Every time I think I’ve seen it all, something new happens. I’ve seen five-tiered cakes smashed to the ground. I’ve seen grooms walk out before the ‘I dos’ and brides throwing plates against walls. I’ve seen tears, breakups, fires, and car crashes.
Yes, literally.
I’ve never seen a woman staring in the mirror, holding frayed ends of bright, green, ear-length hair. I could have sworn that an hour ago, her hair was nearly down to her waist and blond.
“Beth—”
The bride’s haunted eyes meet mine as her fingers comb through the damaged ends. A woman sits huddled in the corner, rocking back and forth in a bridesmaid’s dressing gown. Her back is to me, and I read the words ‘Bride Tribe’ embroidered in gold thread across her shoulder blades.
The bridesmaid in the corner turns her head and I see her tear-streaked face. Her lower lip trembles. “I’m sorry, Bethany, I—”
“Don’t.” The bride’s lips pinch, and the skin around her eyes tightens. She doesn’t look at the woman in the corner. No one else moves.
The tension in the room tastes acrid on my tongue. Bethany drags her eyes back to the mirror as a shudder of revulsion courses through her body.
“Leave,” she says in a flat, emotionless voice.
No one has to ask who she’s talking to. The woman in the corner picks herself up off the floor, wringing her hands in front of her stomach. There’s a splotch of white on her dressing gown—from bleach, maybe?
She takes a step toward the bride, opening her mouth to say something. She pauses, reconsiders, and then shuffles out of the room without uttering another word.
Bethany slumps down further into her chair, dropping her head in her hands. Her silky robe is pulled tight around her body and I can see tension and heartbreak rippling through her.
Guilt worms its way into my heart. I ran over here, thinking I’d have to appease a bride who had drunk too much champagne on an empty stomach and decided she wanted to replace all the white flowers with pink ones. I didn’t think she would have burned all her hair off the morning of her wedding.
“I just wanted fresh toner put through my hair,” Bethany says to no one in particular. “Christina just finished beauty school and she said she could brighten it for me. I didn’t think she meant lightening it with bleach.”
Tears cling to Bethany’s eyelashes until she blinks them down her face.
She’s not wearing mascara yet, thankfully. That’s one less mess I have to deal with.
Producing tissues from my cross-body bag, I hand them over to her and put my hands on her forearms.
“We’ll figure this out.” My voice sounds more certain than I feel. I squeeze her wrists. “Okay?”
“I can’t walk down the aisle looking like this,” she whispers, tears now coursing down her face and dripping off her chin. “We have to cancel the wedding.”
“If you cancel your wedding, you lose all your deposits, Beth,” her mother chimes from the corner. “It’s not that bad.” She visibly winces as the lie slips through her lips. “You’ll look back at this and laugh.”
“Mom, I am not getting married with green hair. I can’t even get extensions put in this mess.”
Her fingers comb through the neon hair as her eyes move back to the mirror. Bethany’s breath shakes as she stares at her reflection, and my cold, dead heart stirs.
I need to fix this. Not just because it’s my job, but because this bride doesn’t deserve to have her wedding ruined. She’s one of the good ones. I thought today was going to be a fairy tale.
“What about a wig?” I ask, tilting my head.
The bride frowns. “A wig?”
“Let me make a phone call.” I push myself up to my feet, plastering a smile on my face. Bethany stares at me, hope flaming to life in her eyes.
Another thing I’ve learned? If I exude confidence and calm, the bride can feel it, too.
“I don’t want to look like I got my hair at Party City,” Bethany whispers. “I’ll be looking at these pictures for the rest of my life.”
“You won’t even be able to tell it’s not your hair.”
Smile. Confidence. Calm.
Bethany’s lip trembles as she inhales, and she finally nods.
I glance around the room. There must have been some throwing of glassware and cushions, because it looks like a tornado hit the hotel.
I smile wider. “I’ll get someone in here to clean this up. You need more champagne? I’ll call the makeup artist to get started early.”
Everyone in the room straightens up a bit, and the maid of honor puts her hand on Bethany’s shoulder. The bride pats her friend's hand, and I back out of the room with measured steps.
Smiling. Confident. Calm.
As soon as the door closes, I’m scrambling for my phone.
“Jackson, I need you,” I breathe as soon as my friend answers the phone.
“Girl, it’s the asscrack of dawn and you’re calling me on a Saturday morning. You know I work Friday nights.”
“It’s nine o’clock. Hardly the asscrack of dawn,” I quip. “Please, Jackson. It’s an emergency. A bride just bleached her hair off and she needs a wig. You’re the only person I know who can install a lace-front with your eyes closed.”
“Get a hairdresser! I’m off-duty. Miss Jackie needs her beauty sleep.”
Jackson is not a morning person, especially not the morning after his weekly drag show.
But he has encyclopedic knowledge of wigs, and I don’t know anyone else who can make this bride look like herself again.
I know I’m asking a lot, but I need him. Desperately. This is my livelihood. My business. Everything I’ve worked toward. It’s the reason I can make my mortgage payments every month. It’s the reason I don’t need to ask the Black family for any handouts like my parents did.
I need this.
I let out a sigh, pinching the bridge of my nose. “I need Miss Jackie, Jackson. I need your magic.”
A groan sounds over the phone, but I hear movement. A bed creaking. Rustling. My friend is getting out of bed and coming to my rescue.
“There better be an open bar at this thing,” he groans. “You owe me one.”
I grin, hopping from one foot to the other. “Thank you. Thank you. Thank you! I’ll send you the address.”
Not only does Jackson fit a gorgeous wig to Bethany’s head, he makes her laugh and blush and feel beautiful again. Once he’s done, you can’t even tell that the hair isn’t hers.
Bethany throws her arms around Jackson, who gives her two air kisses. The bride insists that Jackson stays for the reception, and I squeeze my eyes shut at the thought of telling the caterer that we need another meal. Jackson smiles and sways his hips out of the room. I follow after him, letting out a sigh of relief.
My friend glances over his shoulder. “You owe me one, Willow.”
“I know.”
“If I wasn’t in dire need of some water and an Advil, I’d be telling you off for dragging me here to save your ass.”
I fight a grin. “I think you like being the hero.”
“There’s nothing heroic about me,” he replies, waving a hand. I see a hint of a smile on his lips, though, and the two of us walk side by side toward the area of the hotel set up for the wedding.
Jackson turns to look at me, tilting his head. “For someone who hates commitment and makes fun of weddings every chance you get, you sure did choose a funny kind of career.”
“There’s money in weddings.” I shrug. “And I don’t hate commitment.”
A fine, groomed eyebrow arches as Jackson’s dark brown eyes sparkle. His full lips purse and he shakes his head. “You know you’re afraid of feeling anything. Ever since that boy left you high and dry, you haven’t been the same.”
Jackson turns around again, walking down the hall.
I scamper after him, protesting. “What boy? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You know exactly what I’m talking a
bout.” He shoots me a withering glance. “Or who I’m talking about, rather.”
A lump lodges itself in my throat. He’s right. Of course he’s right.
I know exactly who Jackson is referring to, and it’s a boy I’ve buried deep in my cold, dead heart. A boy I grew up with. A boy I thought I loved.
A boy who left without a word the day after he became my first kiss.
My brother’s best friend meant the world to me and taught me exactly what I can expect from men: absolutely nothing.
No matter how gorgeous these weddings are, how much men will sweet-talk you, what they say means nothing.
Especially Sacha Black’s sweet, honeyed words. They’re the emptiest of the empty. The most meaningless, beautiful lies I’ll never hear again. Hopefully.
“He’s gone now, anyway,” I say, speeding up to catch up with Jackson. “It doesn’t matter.”
I reach into my bag and pull out a sour lollipop, ripping the wrapper off almost savagely. I keep every bag, glove compartment, nook, and cranny stocked with these things. They help with the stress. As soon as the sweet, sour candy hits my tongue, I start to relax.
Jackson clicks his tongue. “You’ll wreck your teeth with those things.”
“Didn’t know you moonlit as a dentist.”
“I don’t need to go to medical school to know that sucking on sugar eight hours a day is bad for your teeth. And stop avoiding the topic at hand.”
“I thought the topic at hand was my oral health.”
Jackson chuckles. “Oral fixation, maybe. Not enough of another type of lollipop in your life.”
“Shut up,” I say, a flush rising up my neck.
“If Young Mr. Black doesn’t matter, why haven’t you had a boyfriend in the past ten years, huh? Why are you pining after a boy who never thought about you twice?”
I wince at his words. A part of me still wishes Sacha cared about me. “I’m not pining after anyone.”
“All you ever do is talk about how weddings are destined to fail, how you don’t believe in true love, and how you don’t think soul mates exist. Meanwhile, you have men throwing themselves at you every minute of the day and you pretend not to notice.”
“No one is throwing themselves at me.”
Jackson scoffs, shaking his head. “Yeah, right, girl. What about Benji?”
“The mechanic?”
“The hot mechanic who’s been giving you puppy-dog eyes for the past six months. You know how I feel about a man bun. He’s got that dirty, rough, working-man kind of sex appeal.”
I shake my head. “He just fixed my car.”
“He wants to do a lot more than fix your car, believe me.”
“You’re crazy.”
“Uh-huh.” Jackson flattens his lips. “You need to get over him. Sacha Black is gone. He’s been gone for damn near a decade.”
Even the sound of his name sends shivers tumbling through my veins. My breath catches, and Jackson doesn’t miss a moment of it. The arch in his eyebrows tells me exactly what he thinks of my protests.
“Do you tell your clients you don’t believe in love? You two-faced, lying little hussy?”
I fight a smile, shaking my head. “That would be bad for business.”
“Mm-hmm.” Jackson shakes his head. “I need a drink.”
“This way.” I grin, leading him to the bar. “Stay out of trouble. You may have saved the bride’s hair, but we still need to make it through the rest of the day.”
“Maybe you should start looking for trouble a little bit more, Willow,” Jackson says as we walk up to the bar. “Might help you move on from a certain, gray-eyed beauty of a man.”
A blush stains my cheeks, and all I can do is shake my head. “I have to go check on the caterer.”
As I run away from my friend and all his truths, my heart stutters. I can’t think of Sacha Black. I can’t. He’s the one man I allowed myself to care about, and the biggest mistake of my life.
I won’t let that happen again—with him or anyone else.
2
Sacha
My grip on the steering wheel tightens as I drive toward the Woodvale City Centre for the first time in ten years.
I left here at nineteen, thinking I’d never set foot in this godforsaken place again.
I was wrong.
Woodvale—what a name for a place like this. Sounds like it should be some forest paradise. Some enclave of nature and serenity.
This town should be called Hellvale.
Today, on a beautiful Friday in the summer, this small city in the Pacific Northwest is bright with sunshine. It looks almost pleasant, but my memories of the place are gray and dull, tainted by everything that happened here.
Being part of the Black family in this town means one thing: power. But not for the likes of me.
Oh, no.
Only my father, who started as a lowly investment broker and built an empire here, has a claim to any of it. I was sent away when I was nineteen, and I hoped I’d never be back. There’s too much heartache hidden in these streets.
Almost unconsciously, my fingers reach toward the rental car’s keychain in the ignition and touch the familiar USB key I’ve attached to it. I never go anywhere without it. It contains years of evidence and documents that were given to me to keep safe.
Now, I’m walking back into the lion’s den.
Driving down Main Street, I note all the things that have changed, and all the things that haven’t.
Bert’s Diner is still there, on the corner of 4th and Main. The barber shop still has a faded sign out front. There’s a new, hip café across the street from a Starbucks, and a slew of restaurants I don’t recognize. People are out, enjoying the sunshine as they spend a quiet Friday morning in town with their families.
If I didn’t know any better, I’d call it quaint.
But I do know better. This place is the spawn of the devil.
The devil being my father.
If you were coming to Woodvale for the first time, you’d see a beautiful city with big parks, nestled on top of a cliff that overlooked the Pacific Ocean. You’d think it was lush, and green, and beautiful. You’d say the people were outdoorsy and friendly, and that the median wage was probably above the national average.
Meaning people here are rich. Filthy rich.
One of the reasons for that? My father, Alastair Black.
My father’s investment brokerage has been so successful that pretty soon, his clients included almost everyone in the upper middle class in Woodvale.
As they made more money, so did he.
You don’t see my father’s name anywhere, except on a small office building on the far side of town. I drive by the Black Investments sign, trying not to shudder. My family owns this town, but I’m not proud of it.
Turning left off Main Street, I make my way toward the east end of town, shaking off the bad memories and focusing on the future.
I’m here for one reason only: my best friend’s bachelor party.
When I pull up outside the familiar weatherboard split-story house, my shoulders start to relax. The only happy memories I have in this godforsaken place were made inside those walls.
The Wise house was my second home. Max was like a brother to me. Mr. and Mrs. Wise worked for my father for most of their lives, until everything unraveled ten years ago.
When I heard Mr. and Mrs. Wise died a couple of years later, it felt like my own parents were the ones who had passed away.
Might as well have been my parents. It’s not like my mother and father were ever there for me. The Wises took me in and treated me like their own. Max was like a brother to me. He was by my side through everything.
And Willow?
My heart clenches. I’ve tried my best to push her blond hair and big, blue eyes from my mind. Anytime I see a blond chick dressed like a rainbow, I think of her.
She always loved color. Mismatched socks and clashing prints were her signature. Everywhere she went, she spille
d happiness and sunshine. Being around her was like drinking bottled summertime.
Is she in the house, I wonder?
I park the car in the driveway just as the front door flies open. Max stands in the doorway with the same shit-eating grin he had when we were teenagers. I climb out of the car as a smile stretches across my own lips.
The movement feels almost foreign to me, as if my face doesn’t quite remember how to curve my mouth upward.
“Sacha, you dirty old bastard. Get over here!”
Max has gained a bit of weight around his middle, but otherwise looks unchanged. He always had a smile that could disarm the most guarded of people, and eyes that would get us into—and out of—all kinds of mischief.
My best friend wraps his arms around me in a bone-crushing hug. He grunts, holding me close.
“It’s good to see you, bud.”
“Same,” I say, backing up as I rough my hands through my hair. When was the last time someone hugged me? I’m not sure I can remember.
I glance at the house, seeing the silhouette of a woman walk across the living room windows.
Don’t ask about Willow. Don’t ask about Willow. Don’t ask about Willow.
“Where’s your sister?”
Fuck.
Max arches an eyebrow. “She moved out a couple of years ago, man. Got her own place. You remember Mrs. Warshawski, the old English teacher?”
I nod.
“Willow bought her house after she died.”
“The big house on the other side of town?” My eyebrows jump up. No one says it, but the ‘other side of town’ is synonymous with the ‘rich side of town.’ Also known as the side of town where my parents live.
Not that I’m going to head over there to visit. I’m staying as far away from that cesspit as I can.
Max laughs. “Willow’s a smart businesswoman. Lots of money in wedding planning—as Isabelle and I are finding out. We’ve had to double our budget already, and we’re not even doing anything extravagant. If I could convince Isabelle to just go on a road trip to Vegas with me, I’d be happy.”
“I hope Willow’s giving you a discount.” I grin. Even saying her name sends a spark of heat zipping down my spine. I inhale, looking away from my best friend. I shouldn’t be thinking about his sister like that. Willow’s off-limits, and I can’t forget that.
Can't Have You: A Stand-Alone Brother's Best Friend Romance Page 22