Save the Date (Wild Wedding Series Book 3)

by Ann Marie Walker

  Once again, Brody’s gaze settled on Rebecca. “I would never do that, man. She’s become…a good friend.” And she had. Somewhere along the way she’d become not only his first female friend, but his best friend. And man code or not, he wanted her to be even more.

  He looked back at Cole, who had drained a good portion of his pint. Brody needed to tell him that he really liked Rebecca, and while he understood Cole’s need to protect his sister, he also needed to respect her. She was a grown woman. If she wanted Brody half as much as he wanted her, then Cole would have to come to terms with it.

  “I know she’s on a huge carpe diem kick,” Cole said. “But you, my friend, are not the answer. You and I both know that.”

  The king of timing took that moment to resurface. “Come on, losers,” Conor said. “Hank has a pool table, and I need to win some cash.”

  The conversation with Cole would have to wait. But Brody intended to have it. As soon as possible. Because one way or another, he was going to tell Rebecca how he felt.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Rebecca had been stealing glances at the bar pretty much since she’d sat down at the table. Nothing too obvious, just a quick turn of her head when everyone laughed or a shift of her gaze while the waitress took their order. But now that Cole and Brody were alone at the bar, it was all she could do not to turn her chair around.

  She looked up, feigning fascination at the exposed-beam ceiling. “Wonder how old this place is?” she asked. With its plaster and wood-panel walls and uneven, wide-plank floors, the place seemed more like a pub you’d find in the Irish countryside than in the heart of Chicago. “You think it’s been here for ages and they just built the skyscrapers around it?” She waited until Cassie and Olivia followed her gaze before sneaking a peek over her shoulder.

  “So, what’s going on with you and Brody?” Olivia asked. So much for distracting them with small talk. Rebecca knew the conversation was inevitable and would have put money on Olivia being the one to bring it up. Not that Cassie wasn’t interested in the information as well, but the two of them had a bit of a good cop/bad cop routine, and changing the topic to anything related to sex definitely fell to the bad cop.

  “Nothing,” she answered out of what had now become habit. Only this time, her answer didn’t sound so convincing.

  “Yeah, right,” Olivia said. “He’s watching you like he wants a whole lot more than nothing.”

  Rebecca started to turn around, but Cassie stopped her with a hand on her forearm. “Don’t look.” Her gaze shifted over Rebecca’s shoulder. “He’s still watching.”

  The thought of Brody watching her from across the bar sent a wave of heat washing over her that left a trail of goose bumps in its wake.

  “At the dance studio, it seemed like you and he were a little more than nothing,” the good cop said.

  “Are you two dating now?” Olivia asked.

  “No. I don’t know. I mean, not really.” Rebecca’s shoulders sagged. “We’ve spent nearly every day and night together, but I think he’s starting to see me more as a buddy than a date.”

  The bad cop cut to the chase. “Are you sleeping together?”

  Rebecca shifted in her seat. “No, I just said we’re not dating.”

  She snorted. “Didn’t stop Cole and me.”

  Cassie laughed a bit too loudly, drawing the attention of a table of rather burly looking men. She waited until their attention was back on the conversation they’d been having over—judging by the collection of glassware in front of them—five or six pints, then leaned in so only Rebecca and Olivia could hear. “Well, not everyone has angry sex with the man they professed to hate.” She looked at Rebecca and her gaze softened. “But all kidding aside, he really does look like a man who wants a lot more from you than friendship.”

  Rebecca stole a peek over her shoulder. Sure enough, Brody was watching her as he sipped his club soda. When she met his stare, he smiled. “I don’t know,” she said as she turned back to her friends. “Before tonight, he hadn’t even kissed me since the poker game. Not that there haven’t been a few close calls.”

  Olivia’s eyes grew wide. “You two were getting busy that first night?”

  “Not getting busy,” Rebecca corrected. “It was just one kiss.”

  “When?” Cassie asked. “We were with you all night.”

  “In the kitchen, when he came to help me with the margaritas.”

  “Damn, girl!” Olivia whistled through her teeth. “The guy had been there all of five minutes. Not that I’m judging you for locking lips with a guy you’d just met but—”

  “He kissed me,” she reminded her sister-in-law. Although she’d not only let him, she’d joined in, rather enthusiastically. Not that she was going to disclose that information. Still, there was one thing she wanted to clear up. “And technically, we had already met.”

  Olivia leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms. “Start talking.”

  Rebecca began to tell her two friends about the run-in she’d had with Brody in the park, but Cassie interrupted her before she could finish.

  “Wait.” She cocked her head to one side. “Did you say before tonight?”

  Olivia looked back and forth between the two women. The hormones must have been messing with her brain because normally, she never would have missed such a significant detail.

  “Yes.”

  “Where? When? How?” Olivia leaned closer. “Keep talking. Now.”

  Rebecca couldn’t fight the ridiculous smile that spread across her face. “At the aquarium. About an hour ago. And up against a shark tank.”

  Olivia let out a sigh as she slumped back against her chair. “I miss public sex. Cole has been so vanilla since I got pregnant.”

  “It wasn’t sex,” Rebecca said in a hushed voice. “It was just a kiss.” Granted, it was a smoking-hot kiss, but still.

  Cassie was wearing a grin to match her own. “How was it?

  “It was everything,” she whispered. Instinctively, Rebecca reached up and touched her fingertips to her lips, and all at once it was as if he was claiming her all over again. Even the memories and her heart beating wildly.

  “You want to fuck him,” Olivia announced matter-of-factly.

  “I do not,” Rebecca said, perhaps a bit too quick and definitely a bit too loud. “I’m just…curious.”

  “You’re horny.” Olivia took a sip of water. “I can totally relate to that. It had been so long when Cole and I first got together, I’m surprised I didn’t spontaneously combust.” She laughed. “Probably why I let the bastard into my pants.”

  “That must have been it,” Cassie deadpanned. “Because it sure as heck wasn’t because you’d lusted after him for three months.”

  Olivia stuck her tongue out at Cassie, but she didn’t bother denying it.

  “Have you tried just asking him?” Cassie asked.

  Rebecca’s eyebrows shot up. “For sex?”

  “I would,” Olivia said.

  “We’re not all as direct as you, Livvy,” Rebecca said.

  “But you could start by letting him know you think of him as more than friends,” Cassie suggested.

  Olivia rolled her eyes as she swirled her straw through her ice water. “A bump and grind against the shark tank told him that much.”

  Cassie ignored her and pressed on. “Look, clearly he’s into you. Maybe he’s just waiting for you to suggest taking things further. You know, so Cole doesn’t have Jonathan break his legs.”

  “You know you want him.” Olivia’s gaze shifted to where Rebecca’s black tank had slipped from her shoulder, revealing a red lace bra strap. “Otherwise, you’d be wearing your standard-issue beige crap instead of that smoking-hot fuck-me red.”

  Rebecca yanked her tank back into place.

  Olivia’s mouth dropped open, which was never a good sign. “You bought that for him, didn’t you?”

  Heat crept over Rebecca’s face. “Maybe.”

  “Hate to be the one to b
reak it to you, sweetie, but your cheeks are about as red as your bra.” Cassie gave her a reassuring smile. “You don’t have to deny it.” Her gaze shot to Olivia then back to Rebecca. “We happen to think it’s fabulous.”

  “I’m not sure my brother would agree with you.”

  “Leave him to me,” Olivia said. If there was anyone who could make that statement hold water, it was Olivia. In more ways than one, Coleman Grant had met his match.

  “Try to relax and just go with it,” Cassie said. “It’s like I told you at the dance hall. Not everything has to be so black-and-white.”

  Olivia nodded. “And you, my sista, deserve a little bit of gray.”

  Rebecca narrowed her eyes at Olivia. “Don’t start with the Fifty Shades stuff. You know I’m not ready for that.”

  Olivia laughed. “How about you just start by letting him know you’re up for more, and then see where it goes?”

  “I might have been able to pull that off when we first met but…” The day she’d bumped into Brody at the park—after recovering from the mere sight of him—she’d had no problem giving him hell for his cheesy pickup lines. And the night at Cole and Olivia’s, she’d somehow managed to not only kiss him without collapsing into a puddle, but to strut out of the kitchen like some femme fatale, only to then challenge him to a poker game with a date on the line. It was a side of herself she’d never seen before—sexy, confident, brave. She had no idea who that woman was, but she liked her. Too bad she hadn’t stuck around. Because although Rebecca still had no problem calling Brody out for what she liked to refer to as his “piggish behavior,” the more time they spent together, the more their little war of wills and wits started to feel like something real. Something she didn’t want to ruin. Something that had her overthinking every word and second-guessing every move.

  The waitress arrived with a round of shots. She’d no sooner set them on the table than Olivia told her to bring three more.

  “Three?” Rebecca asked. “But you can’t drink.”

  “Mine will be for you too. What you need, my dear Rebecca, is a little liquid fortitude.” Rebecca had never done a shot, let alone five, but best she could tell, they weren’t having much of an effect on her anyway. “And I’ll even run interference for you.” Olivia waved at Cole, who appeared at their table in seconds.

  “Is everything all right?” Under normal circumstances, her brother was a bit overprotective, but ever since Olivia got pregnant, he’d taken it to a new level. This time, he seemed a bit mellower. Maybe it was the beer.

  “I need to go,” Olivia said, rubbing her stomach for added effect.

  Cole reached into his pocket for his cell phone. Olivia winked at Rebecca during his momentary distraction. “Do you think we should stop at the ER on the way home?” he asked.

  And the uptight CEO was back.

  “No, no, no,” she assured him. “I’m just having a craving for those Flamin’ Hot Cheetos I bought this afternoon.”

  Cole laughed. “Whatever you want, baby.”

  Olivia glanced over her shoulder at Rebecca as she hurried Cole to the door. “Go get him,” she mouthed.

  Rebecca’s gaze dropped to the dark grain lines that stretched across the wood table. Her friends were right. Not everything had to be so cut-and-dried. There was a lot of gray area between friend and girlfriend, and while she didn’t want to be a one-night stand, maybe she could be Brody’s… the words “fuck buddy” rolled around in her head like a grenade with the pin pulled out. But instead of exploding, the grenade ignited a slow burn somewhere deep inside her.

  The old Rebecca Halstead, the one who grew up keeping her room clean, following instructions, and always doing the extra credit, would have never considered such an idea. But if she was serious about wanting to live a different life, then she had to actually do it. When she’d been going through chemo, she’d made herself a promise. When it was over, when the doctors gave her a clean bill of health, she would emerge as a new and improved Rebecca. Cancer wouldn’t be the low point in her life; it would be the turning point. She’d tiptoed around the pool, tested the waters a bit, even. But now it was time to jump right into the deep end, and the water didn’t get much deeper than Brody Dixon.

  The waitress set the three shots on the table.

  “Well?” Cassie asked. “What do you think?”

  “I think,” Rebecca said, reaching for two of the glasses. “That it’s time to stop thinking.” She knocked back the shots so quickly, she didn’t even taste them. She did, however, feel the burn. She pressed her hand to her chest until the sensation passed.

  “Wish me luck.” She started to get up but at the last minute, grabbed Cassie’s shot as well. “I need this more than you do,” she said, tossing back one more ounce of liquid courage. She stood, steadied herself with the chair, and gave her friend the thumbs-up. But when she turned toward the bar, Brody was nowhere to be found.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Rebecca had never understood what people meant when they said their head was swimming. Until that moment. Her eyeballs felt like they were floating inside her skull as she scanned the room for Brody, sloshing along while tiny waves of liquor blurred the edges of her vision. Up until then, she’d felt rather unaffected by the alcohol she’d been consuming at a rapid rate. But as she made her way across the bar, every shot she’d taken seemed to hit her all at once.

  She finally found Brody in the back room, throwing darts with Hank and Conor while the foursome at the pool table were trying, and failing, to act like they hadn’t noticed the NFL’s boy wonder was right behind them.

  “How ya feeling there, Becs?” Conor asked.

  “I’m good, Conor, how ’bout you?” Rebecca rested her hand on a rack of pool cues mounted to the pub wall, sending one of them tumbling to the floor. “Whoopsies.”

  “Not as good as you apparently.” He chuckled as he pulled his blue-flagged darts from the board.

  Brody retrieved the wandering pool cue. Was it a cue? Or just a stick? Not that it mattered. The important thing was there was a piece of wood on the ground that Brody was bending over to pick up. Rebecca cocked her head to one side as she took in the sight of his very fine backside.

  “Can I get you a water, luv?” Hank asked.

  “Hmm?” Rebecca jerked her head back into place.

  “Would you fancy a glass of water?” he asked again.

  “Always the gentleman,” Rebecca said. “I don’t think you were ever a frog.” She wasn’t entirely sure if she’d said the last part out loud, but judging by the croaking sound Conor made behind him, it was a safe bet she had. “You should go see your princess. Cole and Olivia left, so she’s all alone at the table.” She turned toward the two versions of Conor who were currently swaying back and forth beside her. “Conor will get me a glass of water.” She gave a dramatic nod as if to say the matter was decided, then swayed as the walls and floor nodded along with her.

  “Your wish is my command,” the two Conors said, bowing their heads.

  “See, I don’t need a prince. I have my very own knight in shining armor.” Actually, her foggy brain thought, what if it was Brody who was a knight, dispatched by her brother, the overbearing Ogre King, to protect her virtue at all costs? What if that was why he’d gone from flirty to friendly? Well, except for tonight. He was definitely not guarding her virtue when he’d had it pressed against the shark tank. All the more reason to set things straight tonight.

  Conor started toward the bar then turned back. “Take your turn,” he told Brody. “So I can see if you’re buying the next round.”

  Brody tossed his three darts in rapid succession. Each of them hit the bull’s-eye. At least she was fairly sure there were three of them in the center circle. It was possible a single dart had multiplied the same way Conor had. Either way, at least one had landed there, something that had Conor digging his wallet out of his back pocket as he faded into the crowd.

  “Nice toss,” she said. “Where were those skills
at the carnival?” She was only teasing, but then… “Hold on a minute.” She narrowed her eyes. “Did you lose on purpose?”

  Brody merely smiled.

  “You did, didn’t you? You let me win.” Rebecca should have known better than to think “The Arm,” as the local sportscasters referred to him, had thrown a dart that missed the entire display of balloons. Unless, of course, he’d meant to.

  “My competitive nature may have taken a back seat to my curiosity.”

  “Your curiosity?”

  He nodded. “I was curious to see what you’d ask for with your two wishes. I knew one would be the engagement party, but I wasn’t sure about the other one. Although I gotta admit, I never thought it would be this.”

  “Well, for that, you owe me another wish.”

  His eyes glowed with amusement. “Is that so?”

  “Yes.” She nodded. “A penalty, if you will.”

  Brody crossed his arms over his chest, causing his biceps to strain against his shirt. “All right, let’s have it.”

  Thanks to the arm action, she was half tempted to tell him her wish was for him to take his shirt off, but if things went according to plan, there would be plenty of time for that later.

  “Dance with me,” she said. “Thunder Road” had just started playing on the jukebox. It was one of her favorites.

  Brody looked over his shoulder to a nonexistent dance floor. “Here?”

  “Yes.”

  “Nobody else is dancing.”

  “Since when is Brody Dixon like anybody else?”

  He cocked a lazy grin. “You got me there.”

  He held out his hand and she took it, gasping quietly as he pulled her against him with a sharp tug. Rebecca wrapped her arms around Brody’s neck as Bruce told Mary she wasn’t a beauty, but hey, she was all right.

  “That’s not very nice if you think about it,” Rebecca said.