taller. Sara heard later that Crisli was a former ballerina.
Gia continued her "left-right-together-right-left-together" chant until the last person was down the aisle, even Kirya and Troy, the latter clutching the little velvet pillow that would hold the rings and the former swinging a wicker basket empty of rose petals. When it came the time for Polexia to make her way down the aisle on the arm of her father, Gia abandoned her harsh marching routine.
"Polly, this is your time to shine, so just glide, okay? You're an angel in white, just glide. Smile and glide, okay?"
Sara wished she could talk to Maaike, but she was too far down. Out of the corner of her eye, Sara saw Del lean over and whisper something into Troy's ear, making him giggle.
"He is just too cute!" sighed Lilith, the soap opera star's wife. "He's the only usher who's still single, you know, Sara. I bet the two of you would click nicely."
"Maybe," Sara said. He looked too young for her and reminded her, for some reason, of Greg Sanders.
"Oh, please," Elsa rolled her eyes. "Del wouldn't want a girl like Sara."
"How's your weight loss plan going, Elsa?" Sara asked. "Hungry?"
Elsa shot Sara a nasty look but remained quiet.
"Don't pay any attention to her," Lilith whispered. "She and Leo are having some marital problems. She's jealous that you and Del have a chance."
Sara glanced at Del again, who was energetically entertaining Troy, the two of them giggling like mad.
"I think there's definitely potential for you guys," Lilith insisted. "He's so cute, he's sweet and funny and he's smart!"
"What does he do?" Sara's eyes went from Del and Troy to Gia fussing over Polexia and her father Lemuel.
"He's a civil rights lawyer."
"He doesn't look old enough to be a lawyer."
"Well, he's twenty-nine."
Not bad. Sara pursed her lips. "Well, you never know. Something might happen."
Sara almost had a good time at the rehearsal dinner, which was held beneath a massive white tent in the backyard. Already the numerous tables and chairs for the guests were set up, their tables nude, waiting to be decorated the next morning. The dance floor had been installed earlier that evening and the DJ had already set up his equipment.
Cade, the usher who had walked Sara down the aisle, also sat next to her and incessantly hit on her. Sara acted lackadaisically, uninterested, but he was persistent. She didn't tell him that she did indeed notice the band of gold encircling the third finger of his left hand.
"You know," Cade said at one point, "my hotel room? I got a nice little minibar there. How 'bout later you come back? We'll have a few drinks…get to know each other?" His hand roamed up to Sara's thigh. She jerked away and gritted her teeth.
"No thanks."
"Oh, come on," Cade whispered seductively. His hand slipped under the fabric of Sara's skirt. She gasped at his audacity and forcefully moved his hand away. "Don't be a fucking tease."
She smelled alcohol on his breath. Lots of it. "Please, leave me alone. You're married."
"Married? What does that mean nowadays?"
"It means you shouldn't be hitting on me," Sara put venom in her voice.
"Wow. Well, if you want to play hard-to-get…"
"I don't want to play anything," she hissed. She got up from her seat and left the tent. She felt eyes following her, many pairs of eyes, wondering where she was going and what she was doing. She didn't care.
She went into the house. Nobody was home. Phil and Eavan had gone out to dinner. Everyone else was outside. Before Sara had a chance to open the double doors to the family wing, a pair of hands clamped down on her shoulders and whirled her around. She recognized the pair of eyes she met. Cade.
"Come on, Sara," he said. "Don't ruin the party."
"The only one ruining anything is you," spat Sara.
Cade's hands roamed from her shoulders to her breasts. "Don't make me beg, baby."
Sara forcefully pushed Cade away very forcefully, but he responded by latching his hands around her wrists and kissing her. It wasn't much of a kiss—Sara kept her mouth shut and unyielding but somehow Cade's tongue snaked through. Sara attempted a head butt but Cade dodged out of the way.
"Whoa there. Like it rough?" he hissed. "Come on, take me to your bedroom…"
"Like hell," Sara replied through gritted teeth.
"Mmm, Sara, Sara," Cade nuzzled her neck and cheek, smelling her hair. "Sooo sexy. So fucking hot…"
"GET OFF!" Sara bellowed and really started to fight back, squirming and writhing. She tried to kick and knee him in the groin but to no avail. As Sara fought Cade off, he seemed to think that this was a turn on and continued to advance, kissing her neck and chest, unzipping her skirt and trying to pull her top off.
In the midst of all the combat, somehow Cade managed to get the door of the family wing open. He tried to drag her in but she resisted and resorted to scratching. He made the mistake of freeing one of her hands to fondle her breasts. Her nails raked his face, chest, arms.
"Cade! What the hell are you doing?!"
Sara saw Del hurry over, pulled Cade off of her and promptly hit him across the face with a superb left hook. Cade stumbled backwards and went down but he was not unconscious.
"You okay?" Del asked Sara, out of breath.
Sara, rubbing her wrists, nodded. Forlornly, she pulled her skirt up from around her knees and pulled her shirt down that was bunched up underneath her breasts. Don't cry…don't cry…
"I saw you leave and Cade followed you and when you guys didn't come back…I'm sorry if I—" Del blushed profusely. "I didn't mean to play the hero…but Wiley asked about you." He whirled around and stood over Cade, who had blood trickling from his nose. "And you! What the hell do you think you're doing?"
"N-nothing," Cade panted. "Aw, man, you know how the chicks get…she was all over me…we were gonna have a good time, Del, and she started goin' apeshit…"
Del dragged him up to his feet and they stood eye-to-eye. "Something tells me you're lying through your teeth. You're lucky if I don't tell Amanda but if Wiley finds out, you can count yourself out of this wedding. His sister, man!" Del pushed Cade back down.
"Yeah, like you've got the balls to say anything to Wiley," Cade retorted.
"Watch me, Sheffield. Not only will I tell Wiley but I'll call Amanda right here and tell her every damn thing and Sara will, too."
"Aw, man," Cade's voice sounded like a child's. "Don't tell Amanda, man. She's my love, my life…"
"Then why the hell are you trying to fucking rape your friend's sister!"
"Del?" Sara saw Wiley enter the scene now. He looked worried. "Sunshine, are you okay?" he ambled over to her. "Why are your wrists red? Are you crying?"
Don't cry, don't cry. "I'm fine," Sara said hoarsely. "Just came to use the bathroom."
"Del, what's going on? Cade, what happened to your nose?" Wiley gave Cade a hand to help him up.
"I, uh…walked into a wall," Cade said. His mouth was bleeding a little bit now, too, as Sara saw when he stood.
"Sara?" Wiley stared at his sister—something was not right. She was staring at her wrists now. "Ready to come back to the party?"
"Y-yeah," Sara said softly. "Gimme a minute, huh?"
"Sure, sure. Take your time. Cade, Del, shall we?" Wiley and Cade left to go back outside. Del lingered.
"Here," Del reached into his pocket and pulled out a blue handkerchief. "It's okay to cry now."
"Thank you," Sara said, taking the kerchief. She dabbed at her eyes, already welling up with tears.
"Cade's a fucking moron, if you'll pardon my French," Del said sympathetically. "He says he loves Amanda, but he's been screwing around on her since day one. This is the first time he's tried anything like…like this."
Sara couldn't think of a way to properly respond to that. "I'm going to have bruises tomorrow," she said, staring at her wrists again.
"I'm sorry," Del took one of her hands into both of his. "I'll tell Wiley to switch Cade and me at the ceremony tomorrow, so you don't have to walk with him. Besides, I look so ridiculous standing beside that Amazon woman. You're closer to my height."
Sara gave a small giggle into Del's handkerchief. He smiled.
"Good. You're not completely harmed. My mom used to say, if you can still smile, it can't be that bad." He gave a friendly, gentle kiss on the one hand he held. "Keep the hankie. You may need it later on."
"Okay," Sara replied.
Del gave a wink of his green eyes and left the room too, back to the party, back to the food, back to the laughter. Sara was left by herself once again. She replaced a table lamp that Cade had knocked over when Del punched him out and went to the kitchen phone and dialed the only number she could think of.
"Gil Grissom."
Sara suddenly lost her voice when she heard that beautiful, familiar voice.
"Gil Grissom," he repeated.
"Grissom…it's me…"
"Sara? Speak up, honey, I can't hear you."
"Grissom," Sara said, a bit louder. "C-could…could you come back to Sara's Place? I need you."