It always surprised me that they dated because they never seemed to have much in common. She always said she wanted the “big city life”, she called it. Wanted a husband who worked in an office with regular hours and didn’t get dirty for a living. Knowing all that, I couldn’t understand what the two of them had in common so yeah, I wasn’t shocked to see they’d broken up and stayed broken up.
But looking at her now, as she, too, watches Brody march out of here in all his confidence and sexiness, I understand. There’s no denying how attractive Brody Redding is and she clearly agrees. Maybe she always liked the idea of being with a man like she described but in the end, she really wanted someone like Brody.
Whatever.
She married Cameron and now Brody’s…
Well.
Brody’s single.
And he winked at me and kept looking. I wanted to run after them and go wherever they were going.
Cami, another of Hannah’s bridesmaids, leans over and whispers, “She looks like she’s torn between rushing after that hottie and doing the proper thing and staying here.”
I giggle. “Yup.”
“You look the same, just saying.”
“Yup.” I don’t deny it.
Done with the pretend, she turns and faces me since everyone else is talking and no one is paying attention to us. “Seriously. Did you see the eyes he was giving you? Girl, if I wasn’t pregnant already, I’d have gotten pregnant just from sitting here.”
My eyes widen. “You’re pregnant?”
“Seventeen weeks,” she says, beaming.
“Oh my gosh! I had no idea!”
“I’ve been keeping it pretty quiet because we had two miscarriages before this one so we’re nervous to tell people. You’re actually the first person not in the family that I’ve told.”
I give her a sweet face and press a hand to my chest and fan my face with the other like I’m drying my tears. “Aww! I’m so honored!”
She rolls her eyes at me. She knows I’m being serious about being honored but over the top about it. “You’re such a dork.”
“Right. Anyway, tell me everything!”
She does. No hesitation, goes on to tell me everything about the miscarriages and the pregnancy so far. Cami grew up here also and we were friends for the short time I lived here during high school. We didn’t stay incredibly close after that, but social media at least kept me informed. From what I understand, she got shot of her jerk of an ex-husband and moved to Minnesota where she met her now husband, Owen. I heard he owns a resort on the Canadian border but that’s about all I know.
I always got along really well with Cami, and if it wasn’t for the fact that she was a bridesmaid also, I probably wouldn’t be sitting here right now. She’s hilarious and funny and writes these amazing romance novels that I can’t get enough of.
Once she’s finished, she calls her husband Owen over to introduce him to me. He’s a handsome guy who looks like he belongs here in the Tennessee mountains. He leans over the table and kisses her on the mouth and her soft look she gives him makes me all melty. They’re in love. Not the in love for other people type of love, they’re head over heels happily stuck together for life kind of in love.
“Thank God we eloped, Cami.”
“Right?”
“Y’all eloped?” I ask them.
“Yup. He asked me on a Wednesday night if I would be his wife. Friday, I looked at him and said, ‘why not now? I’m sick of waiting’.”
“No. Were your families and friends upset?”
“Oh, yeah. We received a ton of shit about it, especially from his sister, but then we reminded them that we saved them the planning and money that goes into a wedding and they saw how happy we were so they didn’t care. Plus, it was my second marriage so I was like meh, let’s just be married. Having a big wedding the first time didn’t pan out so well for me in the end.”
“I’d say it did,” Owen reminds her. “If that one hadn’t been what it was, we wouldn’t have met.”
“True. And thank goodness I hightailed it out of here to come to you, right?”
“Right.”
“Anyway, we had a small family-only reception with both sides but it was mainly a barbecue up at the lake, where we live. Owen owns a resort in Northern Minnesota, not sure if you knew that.”
“We own it,” he corrects and Cami smiles.
I notice Owen hasn’t once taken his eyes off her. “Everyone brought gifts that we told them we didn’t want but they ignored us, and I wore a pretty little white sundress.”
“So sexy,” Owen says, still watching his wife. “Damn, that dress.”
Cami giggles then continues, “Yeah, he kind of couldn’t keep his hands off me and we ended up having sex in our bedroom during the party.”
I smile at them because this is a great story and I want to keep hearing more.
“Did anyone know?”
“My brother-in-law,” Owen says, grinning. “But he just high-fived me.”
“Nice.” I laugh. “Do you regret not having the big wedding and reception?”
“Heck no,” Cami replies instantly. “Owen and I already lived together when he finally proposed.” She emphasizes the word finally, making Owen grin. “We didn’t want to wait any longer after that. We snuck away to Vegas, got married, came home with a marriage license and these,” she lifts her hand to show her tattooed wedding ring finger, “and couldn’t have been happier. We didn’t have to wait around to start our marriage and seriously saved some mega bucks and headaches. It’s not that I never wanted a wedding but it was perfect for us and I wouldn’t change it for anything.”
“I love that,” I gush.
“So what was that all about?” Owen asks about what I assume was Brody’s appearance.
Cami bursts out laughing. “She broke up with him because he’s a mechanic, basically. He got drunk, showed up here tonight, and totally pulled a ‘Friends in Low Places’.”
Owen barks out a laugh. “If what he was saying is true, she’ll be regretting that.”
“He wasn’t lying. Brody’s not like that,” I tell them.
“He isn’t,” Cami agrees. “He’s a good guy. He’s the one with that black truck you have a hard-on for,” she teases Owen.
“Oh, no kidding? Makes sense, then. That thing is awesome. I saw it two days ago and can’t stop thinking about it.”
“Dork,” Cami snorts.
“He kept looking in your direction and I was about to come kick some ass then I realized he had eyes for this one.” He points at me.
“That’s what I told her. He was looking at you like he had some ideas running through his head, if you know what I mean.”
I squirm in my seat, not uncomfortable with the idea. Oh no. With the prospect of it.
“Shut up,” I murmur, a little embarrassed and not wanting to make a scene. I’m also a little worried that Hannah will hear or that she’ll be mad at me for some reason, even though I didn’t do anything. It’s not like I knew Brody was coming here tonight.
Cami and Owen laugh at my expense and she nudges me with her shoulder.
“You saw it, too, right?”
Instead of saying it out loud, I nod, which only makes them laugh harder.
“My guess, that’s gonna be a thing sooner than later,” Owen murmurs.
I feel red stain my cheeks and duck my head.
“I agree. Since we were here at the beginning, I’m demanding that when it happens, you let us know. Besides, this is like a romance novel and I have all sorts of ideas rolling around in my head now.”
“Oh, boy,” I grumble as Owen chuckles.
“Don’t mind her. Everything turns into a book in her mind.”
“So I’m nothing special? Is that what you’re trying to say?” I ask, joking.
“Exactly.” Owen grins and it’s easy to see why Cami fell in love with him. Or, at least, was attracted to him.
Out of the corner of my eye I see Hannah and C
ameron stand up together. She looks beautiful today, not that she doesn’t usually, and I feel not just a small pang of shame that I’ve been thinking the things that I’ve been thinking. Hannah’s not a bad person and I’m being catty, which I don’t like. It makes me feel like I’m in sixth grade all over again, talking bad about my friends behind their back. Whether Hannah and I are close or not is of no concern, we’re still friends and today’s her wedding day.
Together, Hannah and Cameron move about the reception hall, stopping to talk to all the guests and, presumably, thank them for coming. Cami and Owen are huddled together after Owen brought a chair over to sit next to her. It’s amazing how you can be surrounded by people but feel more alone than ever before.
I stand up and mutter that I need to use the restroom, even though I don’t think neither Cami nor Owen are paying attention, and make my way there. After doing my business and washing my hands, I stare at myself in the mirror.
Four months ago, the company I worked for let me go.
Because I’m the worst money manager in the history of money managing, and I have a spending habit paired with a wage that didn’t necessarily support this habit, I was forced to move home. And, also, forced to take a good hard look at what I’m doing with my life.
I have no job prospects, no real aspirations on what I want to do with my life. I’m thirty-two years old and am currently jobless, living with my parents, and have a pitiful amount of money in my checking account. Savings? I blew through about a quarter of that during the last four months that I’ve been out of work and was trying to find something else. I moved home before I spent it all because I got control of myself.
Oh, and the topping on the craptastic cake that is currently my pathetic excuse for a life? My cat died. Right in front of me as I was packing the contents of my ground floor apartment into the back of my dad’s truck, she got out when the door was left open, ran across the street right in front of a car, and that was that. It was awful and I cried right there in the middle of the street, yelling at the driver who wasn’t at fault, but I needed to blame someone and that poor man was there. He felt awful, kept apologizing and asking how he could help but there was nothing he could do.
To say I was in a bad mental place already would be putting it mildly and that just pushed me over the top. Since that day, just three weeks ago, I’ve been mopey, crying off and on in a constant pity party and I’m pretty sure my parents are days away from kicking me out if I don’t stop. Especially my daddy since he is letting me work for him in the meantime until I find something permanent and I’m certain he’s just tired of being around me. Two days ago, he snuck out of the house rather than the two of us riding together. I couldn’t even blame him, though. Quite honestly, after living on my own for over twelve years, being around my parents this often isn’t exactly thrilling.
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 bod
y 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.
Without You: A Friends-to-Lovers Small Town Romance Page 3