CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
Wake up, sleepyhead! I have a dress for you to wear today.” Maeve swished into my room wearing a pretty wraparound dress covered in yellow flowers.
“What?” I sat up, my hair a rat’s nest on my head. Every muscle in my body let me know that it was sore and very unhappy about being overused the day before.
She held up a blue halter-neck dress. “A dress. For you to wear. Mack bought it for you in town, along with these sandals.” She held up a pair of darker blue slip-ons in her other hand.
I stared at the dress’s simple lines, flowing material, and low neckline. It’s exactly what I would have picked myself if I’d done the shopping, perfect for a sunny day in Baker City. “I . . . can’t wear that.”
“Why ever not?” She looked at it critically.
“Because . . . what if it doesn’t fit?”
She draped it over a chair and put the shoes on the floor nearby. “He looked on the tags of your clothes. I’m sure it will fit. You have a beautiful figure.”
“Have you seen my butt?” I asked, swinging my legs out off the side of the bed and staring at the floor. Every square inch of my body was aching, from my scalp to the bottom of my feet. I’d never felt so wasted in all my life. No wonder Mack has such a killer body. What a frigging workout.
She smiled; I could hear it in her voice. “I happen to know that men like bountiful figures, so even though yours could stand a few more pounds on it, I think you’re going to do just fine with . . . the men of Baker City.”
I looked up at her, my expression broadcasting the shame in my heart. “I have some bad news about the picnic.”
She stopped in her fussing around the room. “Oh yes? What’s that?”
“My fiancé, soon to be ex-fiancé, is on his way out here. I’m surprised he isn’t here yet. I’m pretty sure you won’t want either one of us at your party when that happens.”
“Nonsense. Any friend of yours is a friend of ours.” She moved some picture frames around on the dresser as if they’d be much better off being one inch more to the right or left.
“You don’t understand,” I explained. “He’s coming to take me back, but I’m going to break up with him and go back on my own. I’m canceling the wedding. It’s going to be ugly.”
She turned her head and grinned at me. She actually grinned, like my life falling apart was funny. I frowned, wondering why she’d be so happy about it. Maybe I’d misjudged her friendliness.
“I’m sure it’ll be fine. As soon as he gets a taste of Grandma Lettie’s beef brisket he’ll settle right down and stay for pie. And I’ve made pecan and apple, so he’ll be too full to give you a hard time.”
Now her happiness made sense. She hadn’t met Bradley yet.
I stood, shuffling over to the door. “You are living in a really nice fantasy world. Are you taking on immigrants? I’d like to move in.”
She smiled, walking past me out into the hallway. “You are always welcome in my fantasy world. Or my real one for that matter.” She left me, headed toward the stairs. “We could use your help downstairs whenever you’re ready. We have almost a hundred people on their way, and we still don’t have all the tables out.”
“What?!” Guilt overwhelmed me. Here I’d been sleeping all morning while everyone else worked. What an asshole.
I heard laughter and then the voices of men shouting instructions to each other coming through the front door.
“Shit,” I said, going back to grab the dress and some underwear before running on tiptoes into the bathroom. Time to shower, shave, and get with the program, Andie. You can be an asshole and break everyone’s hearts later.
I caught a glimpse of Mack coming up the stairs as I closed the door. I locked it and waited for him to come close. When the sound of his footsteps stopped outside the door, I spoke, using my most commanding tone. “Don’t even think of sneaking in here again, Mack. I know you’re out there. I have to shower and shave so I can help.”
“I wouldn’t dream of interfering with that.” He was messing with me, I could tell. I held onto the lock just in case he was trying to jimmy it open. “I just came up to see if you needed anything else.”
“No. I’m fine.” I bit my lip, wrestling with myself, embarrassed and touched that he’d gone out of his way for me. “And thanks for the dress. And the shoes. That was . . . very thoughtful.”
“I’m a thoughtful guy. I’ll be downstairs waiting for you.”
“Don’t wait for me,” I said, resting my head on the door.
“Don’t make me wait too long this time,” he said, ignoring the double meaning in my words. Or maybe he was giving me some of his own. His mouth was just a door’s width away. I could picture his full lips and the feel of his tongue on mine. I rested my hand against the wood, knowing I could just let him in and feel him inside me once more before it was all over. The temptation was driving me insane.
“Why can’t you just let me go?” I asked, almost pleading. This was the dumbest place in the world to be having this conversation, but that was just par for the course with me, I guess. Careless is as careless does.
“I can’t let you go because you’re mine. And because I can’t stand to see you sad. I’m going to fix that. You sure you don’t need me in there right now? I could cheer you up real quick, I promise.”
I could picture the devilish smile on his face, and I couldn’t help but respond in kind.
“I might be wallowing in misery, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to be dead-ass lame and not help with your family’s once-a-year picnic. Stop trying to distract me.”
“That’s the spirit. Grandma Lettie’s coming with her beef brisket, you know.”
I giggled. “So I heard.”
“Well, hurry up, then. Those tables aren’t going to put themselves out.”
My heart was soaring over the teasing we were enjoying together. He made the atmosphere that had threatened to suffocate me ten times lighter, and his attitude made me believe that life could be so much simpler and uncomplicated if I just said yes to what he was offering.
I was tempted to open the door and yank him in with me, but the sound of his whistling near the stairs stopped me. It was better that we didn’t do anything else to make my leaving any harder. My hand dropped away from the door, and I turned around, sighing.
Stepping into the warm shower, I couldn’t keep the smile off my face. I might be facing an apocalyptic event with Bradley showing up in the middle of everything and forcing a very public, very ugly break-up, but at least for now I had a pretty new dress to wear and a famous beef brisket to look forward to. What the hell is a beef brisket anyway?