by Grace James
I pulled up on Hayley and Derren’s driveway an hour after I got her text, parking my old Honda between Kane and Blake’s muscle cars.
I let myself in to the house and found Hayley sitting in the dining room, which was to the right of the lobby. She was pouring over a huge notice board which she had laid out on the long, oak dining table. It was covered in a multitude of pins with tiny cards on top, all of which held the name of a wedding guest in her small, curly writing.
“Did your guest list grow?” I asked her as I clunked a heavy bottle of Absinthe onto the table next to her.
Hayley’s eyes lit up as she took in the green liquid. “You got my hint! And yes, I think Sting and Trudie are coming now.”
“Uh…wow.”
She nodded.
I pulled two neon pink, plastic shot glasses out of my purse. “I was at work when I got your message. This brand is new to us so I figured we should probably try it out before I sell it.”
Hayley opened the bottle. “That’s very responsible of you – and awesome for me.”
Forty minutes and two less-impressive-than-the-gold-label-on-the-bottle-suggests shots later, we had positioned a total of two more pins on the board. There was still a stack of at least twenty sitting on the table waiting for their turn. “This is really hard,” I muttered.
Hayley’s voice was a monotone. “It makes me want to die.”
The sudden booming of a hectic drum solo echoing through the house made us both jump.
“Here we go.” Hayley reached for the bottle and poured us another drink. “They’re coming. This is what I’m talking about.”
I looked at her in confusion for a moment before I heard the sound of a door slamming, cutting off the drums – then male voices getting closer.
I heard properly Kane first. “Just play the riff, dude,” he said, sounding bored.
“Not like that. It’s convoluted,” Derren snapped.
Blake’s tone was mocking. “You mean you can’t play it?”
“Of course I can play it, dick. It just doesn’t fit.”
“Don’t gimme that shit!”
“It doesn’t! I already told you, we’re not using your line!”
“Yeah? Well there’s no way I’m singing yours.”
“It’s my fuckin’ song!”
Hayley and I watched from our seats as the three men came into view at the bottom of the oak staircase. They walked towards the kitchen, apparently oblivious to our presence. From my position, on the end of the dining table, Kane’s exasperation was clear when he propped the palms of his hands on the kitchen island. “Dude, can’t you just let him sing whatever line he wants?”
“No! He does this every time!” Derren complained angrily.
Blake crossed his arms over his chest and let out a sigh. “Not true.”
Derren scoffed, “So true, man. So fuckin’ true.”
“Does it really matter? It’s one line,” Kane tried.
In a weird twist, singer and guitarist suddenly joined forces. “Of course it matters!” Derren admonished at the same time as Blake said, “Fuck yeah, it matters!”
I shot a mystified glance at Hayley. She just rolled her eyes and shook her head.
“Alright, jeez!” Kane held up a hand to ward them off.
“It’s like he’s never done this before,” Derren grumbled to Blake.
“I know,” Blake agreed before looking back at Kane in disgust. “What the fuck, man?”
“Hey, I’m just trying to get this done,” Kane said defensively.
Blake was unmoved. “It’s the hook. The hook always matters. You can’t rush it.”
“Then go compromise SOMEWHERE ELSE,” Hayley yelled. “Trying to plan a damn wedding over here.”
All three of them turned to us in surprise. Blake immediately broke into a grin, making my stomach do that silly dip thing.
“Babe, I didn’t see you there,” Derren said.
“Where else would I be?” Hayley asked with exaggerated patience.
Derren raised his brows. “Everything okay?”
“No! Your family are dysfunctional social nightmares,” she whined as she dropped her head into her hands.
“Uh…ouch.”
“I’m sorry,” she said, looking back up at him. “But did your brother have to come out just before our wedding? I mean, couldn’t he have stayed in the closet just a little longer? Would it have killed him? Now I have to seat Jeanna and the kids separately – and he wants to bring Brian! Does he have any idea how much that fucks up my plan?!”
Derren started towards the table. “Maybe we can un-invite Jeanna?”
“We can’t un-invite Jeanna! She’s been your sister in law for ten years! Are you crazy?!”
“Okay.” He leant on the table next to her and studied the plan. “I guess we could tell David not to bring Brian, but I like that guy –”
“Brian’s a fricking sweetheart! I’m not un-inviting him either!”
“Then I guess we sit them separately –”
“That’s what I’m TRYING TO DO!” The fury in Hayley’s voice made Derren recoil.
Kane and Blake started to slink back towards the stairs, both clearly wanting to be as far away from the wedding meltdown as possible. Blake caught my eye and cocked his head like, Come on! Get out while you can.
I glanced back at Hayley and Derren – he was rubbing her neck soothingly as his eyes raked thoughtfully over the pins in the board.
Blake cleared his throat, pulling my attention back to him. He mouthed, “Come here.”
“I’ll, um, give you two a minute,” I said to Hayley and Derren. They barely acknowledged that I’d spoken as I slipped out of my seat and started towards Blake.
“Hey, you,” I said softly when I reached him, going on my tiptoes to kiss him. He slid his hand into the back of my hair as he tickled my upper lip with his tongue, sending goose bumps down my spine. “Mmm,” I sighed.
“Annnd I’m out,” Kane said, before the heavy tread of his sneakers sounded on the stairs.
Blake dabbed his lips to mine, then pulled back and said loud enough for Derren to hear, “Wanna come see what you think of this hook I wrote, Princess?”
“Dammit!” Derren shouted from behind me. “Blake, I swear I’m not letting this go. My vision. My fuckin’ hook.”
Blake’s smirk was gleeful. “I can’t sing a song to my girlfriend, now? What the Fuck, D? This wedding stuff is messing with your head.”
“Do NOT record that line,” Derren ordered.
“Or what? Look, if this is ‘cause the riff is too hard for you, I’ll just lay that down too.” Blake’s face shifted into a look of fake concern. “You stay and deal with your…situation.” He nodded towards Hayley, whose eyes never even left her seating plan.
Derren was glaring at him like he was imagining all the ways he could kill him. “Touch my guitar and I’ll –”
“Oh, will you both just STOP ALREADY?!” Hayley shrieked, slamming her hands onto the table and making her board jump.
For a beat there was silence as we all stared at her. Flipping out wasn’t usually Hayley’s style, but the wedding preparations were getting to her.
“Okay, you guys need to take a few minutes to look at this together,” I said. “Blake won’t record anything until Derren comes back up –”
“I won’t?”
“No. You won’t. I actually need to talk to you about something.”
He frowned. “Sounds serious.”
“Very.”
The humor was completely gone from his face now. “What?”
I took his hand and tugged him towards the living room. “Come with me?”
“Yeah…”
51
Five minutes later, Blake and I were sitting in Hayley and Derren’s living room on their giant sectional and he was doubled over, laughing so hard his face had turned red.
“Blake, it’s not funny. I’m trying to help.”
“I know,” he choked o
ut. “Sorry, Princess, it’s just…” He didn’t finish the sentence, he was laughing too much.
I was blushing by then and starting to feel stupid, which in turn made me snippy. “You don’t have to be a jerk about it.”
He reached out and took my hand. “Sorry –”
“You don’t seem sorry,” I accused, pulling my hand back.
He straightened up and wiped a hand over his face as he tried to stop laughing. “I am, I swear. Thanks for doing this.”
A couple of days earlier, I had spent an hour asking Hayley a bunch of questions about her and Derren’s relationship so that I could create some quiz cards for Blake and the guys to use for a drinking game on Derren’s bachelor party. Basically, if Derren got a question wrong they could make him drink; if he got it right, whoever asked the question would have to drink a shot. I had even done the same in reverse for Hayley’s bachelorette party so that they had matching games. And, for some reason, this was hilarious to Blake.
“I don’t see why me giving you a drinking game is so funny!”
He took my hand again and lifted it to his mouth, kissing my knuckles. “Don’t take this the wrong way, okay?”
“…okay?”
He cleared his throat, and I knew it was to mask a chuckle. “We’re dudes. There’s no way we’re gonna play this.”
“But some of the questions are sex questions! Guys like talking about sex!”
“Know what guys like more? Strippers and poker.” As soon as the words were out of his mouth, I saw him try to bite them back – but it was too late.
I raised my eyebrows. “Ohhh…I see.”
“Princess –”
“My little drinking game isn’t good enough because you’re going to be spending all your time in strip clubs?”
“No. Not all our time.”
I picked up the envelope of cards from beside him on the couch and waved it at him. “The beauty of this game? You can take it with you. Its pocket sized!”
He barked out another laugh and pulled me onto his lap, so that I was straddling him. “You’re amazing.”
“I hope you remember that when you’re watching naked women twirl around poles,” I said wryly.
He cupped my face in his hands. “I will. But I can’t organize a bachelor party and not include strip clubs. I’d have to turn in my balls.”
“I know.”
“You do, huh?”
“Yep. I get it. I can’t organize a bachelorette party and not include a strip club, either.”
He jerked his head back, frowning.
I grinned at him. “It’s Hayley we’re talking about. Male strippers are kind of a given. I looked online and found this guy that does –”
He put his hand over my mouth. “Stop, or you’re not going.”
I nipped at him, making him pull his hand back. “Hello? Maid of Honor, here. I have to go. Don’t worry, I won’t touch anything I shouldn’t,” I teased.
“Damn fuckin’ straight you won’t!”
I wrapped my arms around his neck. “I’m glad we talked about this.”
“I’m not,” he grumbled good-naturedly, before pulling me in to kiss him.
After a little while, I broke the kiss. There was something else I needed to talk to him about – the real reason that I’d dragged him in there in the first place. (Because, let’s face it, I could really have given him that drinking game anytime.)
“What’s wrong?” he asked, reading me perfectly.
I hesitated.
That was the moment I should’ve told him everything…
…but I couldn’t.
Not when it was all so perfect. Not when things seemed so right between us. Not when every other time I’d mentioned his name Blake had acted like he’d rather be anywhere else in the world than with me.
“Nothing,” I lied. “I was just thinking I should probably go back and check if Hayley needs any more help.”
He nodded. “Okay. Let’s go.”
52
When we emerged back into the ‘wedding planning zone’, everything looked calmer. That could have had something to do with the fact that Hayley was now swigging Absinthe from the bottle and Derren was playing pin-the-person-on-the-seating-plan with a bandana wrapped around his eyes.
I burst out laughing at the sight of them.
“This is what we’re reduced to,” Hayley said glumly.
I stopped at the table and watched Derren pin four people on the dancefloor. “Interesting method.”
I felt Blake’s arms settle around my waist from behind. “Why don’t you just let people pick where they wanna sit?” he asked.
Hayley and Derren immediately scoffed.
“You can’t do that,” I said. “It’s, like, wedding rules or something.”
“Just seems stupid,” Blake commented. “Everyone always talks about how it’s ‘the bride’s day’ and all that shit – so why can’t she do whatever she wants? If she wants everyone to pick where they sit, they gotta do it, right?”
For a long moment, there was silence in the room.
Derren broke it. “Don’t wanna admit it, but he actually has a point.” He pulled off the bandana and looked at Hayley. “What do you think, babe?”
Hayley was staring at Blake in wonder. “This is probably the only time I’m ever going to say this…but he’s a genius! Why didn’t I think of it before?! Screw me doing this! I’m the bride! I’ve got better things to do – like drink this!” She took another long pull from the bottle.
Tentatively, I reached out and took it from her. “This stuff will kill you if you drink any more.”
Hayley waved away my concern. “My tolerance has gone way up since I started planning this wedding.”
“Yeah, it’s worrying,” Derren muttered.
“Whatever,” Hayley said offhandedly. “Hey! Know what I’m gonna do now?!” Derren, Blake and I all shook our heads as one. “I’m gonna go pack for tomorrow! That’s so much more fun!”
Hayley had organized a pre-wedding photo shoot for her and Derren. Until she told me about it, I didn’t even know ‘pre-wedding shoots’ were a thing. Turns out they’re a big thing – especially if People magazine is buying the rights to the pictures.
At first, Hayley and Derren were going to go do the shoot by themselves – but that was before me and Blake got back together. Now, Hayley wanted to have the Best Man and the Maid of Honor in some of the shots, too. Of course, we’d agreed, and since then the trip had grown. We were all going to stay the night at the wedding venue, and then help her make the final decisions about the catering the following morning as well.
At the mention of “tomorrow”, Blake let out a little groan behind me.
Hayley zeroed in on him immediately, pointing an accusatory finger. “Don’t start, Blake. You already agreed to it. And don’t be late, either. We’re leaving at 9AM, remember?”
“Jeez, don’t anger it,” I muttered to him out of the corner of my mouth.
He chuckled. “Relax, Hayls, I’ll be here.” Hooking an arm around my neck, he planted a kiss on top of my head and then murmured into my ear, “Did I mention our room has a hot tub?”
I grinned. “You didn’t. I’ll bring my bikini.”
“You can bring it, but you won’t need it.”
“That a promise?”
Hayley spoke up again before he could answer. “Oh, I forgot to say, Amy – bring something casual to wear for the shoot tomorrow. Like, sexy casual.”
“Okay, but what counts as ‘sexy casual’ to you?” I asked, because knowing Hayley it would be something revealing or sparkly.
She thought for a moment. “Just some Daisy Dukes or whatever.”
Knew it.
“Hell, yes,” Blake muttered.
“Well, if this crisis is averted, I’m going to get back to work,” I told them. “I left Harvey in charge of filing some invoices so I should probably go re-do all that.”
Blake snorted. “That guy relies on you too much.
”
“Yeah, but he also pays me, so there you go.” I turned in his arms and tiptoed up to press a quick kiss to his lips.
“You staying with me tonight or am I coming to you?” he asked.
I bit my lip, knowing that if I was going to tell him after all, it would have to be now –
Damn it! I can’t do it…
“Um, I’m not sure what time I’m going to be finished at work, so…maybe I should just see you in the morning?”
“Fuck that. Come to the hotel when you’re done – doesn’t matter what time. I’ll probably be late in the studio, but you have your keycard, right?”
“Yeah…yeah, okay. I’ll see you sometime, then.”
“Good.” He smiled as he touched his lips to mine one last time.
Reluctantly, I stepped back and turned to leave – but the unexpected slap of his hand across my ass made me squeak. When I shot him a look over my shoulder, he winked. “It’s too good not to, Princess.”
53
I got off work early, just after midnight, and left Lance in charge of closing the place down.
Then I drove to the cemetery.
When I pulled into the parking lot, I saw that Finn was already there, leaning against the side of his red Camaro.
He looked like he should be advertising Abercrombie and Fitch; tall, blond and athletic. He broke into a wide grin when I got out of my car. “Hi. How are you?” he asked enthusiastically. “You look good.”
I smiled. “I’m okay. You?”
“Yeah, the same.”
When I reached him, he immediately leant in and pulled me into a hug, which I returned a little stiffly. Since we’d broken up we’d stayed on good terms and we always hugged whenever we met up. But, for some reason, that time it felt weird.
“You sure you’re okay?” he asked when he pulled back.
“Yeah, it’s just…tonight, you know?”
He nodded understandingly. “I thought maybe Blake would come with you. When you texted me earlier, I was surprised.”
A stab of guilt shot through me. “He doesn’t know I’m here,” I confessed quietly.