Love Unrehearsed

Mike pointed a finger at Ryan. “You, out.

Marie, grab what you need. Try to be quick about it.” He guided Ryan by the shoulder, steering him toward the door. “We’re waiting outside—off the property line to avoid tres-passing charges.”

I grabbed a garbage bag and started frantically packing whatever Marie told me to take, starting with her clothes.

Whatever shit we were in, we were in it together.

“Well, that was fun,” Ryan sarcastically joked, hauling the last garbage bag in through the back door. “Damn, something smells good.”

Mike took a big whiff. “Heck yeah. Taryn, go get us some of that.”

He made me laugh. “I’ll go beg Tammy to cook us supper.”

Ryan threw the black bag of clothes over his shoulder. “Invite them up tonight. We can all hang out.”

I opened the door from the hallway into the pub kitchen to see what Tammy was up to. It was a welcome distraction to the breaking and entering we’d just committed. “Hey, Tammy. Smells fantastic in here.” She was busy adding ingredients into her industrial-sized mixer. “Oh, hey, Taryn.”

“I had to keep the guys from breaking down the door. What are you making that smells so yummy?”

She pointed to a rack. “Cherry tarts right now. Sorry, but I don’t have any extras.” I eyed the cooling rack with longing and invited her and Pete to join us upstairs for dinner later.

She dusted her hands off on her apron.

“Hey, before you go, can I talk to you a minute?” Tammy appeared troubled as she wiped her hands over and over again on a wet rag. “Is everything okay between you and Ryan?”

I wasn’t sure why she was asking. “Yeah.

Things are great. Why?”

She tossed the rag into the sink. “I don’t know. Just wondering about the whole Thomas thing. I figured you might be fighting.”

“No. We’re not fighting. There is nothing to fight about.”

“Oh. I just thought he’d be mad about you hugging your ex like that. I figured you told him anyway.”

I felt myself getting slightly defensive.

“There was nothing going on between Thomas and me. Melanie has been a friend of mine for years. I hope you don’t think that I was doing something inappropriate.”

“Oh no. No. That’s not what I meant. It’s just that I know how jealous Ryan is. I thought maybe he was mad and that’s why he came back here.”

“No. He had a break in filming so he came home.”

“Oh, okay. So what’s up with Marie? Is she dating Mike now?” she asked.

I shrugged, wondering why she wasn’t asking Marie these questions. “I’m not sure.

They like each other. You do know that Gary has a new girlfriend, right?” Something was up. She wouldn’t make eye contact with me.

“This whole thing is putting us in a very awkward situation,” she said. “I mean, Pete and Gary have been friends for a long time and it’s like we’re being forced to pick sides.”

She definitely caught me off guard. “No one is forcing you to pick sides, Tammy.”

“Well, yeah, they kind of are. We’re getting married in four months and they are both in the wedding party. Pete and Gary have been friends for years. It’s not fair that he’d have to ask him not to come. No one seems to care how it affects us.”

“Tammy, I don’t know what to say. It’s your wedding. Gary made a choice—Marie is just dealing with that. He just locked her out of her own damn house. What kind of man does that?”

“Well, she’s with Mike. Can you blame him?” she snipped.

I was beginning to think she’d lost her damn mind. “How would you feel if Pete locked you out and wouldn’t let you get any of your stuff?”

“I didn’t know he did that. She’s been so busy around here and it’s not like we hang out together a lot when you aren’t around.”

“Everyone’s been dealing with a lot. Trust me. I don’t want you to think that we don’t care.”

“Oh.” She turned to take something out of the oven. “Well, since Ryan is here now, do you think that you can ask him if he’s going to be a groomsman or not? I mean, he hasn’t said anything to Pete and he avoided the topic on Friday when Pete mentioned it. It would be nice to know if I even have a freaking bridal party or not.”

I bristled at her anger. “Yeah, sure. He’s been busy filming a movie so I’m sure he’s not been avoiding anything on purpose. I’ll make sure to ask him to confirm.” Tammy snorted as if that answer wasn’t good enough. “I’m sure he’s been in a great mood since your ex-fiancé has been coming around. Like he needs that crap.” Like I needed that crap—or her crap right now for that matter. I was starting to wonder if all this wedding stuff was turning Tammy into a bridezilla. I certainly wasn’t going to become confrontational even though I wanted to.

“Well, I’ll let you get back to running your business. I’ll make sure to get an answer to Pete.”

I didn’t wait to give her an opportunity to respond, hurrying through the door and up my stairs as if the floor were on fire.

Ryan’s unbelievably nice ass was poking out of my open refrigerator door when I found him in my kitchen. “Everything okay?” I wrapped my arms around his waist, burying my nose in the neckline of his T-shirt. “Can we elope instead?” Ryan snickered and rubbed my back.

“Sure. What brought this on?”

“Planning weddings apparently makes women go insane. I’m pretty sure Tammy’s growing fangs and claws.”

“Oh. That sucks. Is it contagious?”

“God, I hope not.”

He whispered in my ear, “You can always hire a wedding planner to do that shit for you.”

My head popped off his chest when I heard a loud crash and Marie’s high-pitched yell for help coming from the spare room. I found her surrounded by a few boxes and a whole lot of crap spilled out around her feet—clothing, books, and a slew of old videocassette tapes.

“Sorry,” she pleaded, still holding a box from tipping off the top shelf in the closet. I had to laugh at her panicked expression. “I tried to move one and they all came crashing down.”

Mike took the box out of her hands.

“Are these boxes full or what?” Ryan asked, opening one of them.

I folded up one of my mom’s old sweaters and set it aside, trying to clear a path. “That’s all of your fan mail from the last few weeks, hon. You need to either go through it or we need to pitch it.”