by K. A. Linde
But I liked the dress. Sutton’s wedding was formal attire, and it was hard enough to find a dress I liked, let alone a full-length dress, but Heidi had done it. The dress was black with a gold shimmer layer underneath that accentuated my figure when I walked. Everything came together with cute peep-toes. Benefit of a winter wedding in Texas was that it would reach the seventies during the day if we were lucky. The weather was pretty erratic.
“You are so getting laid in that dress,” Heidi said.
I dramatically rolled my eyes. “No boys. This is a no-fly zone.”
“You won’t be saying that tonight when you’re getting fucked. All I’m saying,” Heidi said. “Hopefully, it’s Landon Wright. That would be so full circle.”
“Don’t even say that. If I see him, I will run in the opposite direction,” I told her.
Heidi grinned, as if laughing at her own inside joke.
“All right, all right,” Heidi said when she noticed my glare. “No boys. I got it. If Landon approaches you, I’ll distract him. I still have some cheer moves.”
She kicked her leg and nearly touched her nose. Then, she spun around in some intricate dance move. I wasn’t even sure how it was possible that she was this flexible.
“Oh my God, if you do that in your dress, you are going to be more than a distraction for Landon. You are going to rip your dress in half for the entire party to see.”
Heidi laughed and shrugged. “I’m going to get dressed, and then we can go.”
A few minutes later, Heidi reappeared in a floor-length mermaid dress in the deepest, darkest purple. She shimmied over to me and winked. “Come on, sexy. You’re my date tonight. Let’s get Kimber to take a picture of us!”
We hurried into Kimber’s bedroom, and Kimber agreed to take the shot. Heidi handed her phone to Kimber. Then, she threw one hand up in the air and placed the other on her hip while making a pouty face. I pointed my finger at the camera while kissing Heidi on the cheek. When we got a look at it, I just giggled with my girls. It was the most ridiculous and the most us picture in existence.
“This is so going on Instagram. Damn, it’s good to have you back,” Heidi said.
“Use a filter,” I insisted.
“You just filtered your face,” Kimber said, pointing out all the makeup on my face. “You don’t need a filter.”
“My life needs a filter,” Heidi muttered.
Heidi posted the picture and then grabbed her clutch. She stuffed her phone and ID inside. I hated carrying a purse anytime, especially when I had to navigate a dress and heels. So, I gave Heidi my phone and ID, who rolled her eyes and added them to her bag.
“You really don’t mind dropping us off, Kimber?” I asked.
“Not a problem. I want to hear all about the antics when y’all are done.”
“I’ll live tweet you,” Heidi said.
“Oh my God, you are not going to be on your phone all night,” Kimber said. “You should enjoy yourself. Get drunk and make a mistake or two.”
“Done and done,” Heidi said with a wink. “Let’s get out of here.”
We all piled into Kimber’s car. The traffic around the Historic Baker Building, a venue in downtown Lubbock, was outrageous. And that was saying something because the only time traffic got this bad was on Texas Tech game days.
“How many people did Sutton invite?” I asked, craning my head out the window.
“It looks like everyone she’s ever met,” Heidi said.
“Or the whole freaking city,” I grumbled.
“Maybe we should hop out here,” Heidi suggested.
“Be safe,” Kimber said. “Take some condoms for the kids.”
Heidi rolled her eyes.
I laughed as I hopped out of the SUV. “Thanks, Kimber.”
“Bye, babe!” Heidi called, following in my footsteps.
She slammed the door, and we darted through traffic and onto the sidewalk. The Baker Building was a block or two down the street, and already, I was cursing myself for wearing high heels. They had looked so adorable in the store. Now, they were little torture devices.
Who invented these?
Men.
Men invented these to torture us and make our butts look awesome.
Thank God my butt looked this awesome. Otherwise, I’d be taking these off so fast.
“Stop hobbling,” Heidi said, strutting around in her heels like they had been made for her.
“I’m not hobbling. I just don’t think I’ll be able to wear these all night.”
“We’ll take them off once we get to the reception. But, right now, you need them to be able to see.”
I smacked her arm. “I’m not that short. I can see fine. You’re just super freaking tall.”
“Well, we can’t both be perfect, Em.”
“Oh my God, why are you my best friend again?” I asked.
“Beats me,” she said with a giggle. Then, she looped our arms together and strode up to the entrance of the Baker Building.
The place really was packed. At the entrance, a dozen ushers were escorting people to seats, and people milled about as they waited for their chance. I recognized about ten people in the span of a minute and slowly angled my body so as not to have to engage with anyone.
Eventually, it was our turn, and Heidi and I wrangled one usher for the both of us.
“Bride or groom?” the boy asked. He had ice-blue eyes and a real Southern drawl. He was probably in a fraternity at Tech and had gotten coaxed into this with the promise of free booze.
“Bride,” Heidi said. “We’re friends of the bride.”
“Cool. How do you know Sutton?” he asked as he walked us, arm in arm, down the aisle.
“We grew up together,” Heidi said.
When I raised my eyebrows, she shrugged.
“Family friend. Got it.”
Then, he walked us right up to the third row. I felt myself panicking. Why were we so close? Couldn’t he have given us different seats? I did not want to be this near the Wright siblings. I was here for the booze and had been promised a good time.
“Family friends up front,” he said with a smile, gesturing for us to take our seats.
Heidi smiled brightly at him and then took the second seat inside.
“You’re leaving me on the end?” I hissed at her.
“Yeah. Sit your ass down.”
“This was not part of the deal, Martin,” I spat at her as I sat down.
“Ohhh, using my last name. I’m real scared.”
“You owe me big for this.”
“Just enjoy it, Em. It’ll be over in, like, fifteen minutes, and then we can drink for free all night.”
“Right. Priorities,” I muttered as the doors finally closed behind us.
As the remaining guests took their seats, my eyes traveled the room. It was elaborately decorated with flowers attached to every chair and shimmery curtains draped across the entire front of the room. White lights that twinkled down on the attendees were strung on the second-floor balcony.
Softly, a string quartet began playing classical music, and the lights dimmed. I looked back to the front as the pastor stepped out from a back room with the groom and a long line of groomsmen following in his wake.
My eyes scanned the length of the line. Nine. He had nine groomsmen. Holy fuck!
There were so many of them that they had to stand in two lines.
And the last three men in the line were very distinct and downright gorgeous.
The Wright brothers—Jensen, Austin, and finally, Landon.
The party had arrived.
Four
Emery
I purposely turned my attention away from the brothers before me. I really didn’t want to look at any of them anyway. Luckily for me, the bridesmaids started walking down the aisle. Then, the traditional “Canon in D” began, we all stood, and Sutton walked down the aisle. I was pretty sure, the last time I’d seen Sutton in person, she was only about twelve years old. But it was shoc
king to me, now that she was all grown up, how much she looked like Landon.
All of them looked the same—dark hair, pouty lips, athletic figure. Though they had their differences, too. Just not enough noticeable differences. Anyone could see they were related.
Heidi leaned over to me to whisper into my ear, “Ten bucks, she’s a crier.”
“She’s pregnant. She’s definitely a crier,” I muttered back.
I tried to hold my laughter in as Sutton finally reached the front of the room and immediately burst into tears. Her groom took her hands in his and grinned down at her.
The pastor raised his hands. “You may all be seated,” he said.
I dropped into my seat and waited for this whole thing to be over.
“We are gathered here today to join Sutton Marie Wright to Maverick Wayne Johnson in holy matrimony.”
My eyes rounded, and I glanced at Heidi. We had an entire conversation without saying a word.
Maverick Wayne.
Maverick?
That’s his name?
Holy fuck.
Yeah.
Yeah.
She must be here for his Johnson.
I cracked up and had to cover it with a cough when a few people turned to glare at me. Heidi tried to hide her own laughter by reaching for her purse and digging around for her phone.
The rest of the ceremony progressed like any other I’d ever been to. If you’d been to one wedding, you’d been to them all.
Yada, yada, yada.
“I do.”
Yada, yada, yada.
“Till death do us part.”
Yada, yada, yada.
“You may kiss the bride.”
I applauded methodically with the rest of the crowd and silently prayed for some really good champagne to make up for this. Champagne cured everything.
The music started up again. The end of their fifteen minutes was up. On to bigger and better things. Like an open bar and a dessert table.
Maverick took Sutton’s hand in his, and they strode down the aisle, beaming like streetlamps. Each bridesmaid walked forward in her long, silky red dress, latched on to the arm of one of the groomsmen. With nine people on each side of the bridal party, it was taking forever. One after the other after the other.
The only bridesmaid I recognized was Morgan, who was the maid of honor. She was only two years younger than me and Heidi and had run in the popular crowd, of course. She was easy to figure out because she looked exactly the same as she had in high school. Unfortunately for her, she was on the arm of some leering frat boy. The other girls, I gathered, were Sutton’s sorority sisters.
Then, finally, it was on to the Wright brothers.
Jensen moved forward first. He held his arm out for the girl who was blushing as bright as a cherry tomato. She looped her arm in his, and I was trying so hard not to roll my eyes. I had been that girl once. I knew what that was like. Back in the day, Landon had made me feel that swoony, over-the-top, oh-my-God feeling from having the attention of a Wright brother. And I wasn’t that type of girl either. Now, it felt ridiculous. Money couldn’t buy happiness, and it sure didn’t fix shit when the guy broke your heart.
I was so deeply entrenched in my own thoughts that I didn’t realize I was staring. At Jensen Wright. And he was staring right back at me.
Why? Why, oh God, did Heidi put me on the end? And why is he looking at me like that?
He hadn’t even moved yet. He was just standing there, staring at me with those dark brown eyes. And I didn’t know what he was thinking or what he was doing. Except for making a complete fool of himself because, surely, he needed to start walking right now. Like right fucking now.
Synapses must have fired in his brain again because he gradually moved the girl forward. And, when I thought I’d gotten past that look and away from his penetrating gaze, he turned around. He did a motherfucking double take. Right there in front of everyone at his own sister’s wedding, he turned around and looked at me.
What world am I living in?
I didn’t think I breathed normally again until he looked away and proceeded down the aisle. By then, Austin had already passed me, and I didn’t even get a chance to see Landon and his wife. And that was the only thing I’d been interested in.
So what? I was an ex-girlfriend. I had every right to stalk his wife to see if she was prettier than me.
Heidi shook my shoulder, jarring me back to reality. “Did you just get eye-fucked by Jensen Wright?” she gasped.
An older woman sitting in front of us glared at her for the language. She hadn’t exactly been quiet.
“No. Nope. No, I did not,” I told her. I was still trying to figure out what had happened. Because nothing I could conjure up was making any sense.
“You so did. You so, so did!” Heidi said.
The two aisles in front of us left first, and then Heidi was pushing me out of the aisle, all while whispering in my ear about how excited she was. “Do you remember mooning over him in high school? He was, like, this hottie college guy, a totally unattainable god. Like Zeus on Mount Olympus. Or maybe we just wanted to get on his lightning bolt, if you know what I mean.”
“Heidi, God, you’re so embarrassing.”
“Em, just think about Jensen when we were in high school. He belonged in a magazine.”
“I was dating his brother.”
“But before that,” she insisted.
“Okay. I might remember staying at your house a time or two…”
“Or ten.”
“Where we talked about him being hot.”
“Yes. And he has gone from hot to one damn fine wine. The bottle gets better with age, honey,” Heidi said, knocking her hip into mine.
“Are you really suggesting I hook up with Jensen Wright at his sister’s wedding when I dated his brother?” I asked with wide eyes.
Heidi laughed. “Getting ahead of yourself, aren’t you? I didn’t say hook up with him. You said that. Are you thinking about that?”
“No,” I spat.
Because, no. Seriously. That would never happen.
I was sworn off of the Wright brothers. None of that was going to happen. No fucking way. Jensen had probably just…seen a bug on my shoulder or something. That was all it had been because his interest would be illogical.
I was his brother’s ex-girlfriend.
I was…me.
We made it to the reception space a few minutes later. The room was teeming with waiters in pressed tuxedos, handling silver trays topped with hors d’oeuvres. I plucked a fancy crab cake from a passing waiter and headed straight to the bar.
“Champagne, please,” Heidi said, flashing the bartender a smile.
I held up two fingers as I took a bite out of the crab cake. Holy fuck, this was delicious. Wow. Who the hell was the caterer? I glanced around and found my answer. West Table. Of course. Only the Wrights would hire catering from the most expensive restaurant in town.
“We need more of these,” I told Heidi when she handed me two glasses of champagne.
I had no shame as I double-fisted the drinks.
Heidi laughed and nodded toward the tables. “Let’s find where we’re sitting.”
We wandered over to the table with the list of names elaborately tacked up on a rustic window.
Heidi plucked her name off the distressed clothespin. “We’re table twelve. My lucky number.”
“That’s because Brandon McCain wore that number on the football team all through high school.”
“Okay, fine,” Heidi said with a shrug. “It’s my get-lucky number.”
I snorted. “That’s rich.”
“Here we are.” She dropped her purse down right in front of her name. “Heidi Martin and guest. That’s you.”
“Who else are we with?” I asked.
Heidi and I scanned the names.
I shrugged. “I don’t know any of these people.”
“Work people,” she said. “But at least we have Julia. Julia Ba
nner. She’s cool. You’ll like her.”
“I’ve never heard you mention her before.”
“She’s new. You know how it goes with the newbies,” she said with a wry expression before downing half of her glass of champagne. “I like to make sure they’re going to stick around Lubbock for more than a year. So many burned friendships with people who move here and then relocate immediately. We’ll see if she survives, and then I’ll decide if we bring her in.”
“You act like we’re in a gang,” I told her with a shake of my head.
Heidi leaned over and conspiratorially whispered, “We are.”
I laughed despite myself. God, I had missed her so much. My life had not been the same without her. No matter that I’d spent all those years in Oklahoma and then Austin, I never found a friendship to rival Heidi’s. I was certain I never would.
We spent the next forty-five minutes downing glasses of champagne and eating as many of those little crab cakes as we could get our hands on. By the time the family and bridal party were announced into the room and Sutton and Maverick made their big appearance, Heidi and I were each one drink away from wasted. It was good that we immediately launched into dinner so that I could pad my drinking belly with carbs to survive the rest of the night.
By the time they were finished with the regular bouts of wedding festivities, including—God help us all—a choreographed dance with the bride and her sorority-sister bridesmaids for the groom before launching into a rehearsed first dance, I was ready to hit the bar again. If I ever had to sit through something like that again without another drink, I was sure I would drop dead.
“Bleach.” Heidi giggled into my ear. “I need bleach for my eyes.”
I laughed hysterically, probably louder than necessary, as we walked back to the bar. Other people had gotten up to join in on the dancing, and that meant one thing—more champagne. I was going to have a killer headache in the morning, but whatever. It would be worth it.
Heidi meandered us back over to her work crowd, and I stood with my back to the dancing catastrophe going on behind me. Julia did seem pretty chill. She was almost as tall as Heidi with mahogany-brown hair to her shoulders, and she had on a pretty green dress. I was figuring out more about her job as the head of HR when Heidi’s face broke into a smile in front of me.