by Amber Nation
Forcing myself to relax, I looked around at the different features inside the small space, it really was nice. Not over the top for some flashy lawyer, but just enough for a guy to make a statement that he had a steady and dependable law practice. I mentally chided myself for angering him further in the midst of taking me to my friend, and I found myself wanting to cover his hand with mine and apologize. I quickly nixed the idea, but it still didn’t stop me from thinking about it.
The rest of the drive remained uneventful, simply put, meaning not a single word was exchanged between the two of us. It took us a little longer to arrive with the rain, but soon enough Dean was pulling into what I assumed was Baylor and Eden’s driveway.
After putting his car in park, he wasted no time at all before getting out of the driver’s seat and heading towards the trunk. I wanted to somehow redeem myself and show that I wasn’t always such a diva so I quickly followed suit and met him at the back of his car. The rain had finally let up, but by that time so much damage had already been done to my outfit and hair that I didn’t even care. He pulled out my large rolling suitcase and sat it on the ground, “Thank you,” I said in a soft voice and went to grab for the handle when our eyes briefly met and a look of gratitude was exchanged.
My hand accidently brushed his and a rush hit me straight to my core. My touch lingered on his and he was the first to pull away as he said, “This way,” he motioned with his head as he made his way in through Eden’s garage. I found myself following him once again as we entered into a laundry room, I rested my suitcase right inside the entrance and quickly rid myself of my wet coat and slipped out of my shoes.
Running my fingers through my now curly wet strands, I decided that this was going to be as good as it got and went into the kitchen to try and find my stressed best friend.
Sitting at the kitchen table which I knew to be the table was Eden; she had her fingers shoved into her hair and worry lines marring her face. Baylor had a hand perched on her back and was leaning over her, trying to soothe her frayed nerves. I could tell by his rigid stance and soothing tone that Eden was indeed teetering on the edge of a breakdown. Eden’s mom Bette was seated on the other side of the table with a scared expression on her face as if she had been scolded by her only child.
Bette was the first to notice me approach, so I decided that it was time to let my presence be known. “I’m here! Let all the worrying subside!” I said and opened my arms wide as soon as Eden looked up from the table. The moment her eyes met mine all signs of worrying immediately dissipated.
She scooted back her chair from the table, causing Baylor to jump out of the way, and ran to give me a hug with the biggest smile gracing her face. She clung to me tightly and it was in that moment, hugging my best friend, that I realized just how much I missed seeing her every day. For the past several years she had been my constant rock, helping me get over Paul, my second failed marriage. It wasn’t an easy process, but with Eden by my side it made things a bit more bearable.
“Are you hanging in there, sweet pea?” I whispered in her ear as I gave a comforting rub up and down her back.
“Oh Jules, I’m so glad to see you. The centerpieces are falling apart, I’m losing my mind.” She pulled back away from me just far enough for me to cup her face in my hands; without the height of my heels I was several inches shorter than Eden, which meant Dean was practically a giant as he stood next to me. She roved her eyes over my saturated clothing. “Why on earth are you soaking wet?”
I glanced to the right at Dean who had another smug look on his face and rolled my eyes in his direction. “Don’t you worry about me, although some may perceive me as the Wicked Witch of the West, it’s proven now that I don’t melt.” I bounced the tip of my finger off the end of her nose before I pulled out of her embrace. “Now, planning a wedding is stressful enough, why on earth are you putting together your own centerpieces?”
“I wanted to do them myself, I found so many different beautiful pieces on Pinterest and thought that they’d be easy enough to accomplish myself.” This sounded like Eden’s hair color catastrophe all over again. The reason Eden and I met in the first place was because she thought she could attempt to color her own hair and ended up sprinting to my chair so I could reverse the hideous orange color that was the final result.
“Eden, Eden, Eden…” I ran my hand along the top of her shoulder, in a calming way. “Preparing for your wedding is stressful enough, you don’t need to add anything on top of that. I know you aren’t used to delegating tasks out to people,” Placing my hand on my chest, I continued, “so it’s lucky for you that I am.” I looked past Eden’s shoulder and saw Baylor visibly relax at the mere mention of me taking charge. “Now, let me see your list of everything that is done and what still needs to be handled.”
Eden’s eyes went wide before scurrying back to the kitchen table to retrieve her notebook. She approached me slowly as if she was afraid of what exactly I’d see on the pages. It wasn’t any secret that I had two marriages under my belt, and the fact that they were both failed was a moot point. The truth was that I knew what I was doing and there was no doubt in my mind that I could handle whatever curveball she threw at me.
Taking the list in my hands and flipping through her jotted notes, I wasn’t expecting to see a lot of garbled nonsense and that hardly anything was accomplished. No wonder the girl was on the verge of needing a straightjacket.
“Seriously, Eden?” I sighed, closing my eyes and trying to calm my nerves before a headache set in.
Breathe, Julia, you can do this.
And immediately I snapped into action. “Momma Bette, do you think you can handle the centerpieces or do I need to make some calls?” I asked sternly, as my no-nonsense attitude slid firmly into place.
“I’ll call Baylor’s mom, Stella, and have her come over right away to help me. If I have to I’ll reach out to my book club, but all of the décor will be finished today.” That was exactly what I wanted to hear and she wasted no time before moving into the other room to call Stella to get her in on the action.
“Baylor and Dean, you two head on over to the place that is taking care of the catering. I want a finalized menu with a signed contract back to me by this evening.” Dean pushed himself off of the counter on which his hip rested and saluted me. I narrowed my eyes at him, biting my tongue. That chair-in-the-face scenario was looking more and more promising.
“Eden and I will head on over to the bakery and get this cake finalized. I’m assuming the church and reception hall are booked and ready to go?” I was afraid to even look in Eden’s direction. If that huge portion wasn’t done, I was going to pull my own hair out, but Eden quickly assured me that everything was good to go there. “Ok, I need to get out of these wet clothes, Eden,” I turned to her, “I hope you have an extra pair of rain boots or we will be stopping by someplace to get some.” It was utterly a shame that I couldn’t go out shopping in my heels but within the great state of Oregon I guess I’d have to make my fashion statement without shoes.
A young girl’s voice spoke from behind, startling me and my thinking, “What do you want me to do?” I turned around completely forgetting about Norah, Baylor’s twelve-year-old daughter.
“Uh,” I was completely at a loss. “You can go with your dad and make sure that they get the menu right.” I didn’t know what else for the little bugger to do, and I absolutely didn’t want her in my hair.
Her face fell, “I wanted to go with you and Eden to pick out the cake.”
I didn’t want the poor girl to cry, but there was something about me that I supposed that I should make abundantly clear.
I didn’t do kids.
EVER.
I groaned on the inside and tried to contort my face to form something that resembled a smile. “Ok, Eden,” I brought one hand to my hip, then motioned my other towards Norah, “do you need to pack a diaper bag for the child?”
Dean barked out a scoff. “Julia, she’s twelve years old fo
r Christ’s sake, she doesn’t need to be spoon fed and I’m sure she was potty trained at least ten years ago.” He hooked an arm around Norah’s neck and rustled up her poker straight hair, “Come on, Norah Bean, you can ride up front in the Benz and we’ll shove your dad in the backseat.”
Baylor, Dean, and Norah vacated the kitchen and I glanced at Eden who had her eyes narrowed at me.
“What?” I feigned ignorance. Eden knew my stance on children, but I guess I needed to get over my fear of tiny humans at least for the time I was there. “Oh I’m sorry, I’ll try harder. Now could you please point me to my room so I can get out of these clothes?”
Chapter 5
Julia
Two hours later and we were pulling back into Baylor and Eden’s driveway. Things at Sandy’s Bakery went better than I could have imagined. Eden picked out the flavor of cake and the design in record time and I was just happy that we were able to mark something off of her list of things to be accomplished.
“Julia, I’m so glad that you’re here.” She snapped her fingers as if she just remembered something important. “In the midst of everything going on, I forgot to mention to you that Baylor and I will be leaving right after the wedding for our honeymoon.” I opened my mouth to object but Eden steamrolled right over me, “Now, I know that wasn’t the original plan, but Baylor’s boss surprised us with it and insisted that he take the time off to go. We just couldn’t say no. Norah will be splitting her time between my parents and Stella that week, so you really could just stay in the house until it was time for you to go back to Nashville. I’m sure Dean would be more than happy to take you back to the airport.”
That was my moment to interject. “Stop right there,” I threw up a hand. “Dean will NOT be taking me anywhere, I am more than fine with taking a cab. And don’t you worry about me, this is your honeymoon. I may stay because some downtime is more than needed, but I also may just see if I can change my flight.” Shrugging my shoulder, to show I wasn’t affected in the least, I continued on. “No biggie at all, you just need to be able to relax and enjoy your honeymoon.”
The answer seemed to tide her over but it wouldn’t be Eden’s nature if she didn’t worry about me. And I knew just in her demeanor and the long sigh she released that she wished that Dean and I would get along. I was going to try my best to avoid the man so that the rest of the week could go smoothly for her without me murdering anyone.
We headed back into the house and saw that the guys along with Norah were gathered around the kitchen table. Bette and another woman who I assumed was Stella were busy in the living room with fake flowers strewn all over the place.
“Ok, everything on our end is finished,” Baylor said, sliding the contract across the table towards me. I picked up the paper and placed it along with my little folder of important items. During this process Dean’s head was trained down not even acknowledging my presence at all and Norah was giving me sideways glances.
“Perfect.” I clasped my hands together in front of me, “Now how about we relieve some stress and go out tonight?” I looked at Eden, meaning to only be asking her, “I’ve wanted to go to Tillie’s Tavern since you’ve told me about it.”
Dean finally perked up from his deeply interested stare at the table and looked directly at me with a sly smirk, then promptly turned to Baylor, pretending to scratch his chin, “That actually doesn’t sound like a bad idea, I think we all can take a little break.”
The tension in the room instantly increased, even to the point that Norah felt the pressure. So she quickly scooted out from the table, “I think I’m going to help Mimi and Granny in the living room,” she said quickly as she scurried away.
Dean thought he was going to rile me up, but he would soon realize that it took more than a self-invitation to do so. I crossed my arms in front of my chest, “Fine by me,” I forced a smile, “the more the merrier.” I narrowed my eyes his way before turning and leaving the kitchen and heading for my bedroom. If he was going to be in attendance this evening, I had to put together a killer outfit to make him eat his words.
Since it was still raining outside, I decided to forgo the usual dress I would’ve worn for the evening and settled on jeans with heeled boots.
I’m normally not a big jeans person, basically living in either dresses or leggings. But if I did say so myself, being paired with my gray stiletto boots and an off-the-shoulder gray shirt, my outfit was fabulous.
My heels gave me some semblance of height, which would only boost my confidence level. My small stature really dragged down my big personality.
I was thrilled when we finally arrived at Tillie’s, because being forced to endure the entire car ride in the backseat was brutal.
Oh, did I mention that I had to share it with Dean?
The man was a giant anyway, compared to my five-foot-two stature, but being forced to cram himself in a limited amount of space made him appear even bigger. He occupied the majority of the bench seat, leaving me just a small portion. If he’d have scooted to the left even a mere inch, I would’ve been forced to sit in his lap. And with the smug look on the bastard’s face, he knew it too. Hell, he probably was even wishing it.
I tried my best to keep my focus on the world zipping by outside the window, but with his demanding presence it was hard to concentrate.
Dean hustled ahead and opened the large wooden doors with ease, holding the door open while Baylor and Eden entered. Being the jerkoff that he was, he let the door go a split second before I started to enter and ran in, leaving me to force the door open on my own. It wasn’t an easy task; where Dean made it look menial, it jerked me forward with force as it slammed shut on my ass.
If the day was any indication on how my stay in Oregon would play out, I couldn’t wait to get back to Nashville. I grumbled under my breath as I stomped off towards the table where Eden and Baylor were already being seated. Dean was in the middle of taking off his black coat when I finally approached.
And I really didn’t want to admit it to myself, and sure as shit wouldn’t admit it out loud, but he looked amazing.
Almost edible.
Too bad his manners were shit and he was a fucking douche. He had on a pair of dark-washed jeans and a thick army-green sweater, the sleeves of which he immediately pushed up to his elbows. Even in the dead of winter his skin was tanned on his exposed forearms. My heartbeat faltered when I finally looked up into his eyes and a smirk played on his lips. I knew he caught me checking him out and he wanted me to know it.
Well, two could definitely play this game, and I could almost bet that I played it better. I was ready to wipe that cocky grin right off of his face.
I slowly and meticulously shoved the large buttons on my double-breasted pea coat through the slots, revealing my clothing underneath. Arching my back and protruding out my breasts, I slid the coat down the back of my arms until I caught the collar in my hands. I hung it over the back of my chair and then pulled it out to finally take a seat. I glanced up at Dean and saw his sights zeroed in on my chest once again and it was now my turn to flash a smug grin.
“Dean, did you check out there for a minute?” Eden pulled him from his trance, snapping his attention to her and making my moment of gloating end prematurely.
“Yeah, sorry.” He hurried and took his seat, almost fidgeting as if he was out of his element. “Hey, how about a drink?” he asked then immediately raised his hand to alert the waitress.
I finally took a moment to look around the Tavern. It had an extremely homey feel about the place. And with the exposed beams and the all-around architecture, I could tell why Baylor enjoyed going there so much. Directly in front of our table was a small platform stage with only two steps leading up to it. I had to chuckle to myself, remembering Eden telling me about the time she sang karaoke and Baylor was there to witness it.
“Hey, guys,” a feminine voice pulled me from my perusal and Eden’s back stiffened in her seat at the sound. Looking towards the brunette I was immediately
taken aback. She wore entirely too much makeup and tried to pull off the intense volume on her hair. It made her look cheap with a pile of frizz. An insult to her hair stylist.
There was absolutely no doubt in my mind that this was Maisie, Tillie’s worthless granddaughter. Eden had caught me up on all things about Cottage Grove and this tramp had tried to get her talons in every eligible bachelor within thirty miles. If I wasn’t mistaken, even Baylor was close to hooking up with her. A shiver ran down my spine at the thought. Good thing he refrained, his dick may not look the same after sticking it in that hole.
Maisie’s eyes were locked on Dean’s and you could see the lust seeping from her pores. It was tacky, really. Rein that shit in, woman!
“Ahem,” I bellowed while clearing my throat. “Are you here to gawk at the man or take our orders?” Baylor immediately started coughing and Eden kicked my foot under the table. Dean, on the other hand, just stared right at me as if he was actually shocked that came out of my mouth. If I could fist bump myself, I totally would.
Maisie squared back her shoulders, snatched a pen from her apron and raised her pad towards her face. “Dean, what can I get ya?”
“We’ll take a couple pitchers of Bud Light, Mais, thanks.”
She started to walk away, completely ignoring me. The others may be all right with beer, but I sure as hell wasn’t. “Excuse me?” I stated flatly. “I would actually like a margarita on the rocks and two shots of tequila with lime.” I lifted my manicured hand and indicated the number two just in case she had difficulty understanding.
That earned me another eye roll from her as she turned around and stormed behind the bar.
Dean’s glare turned icily towards me. “Rude much?”
Pretending to be hurt as if I actually gave a shit, I rested my hand against my chest. “Me? She was devouring you instead of taking our orders. By all means if you want to contract some ridiculous disease that has no cure from that one,” I pointed in the direction she disappeared to, “then don’t let us stop you. But she needs to do it on her own time or at least send someone over who is competent to take our orders.”