Save The Date

by K. S. Thomas

  “I could be okay with that.” I flicked the tip of my tongue over his upper lip, reeling him back in to me. I could have spent hours kissing him. It was like our mouths were dancing together in perfect rhythm, moving to the same passionate song that seemed to build as it went on, heightening the emotions with each beat.

  I found myself gripping him to me tighter, pressing him to my chest, my heart. Claiming him over all the others who had come before me. Because in my mind, he had been mine all along.

  Suddenly, Emerson stood up from the sofa, still holding me molded to him. For a split second I thought we might be moving things over to the bed and my heart raced with anticipation. Only he stopped short and gently set me down in the chair I had occupied before climbing on top of him.

  “What are you doing?” I asked, slightly out of breath from all of the previous excitement.

  “Making sure I don’t do anything that will make you pissed at me come morning.” He leaned his forehead to mine, closed his eyes and sighed loudly. Damn him and his stupid self-control. “I’d really hate for you to dump me two days in because I made you late for something, and you would definitely be late getting that dress done if we keep doing what we’re doing.” He pulled back and slowly stood upright.

  “Oh sure, tease me more why don’t you?” I whined as his body continue to detangle from mine. “Fine, you’re right.”

  “Yeah, I know.” He grinned at me in that way only Emerson could and it was all I could do not to lunge for him all over again. I had no idea what was happening to me, but whatever it was, I liked it.

  “What are you doing now?” I watched as he made his way back over to the sofa and stretched out on it.

  “Relaxing.” He propped up his feet on the end and crossed both arms behind his head.

  “You’re just going to lie there….while I’m working?”

  “Yeah.” He scooted himself further into the cushions until he was comfortable.

  “Okay then.” I picked up the dress and went back to my beadwork.

  For a while we sat in silence as my focus on my stitching increased. I hadn’t even noticed he was watching me.

  “It’s hard to believe you can create a design like that attaching one tiny little bead at a time. Have you always wanted to do this?”

  I kept my eyes on my work. “Make wedding dresses? Yeah, I guess so. I mean, if there was a market for making lavish ball gowns, I probably would have gone with that, but since no one over the age of nine seems to want to dress like a Disney princess anymore, this was as close as I could get.”

  He chuckled. “Well, it seems to have worked out for you. Not that it happened by accident. Noonie’s been talking about you designing dresses for at least as long as I’ve been working for her. She said you were, what? Eight? And already drawing up your first dress.”

  I lifted my head as the memory flashed through my mind bringing a smile to my lips. “Actually, I was six when I drew my first dress.” Then without meeting his gaze, I turned back to my work.

  “Oh yeah? Six and already thinking about weddings? Isn’t that a bit young?” He pulled himself up onto his side to get a better view of me.

  “No way. Girls start thinking about weddings way before six. Trust me, I had my first groom picked out when I was only three.”

  He actually sat up straight and brought his feet around to the floor again. “What? Three? Who were you going to marry when you were three?”

  I grinned. “Prince Eric.”

  “What? Who is Prince Eric? Some European Royal?”

  “Not exactly. He’s from The Little Mermaid. Ariel’s Prince Eric.”

  Emerson smirked. “I don’t know what’s working against you more. The fact that he’s clearly already taken, or the fact that he’s animated.”

  I tossed a scrap of material at him. “Shut it! I was three. I’m sure you had some less than realistic aspirations at the time.”

  “Sure did. I wanted to own Mr. Ed. Actually, I wanted to have a whole ranch with all talking horses. I was super bummed when that didn’t pan out.”

  “See, now that’s ridiculous…and totally adorable.” I finished the back section and reached down for the hem of the dress, making sure I kept my hands busy since they were all too willing and wanting to go and reach for Emerson in an effort to aid my mouth in touching his again.

  “That’s me. Ridiculous and totally adorable.” He settled back into his previous lounging position and I wondered if he was undergoing the same battles with temptation as I was.

  “So, you always wanted to work with horses.” I reached up and pulled down a pouch of beads I had pinned into my hair earlier.

  Emerson shook his head. “No. The Mr. Ed thing was short-lived. I went through a whole slew of dream jobs before I was ever old enough to get one. Then, at twenty-four, I found myself suddenly in urgent need of a job and when Spence caught wind of it, he went straight to your Grandmother. She was always looking for people to do odd jobs around the place and she took me on right away. Kind of worked my way up from there. Guess you could say the horse thing sort of happened by accident.”

  I couldn’t believe it. “But Noonie Skeeter says you’re amazing with those horses. That sort of talent doesn’t just happen by accident Emerson.”

  “No, it happens out of desperation and with lots and lots of practice.” He was smiling, but I could tell by his tone that he was only half joking.

  “Then if it hadn’t been horses, what would you have done? Or, what would you want to do now?” I glanced at him and wondered if his answer would have him wearing those same jeans and tan muscles.

  “No idea. But there’s no changing it. This is it for me now. I can’t imagine doing anything else with my life than what I’m doing. Nothing else fits.”

  I knew that feeling. My father had tried plenty of times to sway me from my goals of working in fashion. He’d wanted something more steady and secure. Responsible. Even now, he was constantly forwarding me emails from head hunters looking for people to fill corporate positions. I wasn’t qualified for any of them, so I wasn’t really sure what the point was. Either way, I’d gotten in the habit of simply deleting them as they came in.

  “Well, I’m really glad Noonie hired you back then. I’m even happier you discovered your little horse whispering thing, accident or not…it worked out pretty well for me.”

  “It was a lucky accident.” He winked at me.

  “It really was.” I reached down for more dress. At this rate I’d be done with the whole thing come morning. All because I needed the constant distraction for my hands and eyes to keep from attacking Emerson with my mouth and devouring him whole.

  It was a good thing Steph hadn’t been anywhere near that conversation. She probably would have hauled off and slapped me. But then, she hadn’t just been right about Liss getting scared. She’d been right about the other thing, too. The more important thing. The thing that was drawing her to me, and me to her. The thing neither of us had really ever had before. There was a word for what that was, but I wasn’t about to use it yet.

  Chapter 11

  When I woke up the next morning, I was lying in Emerson’s arms on the floor beside the love seat he’d been sitting on for most of the night while I worked on Savannah’s dress. By the time I had finally stopped, it was after four o’clock in the morning.

  Amazingly enough, Emerson had stayed up with me all throughout, talking to me, making me laugh and keeping my senses keen enough to keep stitching. Then, after the last bead had found its place, I had draped the gown back over the mannequin and happily fallen into this arms.

  Since the loveseat hadn’t been nearly big enough even for just him, we wound up sliding to the floor, giggling all the way down and not stopping until we fell asleep, my head to his chest, his heartbeat to my ear.

  My eyes were barely open when I heard the sound of a loud engine pulling up out in the driveway. I searched for the clock and was once again, unsuccessful. How long had we been sleeping?
Was it possible my mother and Savannah were already here?

  I sat up, trying to get my bearings.

  “Where do you think you’re going?” Emerson grumbled, his eye lids still sealed shut.

  “There’s someone here.” I stopped to listen again. The sound was gone, but I was sure I’d heard a car. Actually a truck was probably more like it.

  “It’s just Blake.” His fingers laced up into my hair, twirling the strands hanging down against my back.

  “Who?”

  “My buddy, Blake. He’s gonna help me finish up the woodwork for Savannah’s wedding. Remember?”

  Just barely. “Oh. Then shouldn’t you be getting up to greet him or something?”

  He shook his head, gently tugged at my hair to guide me back down toward him. Our lips were already touching when he said, “Let Steph welcome him. I’m sure he’d much rather see her anyway.”

  “I’m good with that.” And then, at last, there was no more talking.

  Nearly half an hour later we finally emerged from my bedroom and made our way down to the kitchen where we found Steph and Blake having a friendly chat over donuts and coffee.

  Blake nodded at Emerson when he saw us. “I brought breakfast.” He pointed at the carton of fresh Krispy Kremes.

  “Blake, I like you already,” I reached for my own ring of deep-fried sugar.

  “And you must be Calista.” He held out his non-coffee holding hand to me and I shook it while casually giving him the once over. Blake looked younger than Emerson. Not by much. He was probably still in his late twenties though. He had short blond hair and was built like a swimmer. Not that I knew any of those, but I’d watched the Olympics on TV and those dudes were all put together the same way. Super lean with massive arms and chests.

  I turned toward Stephanie whose eyes had apparently traveled the same path mine had only from the other side. I grinned when she finally looked up and saw me staring at her. She went bright red almost instantly.

  “Thanks for letting him in, Steph.”

  “Someone had to. Clearly it wasn’t going to be either one of you.” She handed Emerson and me two cups of coffee. A nice gesture, but I knew it was motivated only by wanting to keep her eyes busy and focused on things other than Blake’s ass.

  “Yes, well, we were up all night working on Savannah’s dress,” Emerson said, reaching for his second donut which he proceeded to dunk into his coffee.

  I cocked my head to the side and peered up at him. “I’m sorry, we?”

  “I was definitely up all night.” He gave a little sideways nod. “Watching her work on Savannah’s dress.”

  “Sure, that’s what you two were doing,” Stephanie mocked.

  “No really. The dress is pretty much done. I mean, it’s not done, done, but you know. It’s done.”

  Blake peered back and forth between Steph and me and then turned to Emerson. “Did you understand that?”

  “No. Hey, want to go play with some power tools?”

  “Didn’t bring my miter saw for nothing.”

  Steph and I watched as both boys walked from the kitchen talking about saws like they were five and comparing hot wheels collections. I was about to call her out on her obvious interest in Blake’s rear end when Emerson came running back in.

  “You forget something?”

  “Sure as hell did.” I didn’t have to ask what. His arm was already around my waist, pulling me in for a long, sweet kiss. Then, as he let go, he smacked my ass and took off again. Leaving me behind with a dopey grin on my face.

  “So, you’re into spanking now,” Steph said dryly as she started packing up what was left of breakfast.

  “Never mind my ass. Let’s talk about Blake’s.” I blocked her path back to the fridge. “What’s up with the two of you?”

  “Nothing.” She put the box of donuts back on the counter. “We just met.”

  “Uh-huh. How long before you meet the rest of him?”

  “Calista!”

  “What? I know you want to see what else he has in those jeans aside from that tight little tush.”

  “First of all, hell yeah. And second of all, keep your eyes off of his ass.”

  I laughed. “They haven’t been anywhere near there. Didn’t have to be to know that he was built as nice from behind as he is from the front. The expression on your face while your eyes were locked on it, said it all.”

  “Anyway. Moving right along. If you’re done with the dress, what are we going to do until your Mom and Savannah get here this afternoon?”

  I held up my phone. “Got a text from my mom. She’s got another assignment for us.”

  “Oh?” I could tell Steph was disappointed we’d be leaving. So was I.

  “She made up some new and updated invites to send out to let people know about the change of venue since all the original ones said the wedding would be at the Gillespie, which you know, was never actually booked. Ah, gotta love a runaway wedding planner.” I made face. “Anyway, she had a local shop print them up and she needs us to go pick them up. Well, technically it probably wouldn’t take two of us to do it, but if I can’t sit here and stare at Emerson be all manly with his power tools then you can’t spend the day eyeballing Blake either. So, let’s go. Plus, we can go track down some linens for draping those window thingies they’re making.”

  “Let’s do this then. You know, so we can hurry up and get back.” She wiggled her eyebrows playfully. Oh, I knew exactly what she was saying.

  The entire week that followed compiled into one massive blur starting the moment my mother and Savannah arrived later that afternoon. From then on, everything had been wedding related and neither Steph nor I had been able to shirk any of the duties we were suddenly saddled with.

  We didn’t end up leaving after the weekend to head back to the farm, as originally planned. While Jack had accompanied my mother as suspected, there were still about a million little things that needed to be done, now that everyone was finally in the same place, and my mother wasn’t about to let anyone break away.

  So, when I wasn’t fitting the dress and making the needed adjustments or taking all eleven bridesmaids dress shopping, which naturally led to dress altering, I was making table centerpieces, turning mason jars into lanterns and producing five hundred wedding favors for the guests consisting of tiny burlap sacks, each filled with two tulip bulbs and tied with a hand written thank you card and a set of three ribbons. To say I suffered from severe hand cramping by the time everything was all said and done would have been an understatement.

  Still, in the midst of all the craziness, Emerson and I were stealing time to be together every night, even if it was only to fall asleep in each other’s arms.

  Then, at last, it was the night of the dress rehearsal and everyone cleared out to head back to Lexington where my aunt and uncle were hosting a massive dinner party. In spite of Savannah’s insisting that Stephanie was like family already and was more than welcome to attend, she opted to take Blake up on his offer to show her around town for the night instead.

  The rehearsal was being held in one of the trendiest restaurants in the city. The only reservation that had actually been made throughout this entire wedding fiasco because Savannah’s mother had insisted on taking care of all of the arrangements herself.

  Even though Emerson and I hadn’t actually discussed going together, I naturally assumed that we would be, considering we had just spent the last ten days being more or less inseparable.

  So, it was strange when I arrived with my mother and grandparents and found myself standing alone in a sea of people, most of whom I barely recognized. A problem no one else seemed to be having as they all mingled and chatted happily with one another, including my mother.

  In fact, my mother appeared to be unusually social even by her standards when she ran into an old friend. Or, at least I suspected that’s what he was. He didn’t have any of the trademark Ashcraft traits, nor was he wearing a wedding band, so even though he could easily have b
een an uncle I simply didn’t know, it wasn’t likely. And I was going with that, because he was hot.

  Well, for an older guy. Like a Kevin Costner hot. Not like ‘I would actually want to do him’ hot, but like ‘I clearly had some daddy issues’ hot. Anyway, my mother seemed to think so, too. That he was hot, not that I had daddy issues. And in her case, it was probably more of the ‘actually doing him’ hot sort of way.

  I was so fascinated watching my mother interact with a man who wasn’t thirty years younger than her or a homosexual that I didn’t even notice when Emerson finally showed up.

  “Wow,” he whispered in my ear as he placed his hand on my waist to guide me closer to him.

  “I was starting to think you weren’t coming.”

  “Sorry. Just got caught up in some groomsmen business.”

  “I didn’t know you were a groomsman.” But then we had made a point not to discuss the wedding at all considering it had already consumed the bulk of our existence in the past two weeks.

  “Yeah, Spence, Simon and I are all part of the wedding party.” He didn’t look particularly excited about it.

  “So, who are you walking down the aisle?” I scanned the room curiously. I had already met all the bridesmaids since I’d been in charge of dressing them all.

  Emerson turned his head, “Shauna.”

  Shauna. Shauna. Oh, right. “The blonde with the tattoo on her shoulder. Savannah had a fit about it. Apparently tattoos weren’t a part of the look she was going for.” I grinned. Brides got hung up on the weirdest things.

  “Yeah, that’s her.” He shifted back and forth uncomfortably and his hold on me seemed to loosen. “Hey, remember I told you I was engaged a while back?”

  No. “That’s her?” The words barely came out.

  “Yeah.” He looked painfully uncomfortable. Only I couldn’t tell if it was on her behalf, mine or his own.