by Amber Nation
Chapter 2
Julia
I covered my mouth with my arm to stifle a yawn before I got back to rolling Mrs. Milstead’s entire head in curlers. Since I was already lagging on sleep, I definitely should've rethought my festivities the night before I had to be in to work early. But just the image of Joe’s, whose actual name escaped me at the time, perfectly sculpted chest, glistening with sweat as he was above me didn’t allow my regret to surface for very long. A wide smile spread across my face as I recalled the most pleasant thing he did with his tongue, God that was glorious and for a brief moment I thought I was in heaven. Too bad I would never see him again. I smirked, shrugged a shoulder, then focused my attention back on my client.
Mrs. Milstead was a sweet old lady who came in precisely at the same time every week to get her hair washed and freshly curled. And my lack of engagement wouldn’t even phase her as I always got to spend the entire hour it took to style her hair listening to her gab about her grandson and how special he was. And if he could only find the right woman. Perks of the job, I suppose. Sometimes I believed she was trying to set me up with him but in the back on my mind I had already dubbed him as gay. I wasn’t looking for a man outside of the occasional hookup, such as I'd had the night before, nor did I need one.
Well, on the contrary, a little man action was often warranted, especially when you loved sex as much as I did, but he knew the stipulations beforehand. A one night stand never hurt anyone.
“Wannabe” by the Spice Girls started shrilling from my phone and a smile lit up my face at the thought of my favorite bitch calling me. I cradled my answered cellphone in between my shoulder and ear and continued to roll Mrs. Milstead’s thinning locks. “Hey lady, what’s up?” Normally my greetings to Eden were a little more explicit, but since I was at work, it was probably best that I toned it down a notch.
She didn’t miss a beat before shouting out, “Be my maid of honor!” I quickly dropped the strand of hair I was working on and squealed with pure delight. Even though I was bitter and somewhat cynical at the thought of love, I was overjoyed that Eden had found hers through a second chance romance. She didn’t even give me the proper amount of time to accept before she added, “Dean will be the Best Man.”
“Oh,” I grimaced while snarling my lip, just remembering back to my first encounter with Dean.
Eden had talked so highly about the duo: Baylor and Dean. Baylor and Dean, this. Baylor and Dean, that. And when I finally had the privilege of meeting them, while Baylor was every woman’s fantasy, Dean gave a less than stellar first impression.
I was already having a shitty day because it was Eden’s last day in Nashville before Baylor was whisking her away back to Oregon. Meeting Baylor was amazing; he was incredibly attentive to Eden, even noticing the little amount of hair that I snipped off at the ends. He only had eyes for her and it almost made me want to be jealous at the fact that she had found her happiness...almost.
The problem was when Dean began approaching us and he couldn’t keep his eyes off of my chest long enough to even say hello. Don’t get me wrong, I often like to flaunt my chest but since he was going to be taking my best friend away the least he could do was try to cover up his beyond obvious geeker peeking.
I quickly grabbed my cutting shears, clutching them tightly in my grasp and I didn’t hesitate in voicing my displeasure to him, “Hey, chump!” I yelled, pointing two of my fingers towards my eyes; I could’ve expressed my distaste in the form of another finger signal, but I didn’t think that’d be appropriate. “My eyes are up here,” I said next, which instantly had him snapping his glare from my breasts to my eyes. When his eyes fused on mine I instantly regretted redirecting the focus off of my girls, for now I felt incredibly raw and naked. He stripped me bare with his titillating deep brown orbs. I tried to quickly cover my unexpected attraction to him, by becoming even more of a bitch. I perched my free hand on my hip and jutted it out to express that I meant business, “Didn’t your mother ever teach you not to piss a lady off while she’s wielding a weapon?” I added to the effect by bringing my hand that still had my scissors in its clutch forward, pointing them in his direction.
Dean finally cleared his throat after not muttering a single word since his arrival, crossed his arms in front of his broad chest and snickered, “You know, I do recall her mentioning something about that, but the only lady I see around here is Eden and it takes a lot for me to piss her off. Plus, her hands are free.” He finished off his statement with a smirk, and I imagined that if he had one, he’d be dropping his microphone to the floor, thinking he had me.
I waited a beat, trying to think of some other retort to fling back at him, but as I glanced down at his broad, expansive chest, I lost all thought.
Well, damn…
I quickly recovered by assuming my defensive position, scissors still pointed in his direction, “You ass clown,” I seethed. My chest was rapidly heaving up and down. “Why I oughta,” I continued on before deciding to throw down my favorite pair of scissors on top of my work station and lunging towards Dean; I wanted to knock that cocky smirk right off of his face.
It took the strength of my best friend and her new fiancé to hold me back before I came to my senses and realized that I was better than that. So I straightened out my clothing and went about my business, trying like hell to forget but failing miserably. That man invoked some serious feelings that hadn’t been dredged up in years.
It totally didn’t help in the slightest that he was sinfully sexy. I honestly didn’t want to have to endure his ass, but I supposed that since it was for Eden I could put up with him for a weekend.
“Eden, you know I would be absolutely thrilled to be your Maid of Honor.” Mrs. Milstead long forgotten, I rested a hip up against my work station and grabbed my half-empty coffee cup in my hand. “So when is this shindig taking place?”
I tipped my cup up as she responded, “Second weekend in December. And we have so much planned that we’d love it if you’d come up the week beforehand, and maybe stay the week after.”
There was blatant hesitation in her voice and I was almost certain that I’d heard her incorrectly. The sip of coffee I had just consumed, threatened to come spewing out of my mouth and would’ve certainly hit Mrs. Milstead’s hair, but instead, I choked on it, forcing me to remove my phone from my ear until I could breathe regularly without coughing.
“What the flying Frisbee?” I said. She expected me to be around that…that poor excuse of a man for two whole weeks? I couldn’t let my best friend down, but it was supremely hard for me to come to grips with this new information.
Then it hit me, they lived in Oregon and were getting married in December… Wouldn’t it be frigging cold?
“Now don’t you try and start lecturing me on getting married in just six weeks too. Dean actually had the audacity to ask if I was pregnant.” She must’ve misconstrued the reason for my lack of response.
Rolling my eyes, “That’s because Dean is a pig.” The thought of them getting married so soon didn’t even cross my mind. What a selfish cow I was being.
“You waited fifteen years, why should you justify your reasoning for wanting to get married so quickly? And besides, if you were pregnant and didn’t tell me, there would be hell to pay,” I said sweetly, and it was the God’s honest truth.
“Woman, you would be second only to Baylor, and I’m only saying that because he is standing next to me.” I heard a muffled exchange of words next which led me to believe that Baylor was voicing his opinion on her response.
“So why the outburst if you didn’t mind about the close date?” She was fishing for something that I didn’t want to disclose. I couldn’t very well outright tell her it was because of Dean.
“Because it's smack dab in winter. I’m no freaking snow bunny, Eden.” It was the best I could come up with, when in all actuality, it wasn’t a downright lie.
“Jules, you aren’t a stranger to the cold down in Nashville.” She definitel
y had a point there, Nashville got its fair share of cruddy weather.
“Y’all don’t get insane amounts of snow?” I questioned.
“This isn’t Alaska,” she balked. “Eastern Oregon gets quite a bit but here, we average about five inches of snow throughout the entire season.”
My mind began to wander back to her asking for me to stay a week after the wedding as well. “Are y’all not going on a honeymoon right after the wedding? You asked me to stay a week afterwards as well, I guess I’m confused.”
“Well, with the holidays approaching, Baylor can’t take any extra time off besides the two days prior to the wedding until after January, so we will just go then.”
After confirming a few more details I had to quickly let her go so I could finish up on Mrs. Milstead’s hair; poor woman had fallen asleep in her chair. Eden had definitely calmed my nerves about being away from home during the winter season. That would be all I needed, to be stranded in one place with Dean right next door…
Chapter 3
Five Weeks Later
Dean
Pulling down the hood on my raincoat, I walked out of the confines of my nice warm and dry living room, into a torrential downpour. Leave it to Oregon to be the beginning of winter and it be pouring down rain. Before I stepped off of my front porch, I looked down at my phone once again to read Baylor’s 911 text.
Baylor: Come over ASAP! We’ve got an emergency.
I’d learned since that day five weeks ago not to take Baylor’s “emergencies” at face value. At this point so close to the wedding, Eden may have chipped a nail, or maybe her favorite Aunt Edna wouldn’t be able to attend and she was freaking out. So, I decided to take my time and walk down my driveway and along the sidewalk so I didn’t get my boots muddy tracking through the mucky lawn.
Going in through the soon to be Mr. and Mrs. Jenkins' garage as I always did, I ran into Baylor as soon as I entered the laundry room that led to the kitchen.
Removing my hood for the time being, I asked a frantic looking Baylor, “What’s the emergency this time?”
“Eden is freaking out about the centerpieces, they aren’t turning out how she wants them.”
Do you recall my earlier statement saying that Eden was normally pretty chill and mellow when it came to things and I didn’t think she would go all psycho bride? Yeah, she wasn’t one hundred percent there, but it wasn’t looking too promising that she wouldn’t be there soon.
“What the hell are you calling me for? I’m not decoration savvy. Tell her to call her mom.” I still wasn’t completely sure why she wanted to make several of the decorations herself, it wasn’t like they really needed to skimp and save money. Eden’s mom, Bette, had evidently been saving up for her only child’s wedding since the day she was born, and since Eden was now almost thirty-four, she had a pretty hefty wedding fund.
Lately I’d made it a point to stay at home because Eden had been a stressed and emotional mess. She was liable to crack at any moment and I didn’t want to end up in the crossfire. So, I was hoping that I’d be safe and sound one hundred feet away in the confines of my own house.
“She has called Bette and she’s on her way. But with Eden stressed and freaking out I can’t leave her. So that’s where you come in.” I was confused, what exactly was he asking me to do? His eyes darted around the kitchen, looking everywhere but at me. I could detect his hesitation. “I need you to go pick up Julia from the airport.”
I busted out laughing, because if he was looking for a way to get me he totally succeeded. “Yeah, right,” I said not believing that he actually wanted me to pick up the woman who had threatened me with a pair of haircutting scissors. Granted, she wasn’t completely in the wrong, but you get the gist.
The only problem was, he wasn’t laughing along with me at his little joke. “I’m totally serious,” he muttered with pleading eyes. Although I wasn’t quite ready to see Miss Sassypants herself yet, I couldn’t tack on any extra added stress to Baylor and Eden, so I reluctantly agreed.
I dashed into the airport, barely escaping the torrential downpour, and went straight for the airline itinerary board to make sure Julia’s plane was still on time. I was willing to start completely over and let the past stay in the past, as long as she was. Which was why I was a gentleman enough to come into the airport and offer to help her out with her luggage.
I hung out near the baggage claim, where soon enough Julia would make her appearance.
I didn’t have to wait long before I caught a glimpse of her waiting by the baggage carousel and heaving her big-ass luggage to the floor. Once she stood upright again and glanced my way she literally took my breath away. Something about her made me want her with every fiber of my being. Even after being on a plane for several hours she looked as if she had walked right off a page of a magazine; that was until she came closer towards me and opened her mouth.
“Why in the hell are you here?” She sneered in my direction, with venom and annoyance.
So much for turning over a new leaf and being gentlemanly.
I shoved my hands in my pockets and rolled back on my heels, “Do you think I actually volunteered for this?”
She took just a brief second to peruse my body, so quick that she probably didn’t think I noticed. But I noticed, oh yeah I did.
“Knowing you,” she turned up a side of her freshly painted lips, “more than likely,” she said flatly.
“Yeah, because chauffeuring your ass around was high on my bucket list.” I made a motion to check off that next item on my imaginary list.
“Oh please,” she huffed. “This is probably the most excitement you’ve seen in a month.”
“No, that award definitely goes to Eden. She’s teetering on the verge of a breakdown.”
Her eyes softened at the mention of her friend and all the stress she was enduring. Perhaps there was a heart placed in the cold cavity in her chest. “Well, then what are we standing around here gabbing for then? I have a best friend to help!” She pivoted on her heel and began walking towards the exit doors of the airport, giving me an unabashed view of her fine ass as she sashayed away from me.
Right before she reached the exit doors, I came up and stopped in front of her, ready to burst her bubble. Looking down at her immaculate outfit, including what I would guess to be four-inch heels, I said, “I see you made sure to bring your winter coat, but I hope you packed rain boots. It’ll suck trying to walk to my car in the pouring rain in those heels,” I pointed down to her stunning footwear that I just couldn’t help picturing wrapped around my waist. Even though she drove me crazy with her smart ass remarks, I was a man after all and I wasn’t ashamed to admit that I found her extremely attractive.
Her eyes went wide and I had to try my hardest to hold back my laughter that was undoubtedly threatening to erupt. “No…I didn’t even think about it. Are you parked far?”
“At the end of the loading/unloading zone.” Her face immediately fell following my words, this was just too much fun.
“Well, can you pull my luggage?” That was what I had initially come in for, but since she wanted to start off by being a bitch, those weren’t my intentions any longer.
“Ah, sorry,” I replied, acting a bit sympathetic. “An independent woman such as yourself doesn’t need any help from a man.”
“Ugh,” she stomped one of her heels against the concrete floor, making the sound echo throughout the lobby. “I really hate you,” she bit out between her clenched teeth.
“Oh, the feeling is definitely mutual,” I smiled smugly to myself, pulled up the hood to my coat, readjusted, and patted the umbrella that was resting in the inside pocket of my jacket. I chuckled under my breath. If she knew that I had an umbrella in my possession, she would no doubt change her tune. But where would be the fun in that? I’d just keep that nugget of information to myself.
Chapter 4
Julia
Watching Dean’s windshield wipers’ reluctant assault against the clamoring r
ain drops as they hit his car, I couldn’t help but continue to stew over our earlier altercation. I didn’t know why this man grated on my nerves so badly, or what was worse, why I let him. He was just a cocky prick who I shouldn’t even be paying attention to, but there was just something about him that I couldn’t exactly pinpoint. There was no denying my attraction to the man but I absolutely loathed him. I didn’t know whether I wanted to flatten his face with a chair or kiss the ever-loving shit out of him. It usually took a lot for a man to rile me up but all Dean had to do was give me a single, solitary look and I was raring to go with my claws out.
So, I was sitting there, sticking to his leather seats due to my drenched clothing, with rain-soaked strands of hair flat against my face. I was almost positive that I looked like a drowned rat.
Dean threw me off guard by picking me up, and I wasn’t one to be a fan of surprises. But when he explained to me why he was summoned to come pick me up, I was ready to get to Eden as fast as I could.
“Can’t this piece of junk go any faster?” I knew that I should just shut my mouth but I was anxious to take some of the load off of Eden’s shoulders, and give Baylor a well-deserved break.
“Piece of junk? Listen, I know my car isn’t brand new or even close to your high standards, but it is getting you from point A to point B, so I suggest you just sit back and relax sweetheart, because I know how to drive on these roads in the rain, and it’s completely obvious that you don’t.” He didn’t miss a beat, continuing to berate me, “If you would like to make it to Eden’s house in one piece without hydroplaning or getting into an accident it may be best that you shut your trap.” His hands were tightening their grip on the steering wheel and I instantly knew that I had gone too far. My own nerves were just getting the better of me and I was taking it out on him and his car.