“Larkin.”
Taylor’s urgent hiss came from the massage chair next to me. I lazily turned my head, cracking one eye open.
“What?” I mumbled, too sleepy and blissed out to bother with more than that. A trip to the spa was exactly what I needed this morning.
“Please tell me you did not come for a pedicure with unshaven legs.” Her expression was horrified as her eyes flicked from my bare legs to my eyes.
“Sure did.” I smiled at her, just to annoy her.
“Why would you do that?”
I chuckled. “Because I don’t care.”
Taylor huffed, giving me a long-suffering look, like she wasn’t sure why she put up with me.
Which was ridiculous. I was awesome. Obviously that was why she put up with me.
“Lark,” she said slowly. “You are getting married today.”
“Tay,” I drawled. “I am aware of that.”
“You cannot get married with hairy legs.”
I snorted. “Pretty sure I can do whatever the fuck I want on my wedding day.”
“Sounds about right to me,” Ellie said from my other side. “Isn’t the whole point of your wedding day that it’s your day?”
Taylor looked at Ellie like she’d betrayed her, and I laughed. The two of them had become fast friends, bonding over fashion and girly shit and whatever else they were interested in.
Which was wonderful, as far as I was concerned. My best friend and the woman who was about to be my sister-in-law getting along was great for me – as long as they didn’t rope me into going shopping, or putting on makeup, or any of that crap.
“But this is her wedding day,” Taylor hissed. “She’s supposed to look her best.”
“Her best is whatever she thinks it is,” my cousin Krista said, flinching as her technician scrubbed at her feet. “Oof. That tickles.”
“Right?” Ellie giggled, squirming in her seat as her own technician filed her toenails. “I can’t keep still.”
“And then there’s the wedding night,” Taylor continued, ignoring everyone else. “How can she consummate her marriage with hair on her legs?”
On her other side, Kristi, my store manager – and friend – chortled. “Consummate. That’s such a weird word.”
“I guess,” Ellie said, still trying to keep her giggles under control, “if my brother doesn’t mind, then that’s all that matters.”
“But how can he possibly be okay with marrying a Sasquatch?”
I laughed, the sound inappropriately loud, filling the small salon. Everyone stared at me, but I was too busy enjoying the joke to explain it.
“That’s President Sasquatch to you,” I finally said, when I’d calmed down enough.
Taylor looked at me like I had three heads. “Okay, fine,” she huffed. “But when he chooses not to kiss his bride, remember that it was your choice to show up with body hair.” She shuddered.
I smirked. “Oh, I’m definitely getting a kiss.”
And then some. Graham and I had a romantic honeymoon planned for the rest of this morning. We were headed off on a driving tour of Mexico. It had actually been Graham’s idea, a way of honoring the other man I’d loved. We were flying to Phoenix on Monday.
But until then, we were going to spend the weekend fucking like bunnies at our home in South Bay.
Graham had sold his house in Amityville, making a tidy profit that eventually became the down payment on our new beach house. As for my own little cottage, it hadn’t taken long to fix it up, with Gabe the hot contractor’s help. And it sold even quicker, with barely any work from Uncle Tom. Taylor had been right about its resale value.
I’d taken the money I’d gotten from the sale, as well as most of the money I had left from Daniel’s trust fund, and donated it. With some help from Krista, I found a charity that helps widows in poverty-stricken areas around the world, giving them the resources they needed to take care of their families and get back on their feet.
It felt good to give it away, to do some good. It felt like honoring Daniel’s legacy, in a weird way. I never would have become a widow, if I’d had any choice in the matter. But this felt like the best I could do with the hand I’d been dealt.
“Hey, speaking of kisses, did you hear about that famous baseball guy?” Kristi asked as she flipped through a gossip magazine.
“What famous baseball guy?” Taylor asked.
“Seth somebody or other.” Kristi shrugged. “I forgot his name. Jeff told me.”
“Seth Holt?” Ellie asked, an edge to her voice I’d never heard before. I looked over at her, curious. But she was staring at her own best friend like she was trying to set Krista’s curly red hair on fire.
For her part, Krista wouldn’t meet anyone’s eyes. “What about him?” she asked, sounding almost aggressively casual. She picked up the sparkly blue nail polish she’d picked out, twirling it between her fingers.
“Supposedly he’s coming back to live in South Bay.” My head pinged back to Kristi, who was wiggling her eyebrows. “Everyone in town is abuzz with the news.”
There was a crash, then the sound of breaking glass, and I looked around. Krista had dropped the nail polish bottle, shattering it into a thousand pieces on the hard tile floors and splattering sparkly blue polish everywhere.
“Sorry,” she whispered, sounding embarrassed. But her face was white, like she’d seen a ghost.
Ellie leaned over, rubbing Krista’s arm soothingly, while the technician began cleaning up the mess.
“But what does that have to do with kisses, anyway?” Ellie asked, though her eyes were still trained on Krista.
Weird.
Kristi chuckled. “Because who wouldn’t want to kiss that guy? Have you seen his lips?”
I grinned at her. “Does Jeff know you crush on baseball players?”
“Eh. What he doesn’t know will benefit him anyway.” Kristi grinned.
“How’s that?” Taylor asked.
Kristi and I exchanged a look of understanding. “Because it sets the mood,” I answered for her.
“That makes no sense.” Taylor’s nose scrunched up in confusion.
I shook my head, chuckling. “Just trust me.”
“But wouldn’t he get jealous?” she asked.
I shook my head. “Not if he’s the right guy,” I answered.
Kristi nodded. “He’ll trust you to fantasize, because he knows you’ll bring all that excitement back to him.”
I sighed contentedly. Somehow, I’d been lucky enough to find two such guys in my life. Daniel hadn’t minded when I got dreamy over, say, Michael Hutchence, or a young John Cusack. He’d just happily reaped the benefits. And though Graham occasionally got the green eyes of jealousy to match his physical ones, ultimately, he trusted that I loved him.
And oh, did I ever love him. I mean, we’d only known each other for three months, twenty-one days, and – I checked my watch – fourteen hours and forty-one minutes. And here we were, getting married already.
But if my time on this Earth had taught me anything, it was that life was unpredictable, and time, for all its immutability, still somehow managed to move too fast. You never knew what would happen. It was best to choose happiness when you had the chance.
Taylor looked unhappy. “But if he’s jealous, that shows that he cares, right?”
I narrowed my eyes, wondering why she’d latched onto this particular topic. She still hadn’t told me what was going on with her, or where she was staying, and honestly, I was starting to worry. It wasn’t like Taylor to keep secrets.
Kristi shrugged. “Every relationship is different. If it works for you, then that’s all that matters.”
Though I still felt uneasy about Taylor, I smiled. “That is the truth.”
“Quit gloating,” Ellie teased, smiling once more. “You’re already getting the best guy in the world.”
I sighed happily, because I really was.