The Bridal Squad Read online

  Tears burned her eyes and she looked down in hopes that he didn’t notice.

  But he did.

  Tucking a finger under her chin, he gently forced her to look at him. “I hate to see you cry,” he said softly. “I’ve always hated to see you cry.”

  It would be so easy to reach out and touch him – to hold his hand to hers and just…feel.

  But she couldn’t. Not right now. It was…it was all too much.

  Brushing his hand away, Natalie scrambled to her feet. “I…I can’t do this, Jayce. I need to go. I…I’m sorry.”

  He called her name but he didn’t follow her and as she made her way out the door and down the street, she wasn’t sure if she was happy about that or disappointed.

  ****

  “So I was thinking of someplace tropical for our honeymoon,” Gavin said later that afternoon. “Not a cruise or anything like that, but something like…”

  “Hawaii,” Julianne murmured from her spot on the couch. She was lying down with a cold cloth on her forehead, her feet propped up and cursing her own stupidity. This was why they stopped going out and doing stupid things, she reminded herself. Because they weren’t as young as they used to be and too much alcohol and too much dancing meant too much pain the day after.

  “Hawaii? Huh,” Gavin said as he continued to scroll on his laptop. “That could be interesting.” He typed a bit and then let out a little hum. “I was thinking Mexico. You know, if we went to Belize we could see the Mayan ruins. I think that could be amazing too. A little sightseeing, a little history, a little…no, wait. Was I thinking Cancun? We can totally still do Cancun and see the ruins. How cool would that be, Jules?”

  It occurred to her how they kept putting off deciding where they were going on their honeymoon. And as much as she knew they needed to make this decision, right now it seemed to make her brain hurt even more. Was he seriously looking up facts about Cancun right now? She cleared her throat a little. “Um…what are you looking at?”

  “While you were out last night, I was watching the Travel Channel and saw a show on Fiji and it got me thinking.” He shrugged. “We keep casually mentioning destinations, but we really haven’t narrowed anything down. So what do you think? Tropical?”

  “I can totally do tropical,” she said quietly as she forced herself to sit up a little.

  “Okay,” he said with a grin and she knew him – knew he was typing up a chart of some sort to list their must-haves. He was a total dork like that but she had to admit, they always ended up with exactly what they wanted because of those crazy lists. “Domestic or international?”

  “Domestic,” she said. “We’re on borrowed time now and booking somewhere too far away might put some pressure on our budget.”

  “Good point.” He typed some more. “And you were thinking…Hawaii?”

  And suddenly an image of them getting married on the beach at sunset flashed in her mind. No one telling her what to do, no dresses to fuss about, no catering menus to fuss over, no arguing over guest lists…she sighed.

  Gavin stopped typing and looked at her. “You okay? You need more ibuprofen?”

  “What? Oh…um, no. I’m good, just…no, I’m good.”

  With a patient smile, Gavin put his laptop aside and came to sit beside her on the sofa. He caressed her cheek with the back of his fingers – something Julianne loved – and waited her out. He was good like that.

  “Fine…when you mentioned Hawaii, I envisioned us getting married there,” she said quietly, solemnly. Hell, she couldn’t even look directly at him because she was ashamed that she was even thinking such things!

  “You mean like a destination wedding? We invite everyone to come to Hawaii and watch us get married there?”

  Then she did look at him and grimaced. “Not…exactly…”

  His dark brown eyes studied her for a minute as if merely looking at her was going to give him the answers. She finally took pity on him.

  “Like…eloping,” she said flatly.

  The shocked look he gave her just proved that sometimes they weren’t on the same page. No doubt the thought of eloping never crossed his mind.

  “I’m not saying that I’ve been thinking about it or anything, but…”

  “Would you?” he asked.

  “Would I what?”

  His hand stilled and he cupped her cheek. “Would you want to elope?”

  “Gavin, we can’t do that. My dress is ordered, the venue is booked…”

  Leaning in, he placed a gentle kiss on the tip of her nose before resting his forehead against hers. “Let me rephrase that – pretend that none of those other things existed…would you consider eloping?”

  Maybe she was crazy or still a little drunk, but she kind of got the feeling that he was asking for a reason – like maybe he was interested in eloping!

  “Jules,” he said, “there are no wrong answers here. It’s just me.”

  And she sighed. “Okay…if we didn’t have to deal with all the other stuff, I’d elope in a heartbeat.”

  Gavin pulled back and smiled before standing up. Julianne was just about to ask him what he thought of her admission, but he walked out of the room.

  What the hell?

  Gingerly, she got to her feet and went after him. In the kitchen, she found him texting. “Uh…Gavin?”

  Looking over his shoulder at her, he smiled. “Give me a minute.”

  Fine. In the meantime, she grabbed herself another bottle of water and downed half of it in one shot. The thought of feeling like this for class in the morning was not appealing, so she needed to hydrate as much as she possibly could. Her stomach growled and she took it as a good sign since for the first time all day, the thought of food didn’t make her want to hurl.

  “Any chance you can get someone to cover your Tuesday night class?” Gavin asked.

  She looked at him quizzically. “I suppose. Why?”

  “Our parents are coming for dinner,” he said with a grin.

  “Our parents? As in both sets?”

  He nodded.

  “Why?”

  “Because we’re calling off the wedding.”

  Fourteen

  “You are going to owe me big time for this!” Harper hissed as she walked into Julianne and Gavin’s house. “No Zumba, no warning and I see Mom and Dad’s car out there! You realize Brady’s with me, right?”

  Julianne nodded and looked out at the driveway where Brady was standing by his car. “Isn’t he coming in?”

  “He had a work call…”

  “From the gym?”

  Harper shook her head. “Something about the gaming job.”

  “I think it’s a little weird that you still don’t know more about that. Aren’t you curious?”

  “I guess I am but…I don’t know. He doesn’t talk about it much and when he does, I don’t really understand it so I just let it go. It’s not a big deal.”

  “Oh…well…okay.”

  “So what’s with the last-minute secret dinner? Why didn’t you give me more of a heads up?”

  “Sunday I was just…ugh…I was a mess.”

  Harper let out an evil laugh. “Serves you right.”

  “Yeah, yeah, yeah…I know. Anyway, Sunday was a wash and then Gavin and I had some stuff to take care of on Monday and my work schedule was crazy and…sorry. Time just got away from me.”

  Harper’s eyes narrowed as she looked at her sister. “You’re lying. You’re totally lying!”

  Julianne’s hand instantly flew up to cover Harper’s mouth. “Would you shut up?”

  Her words were muffled when she tried to speak up and it ticked her off even more when Julianne shushed her again.

  “Okay, listen,” Julianne said in hushed tones, “Gavin and I had some…revelations about the wedding and we wanted to talk to everyone about it.” Slowly, she removed her hand.

  “Revelations? What the hell…”

  Julianne’s hand instantly went back up over her mouth. “I swear to yo
u…if you don’t keep it down I will sit you right next to Mom!”

  Harper instantly stilled and glared at her sister. This time when Julianne removed her hand, Harper kept her questions to herself. Partly because she was getting tired of having her words muffled and partly because Brady was at the door. The sisters stepped aside to let him in.

  “Hey, Brady!” Julianne said with a smile that Harper suspected was a bit forced and made a mental note to make a lunch date so that the two of them could talk. Clearly there was a lot more going on with her sister than she realized and she had a sneaking suspicion it was partly because they hadn’t been spending a lot of time together like they used to. Between her new relationship with Brady and Julianne being busy with her normal schedule, they hadn’t planned any sister time.

  “Hey, Jules,” he said. “I’m sure your students are going to be missing you tonight.”

  Harper stepped back and listened to the two of them talk about the gym and on the surface, it all seemed fine, but the more she studied her sister, the more she simply confirmed that something was up – and it had nothing to do with the wedding.

  “Oh, Harper, there you are!”

  The groan that came out was probably only heard by Brady and Julianne, but as her mother made her way over, Harper seriously questioned how wise it was to accept the invitation to dinner tonight.

  “Hi, Mom,” she said, pasting a smile on her own face. “How are you?”

  “Fine, fine, fine,” Melinda said as she walked over and began to play with Harper’s hair. “You’re going to get your hair cut soon, aren’t you? It’s getting awfully long.”

  And there it was. This could almost be a new record – first insult hurled in the first minute. Awesome.

  “Harper’s got great hair,” Brady said as he stepped in close. His arm banded around her waist and she was so thankful for him. Leaning in to him, she drew a little strength from him. She looked up at him and then looked at her mother who was standing a little wide-eyed.

  “Thank you,” Harper said softly when she looked back up at him. He leaned down and kissed her cheek.

  “Well, um…it is very pretty but…it could use a trim,” Melinda said primly. Then she looked between her two daughters. “Why are we standing in the doorway?”

  “Harper and Brady just got here,” Julianne said, “and we just hadn’t had a chance to move beyond this spot.”

  “Oh…well…Gavin’s getting drinks for everyone so why don’t we move inside?” Melinda said.

  It irked Harper to no end that she was coming in blind to this situation. Normally, Julianne told her everything. What was this big wedding revelation? What was the big deal? What was her issue with Brady? Her mind was spinning and she was beyond thankful for Gavin’s parents being there because it took some of the attention off of her so her mother had other people to focus on.

  Conversation was fairly mundane as they all gathered in the kitchen while Julianne finished putting the meal together and Harper kept trying to figure out what was going on. It obviously wasn’t anything bad like Julianne and Gavin breaking up because they were just as loving and adorable as ever so that was off the list. It was possible they wanted to go a little bit bigger with the guest list. Harper remembered Julianne complaining how there were some friends and coworkers she and Gavin hadn’t been able to invite due to seating limitations at the venue. A possibility, but nothing that required a family pow-wow.

  Beside her, Brady leaned down and whispered in her ear. “You’re frowning. And I’ve managed to keep your mom distracted by redirecting her every time she even looks this way. So what gives?”

  Taking him by the hand, she led him out to the back deck and slid the doors closed behind them. “I’m trying to figure out why we’re here.”

  He looked at her oddly. “Um…because your sister invited us.”

  She rolled her eyes. “I don’t mean it like that,” she huffed. “Something’s up. This isn’t just a casual little get-together. Julianne said there’s been some sort of…revelation about the wedding and I’m racking my brain trying to figure out what it could be.”

  He shrugged. “Can’t be anything too bad, I mean…look at them. Everyone’s laughing and smiling and it’s probably just good news.”

  “Maybe…” She studied him and then looked back toward the sliding glass doors. “Can I ask you something?”

  “Sure,” he said with a smile.

  “You and Julianne…you get along, right?”

  He gave her another odd look. “Yeah. Why?”

  Okay, now what? “It’s…it’s nothing. I’m just…my mind’s all over the place right now. Don’t mind me.”

  Luckily, he didn’t argue and when Gavin opened the door to tell them dinner was ready, Harper breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe now they’d get some answers!

  Midway through dinner, she realized that unless someone prompted them, Gavin and Julianne weren’t in any rush to talk about the wedding.

  And she opted to be the one to prompt them.

  “So, how are the wedding plans going?” she asked, loud enough that conversation around the table quieted.

  Julianne looked at her with a total WTF glare and Gavin just smirked.

  “Yes, Julianne,” their mother said as she picked up her wine glass. “We have to finalize the flower order and I made an appointment with the caterer for Wednesday afternoon to discuss what we’d like to see for the cocktail hour. I was thinking since it’s going to be…”

  “You really should have talked to me about that first, Mom,” Julianne said and Harper found herself sitting up a little bit straighter.

  Melinda smiled serenely. “I checked on your schedule at the gym so I knew you’d be free. I already have the list prepared for what I’d like served but you’ll need to look it over, of course, and give the final approval.”

  “You need to cancel the appointment,” Julianne said firmly, but there was a slight tremor in her voice.

  “Nonsense, it won’t take long at all,” their mother countered. “And I spoke to Hailey over at Enchanted and it looks like they were able to locate the dress I originally wanted. Of course, with all the help I gave her, I probably should have just done it myself. Either way, it will be in on Saturday so I’d love it if you and Harper could come with me for the fitting.”

  “Wait,” Harper said. “What happened to the dress you decided on a couple of weeks ago?”

  Melinda shrugged. “It wasn’t what I wanted. I wanted the dress from yours and Dom’s wedding…or rather…your almost wedding.”

  If it wasn’t for Brady squeezing her hand under the table she would have bolted from the room and probably from the house. But his grip was strong enough to let her know he was there for her. Again.

  “Mom,” Julianne said wearily, “that was beyond rude.”

  “What was?” Melinda asked. “I explained to Hailey that no matter how nice that other gown was, it wasn’t the one I wanted. And after all, my daughter’s only going to get married once, so I wanted to have the perfect gown.”

  Harper pulled her hand from Brady’s and stood up, kicking her chair out from under her. Everyone looked at her and she just didn’t care. She was done. Like it wasn’t enough that she had to deal with the failure of her past relationships, but she would never be free to move on when her own mother seemed to want nothing more than to keep throwing them back in her face.

  When she turned to walk away, Brady called out to her, her father called out to her and Julianne stood up and shouted, “Gavin and I are calling off the wedding!”

  ****

  You could have heard a pin drop.

  For about three seconds.

  Then all hell broke loose.

  Julianne looked across the table at Gavin and caught his grin and did her best not to smile back. Right now, she was furious. Livid! And after listening to her mother’s careless remarks, she knew she and Gavin had made the right decision.

  “What do you mean you’re calling off the wed
ding?”

  “Do you have any idea how much money we’ve laid out?”

  “This is ridiculous! What are we supposed to tell people?”

  “Are the two of you breaking up?”

  Questions were coming at them without any breath to answer them. Julianne caught Harper’s eye and tried to convey how sorry she was, for not speaking up sooner, for not telling her what was going on, for…well…for putting her in a position tonight where she had to deal with this mess in front of Brady.

  Slowly, Julianne sank back down into her seat and she was relieved when Brady reached out and convinced Harper to sit back down as well. She looked across the table at Gavin and motioned for him to explain.

  “I have been in love with Julianne since the tenth grade,” he began and Julianne blushed. “It took me a long time to convince her to go out with me and I swore that once she said yes, I’d never let her go.”

  “We all know this, Gavin,” his mother said. “We don’t understand what’s happening right now.”

  He gave his mother a patient smile and took a sip of his wine before continuing. “When we got engaged, we both knew we were ready to get married. We just weren’t ready for planning a wedding.”

  “That makes no sense,” Melinda said with a snort of disgust. “Everyone knows that to get married you have to plan a wedding. These things don’t happen overnight.” She looked at Julianne. “And you more than anyone should know that because you watched your sister go through three of them!”

  “Okay, that is enough!” Harper shouted before Julianne had a chance to. She looked at their mother and Julianne could see the anger and the hurt and the frustration just radiating off of her. “I am getting so tired of your little digs about my past!”

  “They’re not digs, Harper…”

  “Yes, they are! Do you realize that I never planned any wedding?”

  Melinda looked at her as if she were crazy. “Harper, you were engaged three times…”

  Harper nodded vigorously. “Oh, I know, Mom. Believe me, I know. When Johnny asked me to marry him, we were still in high school. He gave me a ring that turned my finger green and we never planned a damn thing. When Dom and I got engaged – if you’ll remember correctly – he proposed on Christmas and I caught him cheating on me two days before Valentine’s Day. We never once started planning anything for a wedding. You saw a dress in a magazine and that’s about the only wedding talk we had.”