Last Groom Standing

by Kimberly Lang

  Watching your ex-fiancée canoodle with the guy she threw you over for had to be uncomfortable, but if Dylan had a problem with that, he’d done a good job of hiding it.

  He was currently typing something on his phone, and if he was feeling like an extra wheel, it didn’t show.

  Either he was a very good actor, or he simply didn’t care. Marnie wasn’t sure if she should envy him or pity him.

  The music wasn’t overly loud, but it was thankfully loud enough to not make the conversational silence at the table too noticeable. Not that she was in the mood for small talk, anyway. There was just way too much circling in her mind. She needed to process it all.

  No one wanted to ruin Cassie’s celebration, so conversations had been hushed and behind bathroom doors, everyone trying to bring her up to speed without involving the entire party or casting a pall over it. The result was information and emotional overload, and the beginnings of a massive headache.

  By the time she finished this glass, she could head on home without anyone thinking it was odd. There was wine in her fridge, and drinking herself into oblivion seemed the best way to finish out this horrid day. Tomorrow would be soon enough to try to make sense of it all.

  “I think I’m supposed to ask you to dance.”

  The comment caught her by surprise, as Dylan hadn’t said much to her all night, choosing to talk to Tuck and oddly Carter mostly. “Excuse me?”

  Dylan half pointed in the direction of the dance floor, where Reese was making gestures over Mason’s shoulder that did seem to translate into: “You two, dance.”

  The last thing she needed was a pity dance from him. “Thanks, but no.”

  “No, thank you.”

  Marnie had a brief flash of irritation at the relieved sigh in his voice as Dylan turned back to Reese and shrugged. Reese’s lips pressed together in annoyance before she peeled herself off Mason and stalked over to the table.

  “You need to dance, Marnie.”

  “Why?”

  Reese seemed to think for a second. “Because it’s bad luck for the bride and groom if the guests don’t dance.”

  Reese should really know better than to try that. In three years at Simmons College, fourteen of her sorority sisters had walked down the aisle. There wasn’t a wedding tradition or superstition she didn’t know inside and out. “You made that up.”

  She shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. I think it’s bad luck.”

  “Well, I don’t think Dylan really wants to dance,” she countered. “And it’s bad luck to dance with an unwilling partner.”

  She could tell Reese was trying to decide if that was an actual superstition or not. Finally, Reese cut her eyes in Dylan’s direction. “But he will be willing if you just say yes. This is a celebration, and you two are sitting it out. I think that’s a little rude, don’t you?”

  Reese knew right where to hit. The desire not to be rude was ingrained into her very soul and hard to ignore. Marnie weighed her options. Once Reese got an idea, it was nearly impossible to change her mind. She was a peacekeeper, a smoother-outer, the perfect hostess who wanted everyone to participate and have a good time. Reese had been born on the wrong side of the Mason-Dixon line; for a Yankee, she could channel a Southern matriarch with the best of them. Marnie could give in gracefully now or be politely and lovingly badgered to death.

  “Fine.” She took a long swallow from her glass and stood. Dylan, wearing a look that might have been boredom or annoyance—it was really hard to tell which—pushed to his feet, as well. Talk about rude...

  “Excellent.” Reese smiled as Mason pulled her back into his arms.

  Marnie let Dylan lead her to the dance floor, his hand at the small of her back, and she caught at least one or two jealous looks being shot her way by other women. She totally understood why. Dylan Brookes was smart, successful and handsome, and the news he was back on the “eligible bachelor” list had brought a cheer to the lips of nearly every unmarried woman in the city looking to marry well.

  Dylan looked every inch the Park Avenue aristocrat he was—which seemed a ridiculous contrast to the all-American frat-boy good looks of his best friend, Tuck. He radiated a suaveness, like he belonged in a tuxedo drinking dirty martinis at swanky events. Even tonight, with his dark hair slightly mussed, collar open and shirtsleeves rolled up over tanned forearms, the adjective that sprang to mind was “debonair.”

  Her departed mother might be mollified now, as Dylan Brookes—the smart, rich, well-connected and respected attorney and philanthropist—was exactly the kind of man Miss Marnie Suellen Price, the only daughter of Marshall and Alma Price—God rest their souls—of Savannah, Georgia, was supposed to dance with.

  And she hadn’t danced with that kind of man—intentionally—in over five years.

  She knew Dylan’s type—she’d grown up surrounded by men just like him. Well-bred, well-read, and well-groomed, raised with every perk money could provide and trained to step right into their daddies’ shoes and run the world. Bloodless, boring, and usually arrogant, but disguised under a thousand-dollar suit.

  But she’d suck it up for one dance.

  Dylan took her right hand in his, placed his other at her waist, and they moved gently to the music, both of them staring off into the distance.

  God, this was worse than junior prom. A good foot of space separated their bodies. She bit her lip to hold back the snicker as the memory flooded back. Peter Stevenson, son of Savannah’s mayor and the young man lucky enough to win the Price family seal of approval as a proper escort, had had sweaty palms. Looking back, it may have been the first time he’d ever actually laid hands on a girl. They’d kept that respectable distance between them all night—up to and including the chaste and proper good-night handshake on her front porch. And she’d been both satisfied and pleased, convinced it was proof Peter respected her.

  Even now, she could still hear Gina’s bark of laughter at the recounting of that story, and her sincere judgment of “How very pathetic.” Even after everything that happened, Marnie had always been thankful to Gina for opening her naive eighteen-year-old eyes to the real world.

  “What’s so funny?” Dylan’s question caused her to jump and brought her back to the present.

  Her cotillion instructor would be horrified to know that she was neglecting the most basic rules of etiquette by ignoring her dance partner. But since she doubted Dylan would be happy to hear himself compared to her nervous seventeen-year-old prom date, she rapidly searched her mind for something appropriate to say.

  She’d met Dylan a few times in social situations after he and Reese moved from coworkers to couple—their engagement party, that Thanksgiving she’d had lunch at Reese’s parents’ house—but she’d never really spent much time talking to him. She knew all about his career achievements, giving her a specific picture of Dylan, and she’d always been a little sad Reese had engaged herself to someone so dry, staid, and frankly unexciting. And if there was more to him—a hidden fire, exciting depths—Reese had never shared that information. Reese was just so private about things that there hadn’t been much girl talk deconstructing their relationship during their infrequent lunches in the city.

  So while she kind of knew Dylan, she couldn’t say that she knew him well. And what she did know wasn’t all that helpful at the moment.

  The obvious seemed the safest conversational course. “Just thinking what an odd couple Cassie and Tuck are, but yet they’re so happy together.”

  Dylan nodded. “You ladies did a good job with this party. I know they both appreciate it.”

  She grabbed the conversational rope gratefully. “Tuck...yes, and Cassie wouldn’t care unless Tuck did. We just couldn’t let her get married without some kind of celebration. It just seems wrong not to. It’s one thing not to have the big white wedding, but just a run to the courthouse wasn’t nearly enough.”

  Dylan nodded, and that topic was finished. How long is this song?

  She laughed. “It just seems like I
’ve been neck-deep in weddings since June...”

  “I know the feeling. I’m rather tired of them myself.”

  Damn it. I shouldn’t have brought that up. “My apologies. That must be a sore topic.”

  Dylan shrugged. “Not really.”

  Her curiosity got the better of her manners. “Does it not bother you?”

  “Does what bother me?”

  “Being around Reese. Seeing her with someone else like that.” Seeing Reese so openly cuddly with Mason made Marnie realize that she’d never really seen Reese act openly affectionate toward Dylan when they were engaged—nor vice versa. Reese and Dylan had made a good-looking pair, but it would be a stretch to call them a “couple” based on their behavior.

  “I’m not a huge fan of witnessing large amounts of PDA from anyone, but beyond that, no.”

  Maybe that explained the lack of showy affection between them when they were together. “Well, you’ve been very understanding and decent about it.”

  His eyebrows went up. “There was another option?”

  She tried to picture Dylan in a jealous rage or even a mopey lovelorn depression. Neither image worked. “I guess not.”

  “We’re friends and I wish her well. I just hope she’s not making the same mistake twice—”

  It was rude to interrupt, but... “You think Reese and Mason are a mistake?”

  “For her sake, I hope not. But the odds aren’t good.”

  She rushed to defend Reese. “I’d say that after all they’ve been through, their odds are pretty damn good. They love each other—”

  Dylan actually snorted.

  “What? It’s true.”

  “Yes, and love is probably the worst reason there is to get married.”

  That threw her off her game. “What other reason is there?”

  “You’re a romantic.” His tone clearly said he saw that as a fault.

  That wasn’t entirely true. She had no starry-eyed misconceptions about the realities of relationships, but to just dismiss love outright? “For thinking love is a good reason to get married?”

  “Love is ephemeral. Good marriages need a stronger foundation than that for a solid and successful partnership.”

  Ugh. She’d heard variations of that before. But even being taught that marriage was about creating a strong family foundation—usually with the wife playing the helpmate to her husband—love was still at least given lip service in the equation. “So you think that Mason and Reese won’t have a solid and successful partnership? Simply because they’re in love?”

  “Would you marry someone just because he was good in bed?”

  The bluntness of that question quite literally caused her to stumble. Dylan’s hand tightened against her back as she regained her balance, and she wondered if Dylan had tried to shock her on purpose. No, Dylan wasn’t the type. Gina might try to bait and shock, but Dylan... She couldn’t really picture it. “Like love, it shouldn’t be the only reason to get married, but it’s a damn important one.”

  Dylan merely smiled at her response, and she could almost feel the metaphorical pat on the head. It had been a long time since anyone had patronized her like that, and she wondered what Reese might have said about her to make him think...

  “Wait a second.” She stopped the sway. “If love isn’t the right reason to get married, are you saying that you never loved Reese?” Reese might be happy in love now, but she’d sworn to only marry for love and finding out that Dylan hadn’t loved her at all would still hurt.

  “Of course I loved her.” What would normally be a passionate declaration in any decent romance novel sounded flat instead. Dylan could have been speaking about how much he loved pizza for all the emotion behind the statement. Wow. Reese had definitely dodged a bullet with this one.

  “Well, Reese seems to be pretty good at avoiding mistakes these days.”

  An eyebrow arched up at her statement, but the music finally came to a stop, keeping Dylan from responding to her snark. Instead, he stepped back, and with a mocking bow, said, “Thanks for the dance, Marnie.”

  He walked over to Tuck and spoke quietly to his friend. A moment later, their whole party was tossing a shower of flower petals at Tuck and Cassie as they ran out the door and climbed into a black town car for their getaway.

  She felt a hand on her elbow and turned to see Carter. Gina was hanging back a step behind him, seeming a little unsure. It brought back the weight of all that thinking she still had to do. Damn. If nothing else, she owed Dylan a debt of thanks for taking her mind off all that for even a few minutes.

  “We’re going to go, too,” Carter said. “I’m sure we’ll see you while I’m in town.”

  Marnie still wasn’t quite used to the idea of that “we.” It was going to take time to wrap her head around the fact that Carter and Gina were a couple. In the last ten years, her relationship with her brother had gone from good to really bad and finally landed in “strained” territory, and she wasn’t entirely sure if his new relationship with Gina was going to improve that situation or not. But she and Gina seemed to be on the brink of repairing their damage, and she realized she very much wanted that to happen. She’d deal with Carter somehow. She’d have to. “Yeah. We’ll do lunch or something.”

  Gina seemed uncharacteristically reticent to say anything, but Reese stepped in, purse over her shoulder, obviously ready to leave, as well. She wrapped her arms around their shoulders and pulled them in for a celebratory squeeze. “I think we did well today, ladies.”

  Gina nodded. “We did.”

  “And us?” Reese asked quietly, “Are we okay?”

  While she’d asked the question generally, Marnie knew they were primarily waiting on her to answer. While she and Gina still had some baggage to unpack, Reese had to be feeling some weight, as well—after all, she’d known about Gina’s pregnancy and miscarriage when it had happened and had kept that knowledge from Marnie all this time.

  Yikes, something else to process. But Marnie returned Reese’s squeeze and placed a hand on Gina’s arm. “We will be.”

  Gina met her eyes directly and nodded, and that nod somehow helped clear through the noise. She felt her eyes burning. “I’ll talk to y’all later.”

  “You’re not going all the way home tonight, are you?” Reese asked.

  The long train ride out to Brooklyn didn’t hold much attraction now—wine waiting in the fridge or no. Thankfully, she had another option, and there were many stores between here and SoHo where she could pick up another bottle. “No, I’ll probably stay at Sven’s.”

  “We could drop you off on our way.”

  Gina’s eyes widened. “Wait, there’s a Sven?” she asked.

  “Sven is gay and lets me crash at his place when I need to,” she explained to Gina and then declined Reese’s offer. The last thing she needed right now was more quality time with her friends. God only knew what other bombshells could drop. “I’m actually going to finish this wine and have a bit of a think. I’ll grab a cab later.”

  Reese looked a little concerned, but nodded. There were general good-nights all around and Marnie pulled Gina aside. “One more thing... Please don’t mention to Carter that I got laid off. I really don’t want to deal with that right now.”

  “Gotcha.”

  The lack of hesitation warmed her. Yeah, they were going to be okay.

  She waved off the other two couples and sank back into her chair with a sigh. Then she emptied the last of the Chardonnay into her glass.

  “That’s a waste of good wine.”

  She’d forgotten about Dylan, who seemed to also be finishing off a drink—something dark in a glass on the rocks.

  “It’s excellent wine and it’s not a waste. I fully appreciate each and every delicious, mind-numbing drop.” She backed up that statement by taking a large swallow.

  “Tough day?”

  Oh, so now they were going to do the small talk? “You could say that. I’m really happy for all of my friends, but...”
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  “Oh, God, you’re not going to get all ‘always a bridesmaid, never a bride,’ are you?”

  She nearly snorted the wine. “I actually wish that was the problem. It would be a lot simpler. Unfortunately, not all sorrows needing drowning stem from a love life or lack thereof.”

  Dylan’s mouth might have quirked, but he didn’t say anything. Was he waiting for an explanation? Was this actually a conversation now, making it rude for her not to provide one?

  She didn’t know what or how much Dylan knew about her past with Reese, Cassie and Gina, and she really didn’t want to go into it. But she’d opened the door, and it would probably be polite to explain why she was pounding Chardonnay. Gee, was it good or bad that she had another, equally valid, reason to give? “I lost my job this morning.”

  “That does suck.”

  She bit back her surprise at his word choice. “I knew it was coming—budget problems, you know—but I really liked that job.” Her glass and the bottle were now empty, and she debated having another before heading out.

  “I think I should buy you a drink.”

  She didn’t need the charity. She could well afford to buy her own drinks, even without a job—at least as long as the Price Paper Consortium continued to turn a profit. And she didn’t really need his company, either, as it made far more sense to get hammered in private. At the same time, though, there was something pathetic about drinking alone. Dylan Brookes wouldn’t have been her first choice of drinking partners, but it did beat a total stranger, and he didn’t seem in a hurry to leave. Plus, he hadn’t been abstaining tonight, either, and had to be working on a pretty good buzz himself, making her wonder if maybe he had a few woes to drown, as well.

  It would be the polite thing to do. “All right, then.”

  “Another Chardonnay? Or perhaps something stronger?”

  Either she was imagining things, or there was a challenge in his voice, and she was in the mood to call him on it. She waved over a server. “I’d like a shot of Patrón, two limes, with a Dos Equis back, please.” She turned to Dylan and shot him an innocent smile. “And for you?”

  Dylan shot her a smile that said there was some sign of life in there. Maybe he had layers. “Same.”