I’m not normally a wreck, but everything snowballed since I lost my job because the company shut down. And, if I’m being honest, I’m not where I’d like to be at this point in my life. Filing papers at my dad’s insurance office and transferring them to the new online system isn’t how I expected to fill my days, but yet I’m grateful for it. If I didn’t at least have this to do to keep me busy, I’d be even more of a basket case than I already am.
I look at my reflection and reach into the pocket of my dress (yes, pockets! Hannah did good when she picked out the bridesmaids’ dresses) and pull out my deep red lipstick, reapplying a heavy coat along my bottom lip. I rub my lips together then fill them in with more color.
The door to the restroom opens and the sound of laughter fills the small space, right along with Hannah.
“Oh, good. I thought I saw you come in here and I have to pee so bad!” Hannah practically yanks up her skirt as she barges past me and into a stall. “Help me? Please, Katie?”
I jump to action and shake off my shock, trying not to laugh at her expression.
I help her hold her dress up, the material bunching around her chest. She takes a seat and sighs with relief, making me giggle. “Oh my gosh, I had to go so bad. I saw you come in here like ten minutes ago and kept trying to excuse myself but people kept talking to me and I couldn’t get away and I kept thinking I’m going to pee straight down my leg at my own wedding reception and after all the crap Brody just pulled that people will never forget, I didn’t want to add to the crazy that they would never forget,” she rambles and can’t stop talking.
Another laugh bubbles out of me. “People will forget the Brody thing, but probably not you wetting yourself, if it had happened.”
She snorts. “Right. And don’t lie, people won’t forget about Brody coming in here like a lunatic.”
Hannah rolls her eyes and I bite my bottom lip. “I’m sorry that happened,” I say, not knowing what else to say, handing her a bunch of toilet paper. I wouldn’t necessarily call him a lunatic, but I can see her point in being frustrated.
She finishes up and I help her stand, moving out of the stall before dropping her dress and moving to the sink to wash her hands.
“Are you okay?” I ask her.
“I am. I’m mad that he showed up, though. I thought he was over it. Over me.”
I resist the urge to roll my eyes because that’s not what he showed up here for, but I don’t think anyone will be able to convince Hannah of that. “Well, you’re married now so it doesn’t matter, right?”
She beams and turns to face me, lifting her hand and squealing, “Very true. I’m married!”
“And you’re happy. That’s what’s important. You and Cameron have the rest of your lives together. Plus, the honeymoon,” I remind her, grinning. The honeymoon is something she hasn’t been able to stop talking about so I’m certain that bringing it up will help brighten her mood and get her mind off of Brody. They’re going to a resort on an island in the Caribbean that sounds beautiful. I’ve never left the United States.
“You’re so right, Katie! Thank you. I needed that reminder. I am so excited for the honeymoon. And, everything up to the point that Brody and his band of hoodlums showed up was perfect. Focusing on anything but how amazing the day has been just ruins it,” she says with a definitive nod.
“Yes. I agree.”
“I’m so glad you could be here in the wedding. It’s like you lost your job for a reason, right? I mean, if you hadn’t, who knows if you would have been able to be my bridesmaid!” She rolls her eyes and huffs. “You lived so far away and you didn’t really keep in contact a whole lot.” She adds the last comment like I was the only one who moved away from Benton, Tennessee.
I raise my eyebrows. She can’t possibly be suggesting that it was a good thing that I lost my job in order for me to be here for the wedding. “I suppose that could be the silver lining in losing my job and having to move home with my parents.”
Hannah completely misses my sarcasm and smiles at me while she checks her appearance. “Exactly. See? You need to look at the bright side of things, Katie. You’re always so negative.”
I’m really, really not. But I’m not going to go there with her because if I’ve learned something in my thirty-two years, it’s when to pick my battles. This is not one of those times.
We make our way back to the reception and she moves around, her smile firmly in place as she talks to her guests and dances with her new husband.
I take a seat with a few friends I haven’t seen in a while and we chat and catch up. Nothing too personal because it’s obviously one of those ‘Hi, how are you,’ type of situations where you honestly don’t care but don’t want to look like a jerk by not asking about their lives. When I bluntly say, ‘I just lost my job and moved back in with my parents so my life is going pretty spectacularly at the moment’, the guests at the table laugh nervously and slowly disappear, leaving me alone at the table.
Seems about right.
Chapter Three
Katie
“Fancy seeing you here,” a male voice says against my ear, the heat of his obviously large body presses against my back and I spin around quickly. What greets me is the man I haven’t been able to stop thinking about since I last saw him at my friend’s wedding reception two weeks ago.
“Brody.”
“Katie.”
We stare at each other for a few beats then it’s my turn to order.
“Large black coffee, room for a splash of cream and a blueberry scone, please.”
“Got it. And for you, sir?”
“Oh, we’re not…”
“Same. My treat.” Brody hands over a twenty-dollar bill and winks at me, much like he did at Hannah’s reception and just like it did then, my insides clench.
I’ve had a crush on this man for as long as I’ve known him. Not just a fleeting crush, either. I’m talking, full on daydreams about him, green with jealousy when Hannah and he were together, and wanting to contact him the second I heard about their breakup to see how he was. I hadn’t seen him in a few years when he showed up at Hannah and Cameron’s wedding reception, but one look in his direction told me that I hadn’t gotten over my crush. Not in the slightest.
There are so many things about Brody Redding that I just… like.
So handsome.
Funny.
Hard working.
Kind. Oh my gosh, he’s one of the kindest people I’ve ever met. Always willing to help someone out, lend a hand to complete strangers.
And don’t even get me started on him. He’s… all man.
His hands are calloused and slightly grease-stained. Arms full of muscle. Damn, he’s so sexy and I know that he knows it, but he doesn’t act like it. He’s confident in who he is, but he’s not cocky by any means. And his smile? It’s the single most amazing smile I’ve ever seen in my life. Especially when his jaw is covered by perfectly-groomed scruff like it is now, his smile is heart-stopping.
He’s wearing boot cut jeans that drape over heavy brown work boots, a dark gray t-shirt with the Carhartt logo on his left chest, and a wooden cross that hangs from a thin black leather string. It looks like something that’s handcrafted and I wonder if his daddy made it for him because back in the day, I remember he used to create a lot of jewelry, ornaments, decorate boxes and other little, intricate things out of wood.