“Mom! It’s Will.”
“Will, sweetie. Aren’t you supposed to be at Jamie’s wedding right now?”
Will nodded. “I am. Well, I will be. Not quite yet.”
“Doesn’t it start soon?”
“Yeah, well, we had a little thing that happened—”
“Thing? Are you okay?”
“Yes, Mom, I’m fine. We had a little bear encounter when we were out hiking this morning. Everything worked out fine, but a little bit of bear spray blew back into my eyes and stuff, so we stopped by the ER to flush out my eyes and clean up some residual oil on my skin.”
“Oh, Will, I’m so glad you’re safe! I’m going to put your father on.”
“Mom? I can only talk for a minute.”
“Will?”
“Dad?”
“Son, I hear you wrestled with a grizzly and won.”
Will laughed. “Luckily you taught me what to do if I encountered a bear in the woods and I followed your wise advice. Just dealing with a little residual bear spray damage they had to clean out of my eyes.”
“Son, good job staying safe and being respectful of nature.”
“I owe it all to you.”
“So is it true that Elise is in the wedding too?” his mother asked, trying to sound all neutral and nonchalant but failing miserably.
“How does everyone learn these things in advance but me?”
“We have our ways. So?”
“So what?”
“So any chance for reconciliation with her?”
Will sighed. “I don’t know, Ma. Believe me, I’ve tried. But every time I think we’ve moved the dial, something clogs up the gears.”
“Well, it sounds to me like childbirth: one step forward, two steps back. Have patience, sweetheart. Eventually you’ll get to the finish line. And it will be all the more worth it for the hard effort you put in to get there.”
“I hope you’re right because it’s wearing me down. I don’t know if I’ve got the patience for it anymore.”
“Trust me, William. Slow and steady wins the race.”
He glanced at his watch again. “I’ve gotta run or I’m gonna miss Jamie and Jen’s wedding, and Jen will kill me, which would be ironic, considering the bear didn’t manage to. I love you!”
His mother made kissing noises and his father congratulated him again for his fast thinking in time for Ricardo to return with his discharge papers.
“There’s twenty bucks in it for you if you can get us back to the hotel in ten minutes.”
“Throw in ten more and I’ll make it in five.”
“Deal.”
They missed the group bus out to the property but were able to don their suits for the wedding and drive out to the venue with barely enough time to line up next to Jamie and the other groomsmen moments before Jennifer was to proceed down the aisle. Will was wiping away beads of sweat as the bridesmaids walked, single file, in advance of the bride. And just before Jennifer’s appearance came Elise, breathtaking in the strapless melon full-length gown that made her tits look incredible.
He locked eyes with her warm brown ones and smiled. When she smiled back, he could have sworn there were butterflies in his stomach. Dammit, he needed badly to get her alone so he could straighten her out on whatever it was that freaked her out last night before it was too late.
Chapter Fifteen
Elise lamented how demanding weddings could be. If she ever married, she might very well plan an elopement. Not that she was ever going to marry. But if so, none of this fifteen thousand pictures nonsense, which meant you missed out on cocktail hour and those yummy little pigs in a blanket, which were being passed around but remained out of reach, and by the time Elise had a chance to try to get some, they were all gone. At least she got herself a flute of champagne—she was going to need fortifications to get through this evening.
She kept wanting to talk to Will, but the bridesmaids and groomsmen kept being separated for all the pictures. Next, they all had to cheer on the bride and groom as they made their grand entrance as husband and wife, and then they sat down to dinner, which meant she was on one side of Jennifer at the long wedding party table and Will was on the other side of Jamie—a full three people away from each other.
At last, when dinner was over, the bride and groom did their first dance, followed by the parents, and finally—finally—they invited the wedding party onto the dance floor. But as Elise was working her way toward Will, damn if Sammi didn’t beat her to it and insist on a dance with him. Which left Elise to dance with some fraternity brother of Jamie’s whose eight-months-pregnant wife had to stay home so he had no one to dance with. Whoop-de-do.
As the song began to wind down, Will navigated his way toward her, diplomatically unloading Sammi on the guy Elise was dancing with and quickly reaching for Elise’s hand.
“Care to dance?”
She grinned. “I thought you’d never ask.”
He pulled her in until their bodies were pressed together, and Elise breathed into the moment, her muscles relaxing as he held her in his arms.
“I hear you got in a little smackdown with Mother Nature today,” she said, winking.
“Yeah, well, a four-hundred-pound grizzly has nothing on me.” He shrugged and pulled her hand close to his heart. She liked being this close, this intimate with Will. And didn’t mind for a minute that they were on public display. It meant that she was finally willing to own up to what he meant to her.
“So, uh, I had a long talk with an old friend of yours this morning,” she said. “And I think I owe you a rather big apology.”
He turned to face her and cocked his brow. “Oh?”
“Did you know that Shannon Cadbury is a bridal seamstress?”
“I did not. Should I?”
“Nope. Just important to know that she was the person I took Jen’s gown to this morning for last-minute repairs. And she was the one who told me the whole sordid truth about what happened prom night. And that you were, of course, the ultimate gentleman. So much so that you wouldn’t even break her trust by telling me why you’d disappeared.”
He pursed his lips and nodded.
“And it turns out I was a bit of a little shit and dug my heels in with an indignance I don’t find very flattering upon reflection.”
“You were pretty entrenched.”
“Can you ever forgive me for that?” She knit her brows, pleading with him to grant her mercy. “Because I don’t know if I’d even forgive me. Although, if I were you, I’d forgive me because I could never forgive myself if you didn’t forgive me.”
“That was a lot of forgiving going on there.”
She pulled him in tighter. “Does that mean you’d be willing to consider forgiving me?”
The music had changed to something up-tempo, but they continued to slow dance, nestled against one another, moving to the methodical beat of their private conversation.
“What’s in it for me?”
“Hmmm... Well, you remember how I woke you up in the middle of the night the other night?”
“You mean when you thought I was an entirely different guy?”
“That’s not entirely true.”
“So you thought it was him and me? You conflated us two?” He grinned at her.
She erased the air with her hand. “Let’s not worry about the finer points of that. I’m talking bigger picture here.”
He lifted a brow. “You’re telling me that you’d do that every night?”
She shrugged. “Fair warning: it might wear you out for your daytime hours.”
“It’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make.”
“Well then, if that will prove to you how desperately I want a second chance and to prove myself worthy of you, then count me in.”
“On one condition.”
It was her turn to raise her eyebrow. “Oh?”
“Only if I can return the favor. Rumor has it”—he stroked his goatee with his hand—“you have a thing for fa
cial hair there.”
She burst out laughing. “Did I tell you that?”
“You might have blurted that out in the heat of passion.”
“Let’s just say I’m a big fan.”
“Of me, or my beard?”
“Both.”
“In that case, let’s just say”—he turned to steer her off to a corner of the dance floor—“that the feeling is mutual.”
Chapter Sixteen
“I am so glad you two didn’t shove cake in each other’s faces.” Elise and Will stood hand in hand by Jen and Jamie, swaying to the music.
“And I am glad you two didn’t kill each other the minute you found out you were both in the wedding.”
“You know I’d not do that during your big wedding weekend. I was prepared to hold out till you left on your honeymoon.” Elise grinned.
“You are aware that this was our grand scheme to get you two back together?” Jennifer fist-bumped her new husband. “Great work, babe.”
“Seriously? You put that much thought into this?”
“Somebody had to!”
Will raised his hand. “I put lots of thought into it over the years. But I’d lost hope.” He thrust his lower lip out. “I’m actually so glad I was in the dark about this because it would have stressed me out and I would have been thinking, rethinking, second-guessing, and being a complete fool. This way things kind of happened organically.”
“I’m just glad you never completely gave up on me.”
“I loved you, Elise. I couldn’t do that.”
She frowned. “Is that in the past tense?”
He turned to face her and reached for her hands. “We have a lot to work through still, but there is no question in my mind that I loved you then and I love you now, and I think I’ll love you forever if you’ll let me.” He leaned in and kissed her, long and slow.
“Get a room, dude,” Jamie said as he leaned over to kiss his bride.
“I can vouch for the fact that he has a room. Quite a memorable one, at that. And I’m counting the minutes till we can get back there to pick up where we left off when we were so rudely interrupted.”
They all laughed as Sammi walked toward them, and Will and Elise quickly turned away before she had a chance to do any more harm.
THE RECEPTION WAS WINDING down. The buses had already headed back, and only a few stragglers were hanging behind. Will had brought his car since he and Ricardo rushed there late to the wedding; Ricardo had hitched a ride back on the bus. So that left the two of them.
“Sooo...” Will said, looking up at the loft above them. “What do you say, for old time’s sake? It’ll be almost like we’re at the prom—you’re all dressed up in your evening gown, and I’m in formal wear.”
“It’s going to have to be quick before they turn the lights off in here.”
“Caterers will be cleaning up for a while still.” He grinned and grabbed her hand, pulling her toward a corner door that led to a narrow flight of steps. “Last one up there is a rotten egg.”
“No fair—I’ve got a long dress on.”
“In which case, I’ll make it up to you.”
A brilliant full moon shone through the cupola windows.
Will removed his jacket and spread it out on the wide-planked wood, then gave Elise a hand so she could lie down on top of it. He sat next to her, cupping his hand to her face.
He shook his head. “I don’t know how I got to be so lucky about finding a way back together again. I don’t know how it happened, but I’m forever grateful for it.”
She blushed. “I don’t deserve someone as good as you. And you should hate me for what I put you through all these years.”
He leaned forward and kissed her lips tenderly. “You know I could never hate you.”
“And I should’ve known that you were always one of the good guys. I’m so ashamed that I behaved like such a child. My reactions—make that overreactions—were those of an immature and insecure girl. Now I’m a grown woman, full of remorse and determined to repair the damage I’ve inflicted. It’s crazy that it took all these years—not to mention a heart-to-heart with Shannon, the object of my hurtful and misdirected wrath—to prove to me that you were a young man honor-bound not to hurt her. Back then, I loved you more than you can imagine, Will Montgomery, and now I’m realizing that my heart still swells with love for the man you’ve become even more so.”
“Come here, you,” Will said, falling alongside her, his mouth scrabbling to find hers, his hands quickly working to unzip her gown so he could lift those amazing tits out. At last, he lifted that gossamer gown of hers and found his way back home again, once and for all.
Thank you so much for reading Bird Dog! I hope you enjoyed it! If so, please help others find this book:
Help other people find this book by writing a review.
Sign up for my new releases email so you can find out about the next book as soon as it’s available and get fun giveaways.
Like my Facebook page.
AND I LOVE TO HEAR from readers! Let me know what you think about my books! You can write to me at [email protected], and visit me on the web at www.jennygardiner.net.
Keep reading for a sample from Lady Killer – the next book in the Confessions of a Chick Magnet series.
Lady Killer
Chapter One
Coco Lovingston was sorely tempted to bring home the adorable pink teacup pig with the black spots that someone had cruelly left in the mailbox at the Second Chances Animal rescue clinic where she worked, but she knew her landlord would kill her, not to mention her apartment neighbors, especially if the little porker turned out to be a squealer. She’d retrieved him with the day’s mail, much to her surprise, and hadn’t put him down for the past hour, just cuddling and kissing that sweet baby pig face.
As much as she adored animals, her living situation didn’t lend itself to her taking on any sort of pet, after recently moved back from LA following a disillusioning stint trying to break into acting jobs there. She kind of hated slinking home with her tail between her legs, but if she were to be honest with herself, she was actually happy to be back in Bristol, Montana after a few years in a too-large city dealing with downright predatory industry-types who demanded sexual quid pro quos for jobs.
If one more rotten man told he she had to give him a blow job to land a pitiful little commercial spot as the “girl with herpes virus” or “girl with joint pain” in a pharmaceutical ad, her head was going to explode. She was damned if she was going to advance her career on her knees. Hell, if she was going to have a career that entailed spending a lot of times bent over, it would be to hug sweet, homeless dogs and cats that people bring into the shelter, thank you.
One condition of her return home, though, was that she wasn’t going to encamp in her parents ranch outside of town; it would’ve been too much of a step backwards to be living in her folks’ place like she was back in high school still. Enough years had passed, she knew her mom and dad enjoyed their empty-nest freedom and besides, she didn’t want to deal with them monitoring her every move. So, she’d taken a small apartment in town above Vertical Drop, the ski shop on Main Street, and enjoyed walking most everywhere she needed to go. Her best friend from high school, Emma Hamilton, had recently moved back to Bristol, which meant she now had a burgeoning social life as well, so things were looking up. Now if only she could find a home for this adorable little piglet.
“You planning to do anything other than cuddle that chunk of bacon?” Tippy O’Brien, a tiny sixty-something woman with shoulder-length frizzy gray hair and bright blue eyes, said with a grin.
“Hush,” she said, covering the pig’s ears. “Little Oink here will get scared.”
“I hate to tell you, Coco, but Oink’s not going to be long for this place — we just don’t have the room for a pig right now. We’re already at capacity.” She frowned.
Coco held the pig up right in front of the director’s face. “Look at this little snout,” s
he said, making kissy noises as she held the pigs face between her hands. “How could you ever dream of getting rid of this sweet little nugget?”
“Believe me, I’d bring in ten of them if I could, but we’re just not set up for pigs to begin with, and she’s going to take up the space that several dogs could occupy.” She looked at her watch and tapped the face. “Clock’s ticking on Oink’s time here, Coco. I’m really sorry about that.”
Coco thrust her lower lip in a pout. “Give me a day or two and see if I can find a good home for her.”
Tippy nodded. “We’ll do what we can, but please, make her adoption your priority.”
“Here, hold my pig.” Coco passed the pig to her boss, then pulled her long blonde hair back into a ponytail. She gave her a wink, her green eyes sparkling, and grabbed the little pig back. “I think I’ll be able to do that, no problem.”
BY EARLY AFTERNOON Coco had fielded six “no’s” and about four “are you crazy’s”, not to mention “Mommy said I can’t” from one little girl. Coco could barely suppress her failure-to-adopt dismay when a tall, brown-haired man with the most striking aqua-blue eyes that reminded her of the water at Grinnell Lake in nearby Glacier National Park showed up.
She’d been sitting at the counter mindlessly braiding the front strands of her hair when he walked in and she quickly jumped up, her hair falling into her face. She quickly threw on a baseball cap to hide the mess as she greeted him. She no sooner saw him than she’d wished she’d actually put on make-up and made half an effort to look good rather than rolling out of bed, taking a long run and showing up to work sweaty with tangled hair. So much for making a decent impression on the first good-looking man to step foot into the clinic since she started working there.
“Welcome to Second Chances,” she said, ushering him into the lobby. “If you have any questions, I’m happy to help. Are you here to adopt a pet?”
Bird Dog (Confessions of a Chick Magnet Book 4) Page 9