The Mission

by Noelle Adams

  the mission

  Bad Bridesmaids, Book Two

  NOELLE ADAMS

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

  Copyright © 2021 by Noelle Adams. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce, distribute, or transmit in any form or by any means.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  about The Mission

  prologue

  one

  two

  three

  four

  five

  six

  seven

  eight

  epilogue

  Excerpt from The Mismatch

  about Noelle Adams

  about The Mission

  SERENA HOLLY HAS A mission. Help her best friend, Keith, find the love of his life before the summer is over.

  She and Keith have been friends since they were in school together, and nothing has changed in all these years. After getting through a messy divorce, Serena is now perfectly happy in life with her daughter, her friends, and her job as a high school teacher, but she's afraid that Keith might be lonely. He wants to start a family, and he can't do it until he falls in love. So Serena is going to help him find the right woman, and she's going to ignore all the inappropriate flutters of attraction she starts to feel for him.

  Keith Howell has been trying for years not to hope for more than friendship from Serena, so he agrees to her plan to spend the whole summer fixing him up. He does want someone to love. Only he wants her to be Serena. But she's finally gotten to a good place after a difficult marriage, and she doesn't want anything to disturb the life she's made for her and her daughter—especially not something as risky as changing the nature of their friendship. But he can't help the way he feels about her, and he won't necessarily be able to stop himself from acting on it.

  Serena might think she knows what's best for him, but now Keith has a mission too.

  prologue

  WHEN KEITH HOWELL LOOKED back at his life—all twenty-five years of it—it centered around how close he was to Serena Holly.

  He’d spent his first ten years in a big house in Northern Virginia with cool, detached parents and an older brother who’d never really liked him. He hadn’t known Serena then. He hadn’t been happy, but he also hadn’t been miserable.

  At eleven, his family had moved to a wealthy suburb of Richmond when his father had gotten a job transfer and promotion. The next three years had been even lonelier since he was the only new boy in a snobbish private school. He hadn’t been teased or bullied. No one ever actively disliked him. He’d always been boring but neutral. Smart but not exceptionally so. Not great at sports but not laughably bad. Not particularly talented at anything, he was average-looking and average-behaving and average in pretty much everything. He faded into the background, and no one seemed to notice him at all.

  Until he met Serena.

  His family had moved to a bigger house in a more exclusive neighborhood in the summer before eighth grade, but that wasn’t what shifted him into the next phase of his life. On the first day of school that year, he’d sat beside Serena Holly in homeroom, and nothing was the same after that.

  She was new to the school. A scholarship girl who’d gotten in on the strength of her brains rather than her family’s money like most of the rest of them. She’d been nervous. Fidgety. Clearly unsure of where to go or what to do. Since Keith had been new himself a few years earlier and he liked the look of her tentative smile, he’d helped her navigate her schedule and the halls of the school.

  He’d never forget her expression when she thanked him at the end of the day. The way her big hazel eyes glowed. The sunlight on her wavy red hair. She’d left him speechless. Breathless. He’d never seen anything so warm and sincere and pretty in his whole life. She talked to him every day after that and hung out with him at lunch. He’d assumed that when she got to know more people, she would slowly detach him from her life the way everyone seemed to do eventually.

  But she hadn’t. She’d remained his friend all that school year, even as other kids gradually came to know and like her too.

  He’d tried for weeks to summon the courage to ask her to the big dance that spring, but a basketball player beat him to it. That was when he realized, no matter what his daydreams held, he’d never be anything but her friend.

  And that was okay. He was a fade-into-the-background kind of guy, and that never changed. She never dropped him. Never failed to appreciate him. Was always there when he needed her. The rest of high school constituted his “Serena years.” Maybe he would have tried again to see if she was interested in him as anything but a friend, but he’d never had the chance.

  Graduation wasn’t the thing that changed things for him. Rather, it was Serena getting engaged to that same basketball player who had beaten him out in asking her to the dance and whom she’d dated all through high school.

  They went to the same college and stayed friends, but between her husband and her classes, she didn’t have time for him. Keith lived in the dorms, and his college years were better than high school except for the fact that he didn’t have Serena like he used to. He was still neutral and average, but girls seemed interested in him when they hadn’t been before. He majored in civil engineering, and he dated a lot and he had sex for the first time and he wasn’t always bombarded by the sad fact that his family didn’t really love him. Life wasn’t all that bad no matter how much he missed Serena.

  After graduation, he got a part-time job as he worked on his master’s degree, and then he got a good job in Richmond. He liked his apartment—in an old flour mill converted into quirky, comfortable spaces—and he had more friends than he would have expected based on his lonely childhood. But Serena’d had a daughter before she graduated college. She’d gotten a job teaching history for the same private school they’d attended (probably thanks to her husband’s family’s influence), and her world was entirely different than his.

  They were still friends. They texted regularly and got together for coffee at least a couple of times a month. But her husband had never liked how close the two of them were in high school, and Serena had always been careful not to make him jealous or betray him.

  Keith couldn’t blame her. She needed to prioritize her marriage and family. But he hated her husband with a white-hot wrath he’d never felt for anyone in his boring, neutral life.

  Serena didn’t talk a lot about her relationship, but Keith could read between the lines of what she did tell him. Things weren’t good with her husband. She wasn’t happy. And although she kept working at it, she wasn’t sure anything would ever really change.

  On a Thursday night in November, he’d taken a shower after work, changed into a pair of sweats, and then made tacos for dinner. He had a few texts from the girl he’d gone out with last week. She was funny and good-natured and very hot, so he was planning to go out with her again. He still hadn’t met anyone who measured up to Serena in his estimation, but he assumed someday he would.

  He’d like to get married and have kids. He’d always pictured himself doing that. There wasn’t any hurry, and he wasn’t going to just pick someone who happened to be available. He assumed he would know, the way he’d known about Serena.

  He took his last bite of taco as he glanced at his phone again, but there weren’t any new messages. He hadn’t heard from Serena in a couple of days.

  Hopefully she was okay. He’d texted her a few times to check in, but he didn’t want to bug her. She’d respond when she could.

  His doorbell rang as he was rinsi
ng off his plate.

  He couldn’t imagine who it was—certainly not a welcome visitor—so he considered not answering. But he had to at least check to see, so he looked through the peephole and gasped audibly when he saw Serena standing in the hallway.

  Keith yanked the door open. “Serena!”

  She’d been looking down, but at his voice she raised her head. Her face was pale except for the blotchy red of her cheeks, and her eyes were swollen and pink.

  “Shit—what on earth is wrong?” He beckoned her into the apartment, then glanced down the hall toward the stairs, as if there might be someone lurking, but it was empty.

  Serena came in, hugging her arms to her stomach. “I’m sorry to just show up like this. Are you busy?”

  “Of course not. And even if I was, it wouldn’t matter. What’s going on? What’s the matter? Is Eva okay?”

  Her face contorted at his final question. “She’s fine. She’s with my mom. Thanks for asking.” She was clearly struggling not to cry, and her voice came out strangled and weak.

  “You’re really freaking me out here.” He waved her toward his couch. “Sit down and tell me what’s going on.”

  He sat beside her, closer than normal. She wasn’t a small woman. She was a few inches shorter than him and had a lush, curvy figure he’d always thought was gorgeous. But she looked tiny, fragile, as she huddled into herself on the couch. She leaned her head down so her hair shielded her face like a red curtain.

  “Serena,” he prompted when she didn’t speak for a moment.

  She straightened up and met his eyes. “He’s been cheating on me.”

  It was like a blow to the gut. It left him just as winded. “Wh-what?”

  “With his dental hygienist.”

  Her husband, Scott, had just finished dentistry school last year, and he’d moved right into his father’s thriving practice.

  Keith fisted his hands beside his hips and tried to unclench his jaw. “He...”

  “Cheated on me.” She burst into tears, hiding her face behind her hands as her body shook so hard Keith could feel it in the couch.

  “I’m so sorry, Serena,” he gritted out. He felt like wringing someone’s neck, but his anger was not what she needed at the moment. So he balled it up into a tight little wad in the back of his mind and instead pulled her into a hug.

  She cried against his shirt for what seemed like forever, and Keith held her the whole time.

  When she finally controlled her tears, he went to get a roll of paper towels from the kitchen since he didn’t have any tissues in the house. He handed her a square, which she used to mop her face.

  “I’m sorry to dump all this on you,” she said, clearing her throat and straightening up. “I’m sure it’s the last thing you want to deal with right now. It smells like you were in the middle of dinner.”

  “I was finished with dinner. And even if I’d just started, I still wouldn’t have minded you coming over. You can come anytime. You should know that. You’re still as much my friend as you ever were.” He was pleased that he sounded mild and natural since he was feeling anything but.

  “I know. You can’t possibly imagine how much that means to me. Lately it’s felt like the only people I can really trust are Eva and you. And I don’t even see you that much anymore.”

  “It doesn’t matter how much you see me. I’ll always be your friend.”

  “Thanks. I’m your friend too. I promise. So if you ever need me, I’ll be there. No matter what.”

  Despite everything, that touched him. His throat felt a little tight. “Thanks. How is Eva, by the way? Is she upset by what’s been going on?”

  “She’s been with my mom all afternoon. I didn’t think it was good for her to be around the house right now. It all blew up this afternoon.” She shook her head, staring down at her twisting hands. “It’s over now, Keith. Totally over. There’s no way to put this thing back together again.”

  Maybe it shouldn’t have been such an immense relief, but it was. That there was no doubt in Serena’s tone. She had no more hope for her rocky marriage. After too many years of ups and downs and second chances (all given to Scott since Serena hadn’t needed any), she was finally calling it quits.

  She’d be so much happier without that man. Keith knew it for sure.

  “I have no idea what I’ll even do. The house belongs to his parents. And his parents paid for the cars. Nothing we have is really ours. Where am I even going to live?”

  Keith gave her a light nudge with his elbow. “Don’t be melodramatic. You’ve got a good job, and that’s not going away just because you get divorced. You can afford a little place for you and Eva.” He paused, remembering something that seemed like it had fallen from heaven and right into their laps. “My neighbor is going to be moving out next month. Maybe you can take the apartment next door to me.”

  Her eyes were big and almost excited—the first time they hadn’t been despairing since she’d arrived. “Really?”

  “Sure. Why not? It’s a great building, and you’d really like that place. It’s got two bedrooms, a great kitchen, and a big bathtub. The rent should be in your range.”

  “Maybe I could do that. I’d like to have you as a neighbor.”

  He smiled at her and put his arm around her shoulders. “I’d like that too.” His heart was hammering from so many things he couldn’t possibly sort them all out. But he liked the way his arm felt around her.

  It felt right.

  “What was I even thinking, getting married at eighteen? I must have been an idiot. I mean, how stupid can someone be?”

  “You didn’t know what he’d do. You were in love with him, and you were only eighteen. You did the best you could with what you knew.”

  She slumped against him, but at least she wasn’t sobbing now. “You’re smart. You didn’t get married.”

  “I didn’t make a better decision than you did. I just haven’t found someone to marry yet.”

  “I’m never going to get married again,” she mumbled against his shirt. “It’s just not worth all this.”

  “Maybe you’ll change your mind eventually. Not every man is like Scott.”

  “I know that.” She sniffed. “You’re not like Scott. You’ve always been... so great. I’m glad we’re friends.”

  “I’m glad too.” He’d be the world’s biggest jackass if he tried to take advantage of this situation. She needed comfort from him right now and nothing else. He gave her one more squeeze with his arm and then withdrew it.

  She straightened up. “I’m definitely never doing this again. The whole marriage was like running into a brick wall over and over again. And I just kept doing it.”

  “I’m sure it felt like that, but you need to stop beating yourself up about it. You have Eva. You wouldn’t have had her if you’d made a different decision.”

  He saw that process on her face. “Yeah. That’s true. I wouldn’t change having her for anything.” She closed her eyes and leaned back against the cushion. “But everything else was terrible. And everything that we’ve still got to get through is terrible. I wish it was all just over.”

  He thought for a minute, trying to find the right thing to say. “It’s going to be tough. Divorce always is. But you’re strong, and you’re going to get through it. And I really think you’re going to be happier when you come out the other end of it.”

  She sighed, long and gusty. But she whispered, “I think so too.”

  one

  Two years later

  SERENA HOLLY WAS TRYING on a sleek, stylish bridesmaid dress when her phone buzzed with a text message. Without thinking, she reached down for it, causing the unzipped dress to slip off her shoulders.

  Keith. He’d sent her a photo of him with her seven-year-old daughter, Eva. They were killing time while Serena was at the bridal shop, and in the picture they were posing with an old statue of a colonial soldier. They had their arms around him and were making silly faces.

  Serena giggled at the
image before she yanked the dress back up.

  Keith was one of her best friends and a total lifesaver. When she’d worried about what Eva would do while she was busy with bridesmaid dresses, he’d volunteered to drive them forty-five minutes to the small town of Azalea, Virginia, and entertain Eva for a couple of hours.

  It was just like Keith. Giving up half his Saturday because she needed him.

  Fortunately, it looked like he and Eva were having a good time, so she didn’t have to worry about them too much. Another of her good friends—Amanda Griffin—was getting married in a few months, and Serena was one of her bridesmaids.

  Serena had gone to Weston Academy, an upscale, exclusive private school in Richmond. Unlike her classmates, her family hadn’t been wealthy or even upper-middle class. She’d gotten in on scholarship, and she’d worked her butt off to get all As and a full scholarship to college. She’d never regretted all that effort. She was still good friends with a number of her old schoolmates, and after getting a college degree and a master’s in history, she’d returned to teach at Weston, making a better salary than she ever could have expected when she’d decided to become a high school history teacher.

  Sure, she had to deal with some spoiled and entitled students. And yes, the politics of a private school were unique and sometimes infuriating. But she taught a lot of really good kids, and she loved her job.

  Plus she’d met Keith at Weston, and that was one of the best things that had ever happened to her.

  “Does anyone have it on yet?” Amanda demanded from outside the dressing room. She was clever and beautiful and generous but also not known for being patient. “What’s taking so long?”

  “Stop being so pushy,” Taylor grumbled from the dressing room beside Serena. “It takes a couple of minutes to get our clothes off and zip up this dress.”

  Serena had only gotten her zipper halfway up since the position on the back of the dress required difficult contortions. So she opened the door to her dressing room and stepped out. “Here, do the rest of this zipper and I’ll have it on.”