Four

Emery

I purposely turned my attention away from the brothers before me. I really didn’t want to look at any of them anyway. Luckily for me, the bridesmaids started walking down the aisle. Then, the traditional “Canon in D” began, we all stood, and Sutton walked down the aisle. I was pretty sure, the last time I’d seen Sutton in person, she was only about twelve years old. But it was shocking to me, now that she was all grown up, how much she looked like Landon.

All of them looked the same—dark hair, pouty lips, athletic figure. Though they had their differences, too. Just not enough noticeable differences. Anyone could see they were related.

Heidi leaned over to me to whisper into my ear, “Ten bucks, she’s a crier.”

“She’s pregnant. She’s definitely a crier,” I muttered back.

I tried to hold my laughter in as Sutton finally reached the front of the room and immediately burst into tears. Her groom took her hands in his and grinned down at her.

The pastor raised his hands. “You may all be seated,” he said.

I dropped into my seat and waited for this whole thing to be over.

“We are gathered here today to join Sutton Marie Wright to Maverick Wayne Johnson in holy matrimony.”

My eyes rounded, and I glanced at Heidi. We had an entire conversation without saying a word.

Maverick Wayne.

Maverick?

That’s his name?

Holy fuck.

Yeah.

Yeah.

She must be here for his Johnson.

I cracked up and had to cover it with a cough when a few people turned to glare at me. Heidi tried to hide her own laughter by reaching for her purse and digging around for her phone.

The rest of the ceremony progressed like any other I’d ever been to. If you’d been to one wedding, you’d been to them all.

Yada, yada, yada.

“I do.”

Yada, yada, yada.

“Till death do us part.”

Yada, yada, yada.

“You may kiss the bride.”

I applauded methodically with the rest of the crowd and silently prayed for some really good champagne to make up for this. Champagne cured everything.

The music started up again. The end of their fifteen minutes was up. On to bigger and better things. Like an open bar and a dessert table.

Maverick took Sutton’s hand in his, and they strode down the aisle, beaming like streetlamps. Each bridesmaid walked forward in her long, silky red dress, latched on to the arm of one of the groomsmen. With nine people on each side of the bridal party, it was taking forever. One after the other after the other.

The only bridesmaid I recognized was Morgan, who was the maid of honor. She was only two years younger than me and Heidi and had run in the popular crowd, of course. She was easy to figure out because she looked exactly the same as she had in high school. Unfortunately for her, she was on the arm of some leering frat boy. The other girls, I gathered, were Sutton’s sorority sisters.

Then, finally, it was on to the Wright brothers.

Jensen moved forward first. He held his arm out for the girl who was blushing as bright as a cherry tomato. She looped her arm in his, and I was trying so hard not to roll my eyes. I had been that girl once. I knew what that was like. Back in the day, Landon had made me feel that swoony, over-the-top, oh-my-God feeling from having the attention of a Wright brother. And I wasn’t that type of girl either. Now, it felt ridiculous. Money couldn’t buy happiness, and it sure didn’t fix shit when the guy broke your heart.

I was so deeply entrenched in my own thoughts that I didn’t realize I was staring. At Jensen Wright. And he was staring right back at me.

Why? Why, oh God, did Heidi put me on the end? And why is he looking at me like that?

He hadn’t even moved yet. He was just standing there, staring at me with those dark brown eyes. And I didn’t know what he was thinking or what he was doing. Except for making a complete fool of himself because, surely, he needed to start walking right now. Like right fucking now.

Synapses must have fired in his brain again because he gradually moved the girl forward. And, when I thought I’d gotten past that look and away from his penetrating gaze, he turned around. He did a motherfucking double take. Right there in front of everyone at his own sister’s wedding, he turned around and looked at me.

What world am I living in?

I didn’t think I breathed normally again until he looked away and proceeded down the aisle. By then, Austin had already passed me, and I didn’t even get a chance to see Landon and his wife. And that was the only thing I’d been interested in.

So what? I was an ex-girlfriend. I had every right to stalk his wife to see if she was prettier than me.

Heidi shook my shoulder, jarring me back to reality. “Did you just get eye-fucked by Jensen Wright?” she gasped.

An older woman sitting in front of us glared at her for the language. She hadn’t exactly been quiet.

“No. Nope. No, I did not,” I told her. I was still trying to figure out what had happened. Because nothing I could conjure up was making any sense.

“You so did. You so, so did!” Heidi said.

The two aisles in front of us left first, and then Heidi was pushing me out of the aisle, all while whispering in my ear about how excited she was. “Do you remember mooning over him in high school? He was, like, this hottie college guy, a totally unattainable god. Like Zeus on Mount Olympus. Or maybe we just wanted to get on his lightning bolt, if you know what I mean.”

“Heidi, God, you’re so embarrassing.”

“Em, just think about Jensen when we were in high school. He belonged in a magazine.”

“I was dating his brother.”

“But before that,” she insisted.

“Okay. I might remember staying at your house a time or two…”

“Or ten.”

“Where we talked about him being hot.”

“Yes. And he has gone from hot to one damn fine wine. The bottle gets better with age, honey,” Heidi said, knocking her hip into mine.

“Are you really suggesting I hook up with Jensen Wright at his sister’s wedding when I dated his brother?” I asked with wide eyes.

Heidi laughed. “Getting ahead of yourself, aren’t you? I didn’t say hook up with him. You said that. Are you thinking about that?”

“No,” I spat.

Because, no. Seriously. That would never happen.

I was sworn off of the Wright brothers. None of that was going to happen. No fucking way. Jensen had probably just…seen a bug on my shoulder or something. That was all it had been because his interest would be illogical.

I was his brother’s ex-girlfriend.

I was…me.

We made it to the reception space a few minutes later. The room was teeming with waiters in pressed tuxedos, handling silver trays topped with hors d’oeuvres. I plucked a fancy crab cake from a passing waiter and headed straight to the bar.

“Champagne, please,” Heidi said, flashing the bartender a smile.

I held up two fingers as I took a bite out of the crab cake. Holy fuck, this was delicious. Wow. Who the hell was the caterer? I glanced around and found my answer. West Table. Of course. Only the Wrights would hire catering from the most expensive restaurant in town.

“We need more of these,” I told Heidi when she handed me two glasses of champagne.

I had no shame as I double-fisted the drinks.

Heidi laughed and nodded toward the tables. “Let’s find where we’re sitting.”

We wandered over to the table with the list of names elaborately tacked up on a rustic window.

Heidi plucked her name off the distressed clothespin. “We’re table twelve. My lucky number.”

“That’s because Brandon McCain wore that number on the football team all through high school.”

“Okay, fine,” Heidi said with a shrug. “It’s my get-lucky number.”

I snorted. “That’s rich.”

“Here we are.” She dropped her purse down right in front of her name. “Heidi Martin and guest. That’s you.”

“Who else are we with?” I asked.

Heidi and I scanned the names.

I shrugged. “I don’t know any of these people.”

“Work people,” she said. “But at least we have Julia. Julia Banner. She’s cool. You’ll like her.”

“I’ve never heard you mention her before.”

“She’s new. You know how it goes with the newbies,” she said with a wry expression before downing half of her glass of champagne. “I like to make sure they’re going to stick around Lubbock for more than a year. So many burned friendships with people who move here and then relocate immediately. We’ll see if she survives, and then I’ll decide if we bring her in.”

“You act like we’re in a gang,” I told her with a shake of my head.

Heidi leaned over and conspiratorially whispered, “We are.”

I laughed despite myself. God, I had missed her so much. My life had not been the same without her. No matter that I’d spent all those years in Oklahoma and then Austin, I never found a friendship to rival Heidi’s. I was certain I never would.

We spent the next forty-five minutes downing glasses of champagne and eating as many of those little crab cakes as we could get our hands on. By the time the family and bridal party were announced into the room and Sutton and Maverick made their big appearance, Heidi and I were each one drink away from wasted. It was good that we immediately launched into dinner so that I could pad my drinking belly with carbs to survive the rest of the night.

By the time they were finished with the regular bouts of wedding festivities, including—God help us all—a choreographed dance with the bride and her sorority-sister bridesmaids for the groom before launching into a rehearsed first dance, I was ready to hit the bar again. If I ever had to sit through something like that again without another drink, I was sure I would drop dead.

“Bleach.” Heidi giggled into my ear. “I need bleach for my eyes.”

I laughed hysterically, probably louder than necessary, as we walked back to the bar. Other people had gotten up to join in on the dancing, and that meant one thing—more champagne. I was going to have a killer headache in the morning, but whatever. It would be worth it.

Heidi meandered us back over to her work crowd, and I stood with my back to the dancing catastrophe going on behind me. Julia did seem pretty chill. She was almost as tall as Heidi with mahogany-brown hair to her shoulders, and she had on a pretty green dress. I was figuring out more about her job as the head of HR when Heidi’s face broke into a smile in front of me.

Not good.

“Landon!” Heidi called.

She waved at him, and I wanted to bury my face in my hands and disappear. Sometimes, my best friend was the worst.

“Hey Heidi,” Landon said, appearing at my side. He leaned forward and pulled her into a hug. “Good to see you as always.”

“Congratulations on your latest PGA win,” Heidi said with a smile.

“Thanks. I appreciate that. I’ve had a pretty good year.”

And there I stood as they talked about his normal year, as if I didn’t exist. I was less than a foot away from him, and he hadn’t said a word to me. He was engrossed in his conversation with Heidi.

With a deep breath, I chanced a glance at him. He looked…exactly the same. Except not.

Same tall body with chiseled features. Same clean-cut look with the dark hair and puppy-dog eyes. But he looked drained and downtrodden. The last time I’d seen him was at the stupid five-year high school reunion party that Heidi had forced me into going to because she had been the student body vice president. I’d gone in protest and reverted to my Vans skate shoes and oversize T-shirt. Heidi had hated it. But Landon had looked as sharp as ever. He hadn’t lost his luster then. I wondered what had happened.

I seemed to have missed part of the conversation while staring at him…or maybe it was due to my buzz. But Landon was now holding his hand out to me. I furrowed my brows and stared at it.

“Sorry. I don’t believe we’ve met,” he said with his classic nonchalant attitude.

Heidi laughed next to me, but I couldn’t even turn to look at her. Is this happening?

“Seriously, Landon?” I drawled with disdain.

Landon’s eyes widened, and he instantly dropped his hand. “Emery?”

“In the flesh.”

He opened his mouth like a fish out of water. It was nice to see a flustered Wright brother. “I didn’t even recognize you.”

“Um…thanks?” I couldn’t decide if that was an insult.

My ex-boyfriend couldn’t even recognize me. Awesome.

I finally turned to face Heidi. She looked like she was about to combust.

“How much makeup am I wearing?”

“No, I’m sorry. That was rude,” Landon said, reeling it back in. “I recognized your voice right away. At least, the way you said my name. I just…wasn’t expecting you to be here, is all.”

“Yeah, I showed up with Heidi at the last minute.”

Landon nodded, but he was still staring at me, as if I were a strange lab rat he was about to dissect. “Are you back in town for the holidays?”

“Maybe permanently.”

“Permanently?” he said with raised eyebrows.

I shrugged. “We’ll see. I’m back from college at the moment.”

“Huh. Who would have guessed you would come back to Lubbock?”

And, right then and there, I remembered why I’d wanted to punch him in his pretty face. He was the one who had left me and made me feel like a pariah in my own hometown. He couldn’t turn the tables around on me, as if I were the one who had left on my own.

But, instead, I giggled through the champagne buzz.

“I’m pretty sure, no one. Ever,” I said dryly.

“There you are, honey,” a woman said, walking up behind Landon and latching on to his arm. She was taller than me in heels with a bleach-blonde bob and glamorous makeup. She was good-looking in an overdone sort of way. “I’ve been looking for you.”

“Oh, Miranda,” Landon said, his face falling. “I was just talking to some old friends from high school.”

“Well, introduce me, lover boy. Your friends are my friends, of course.”

I caught Landon’s grimace, and suddenly, his downtrodden expression made sense if he had to deal with her every day.

“Y’all, this is my wife, Miranda. Miranda, this is Heidi and”—he cleared his throat and apologetically glanced at me—“Emery.”

Miranda eyed me up and down, as if she were sizing me up for a Miss America competition. “Emery. Like…Emery?”

“The one and only,” I muttered.

“Your ex-girlfriend is here, and you didn’t even tell me?” Miranda hissed.

“He didn’t know I would be here,” I said, stepping in for him for a reason I couldn’t fathom. “I came with a friend.”

Miranda didn’t seem to hear me, or she didn’t care. She turned on her heel and fled in the opposite direction.

Landon rolled his eyes and then scowled. “Sorry, y’all. I’ve got to…” He nodded his head after Miranda and then jogged to catch up with her.

My eyes widened with shock. Heidi’s mouth was hanging open.

“Wow, what a bitch!” Heidi said.

“You’re telling me.”

“At least we know one thing.”

“What’s that?”

“You’re way prettier!” Heidi said, holding up her glass for a toast.