by Sawyer Belle
The rear passenger door opened and out stepped Brent. Mackenna’s smile reacted by spreading wider. He wore dark blue jeans and a button up white shirt. His hair was tied back in a ponytail. Mackenna took a step toward him but stopped as he turned to the interior of the vehicle and held his hand out to someone. In that moment, she froze.
A petite and delicate hand with pink nails folded itself around Brent’s fingers and the woman who followed made Mackenna feel every speck of dirt on her faded blue jeans and white tank top. So, this was Leann. She was polished and posh and grossly out of place in this setting. Her strappy, white high-heels were higher than Mackenna had ever seen. Her legs long and lithe, boasted the strong and solid lines of her muscles until they disappeared beneath a short, rose-colored satin skirt. Her white, sleeveless shirt dipped into a V over her chest and was so tight that Mackenna believed she’d bought the garment a size too small.
Her hair was a medium brown and gleamed thickly down to her waist. Her eyes were big and bright, battling between blue and green, and her smile perfect. Brent was beaming proudly beside her and Mackenna was crumbling inside, fighting to hold her smile in place as they drew near. She wiped her hands self-consciously on her pants, hoping to rid them of the evidence of her day’s work. Once close enough, Brent released Leann and grabbed her in a warm hug. She hugged him back and forgot the woman beside him.
“You two finally meet,” he said.
She summoned her strength and swallowed as he pulled away to introduce the two women. Leann was as friendly as Mackenna, but there was no mistaking the possessiveness she felt toward Brent. She conveyed that message with her eyes and the way she looped her arm around his. Mackenna’s hackles rose.
“Excuse me for a minute,” Brent said as he ran back to the SUV, leaving the women to eye each other.
“So, you teach yoga?” Mackenna asked in friendly banter.
“Yes, and what do you do?”
“I’m studying to be a vet.”
“A schoolgirl,” Leann piped with condescension and a smile. “How cute.”
Mackenna’s smile tightened. “Yes, well it takes more schooling to heal animals than it does to stretch, I’m afraid.”
Leann’s eyes flared then narrowed and Mackenna felt a triumphant smugness fill her insides. Before another word was spoken she heard her name called excitedly from behind Leann and she peered around to find Brent pushing Alora toward them in a wheelchair. She forgot Leann and trotted toward the seated woman, throwing her arms around her instantly.
“My goodness,” Alora exclaimed. “You are such a beauty!”
“Oh, please,” Mackenna teased. “You’re the beauty here!”
“You can’t bullshit a bullshitter,” Alora returned with a playful slap on Mackenna’s arm. “Tell me that you aren’t letting your good looks go to waste and that you’ve found some worthy fellow to compliment you.”
“Ha!” Mackenna barked. “I wish! Nope. Worthy fellows don’t seem to be interested in me.”
“Well, you know, they are still men,” Alora excused. “You’re going to have cut them some slack for being stupid.”
Mackenna laughed. So did Brent.
“On that note, I’m going to leave you two,” he said. “I don’t think I can take any male-bashing today.”
He joined Leann and laced their fingers together as they made their way over to where Grant McCrae was roasting chickens over hot coals for the rehearsal dinner. Alora watched as Mackenna’s blue eyes blazed after the woman. She smiled sadly to herself.
“How’d he end up with someone like her?” Mackenna asked rhetorically as she shook her head.
“Odd, isn’t it?” Alora offered.
“I would have figured he’d end up with someone less…princessy, and someone more like him, someone he can at least relate to, someone who understands him.”
“Someone like you?” Alora asked and Mackenna panicked.
“No. That’s not what I’m saying at all,” she said quickly.
“You’re not more like him? You can’t relate to him or understand him?”
“Well, of course I can, but that’s not what I was meaning.”
Alora chuckled and grabbed Mackenna’s hand to squeeze it. “You think I don’t know you’re in love with my son?” Mackenna’s eyes flew wide in horror and she couldn’t find words to speak or air to breathe. “I just don’t know why my blockheaded son doesn’t know.”
That loosened Mackenna’s tongue.
“Please, don’t say anything Alora,” she begged. “I would die if he knew.”
“Oh, calm down,” she soothed. “I haven’t said anything these past two years, have I? I’m not going to say anything to him now, but I will say something to you.” She raised a lecturing finger at her. “Don’t waste your love and your youth on Brent. Wait, if you want, but not forever. I hope he comes to his senses and claims you, but if he doesn’t, I want you to move on and be happy. It’s a horrible fate to spend the best years of your life loving someone who doesn’t love you. Believe me, I know. He will spend the rest of his life breaking your heart in ways he doesn’t even know.”
Mackenna watched the sadness and regret deepen the grooves in Alora’s face and she squeezed her hand in return.
“I promise, Alora.”
“Hey Macks!” her mother called out to her. Mackenna turned to greet her with a hug before taking the suitcase from her.
“Mom, I assume you met Alora on the ride in?”
“Oh, yes,” Helen answered. “And that gorgeous son of hers. You never told me what a looker he was, Mackenna.”
“Uh…let’s go eat shall we?”
Alora and Helen exchanged a laugh filled with experience and followed the blushing blonde to the party.
After a restless night, Mackenna stood in front of the loft window and watched the dawn break on Ty and Leslie’s wedding day. The sun was bright and coppery with pink and golden rays stretching out over feathery clouds. The entire scene sighed peacefully. This place had hosted the best memories of her adolescence. She was surrounded by warm and familiar friends. She should be savoring it all, not wishing that she could leave.
Helen occupied the other bed in the loft. Since Nick had arrived, Kelly was staying with him in one of the guest cabins. The grounds were teeming with happy couples, leaving Mackenna feeling like the pathetic singleton.
The rehearsal dinner had been almost unbearable. She had visited with everyone aplenty, but Brent was kept from her by Leann. They had barely exchanged ten words the entire night and he didn’t seem to notice or care. Mackenna was sure that Leann was being overly affectionate for her benefit. She could do nothing but sit and watch as the pair kissed, hugged, and caressed obnoxiously. She sighed. At least her flight left the next day. She had only to get through the night and then she could climb back into her solo existence.
She left her mom sleeping in the loft and crept downstairs. Leslie was the next awake and as Mackenna fixed them coffee, they relaxed into the soft cushions of the couch and visited.
“I’m surprised at how calm you are,” Mackenna said. “Most brides are all flustered and frantic on their wedding day.”
Leslie smiled and tucked her blonde hair behind her ears.
“I just want to marry Ty,” she said. “I could care less about the details. This is everyone else’s doing.” She waved her hand around the decorated lodge.
“That’s what it should be about,” Mackenna said with a smile. “I’m so happy for you two.”
“Thanks,” Leslie said, then paused to study her. “So, what’s bothering you?”
Mackenna looked up and thought about telling her for a long moment, then decided it would be unforgivably selfish to taint Leslie’s wedding day with her own sorrow. So, she smiled.
“What a beautiful morning, isn’t it?” she said instead.
Leslie chuckled at the dodge and put her hands up in resignation. “Okay, I won’t pry.”
Helen descended into the kitchen ne
arly the same time as Bev. Kelly soon followed and the women went through three pots of coffee, a dozen blueberry muffins and a morning full of chatter and belly-aching laughter. It was Bev’s direction that had them all retreating to their rooms to ready themselves for the wedding.
Mackenna’s dress was a shimmering lavender piece, strapless and hemmed at mid-thigh. It fit her snugly and flattered her curvy bust and thighs. Her narrow waist was accentuated by a purple rose pinned to the side of the dress. A sheer lavender cover with beaded embroidery stretched over her arms and shoulders to fasten neatly beneath her breasts.
Her heels were short and practical. She had kept her hair wavy with the application of mousse. She took a small section from the front and pinned it back with bobby pins. With her makeup perfectly applied, Mackenna was more than pleased with her reflection. She grabbed the last piece to make her complete and dangled the sapphire necklace in front of her mom.
“Will you help me put this on, Mom?”
Helen stood behind her and clasped the necklace. When Mackenna lowered her hair back down, Helen smiled proudly at her daughter’s reflection. Mackenna chuckled.
“What?” she asked her mother.
“I’m just amazed at how grown up and beautiful you are,” Helen announced with feeling. “I’m standing here asking myself when it happened. It seems like you went to bed my little girl and woke up a woman.”
Mackenna’s smile turned sad. “It didn’t happen overnight, Mom. There have definitely been some growing pains.”
Helen rested her chin on Mackenna’s shoulder and rubbed her hands over the youth’s upper arms. Mackenna didn’t elaborate, but Helen didn’t need her to. Her daughter was always incapable of hiding her emotions. She frowned sympathetically and then tried her best to comfort her.
“I’m sorry that your heart is broken, honey.”
Mackenna’s eyes sank toward the ground. She didn’t even have the heart to ask her mother how she’d known.
“I know it doesn’t feel like it now,” Helen continued, “but you will move on, and someday, when the right man comes along, you’ll give your heart to him and he’ll give his to you. Trust me, life does not begin and end with Brent Thompson.”
Mackenna took a deep breath. She didn’t trust her voice to speak, but if she had, she would have told her mother that that is exactly what she felt. Her life did begin and end with Brent Thompson. Instead, she nodded respectfully and forced a smile onto her face. Helen smiled back and they left the loft and found Leslie in Bev’s room, surrounded by women flitting excitedly.
Guests were arriving and enjoying drinks beneath the canopy while classical music wafted around the meadow. Leslie’s mom was in front of the mirror, wiping away the smeared mascara from her watery eyes. Kelly joined the women and announced that Ty and his men had arrived. Bev nodded appreciatively and turned her gaze on Mackenna.
“Mackenna, honey, will you take the boutonnieres out to the men and make sure they get pinned on correctly? They’re in the fridge.”
“Sure,” she answered and retrieved the floral pins before heading over to the guest cabin that housed the groom’s party. She knocked and Ty threw open the door, dressed in a smooth black tuxedo. There was no nervousness in his face, only happiness and she smiled to find him so. He moved aside so she could enter.
She went to task, pinning Ty’s lapel first. Next came Grant McCrae, followed by Ty’s two brothers and Leslie’s father. As she picked up the last pin, she looked around.
“Where’s Brent?” she asked.
“He’s getting his mom settled. He’ll be here in a minute.”
Soon there was a knock at the door. Since Mackenna was closest, she opened it. Brent stared back at her and a rush of heat coursed through her so intensely that she nearly fell back from it. He had cut his hair down to the scalp with only the top of his head boasting locks long enough to fall handsomely forward onto his brow. His jaw was the smoothest she’d ever seen it. He wore a black tuxedo like the rest of the men, but had removed his jacket and had it slung over his shoulder, hooked onto a finger. Mackenna had never seen him looking so good. And she couldn’t stop looking.
Brent looked, too. His eyes snaked up and down her body so many times that he expected to get slapped. Who was this woman standing before him? Of a sudden, thoughts and memories that he hadn’t had in more than a year reared up to pound him full-force in the chest. His eyes lingered on the bit of cleavage revealed by the cut of her dress and his tongue suddenly remembered the taste of those breasts.
Before he had a chance to think he spoke the first words to come to his mind.
“You’re beautiful,” he said, almost breathlessly.
“You cut your hair,” was all she could manage.
He chuckled and broke the heat stretching between them by looking down and running a hand self-consciously through the hair that was no longer there.
“Does it look bad?” he asked hesitantly and she coughed a laugh.
“Not at all,” she said. “It looks…you look great.”
“Thanks,” he said, stepping toward her. “So do you.”
“There he is!” yelled Ty from behind her and she remembered where she was and moved aside to let him in.
He walked past her and sent a smile back over his shoulder. She stood dumbly for several minutes before she realized that she still held his pin in her hand. She scolded herself to gather her wits and stop acting like a silly schoolgirl. The word brought with it the image of Leann along with the truth that it would be her on the arm of this gorgeous man, not Mackenna. It would be Leann sampling all he had to offer, not Mackenna.
She approached Brent with her eyes sadly lowered. She tried not to breathe in his wonderful scent as she leaned in to pin on the flower. Brent didn’t deny himself that pleasure. He breathed her in fully, swallowing the perfume she wore, letting it drug his senses for the brief moment she stood before him. She quickly hugged Ty and excused herself from the cabin.
Brent felt a pang when she left. He knew she was leaving tomorrow and they’d had so little time together. He had wanted to visit with her at the rehearsal dinner but Leann had been hanging on him to the point where he had to scold her quietly under his breath. He didn’t like the way she was monopolizing him and pawing him so publicly. He hadn’t wanted to embarrass her so he put up with it. Once they were back in town, however, they had fought over it.
Leann had cried and accused him of unkindness, wanting to leave her alone when she knew no one but his mother and Ty. He told her she was being anti-social, citing that she mingled with strangers all day long in her job and that she shouldn’t have had so much trouble doing just that at the dinner. Their fighting escalated until he had almost told her that he wouldn’t be taking her to the wedding. She sensed the direction he was heading, however, and so backed down, apologizing in the end.
He was relieved as the notion occurred to him that he had only noticed Mackenna’s beauty because he was mad at Leann. If everything were smooth between them, he was sure that he wouldn’t have had such a strong physical reaction to Mackenna. Satisfied with that explanation, he forgot the heated moment between him and his best friend and turned his attention to his duties as best man.
Chapter 26
The ceremony passed pleasantly and perfectly. Leslie and Ty were the model of a couple in love. Handkerchiefs were wet by the end. Mackenna looked on in envy of their love and happiness, of their confidence and trust in that love, and when she was sure he wasn’t aware, her eyes strayed to Brent standing tall beside the groom. She imagined him standing there, looking much the same, but standing as groom and she as bride. She was so filled with love and longing that her chest hurt.
The reception lasted well into the night with feasting, dancing and drinking. Brent offered Mackenna a glass of wine, but she declined. It took all of her willpower and presence of mind to hold her emotions in check as he passed the night with Leann. She found herself seated once again beside Alora and her mother as
the floor filled with dancers. The women chatted effortlessly until Brent approached and asked Mackenna to dance. As she took his hand, Leann took her place beside Alora, albeit reluctantly.
Mackenna felt her heartbeat pulsing all the way to her fingertips as they held onto his. The dance was slow and she relished his hands on her waist, hers laced behind his neck. As they rocked to the steady beat, they neither spoke nor took their eyes off of one another. The outside world seemed to blur until the only thing in clear focus was his gaze fixed affectionately on hers.
Their faces were inches apart and Mackenna lowered her eyes to his mouth, wanting to touch it with her own. This was how it was supposed to be. This was the only way it felt right, him holding her, her loving him. She couldn’t just be his friend anymore. In that moment she felt the words creeping up from her heart and as she finally met his eyes, her mouth opened to say them.
“Okay, that’s enough,” came Leann’s jealous but hushed voice as she stood beside them.
She used her hand to pull Mackenna away from Brent and stand in her place. Mackenna watched as Brent allowed the intrusion and Leann turned her back on her. Brent kept his eyes on Mackenna, on her features saddening when she was replaced. When Leann saw that he was still watching her, she turned and spat at Mackenna again.
“Play time is over,” she said, and when Brent said nothing but allowed Leann to sweep him away, her heart hit the floor. This time, she swore, would be the last time. She backed away from the dance floor and allowed the shattered pieces of her heart to collect into daggers and when the couple swept near her in the dance she reached out and grabbed Brent’s upper arm, stalling their promenade.
“I need to talk to you,” she said, her eyes bright and wild, her grip firm. He let go of Leann at once and began to follow as Mackenna started away. Leann lashed out and grabbed Mackenna’s arm, pulling her back.