Besides, she told me, most women buy their accents a year or so before the wedding.
It just seemed like a big farce to me. A waste of money and resources. My father always said that weddings were just money pits.
My mom would touch his arm and gently remind him that their wedding was beautiful.
And he'd respond that it was because they'd done it on his father's farm. The barn made a rustic chapel as well as a fun dance hall.
They were rustic before it was cliche.
"It was okay. He wasn't an ass, and he made sure not to make any moves." I hadn't told her about our earlier tryst, and I certainly hadn't mentioned the almost kiss.
"Well, I think it's a good idea. You deserve to have a little bit of fun. Always so serious." She wiggled her fingers at me and grinned. She was threatening to tickle me right there in the middle of all those people. I just glared at her and sidestepped her advances.
"Don't you want to make it to the cake tasting?" I asked. We'd been one of fifteen through the gates first, and we were invited to an exclusive cake and desert wine tasting as a result.
I looked down at my phone. "We need to be there in five minutes."
Nice, distract her with cake. It was the cowards way out, but I never claimed to be brave.
"Oh!" She said a she grabbed my arm and pulled me down the aisle and towards the private room. "I'm on his side, you know."
"What?" I asked as I glared at her.
"You heard me. I'm on his side. You left him high and dry. Hell, you left all of us high and dry. What was going on in your head?" she asked. She sounded so smug about it too. Jess had no idea what went on.
I'd never told anyone why I'd bailed out of there. Not Jess, not my father, no one.
It was too embarrassing. "I had it in me that I didn't need this place. That it was the one place I couldn't wait to get away from." That much was true, but it wasn't the entire truth, and we both knew it.
"He sulked around this town for weeks, you know," She whispered it as we entered the little room and took seats towards the back.
I highly doubted it. A man like Wyatt Graves probably went and sought solace in the next pretty blonde with a fake smile.
"Do you think they will have cheesecake?" I asked. It wasn’t subtle but I didn’t care. I wanted to talk about anything else.
Anything but Wyatt.
"Oh no, we aren't changing the topic. I'm team Wyatt, and you deserve to know it."
"No one says team boy anymore, Jess,” I said. I bit my tongue and kept myself from saying that it was so 2009.
"Honey, I'm from Laurel. Be glad I'm only five years behind instead of ten." We both giggled. She had a point.
"You don't think it's... weird?" I asked as servers passed out the first little cups of wine and small plates of cake. The announcer told us what it was, but I wasn't paying attention. I was too busy thinking about Wyatt.
Ten dates. Fifty-thousand dollars. What did I have to lose?
"I think he's crazy, but it's his money. And he deserves the closure. Or a second chance." She took a picture of the piece of cake then had a taste. "Besides, he is the perfect piece of man candy. If you don't touch at least appreciate being able to look for extended periods of time."
That was the problem, though. I wasn't sure if I couldn't touch.
It was a temptation that might just get the best of me.
"So what are you thinking about for the next date?" Luke asked. "I mean, since you are paying such a high price for them you want them to be perfect, don't you?"
"I was planning on offering her mother the money anyway, this is just a little bit of a fun." I wasn't going to let him goad me.
"Oh, is that what it is, a game? Terribly high stakes." Luke hit his target into the pocket and pulled up his pool stick. "Kind of like this game. Four, corner pocket."
I rolled my eyes and watched as he missed then took my shot. "Game's not over yet, Luke. And the other one is just beginning."
"I saw your dad in town yesterday when I was getting coffee at Maggie's. He staying for a while?” he asked.
"I hope to hell not," I admitted. He'd been digging through the files, the finances, getting everyone and everything riled up. “But I have a feeling he isn’t planning on leaving. If I know him he’ll be here for a while. He’s a stubborn old man.”
I just wanted him to leave.
"How did you get that shiner anyway? Was it your father or Rose?"
I chuckled. "I'll have you know I earned it saving a tiny damsel in distress."
"Should I see the other guy?" he asked.
I sunk the next ball in. I just had one more, then the eight ball. I was so close.
"Something like that." I hit the cue ball, it slammed against the eight ball rather than my next target and sunk it and the cueball right into the left corner pocket. “Though I wish no one would. He was a fucking dick.”