Marion sharply inhales. Unlike my family, I often forget that she cultivated a conservative household. Our crude, somewhat dark, and typically loud humor usually does offend her mild temperament.
“Sheesh, these kids get younger and younger. It’s a good thing I never had to broach that talk with you. I knew Travis was a good boy and would wait until you were married.” Mom wipes her brow in an exaggerated motion.
Okay, so I may have lied about when I lost my virginity. But I’m not about to disgrace my late husband’s memory now, especially in front of his holier-than-thou mother.
“Mama, what’s herpes?” Ames asks.
Why is it that just when you think they’re ignoring you, your kids ask something like that?
“It’s what happens if you don’t brush your teeth. So brush your teeth and you won’t find out,” My mom replies automatically, saving me from that explanation.
“Hey!” Lily says as she climbs the bleachers.
She kisses my cheek and then hugs both my mom and Marion, while giving Ames a little tickle and high-fiving Travis Jr., or as she calls him, TJ.
Just another beam in my support system, my best friend typically tries to join us twice a week for whatever outing we’re on, be it baseball, karate, pizza night in town, or another one of our chaotic adventures. Everything is hectic when you have three kids.
And even with everything Lily has been through herself, she always manages to help keep me sane. Even when Travis was alive, he was deployed five of the nine years after TJ was born. He didn’t meet his first son until Travis Jr. was six months old, was home for the first year of Matthew’s life only to be sent back to the Middle East for the second year and had hardly even known Ames. I hate knowing that my last baby barely remembers his father.
Lily has always been there for us. Acting as the fun aunt, the homework helper, the drinking buddy for mama and everything in between.
“Honey, have you made any wedding plans?” Mom asks Lily.
“We have some initial plans.” She nods, but by the way she’s smiling, I know there is more behind that answer.
“Hey, are we still going to Presley’s studio for girl’s night?” I ask, not wanting to talk weddings.
Naturally, it wasn’t a fun subject for me.
“Yep, this Thursday. She said she bought some pedicure baths and Keaton is setting us up with a TV to watch the first episode of the new Good Girls season.”
I pump my fist. “I can’t wait. Nothing better than that sexy gangster and a good whirlpool jet on my piggies.”
Travis screws his face up in disgust on the bleacher below us. “Ew, gross, Mom.”
I clamber down to invade his space and blow raspberry kisses on his face while he tries to fight me. “Except for you, my beautiful boy!”
Ames laughs at my exaggerated display of affection, while my middle son wrestles free of the motherly affection. While my kids can be cranky brats, they’re also the best thing in my life, and I embarrass them accordingly.
“You know, someone recommended a show to me the other day. Game of Stones, I think it was called?” Marion’s expression is so innocent, I have to bite my tongue to keep from laughing.
With all the violence and nudity in that show, it might give my mother-in-law a heart attack.
Lily rushes to steer her off that path. “Oh, I don’t think that’d be right for you. But I do have a new book at the library that I thought would be perfect for you. I’ll put it aside for you to check out this week.”
Marion beams at Lily, she always has preferred her. I don’t mind though; I’m unapologetically me and I think Travis’ mother has come to terms with it.
A couple passes us, clearly in an argument but trying to hide it for the sake of the rest of the crowd at this children’s sports game.
“Did you girls hear that Jason and Kristen are getting a divorce?” Mom asks in a hushed tone.
“No!” I exclaim, leaning in for a bit of gossip.
Everyone knows everyone in Fawn Hill, and the rumor mill around here is rampant. Most of the time, I love it. What’s the world without a good bit of gossip? Anyone who denies liking it, or says that it’s harmful, is just lying anyway.
“He’s deplorable. Heard he was caught with his secretary,” Lily chimes in, shooting daggers with her eyes into the retreating man’s back.
I’m surprised at my best friend gossiping or vilifying another like she is right now. “You know, I like booed-up Lily. I think Bowen is making you feistier, or maybe your morals are slipping.”
My eyebrows waggle with the innuendo I’m implying, and Lily turns a shade of pink.
“Mama, what are morals?” Ames asks again, now sitting in Marion’s lap and stealing sips from her sweet tea fountain drink.
“Something that your grandma Mari will teach you about, because Mama certainly can’t.” And my mom, Lily, and I collapse into a fit of giggles.
Lily touches my arm. “Oh, before I forget, Bowen and I are calling a wedding meeting tomorrow with the whole bridal party. Right after school but gives you enough time to pick the boys up. It’ll be quick, at our gazebo.”
She didn’t have to elaborate about their gazebo, we all knew Bowen and Lily’s spot. But now I would be thinking about the wedding meeting when my head hit the pillow tonight.
Because including the entire bridal party in the chat means I’ll have to see Forrest again. Twice in one week … it’s torture.
Forrest Nash left this awful, buzzing tension in my body that was a mix between lust and hate. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to slap him or rip his shirt off with my teeth.
And I am afraid that, one of these days, I’d do the latter in full view of all of our friends and family.
5
Penelope
When Lily and Bowen called this meeting in Bloomfield Park, I was less than thrilled.
Not because I’m not ecstatic for my best friend, who out of anyone deserves her happy ending, but because it means another wedding.
We’d just finally settled down from the chaos of being in Presley’s bridal party, and now we have to do it all over again. Weddings, no matter how big or small, or how easy the couple was in their decision making, are just a big to-do. And being part of the bridal party requires a lot of effort. I know I’ll be Lily’s maid of honor, I damn well better be, but that’s going to call for a lot of effort … something I’m just not sure I have right now.
Part of that weariness comes from the fact that weddings chip away at my heart a little bit. Of course, I am happy for my friends, but none of them know what it feels like to attend these celebrations of love and happiness as a widow. I’d done the white dress, black tux thing myself, and then my husband … died.
It’s still impossibly hard to say that word when it came to Travis. He had been my person, the one I pledged to spend my life creating a little universe with. And now he was gone, and where did that leave me? Being a widow is heartbreakingly sad, but being one at the age of almost thirty-one? It’s terribly tragic.
Going to a wedding, alone might I add, only reminds me that I won’t attain this level of happiness again. It highlights that my person is gone, and it also carves another tiny chunk out of my barely surviving heart.
Sure, my life is wonderful. I have my boys, and friends and family who love me. But there’s always a dark cloud on even the sunniest of days.
When I walk up to the gazebo which everyone knows is Lily and Bowen’s spot, I have to smile. Isn’t it odd that we were all congregating on the spot where these two lost their virginity to each other?
“Did they have to call a meeting in the spot they did the dirty for the first time?” A gruff, haughty voice questions as I join the small group.
I bite my tongue to keep from laughing at Forrest’s observation because it’s annoying that he has the same reaction to this as I do. It pisses me off that we would have been thinking the same thing when all I want to do was forget he exists.
“Hey, babe,” I
greet Presley first, planting a kiss on her cheek as she hugs me.
“Hey! You look cute.” She gives me a thumbs-up, and I clink my olive-green booted heels together.
It’s still in that weird phase of being too cold for flats or sandals, but too warm throughout the day where I end up sweating in my socks.
“Hi, Penny.” Keaton hugs me, and as always he’s Mr. Upstanding.
We’re the oldest of the crew and have run in the same circles since high school. It helps that he and Travis were good friends; there is a feeling of loss between us that we’ve never spoken about, but that bonds us.
I hug Fletcher next and ask how his latest art installation is going. Ever since he got sober, he’s been working hard at his day job and using his energy, which used to be channeled into drugs and alcohol, into making the most beautiful wood sculptures you’ve ever seen.
“Hi,” I manage to say to Forrest without rolling my eyes and punching him in the arm.
Everyone in the circle chuckles nervously. They know our banter, and as far as they know, we just have a teasing animosity. None of these people know we’ve slipped up and played hide the zucchini … twice. They all just assume we have some weird beef and always have … except not even my best friend, Lily, realizes how deep the complicated web goes.
Once I greet the soon-to-be husband and wife, and settle into the circle they’ve formed, Lily speaks.
“We’re getting married next week,” Lily says matter-of-factly.
“What is with the people in this family having shotgun weddings without the pregnancy?” Fletcher deadpans.
Bowen shoots him a glowering stare as if to say how dare his brother question anything his bride wants.
Lily only chuckles. “We have waited long enough, I think you can all back that fact up. I’ve been to enough galas and parties to know I don’t want anything fancy. And we all know Bowen would take me to the courthouse right now if I allowed him too. So we just want something small with our closest friends and family. We talked to Janice at the winery out in Lancaster, and she has the barn tasting room available for the reception. It’ll only be about fifty people, and we don’t need much help. Bowen is taking care of food using a caterer that the fire department sometimes uses. I’ve called in a favor for the flowers. My dress is already here, and I have your dresses at the dry cleaners ready for you to get fitted.”
My best friend points at Presley and me, acknowledging that she picked out our bridesmaid’s dresses. Knowing Lily, they’ll perfectly fit our body types, and the color palette she’s selected. My best friend is annoyingly perfect when it comes to events, or anything else for that matter.
And she didn’t have to explain to this group why she wanted a small wedding. It had been a few months since she’s seen her father, and I know that she’s only talked to her mother a handful of times. It was safe to say they wouldn’t be in attendance, which I both hated and loved for Lily. She is their only child, and her mom had been so dedicated in raising her.
But with the horrible pact her father had made and kept from her … it wasn’t hard to understand why Lily didn’t want him walking her down the aisle.
“All right, so let’s get you hitched!” Presley claps, leaping through the middle of the circle to grab Lily into a bear hug.
“Please tell me I don’t have to wear a tux,” Forrest complains, which only makes me want to puncture his shoe with my two-inch heel.
“Gray suits, but don’t worry, they’re on par with your fashion sense, Mr. Brooklyn.” Bowen smirks.
“I’m so happy for you,” I murmur in Lily’s ear as she comes to hug me next.
And I am. This is her person, and they deserve everything together.
“That’s good to hear, because I need a maid of honor to help me through the next seven days.” She grins.
“As long as you can settle for one who also has school pickups and pediatrician appointments.” My schedule never stops.
“We’ll tag team.” Presley squeezes my shoulder. I’m not sure how our group, or this town, ever survived without her.
“Now that’s something to envision …” Forrest makes the lewd comment and then elbows his twin brother suggestively.
Add immaturity to this list of things that make me want to smack him upside the head. Just another reminder of why I shouldn’t ever sleep with someone six years younger.
Presley’s face screws up in disgust at her brother-in-law. “That’s gross … I’m your sister.”
“Doesn’t mean you aren’t attractive.” Fletcher shrugs, and both Keaton and Bowen look like they might start a WWE match against their younger brothers.
“Enough of this really weird conversation. We’ll be sending, or rather, Lily will be sending out an email with lists of everyone’s responsibilities. I expect you to follow them or expect a phone call from me.” Lily’s fiancé eyes every single one of us.
That threat isn’t really for me, but I have no intention of crossing Bowen. He might be a softy for his soon-to-be wife, but I’ve seen him go Hulk over the years.
We break apart and I check my watch, realizing it’s time to go pick up the boys. Making my goodbyes hastily, I jet out across the grass.
“So, another brother’s wedding …” Forrest falls into step beside me, and I’m disappointed when I look back and see the others still lingering in the gazebo.
I can’t stop now, or I’ll be late to pick the boys up, and I can’t shrug him off. I mean, I could try, but he’ll only keep following me.
“Yep,” I clip out, trying to end the conversation.
“I wonder if anyone will be getting wedding sex. I mean, Presley’s hot friend Ryan will be there, so maybe I’ll get lucky.”
Trying to ignore the jealous bile that churns like acid in my stomach, I stomp harder through the grass in hopes it’ll get me to my car quicker. Why the hell am I jealous of Ryan, Presley’s best friend from New York? She’s only gorgeous, unencumbered, travels the world, is whip smart and had Forrest’s eye last time she was in town. Do I care if they sleep together at Lily’s wedding? Hell no … right?
And why does he have to wear those sexy as fuck glasses? They only serve to be adorably charming and make his eyes impossibly bluer. They do for him what they did for Clark Kent if Superman were an asshole with a know-it-all complex. They disguise the asshole beneath.
“I hope you do. After all, you two are pretty perfect for each other.” I take a sharp turn over the hill, and we’re suddenly out of our friends’ sightline.
Forrest jogs easily to catch up. “Yeah, but there just doesn’t seem to be any spark between us. I don’t understand why, we’re both young and hot.”
His last couple of words make me stutter step, and I slow down. What the hell did that mean? That I was old and ugly but hell if he knew why we clicked when our clothes came off?
“You’re a dick,” I hurl at him, flipping up my middle finger and storming off.
Maybe he’s taken aback by my sudden change in demeanor because it takes him until I nearly reach my car to appear beside me.
“And why is that, P? I already know I am, but just want you to explain what the hell I did this time.”
He uses that stupid nickname that he feels entitled to, and it has me poking a finger into his chest angrily. He’s too close, practically pinning me against my car as he demands to know something he’s already damn well figured out.
“Don’t play stupid with me, Forrest. We both know you’re not and don’t take that as a compliment. You’re always right there, trying to goad me or mock me or play whatever fucking game you decide is fun that day. But I don’t consider it cool to call someone old. Or ugly. Neither of which I consider myself, but apparently your millennial brain can’t appreciate a woman in her thirties.”
I try to keep the hurt out of my voice, but by the flash of apology I see move through his aqua blue eyes, I think I’ve failed. And I’m not sure which is stranger, that his offhand remark upset me or that he seems so
rry about it.
“P, that’s not what I meant at all, I—”
“Save it. I’m going to be late to pick up the boys.”
I damn near push him aside in an effort to get in my car, slamming the door shut. As I rev my engine, I kind of hope he can’t jump out of the way in time, and I accidentally end up running over his foot.
6
Forrest
The week between Bowen and Lily’s wedding is spent doing deep dives into the affected businesses throughout the county.
As promised, I don’t alert these companies to the stolen monies being taken from their budgets, and I don’t trip any alarm bells while hacking into their mainframes to discover it.
But I do find more of the same thing I found at the high school; small expenses that add up to a good sum of money over a year or two. From what I can tell, this suspect has made over a hundred thousand dollars in a year, simply by scamming off hard-working businesses in our area.
That’s a lot of money in Fawn Hill … or well, a lot of places. But with a sum of money like that, the suspect could live comfortably for easily the next year or two, not to mention if he amasses more. From what I can tell, his last hack was just five days ago, so it doesn’t appear as if he’ll be stopping soon.
I brought my findings to Captain Kline just this morning before I was forced to drive out to the vineyard to get ready for my brother’s wedding. With my thoughts entrenched in the case, it’s going to be difficult to focus on anything else, much less a bullshit event about commitment. My mind was typically working out theories, puzzling out new codes, and generally going at a hundred miles an hour. But when I was on a case, it was much worse.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad my brother and Lily are done with their unrequited shit. Watching them sulk for ten years was boring as hell, and pretty unnecessary if you ask me. But he loves her, I get it. I just don’t consider it mandatory to stand up in front of everyone you know and declare it to the world.
Nash Brothers Box Set Page 40