Be Mine, Sweetheart (Something Borrowed)

by Codi Gary

  Veronica flashed her a dazzling smile over her shoulder. “I’ll get right on that, boss.”

  As soon as she disappeared, Kelly checked her cell phone, but there were no messages from Chris. Only an emoji-filled text from Hank with a glass of wine, a smiley face, and hands clasped together.

  Drinks tomorrow?

  Kelly pursed her lips.

  You really don’t know how to be professional, do you?

  I am an actor. I can be whatever you need me to be. Just say yes.

  Kelly’s fingers flew over the screen.

  Maybe.

  There was a knock on her open door and Kelly put her vibrating phone face down on her desk and stood. Teresa Valdez walked through her doorway in a blue dress, her dark hair curled and flowing down her shoulders. She was curvy and gorgeous with full, lush lips and luminous dark eyes.

  She was going to be a beautiful bride.

  “Ms. Valdez, won’t you come in? We have so much to discuss.”

  “Thank you for seeing us.”

  Kelly saw the us standing in the hallway, dancing from foot to foot nervously. Alejandro Garcia was tall and muscular, the sleeves of his red polo stretched tight over his biceps. A day’s worth of scruff covered his square jaw, and his dark eyes shifted above his hawk-like nose.

  “It’s my pleasure. Won’t you both come in and have a seat.” She stood up and took first Teresa’s soft one and then Alejandro’s callused palm. When they were seated across from her, she silently thought they looked perfect together.

  “I understand that we are working in a time constraint for your wedding.”

  Teresa nodded. “About a month.”

  Kelly glanced between them in surprise. “I thought you were only six weeks.”

  “Yes, but the women in my family show early and it all pops out in the front. Even with an empire waist dress, it’s going to be obvious to my abuela. She had eight children of her own, and always could tell when my mother and aunts were pregnant, even before they were showing. It was as though she could smell it on them.”

  Kelly bit the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing at the imagery of her grandmother sniffing women and announcing, “Yes! You are pregnant!”

  “And you’re fine with your cousin running point?”

  “Of course. V and I grew up more like sisters. I trust her with my life.”

  “Excellent. I will help her out, if that’s all right with you. It’s a big job and since it is a rush…”

  “We understand and are willing to pay whatever you want to be discreet.”

  “Of course.” Kelly pulled out her pink planner and flipped several pages in until she found a blank cluster. She made a to do list, numbering the items as they came to her. “Do you think you could have your invitation style chosen by this afternoon?”

  “Absolutely. Veronica has all of my preferences.”

  “Good. If you send me a guest list complete with addresses by Friday, we can get the invitations out Monday.” Kelly would have to call in a whole lot of favors, but she was the best. To be on top, you had to be willing to go above and beyond.

  Teresa clapped her hands. “Fantastic. Thank you.”

  “You are most welcome. I’ll talk to my attorney and have him draw up the contract. Where are you staying?”

  “The Love Shack Hotel.” Alejandro spoke for the first time, a wry smile on his face.

  “Excellent. You two go rest and Something Borrowed will handle everything.”

  As the two left her office, Kelly spun around in her chair, her phone in her hand. A new text message from Hank waited for her, but still nothing from Chris. Stabbing at the letters on the phone, she tapped out a message for him.

  Can we talk? She added a prayer emoji and a crying face emoji, and hit send.

  With a sigh, she laid her phone face down on her lap. She couldn’t force Chris to talk to her, but it made no sense for him to ignore her. They were still friends.

  At least, she hoped so.

  Chapter 8

  On Wednesday, Chris was ready to pick Mr. Kenneth Bruch up by the back of his expensive suit and toss him out on his rear. As the owner of Bruch Grocery, he was ruthless and sharp. As much as he respected the wily old man’s head for business, his social skills left something to be desired.

  Especially when it came to women.

  “As your attorney, I would strongly recommend that you apologize to Ms. Langley and we settle out of court.”

  “I didn’t do anything but speak the truth.”

  Chris calmly sang “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” to himself as a calming mechanism, holding onto his patience by a hair. “No. What you did was tell a nursing mother that if she wanted to”—Chris picked up the official court documents and read them verbatim—“milk her udders like a dairy cow, she could do so on her own time.”

  “That woman chose to have a child and come back to work six weeks later. She was in the break room every hour with that machine hooked up to her…” Mr. Bruch held his wrinkly, liver-spotted hands in front of his chest. “You get my meaning. She’d be in there for twenty minutes every hour. It wasn’t fair to the rest of the employees or me, for her to be sitting around on company time.”

  Chris didn’t try to reason with the man’s common decency or sense. Instead, he set the papers down and leveled the old man with a hard stare. “Ms. Langley has multiple witnesses, employees at your store, who are willing to testify on her behalf that she clocked out for the ten extra minutes she took on top of her ten-minute break, so she did not waste company time. They also maintain that she pumped every two hours, not every hour as you claim. And, there are several sworn statements that you sexually harassed and bullied Ms. Langley in front of other employees and customers.”

  Chris stood up, getting into his speech. “Now, if you don’t settle and decide to take this to court, you will be going up against a nursing mother trying to do best by her child. You will be the big, bad corporate giant who bullies and harasses women. This is not the kind of image your company needs now. So, as your lawyer, I would suggest that you apologize to her, offer a generous pension package, and I will draw up the non-disclosure agreement for her to sign. Or you can take your chances and have your company’s name splashed through the news.” Chris sat on the edge of the desk, leaning over Mr. Bruch. “How sure are you that if this complaint goes public, other women won’t come out of the shadows? You know what they say. If one person says it, then it’s just a rumor. Two and it’s gospel.”

  Mr. Bruch stood angrily, picking up his briefcase from the floor. “I thought I was paying you to be my lawyer and get me out of these things.”

  “You pay me to give you the best legal advice I’m able, and that is exactly what I am doing. If you do not value that advice, you can fire me and try your hand with someone else.”

  For a half a beat, Chris thought the old coot was going to go through with it. In the end, Mr. Bruch just mumbled, “Get an offer and agreement drawn up and I’ll sign it.”

  Chris nodded as Mr. Bruch shuffled out the door. The minute Chris closed it behind the man, he let out a shaky groan.

  For the most part, his client list consisted of kind, fair-minded businessmen and women.

  And then there was Mr. Bruch, who made Ebenezer Scrooge look like Gandhi.

  Chris went around his desk and picked up the phone, dialing out to the receptionist for Ryan and Parker Law Office. Although, at this point it was just Chris; Alan Parker was semi-retired and came back every two weeks to check up on things. Otherwise, he was down in Mexico at his beach house, soaking in the sun.

  Maggie Crane picked up on the second ring. “Yes, Mr. Ryan?”

  “Hey, Maggie. You can knock off for the day. I’ll be heading out myself.”

  “Sounds good. Have a good night, sir.”

  Even though Maggie was only a
few years younger than Chris, she still insisted on calling him sir. It made him feel old.

  Chris packed up his papers and closed the office, pulling the shades and locking doors. It was a little after six and Chris was ready for drinks with a few of his lawyer friends. Although, he did feel guilty for bailing on Kelly, he needed one night to not think about what had transpired between them over the weekend.

  He walked through the door of Poor Red’s Bar-B-Q in Diamond Springs seventeen minutes later, and saw several of his friends sitting in the back of the dark tavern. Rachel Quincy waved wildly at him, her face split into an excited grin. Trevor Grayson, Maria Hernandez, and Michael Vance turned in their seats and greeted him warmly as he sat down.

  “Anyone else need a drink?” Chris asked.

  “We started without you, buddy,” Trevor said. He picked up the pitcher in the middle of the table and poured Chris a pint. He handed it to Chris and pushed his glasses up his slim nose. Trevor was two years older than Chris and weighed a buck fifty soaking wet.

  “You had a bad day?” Rachel watched him with bright blue eyes. Her golden blond hair was twisted up in a firm bun, drawing attention to her delicate features. Chris wasn’t oblivious to Rachel’s interest; they had just never been available at the same time.

  Well, we are now. I should ask her out.

  “It was okay, just long. Lots of contracts to go over. And one pain in the ass client who can’t seem to stay out of trouble.”

  Maria grimaced, her rather large nose wrinkling. Her curly dark hair was pulled back into a ponytail and she still wore her stiff, blue blazer. “Speaking of clients who can’t stay out of trouble, at least you didn’t have to stand there like an ass when your client doesn’t show up for court.”

  “Ouch, that’s rough.” Michael was the oldest, in his mid-forties with salt-and-pepper hair and cool green eyes. He was also the quietest of their little group.

  Michael and Maria were criminal defense lawyers, while Trevor practiced divorce and Rachel worked in child advocacy. Chris was the only one who specialized in business.

  Trevor held up his beer, his Adam’s apple bobbing in his skinny neck. “To our clients, who annoy us to no end, but without them, we’d be broke.”

  “Here, here,” Michael said.

  Chris took a healthy swallow of his beer and set the mug down on the table. Then the chatter kicked up. Maria asked Trevor about his girlfriend, who he’d been talking about proposing to since the week after he met her. They’d convinced him to give it six months at least, and the guy had listened. They were coming up on their one-year anniversary and Trevor was planning to pop the question right before.

  Michael got up to refill their pitcher, leaving the chair next to Chris empty. He was about to pull his phone out of his pocket to check for messages, but Rachel took Michael’s seat and gave Chris a dazzling smile.

  “So, what’s new?” she asked.

  “Nothing.” She leaned against the table and he couldn’t help but notice the first several buttons were unbuttoned, showing off a generous hint of cleavage. “Got dumped last week.”

  Rachel’s jaw fell open in obvious shock, a definite boost to his ego. “What? Why?”

  Chris shrugged. “We just grew apart I guess.”

  “Well, it’s her loss.”

  She patted his knee with a light caress. Her cherry red lips curved into a flirtatious smile. All the signals were there, and Chris knew that if he was going to ask her out, this was his in.

  “Thanks, I appreciate that. Hey, Rachel, I’ve been thinking—”

  His phone buzzed in his pocket, and he broke off.

  “You were thinking what?” Rachel asked eagerly.

  Chris pulled out his cell, giving her an apologetic smile. “Sorry, give me one sec. I just have to make sure it’s not an emergency.”

  “No worries.”

  Chris did like the dimple in her left cheek and she was nice. He checked the screen and saw it was another text from Kelly.

  What in the hell is going on with you?!

  Chris winced. She’d even added an angry emoji and a middle finger emoji. Things were escalating and if he didn’t want her showing up at his place to bawl him out, he needed to call her. He just wasn’t sure what to say.

  Hey, Kel. Sorry for getting turned on and pushing my dick against your ass while we were wrestling. Wanna be friends still?

  Chris could chalk his reaction to Kelly up as a simple biological reaction. But that didn’t explain wanting to kiss her neck. To cover her breast with his palm and knead her flesh. To slip his hand between her legs and play with her until she was limp and moaning.

  His reaction and train of thoughts combined was what had him avoiding her like a giant sissy. Just like high school, when Ray had come back that winter break and he knew he’d lost his chance. He’d written it off as a symptom of spending too much time with Kelly and kept his distance, making sure never to be alone with her. It had helped, and things had eventually returned to normal.

  Now, they were adults, although she’d probably tell him he wasn’t acting like one.

  His phone alerted him again that another message had come through.

  Stop being a child and answer me!!!

  “What’s wrong?” Rachel asked.

  Chris slipped his phone back into his pocket without replying to the texts. He’d call her when he got home. “It’s just Kelly. She’s mad at me because I skipped out on our weekly movie night.”

  “Kelly. Right, your lifelong best friend.” She said it with a weird tone, as though that wasn’t the real story.

  He cocked his head. “Yeah, since we were thirteen. You’ve met her.”

  “I have. And I think it’s nice that you two are so close. Most people assume that guys and girls can’t be friends without some kind of emotional or physical complication, but not me.”

  Chris studied her expression, noticing that her voice had gone about an octave higher, something his clients did when they were lying about something.

  “We definitely are just friends. Completely platonic.”

  Shit. Did my voice just crack?

  “Mmmm…that’s great.” Rachel stood up. “I’m going to go use the restroom. Be right back.”

  She grabbed her purse from her original chair and headed for the dimly lit hallway, completely throwing him for a loop. One minute she was flirting with him and the next, she was running away.

  Or she just really had to pee.

  He turned to find Maria and Trevor watching him.

  “What? Why are you two looking at me like that?”

  “Nothing. Everything okay?” Trevor asked.

  “I think so. We were just talking, and she suddenly had to go pee.”

  Trevor grinned at Maria slyly before addressing him once more. “Did you bring up Kelly?”

  “Yeah, why?”

  Trevor held out his hand to Maria. “Pay up.”

  “Shit.” She laid a five-dollar bill in Trevor’s hand.

  Whatever they’d bet on clearly had something to do with him and Kelly, and irritation pricked across his skin like a thousand needles sliding in. “Somebody want to fill me in?”

  Maria rolled her eyes. “We made a bet.”

  “Yeah, I got that. What about?”

  They looked at each other again, as if silently rock-paper-scissoring who would break whatever news they had to him.

  Maria apparently drew the short straw.

  “Chris, Rachel has liked you forever,” Maria said. “When I told her that Cassidy broke up with you, she was really excited.”

  She paused, and he held his hands up helplessly. “Okay, still not seeing the issue.”

  “It’s Kelly,” Trevor broke in.

  His eyebrows fused together. “What about Kelly?”

  “You are not that d
ense.” When all he did was blink at Maria, she sighed heavily. “Or, maybe you are. Chris, come on. No woman wants to play second fiddle to another and with you, Kelly always comes first.”

  “What? That’s ridiculous.” It was… right?

  Maria glanced over his shoulder. “Look, Rachel is coming back. Do not misunderstand me, I like Kelly. But if you ever want to have a functioning relationship with a woman other than her, you’re going to need to take a step back from your BFF.”

  Chris wanted to say more, that they were wrong, but he didn’t want it to be awkward for Rachel, so he snapped his mouth closed. He knew that women in his past had been jealous of Kelly, but was their friendship really scaring them off?

  Rachel came back to the table, and sat back in Michael’s chair. She looked around at them, as though sensing that some serious subjects were covered while she was absent. “What are you all talking about?”

  Chris pushed his beer away, his mind racing. “I was just telling these guys that I need to get home. I’m wiped.”

  Disappointment flashed across her face. “Really? You just got here.”

  “I’ve got another half an hour drive and I don’t want to get sleepy behind the wheel.” He stood up just as Michael came back to the table and set another pitcher down.

  “Hey, you’re taking off?” Michael asked.

  “Yeah, I’m going to call it a night.” He pulled out a twenty and put it on the table. “Next round is on me.”

  Maria shot him a chiding look, as if to say, why are you running away? Trevor just tapped his fingers to his forehead in a salute.

  “Bye, Chris,” Rachel said, softly.

  He patted her shoulder lightly. “See you, Rach.”

  The rest of his friends murmured their goodbyes and he took off. He headed for the door, his mind whirling as he thought back on all the relationships he’d been involved in since moving back to the area. Had he really put Kelly before all of them? Even if he had, she was his friend. Would things be different if she was a guy and had needed his help for something?

  For him, not at all, but according to Maria, her presence in his life was scaring off potential girlfriends. All because of her gender.