“How was your first night of wedded bliss?” Addy asked quietly.
Gabriella sighed. “Amazing. Truly, wonderfully incredible. I didn’t want to get out of bed this morning.”
If she’d been Gabriella, she wouldn’t have gotten out of bed. But she knew Gabriella would never blow off her family’s breakfast for sex—even with her new husband.
“Funny, I didn’t want to get into mine.” Yeah, Addy went there despite her demand that Jake not tell a soul. But Gabriella was her best friend, her sister from another mother, and the only person Addy trusted to give it to her straight. And the one person who could get hurt by my actions.
“You…?” Gabriella’s brow wrinkled, and a second later, her jaw dropped. She lowered her voice and said, “Ohmygod. Addison! You slept with Jake, didn’t you?”
“I’m sorry!” Addy said, although she was only sorry that it might bother Gabriella. She wasn’t sorry she had experienced being in Jake’s arms. “I didn’t mean for it to happen. I mean, not at first, but then…” She was selfish. That was the bottom line, and she needed to own up to it. “Then he was all I wanted. But I promise things aren’t going to be awkward or weird.”
“I think they already are,” Gabriella said. “Now this morning makes sense. You were acting so weird, looking away every time he was near you. I thought you’d just grown tired of him always trying to sleep with you.”
She ached at how far from the truth that was. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what happened, but somewhere between last night and waking up in his arms, I…I got confused about it all. I promise you, Gab. I will fix this. I will act absolutely normal around him from now on. I won’t let this come between anyone, especially you and Duke’s family. I’m such an idiot.” Addy hated herself right then. She couldn’t even look at Jake. Every time she did she got all revved up again.
“Was he a jerk to you?” Gabriella asked. “Because if he was, Duke will set him straight.”
Addy shook her head. “No. Not at all. He was…” Great? Perfect? Amazing? Every word she came up with sounded sexual, and what they’d shared felt like so much more. She settled on, “He wasn’t at all jerky.”
“What does that mean?” Gabriella eyed her skeptically. “You usually describe guys as ‘sex machines’ or ‘orally challenged.’ What am I supposed to make of ‘wasn’t at all jerky?’”
“He’s your brother-in-law, Gab. What do you want me to say? I can’t go into juicy details about him without making things even weirder. It was a mistake. That’s all it was. And it was just one night. We agreed to that. I’m sorry for crossing that line. I know better, and it was totally selfish of me.”
They stopped in front of the quaint dress shop, Pretty Things, housed in a small brick building with enormous windows and a cute pink and white awning. Gabriella touched Addy’s arm, indicating for her to let the others go inside first.
“You guys okay?” Siena asked.
“Yeah. I just want to talk to Addy for a sec. We’ll be right in,” Gabriella answered.
“Take your time,” Siena told them. “I’ve got a few hours without the babies. I’m not in a rush to get back.”
Once all the others were out of earshot, Addy apologized again. “I will make this right. I promise.”
“Addy, please. What am I, a child? I don’t care that you hooked up with Jake. I mean, I care, but it’s your life, your decisions. You know that.” Gabriella hugged her. “I’m actually kind of relieved. You two have been dancing around each other for so long, Duke and I wanted to lock you in a room until you finally did it just to get it out of your systems.”
“Oh Lord. You and Duke? He must think I’m a slut.”
Gabriella laughed. “The girl who talks about vibrators the way other people talk about pencils, like they’re a staple of every woman’s daily supply list, is worried about what someone thinks of her?”
Addy laughed. “I do not talk about them around him.”
“No? I seem to remember at dinner last week when Jake made a comment about helping you deal with your stress and you said you had plenty of batteries on hand to deal with it.”
Oh, shit.
“Face it, Ad. You don’t exactly hide your thoughts on sex.”
“Fine, whatever, but sleeping with his brother is different.”
“Only because Duke cares about you and he’ll beat the shit out of Jake if he hurt you or forced himself on you.”
“First, I think Jake could take Duke. Just sayin’. But really, Gab? Jake, forcing himself on me? I think you know us both better than that. Besides, Duke doesn’t need to know. Okay? Please don’t tell him. I’m leaving right after Trish’s wedding tomorrow to go back to the city, and the next day I’m leaving for my trip. This will all blow over by the time I return. And you’ll be on your honeymoon, so there’s no need to say anything.” Trish and Boone were having a small afternoon beach wedding. There would be absolutely no opportunity for drunken sex with Jake afterward. Addy tried to convince herself that was a good thing.
“If that’s what you want,” Gabriella said, looking intently at her. “But you seem…I don’t know. Nervous? Something’s different. I’m so used to you going on and on about how you’re better off watching porn, and you’re not saying that.”
“I’m exhausted,” she said as they walked up the steps to the dress shop. “We pretty much stayed up all night screwing like bunnies. I think there was an ass slap involved. It was a million times better than porn and battery-powered boyfriends combined.”
“Ohmygod. Do not tell me anything else.” Gabriella whispered as they walked inside, “Ass slap? Really?”
“Shh. I never said that.”
The dress shop was bustling with activity. Trish came out of a dressing room in the back looking stunning in her mother’s wedding gown. The shop owner, a busty brunette who looked to be in her late forties, and a handful of Gabriella’s relatives converged, guiding Trish onto a platform in front of several tall mirrors. Gabriella’s other relatives stood at the ready, sewing gear in hand, prepared to nip, tuck, and perfect the fit of Andrea Ryder’s wedding gown for her daughter. Addy had been to Elpitha often enough to know that every event was a community affair, but that didn’t dull the astonishment of witnessing the women coming together to help Trish. They treated the preparation of daily meals with as much love and attention as they did weddings and birthdays. It was no wonder Gabriella missed the island so much. If she’d had her wedding in New York City, the venue would have been cleaned up within hours of its end and they’d be on to the next party in no time, Gabriella’s big day forgotten. Here on Elpitha, the lights and decorations Duke had arranged around the bluff were left up, and the plants he’d brought in were cared for and would be replanted after the weekend. The women had gotten up at dawn to prepare a feast for relatives and friends, then moved seamlessly to the next task of graciously giving Trish her own perfect wedding.
The coming together of extended family—some of whom weren’t even blood related—made Addy think of her own family. She couldn’t imagine her mother ever being involved in this type of camaraderie, and that realization made her sad. She often wondered if her mother liked having all of her needs taken care of and hired help to handle things to the nth degree. Did she enjoy having only to show up and look pretty? Or did she secretly long to be more involved as an equal partner in her marriage, hiding her disappointment beneath an expertly practiced, refined facade? The thought spurred another, more troublesome one. Had her mother simply resigned herself to accepting a role as the silent, adoring wife, as she knew her grandmother had?
Addy couldn’t get caught up in analyzing her parents’ marriage. She firmly believed that people determined their own happiness, and if her mother had chosen to forgo happiness out of loyalty or something else, that wasn’t Addy’s issue to fix. She had enough on her very full plate, with thoughts of Jake taking up residence in her head. She was bombarded by memories of the hungry look in his eyes as he went down on her an
d the way he took and demanded in equal measure. Her body shuddered with the memory.
“I still can’t believe Boone arranged all of this without you knowing,” Siena said to Trish as the ladies untangled the web of gold ribbons on the back of Trish’s wedding gown and fluffed the layered skirt.
Addy drew in an unsteady breath and shook her head to try to clear the dirty thoughts from her mind.
“I can’t believe I fit in my mother’s wedding gown.” Trish smiled at her mother. “I also can’t believe you thought to bring it with you, Mom. Thank you.”
“Honey, the minute Boone asked us for your hand, we knew we were looking at an immediate wedding.” Andrea stepped closer, but there were too many women for her to get too close to her daughter. “That man is so in love with you he can’t see straight.”
“I still remember the day Marilynn gave me that dress. I was in Oak Falls, Virginia, for Marilynn’s wedding.” Andrea glanced at the other women. “She was Marilynn Calhoon at that point, but Montgomery now. She was my college roommate’s younger sister, and she is such a doll. Anyway, Marilynn made all sorts of clothes back then, and this was one of her designs. People used to come around from all over just to see the things she made. Her daughter Morgyn inherited her talent for fashion and opened her own shop, but Marilynn sewed for fun. She had other passions—”
“Mom,” Trish said gently. “They don’t need Aunt Marilynn’s life story.”
Not for the first time, Addy longed for moments like these with her own mother. Despite growing up in the same house, Addy had always felt distance between them. Her mother wasn’t nearly as confident or capable as any of the women in this room; nor was she open with her opinions. She’d never once shared a story about her past with Addy. Not the way her grandmother had when she’d told Addy about her marriage to her first husband, who had died when Addy’s mother was a little girl. Or the way her grandmother had shared her true feelings about her second marriage, which was the same kind of marriage her mother had fallen into. Addy was definitely wired more like her grandmother than her mother. The idea of not worrying her pretty little head about anything made her want to give her parents a lesson in nineteenth-century womanhood. Her father was a philanthropist who could—and tried to—give Addy anything she desired. But what she wanted couldn’t be bought. Her parents loved her to the ends of the earth, and she couldn’t fault them for having different ideals than she did. But deep down she’d have given anything for her parents to encourage her to do more, be more, step outside their pampered world and excel. To place value on her ability to succeed in her own career and create her own path and to recognize her achievements instead of seeing them as unnecessary wastes of energy or rebellion. They’d like nothing more than for her to come to her senses, find a man within their social circles, and settle down.
The trouble was, Addy wasn’t rebelling. She loved being intellectually stimulated and challenging herself. And she wasn’t looking to get married. She couldn’t imagine settling down with one man. Heck, last night was the first time she’d felt anything beyond turned on by a guy, and she was still struggling with that realization.
Andrea pushed her stylish amber frames up to the bridge of her nose and began straightening the layers of lace on Trish’s dress. Her serious expression reminded Addy of Jake, the way his mouth pulled tight at the corners and his brows drew together. His voice whispered through her mind. Be mine one last time, sexy girl. For the hundredth time, Addy pushed thoughts of Jake aside and tried to figure out how to make it through the rest of the weekend with her sanity intact.
“Anyway, Marilynn said I should try the dress on, and when I did, it was love at first sight. And these gold ribbons”—Andrea looked fondly at the thick satin ribbons that crisscrossed over Trish’s waist and back, where they attached to delicate white spaghetti straps—“were an afterthought.”
“Really?” Gabriella said. “I think they add so much.”
“I agree.” Trish ran her fingers lightly over the beaded bodice. “With all these embellishments, the gold, and the plunging neckline, it’s perfect for the red carpet or the beach.”
“Or your favorite camping spot,” Andrea said with a smile that lit up her eyes.
“My mom and dad got married at their favorite camping spot, by a river,” Trish explained. “They were both barefoot. But she wasn’t pregnant.”
“It wouldn’t matter if she was.” Gabriella’s mother’s thick Southern drawl contrasted with Andrea’s New York accent, though both were warm and friendly. Peggy Ann was in her late fifties, with the boundless energy and confidence of a woman in her thirties, ready to take on the world.
In Peggy Ann, Addy found the mother she felt she should have been born to, from her say-it-like-it-is attitude to her dark hair, they were more alike than Addy and her mother were.
“True,” Andrea said. “Babies are always welcome in my book.”
“Ours, too. We all know how love gets the best of us.” Peggy Ann’s eyes drifted to Addy, lingering just long enough to make Addy’s heart skip a beat. “Sometimes we just can’t help ourselves. And if we’re blessed with a young ’un, then it’s meant to be.”
Addy stood frozen in place. Was Peggy Ann with Gabriella’s aunts at the crack of dawn? Had she seen her and Jake out on the bluff? Addy wished she could close her eyes and go back in time. She thought about that for a beat and realized the only thing she would have changed was to make sure they’d gone back to one of their rooms. She had no interest in taking back their night together. But she’d known Peggy Ann and most of Gabriella’s relatives for more than four years. They’d welcomed her into their family with open arms, treating her like a daughter. And what did she do? Have sex on one of their tables and steal their condoms. Maybe she didn’t deserve a surrogate mother like Peggy Ann after all.
“Mama,” Gabriella said. “You’re so in love with love.”
“You bet your sweet bottom I am.” Peggy Ann cinched the waist of Trish’s dress a little tighter. “Nothing will make your head spin as quickly as the man who was meant to set your world on fire. And Boone is going to go up in flames when he sees you in this dress, little miss Trish.”
That sparked a flurry of activity as Gabriella’s aunts began lifting, smoothing, measuring, and pinning Trish’s dress, while commenting on how handsome Boone was and what gorgeous babies they’d have together.
“Trish, we don’t have bridesmaids dresses,” Siena said. “Should we buy some here?”
“No. I want you guys to wear your own dresses. It’s more fun and natural. I have enough fancy-schmancy in my daily life,” Trish assured them. “I want this to be low-key and I want you all to just be comfortable and have fun.”
They discussed the details of her small family wedding, which included only immediate family and closest friends. Gabriella’s extended family seemed to be as used to that as they were to big community-style weddings and didn’t appear to be bothered by not being included. They nipped and tucked for what seemed like hours, providing the perfect distraction for Addy to slip away unnoticed. She hurried into the ladies’ room to try to collect her thoughts.
A few minutes later the bathroom door opened and Gabriella poked her head in. “I thought I saw you escaping.”
“Hey. Come in.”
Gabriella walked in with Sally, Siena, and Lizzie on her heels, each one wearing a bigger smile than the last.
Addy crossed her arms. “You told them?”
“No!” Gabriella insisted.
“She didn’t have to. I saw you this morning,” Sally said sweetly. “But I swear I didn’t mean to rat you out. I heard the twins crying and went out on my balcony to see if Siena was taking them for a walk, and I saw you and Jake walking toward your room.” She cringed a little, hiding behind her straight blond hair. “Wearing the same clothes you had on last night.”
Oh God. Addy leaned back against the sink.
“In her defense, she did hear our twins. So it’s kind of our fault.
” Siena peered into the mirror and fixed a smudge of eye makeup, then ran her fingers through her long brown hair.
“And you assumed…Of course. Why wouldn’t you?” Addy wasn’t new to owning up to her trysts, but this felt different, because everyone in this room was part of Jake’s family. Including Sally, even though she technically wasn’t. She and Gage did everything together.
“This is the part where you might want to kill me,” Sally added. “At breakfast I made the mistake of mentioning that I saw you two together.”
“It didn’t take much for us to figure it out.” Lizzie smiled, bringing out her dimples. “We’re happy for you!”
“Great. Why don’t we hire a skywriter in case anyone missed the announcement,” Addy said sarcastically. She couldn’t even enjoy that Lizzie said they were happy for her. She was too worried about being so hard on Jake about keeping his mouth shut, and not only did she tell Gabriella, but now all the girls knew. Which means his brothers do, too.
“Should I tell you the worst part?” Gabriella asked. “And I swear to you, I had no idea about any of this until two minutes ago.”
“There’s a worst part?” Her stomach sank.
“It’s not so bad. We did great damage control,” Siena said.
“The worst part needed damage control?” Addy reached for Gabriella’s hand.
“My aunts caught wind of it,” Gabriella said softly.
“Ohmygod. Everyone knows?” Addy closed her eyes, wishing she was a crier, because it would feel a lot better to shed tears than it would to bang her head against the wall.
“Don’t worry,” Siena assured her. “We cornered them before word spread too far. I think.”
Rescued by Love (Love in Bloom: The Ryders): Jake Ryder Page 6