Just One of the Groomsmen

by Cindi Madsen

  There was just something different about manual labor, gym or not.

  He’d been wanting an excuse to stop while telling himself he couldn’t start his own business and make it successful by taking half a day off partway through the week when his phone had rung.

  “So, you know how you’re a bum now?” Addie had asked the second he’d picked up.

  Glad for a legitimate reason to take a break, he’d dropped his tools and leaned against the wall of the shed. “Really? A bum?”

  Her laugh had carried over the line and made him smile. “It’s my day off, but Lexi roped me into helping her plan the wedding—”

  “She asked you to help with wedding stuff?” It was too funny, picturing her picking out dresses and flowers—hell, he bet if any guy tried to buy her flowers, she’d hurl them at his head while yelling something like, How dare you treat me like a girl!

  “Okay, Mr. Incredulous, I had the same reaction, but apparently, much like Obi-Wan Kenobi, I’m someone’s only hope. And it’d help me not be so bored if you came along for the ride.”

  Damn, how could he resist such a solid Star Wars reference?

  Not that he wouldn’t make her work a little harder for it. “What’s in it for me?”

  She made an offended noise. “You get to hang out with yours truly, and we might actually get a chance to catch up without being interrupted every five minutes—well, since we’ll be in town, that’s not entirely true, but you get what I’m sayin’. Plus, we can give the rumor mill a push and scare all the older people that we’re together again and most likely plannin’ shenanigans. They’ll bar up the windows, bring their pies in off the sills.”

  “So we’re bears?”

  She growled, the weakest-sounding bear ever, then snort-laughed. “Pretend I didn’t do that.”

  “Not sure I can unhear it.” He’d glanced down at himself, thinking he could use a shower. You know, for shenanigans reasons.

  Not because he cared about being sweaty and covered in sawdust in front of Addie.

  He’d told her he’d meet her in thirty, and he even wore the beat-up Saints hat she loathed to keep himself in line.

  Maybe that would also keep her in line, which was a moot point, because she didn’t seem to be having any trouble.

  The shops lining the streets appeared very much the same. A few had new paint and new names, but not much had changed. Not much ever did here, and after years of too much change, too much traffic, and too many people, he took a moment to enjoy the slower pace and nostalgic timelessness.

  Then he spotted Addie. She’d paired a simple T-shirt with frayed, cut-off shorts that displayed a whole lot of leg, and he quickly jerked his gaze back to the unchanged buildings.

  Now if he could only keep his feelings for one of his best friends from changing, that’d be great. Apparently it was going to take extra effort.

  “How do you feel about the fact that I’m only here because I had literally nothing else to do?” he joked as she approached.

  “Relieved,” she said, without a hint of teasing. “I thought maybe Nonna Lucia would wanna help, but she informed me she has a social life and then added that I needed to get one, too.”

  “Real subtle, your grandma.”

  “Right?” Addie pulled a folded paper out of the back pocket of the shorts that he absolutely wasn’t looking at. “Okay, so first up, I need to figure out how many strings of lights and yards of tulle we need to decorate the gazebo.” She looked from the list to the gazebo and then back to the list. “I’m assuming yards means tulle is a fabric?”

  He shrugged. “Sounds right to me,” he said, although he was totally out of his league, a feeling he could see reflected in Addie’s expression.

  She twisted the end of her ponytail around her finger. “So, uh, that means, like…draping?”

  “Well, when we decorated with tulle at the law firm…” He moved closer to peek at the list, but further details didn’t magically show up. “I guess we draw a diagram with the dimensions?”

  “Seems as good a place to start as any. And since I figured your sissy car wouldn’t have room for things like a tape measure and tools, I brought mine.”

  “One, leave my car alone, and two, it just so happens I do have one in there.” Partly due to his recent habit of measuring supplies, and since he thought he might pick up more while he was in town. “A few more months, though, and I would’ve fully completed my city boy transformation.”

  “Sounds like you got out in the nick of time,” she said with a laugh, and then they walked up the steps of the gazebo and got to measuring.

  “How are things with your job, by the way? Still bumpy, or has it smoothed out?” Every time he brought up work over the phone, she either said she didn’t want to talk about it or she ranted about her boss.

  “Bumpy with a side of grr. Moody Overlord wants everything done his way, even though it’s the old-school way. Modern medicine has grown leaps and bounds since he got his degree, but any attempts to drag him into the present result in a power struggle, and in the end, I work for him. Unfortunately.” She hooked the tape measure on one of the side sections and extended it to him so he could take it to the other end. “What about you? Any idea what you’re gonna do now?”

  “I’ve got something in the works.”

  “And that something is…?”

  “You’ll be the first to know when I decide if it’s actually something.” If anyone knew what it was like to be unhappy at a job but to grit your teeth and power through it anyway, it was him. Until recently. “How often do you go home hating your job?”

  She shrugged. “I don’t hate the job. I just wish I had a different boss. Mr. Watkins is condescending and hard to please, and he never thinks anyone does anything as well as he does. The other day he walked into the room where I was working on a patient, instructed me to step aside, then told the guy ‘sometimes women just aren’t strong enough to manipulate the muscles the way they need to.’ I was so tempted to tell him that I’d happily manipulate his muscles. Since his head is figuratively up his ass, I might as well help him with the literally.”

  Tucker chuckled. “I’m surprised you held back.”

  “I like eating, not having to live with my parents, and paying the bills. I mean, I don’t so much like paying them, but you get what I’m sayin’. It means a lot of counting to ten while I control my temper, and you know that’s never been my strong point.”

  “I’d say boy, do I know, but then you might lose your temper.”

  She let go of the tape measure and it came reeling back and snapped his finger. Case in point.

  “We’ll just call that Exhibit A.” He gave her the measurements to jot down and then moved to the next section of the gazebo, taking the end of the tape so she’d get her finger snapped if he let go. “Wasn’t the goal always to become a sports therapist for a team?”

  “Yeah, but then my grandma had pulmonary emboli in her lungs, and right after she stopped having to constantly go in to get her blood checked, she fell and broke her hip. It was like every time I went to search for a job, I got proof that even a thirty- to forty-minute commute to Auburn might be too far.”

  “She’s stable now, yeah?”

  “Well, yeah. But once in a while her combo of meds hits her wrong.”

  “She has your parents, and I can check in on her, too. I know Ford and the rest of the guys would say the same. You can’t hold off doing what you want forever. I quit my shitty job, and besides the total lack of stability, I feel great!” He added a laugh to show he was mostly joking, and she joined in.

  “It’s the middle of the season, and—”

  “So? Put out some feelers. It doesn’t hurt to see.”

  She sighed. “You’re right. Working for the overlord was always supposed to be temporary. I do like the clients, though, so if I don’t get a
nother job, I’ll focus on that.”

  “Look at you. All sunshiny and shit.”

  She rolled her eyes. He wanted her to find something she loved with people who realized how great she was, and she’d be amazing at working with a team.

  His eyebrows drew together as he realized he’d just pushed her to get a job that would make her less accessible. But it was only a half hour or so drive each way, one they’d all made in college, and they’d managed to squeeze in time. On top of studying, no less.

  She’d still be living here, and she’d be happier. Win, win.

  “Tucker Crawford, just the person I was looking for!” Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Nellie Mae striding toward him, and were those dollar bills in her hand?

  Instinctively every muscle tensed, then ached, thanks to the stiffness he was starting to believe would never go away.

  Faye Dunville was right on her heels, a large, leashed pig reluctantly following her with each tug. “Oh, no you don’t. He needs to hear my side of the story, too.”

  “Her pig ate half the food in my garden,” Nellie Mae blurted out.

  “I told her she needed to fix her fence, but she didn’t listen. I can’t help that my animal does what animals do.”

  “You’re responsible for what your pig does! And if you’re not, I can’t be responsible for what I do to your pig.”

  Faye gasped, her free hand going to her chest. “You wouldn’t dare!”

  “Oh, I would.”

  They both directed their full attention to Tucker, and he glanced at Addie, who, instead of helping, had the gall to look amused.

  If he didn’t know better, he’d think someone had dropped him in the middle of an overly dramatic play.

  “Y’all know I’m not a judge, right?” Tucker asked, not sure why they’d brought their feud to him.

  “I want to sue her pig for damages lost,” Nellie Mae said. “I’ve kept records of it—pictures and dates—so I know I have a strong case.”

  The image of a pig sitting on the witness stand popped into his head and then a snort-laugh escaped.

  That sent Addie laughing, and then they were both getting the type of glares they used to get when running down the sidewalks of town too fast. And only a few of those times had been because they were fleeing the scene of a crime.

  Okay, maybe more than a few.

  Faye crossed her arms and glared at him, and he clamped his lips. “And I wanna restrainin’ order that keeps Nellie Mae from comin’ within a hundred yards of my house.”

  “My house is within a hundred yards of her house.”

  Well, he’d decided he was sick of wading through evidence of people’s guilt and trying to find loopholes to get them off anyway, and this was definitely a change from the norm.

  Small-town life might be less quiet than he’d remembered, but he could honestly say that one day was never quite like the next.

  Not that he planned on getting involved. Not in the legal drama or any other form of drama.

  “Ladies,” he started, “haven’t you heard the rumors ’bout me gettin’ fired from my law firm?”

  “We’ll have to make do with you anyway, seeing’s how we don’t exactly have a surplus of good lawyers round here,” Nellie Mae responded, sending Addie into another fit of giggles that earned her an admonishing glare. “And I realize that suing the pig is probably a far stretch, but Faye and I’ve been neighbors goin’ on forty years, and until this hog came along, we used to live in harmony. But if he keeps on eating my food, I should get to eat him.”

  Faye gasped, then dropped down to cover the pig’s ears.

  “Well, that escalated quickly,” Addie mumbled.

  He widened his eyes at her—he needed to de-escalate the situation, not laugh and make it worse. She gave him a what-can-you-do shrug.

  He did his best to telepathically plead for help, and Addie finally stepped up next to him and flashed the women a big smile. “Now, ladies, I know you guys care about each other—”

  “Guys? Not all of us like to be called guys, missy.”

  Addie’s smile turned plastic and a smidge forced. “Oh, yeah? Not all of us like—”

  “I think what Addie’s saying,” he loudly cut in, “is that we’d both hate to see your friendship ruined over something like this. I’m not currently taking cases, and—”

  “Lucia told us that she has you on retainer, and in fact, she’s the one who told us if we needed any legal help, we should find you. Which reminds me, here’s your retainer.” Nellie Mae extended two crumpled bills. “She said you were much better than those other two schmucks we have.”

  Faye quickly pulled out two dollar bills, batted away Nellie Mae’s hand, and waved her money at Tucker. “No, take mine. I have a much stronger case.”

  Of course Addie’s grandmother had gone and told them he’d help with their legal issues, although the compliment about being better than the others was nice, he supposed.

  Addie gave another one of those absolving shrugs.

  “The business I’m conducting for Lucia Murphy isn’t anything that would require going to court.”

  “You mean you sure hope it doesn’t lead to that,” Addie muttered and then zipped her lips when he darted a glare at her.

  He returned his attention to the fired-up women, who were still shoving each other’s arms down in an attempt to get him to take their money first. “How about we call in Deputy Reeves and see if among all of us, we can’t come up with a good solution?”

  They grumbled about it but reluctantly agreed, and he made them go sit on park benches on opposite sides of the town square.

  Tucker took off his hat, ran a hand through his hair, and then settled it back on his head. “Somehow when I was daydreaming about moving back to my calm, carefree town, where everyone knew everyone, I repressed these type of ridiculous situations and how often they happen.”

  Addie clapped him on the back. “Welcome back to Uncertainty, Tucker Crawford. Where the only certainty is that some inane thing will get blown out of proportion and send people into a tizzy. But hey, at least we go the unique route. How many pig cases did you solve in Birmingham?”

  “You’d be surprised.”

  Her forehead crinkled before smoothing with the realization he’d been pulling her leg. She went for her usual retribution, going to smack his arm. Only he was ready for it and caught her wrist, and when her lips parted in surprise, a swirling, zinging sensation shot through his gut.

  “How long is this gonna take?” Nellie Mae called from her bench with a huff. “I have things to do.”

  “If you’ll excuse me,” Tucker said, slowly letting go of Addie’s wrist and trying not to think about how soft her skin felt beneath his fingertips or the strange urge he had to pull her closer. “Looks like I have some funny business to attend to. What are the odds Easton won’t just laugh and leave me out to dry?”

  Addie stuck her hands in her back pockets, and of course it made her shirt stretch tighter across her breasts, another part of her body he shouldn’t be noticing. “He deals with those bickering two all the time, so he’ll be good backup, if a little slow to show. Now you’re gettin’ a taste of my life here—usually I’m asked health questions I’m nowhere near qualified to answer, so this should give me a nice break.”

  “Hey, Addison,” Faye called. “While we’re waitin’, could you be a dear and come look at my hip? It’s been acting strange lately.”

  “Then again, maybe not.”

  Tucker gestured her ahead of him, realizing too late that it put him in the perfect position to watch her backside and those long legs cutting across the distance. More and more, it felt like he was seeing her for the first time, yet he still had all the good memories attached, too, which made it hard to feel neutral or suppress feelings he shouldn’t be having.

  Couldn�
�t be having.

  The flicker of attraction remained in the background, though, so evidently he was going to need to find a more effective method than mentally telling himself to knock it off.

  …

  Addie’s phone rang while she was seated on her couch with her laptop, scrolling through job positions online. When she saw her sister’s name, she debated a moment on whether or not to answer. Then she felt guilty and quickly accepted the call. “Hey, what’s up?”

  She braced herself, waiting for Alexandria to tell her that she’d found a stain on her dress, even though after Nonna had worked her magic, Addie couldn’t see a single speck of dirt.

  Maybe the lace had frayed?

  “I talked to Mom earlier, and she says you’re dating a dentist now. I’m glad, because honestly, I was starting to worry about you.”

  “No reason to worry about me.” Addie didn’t know what else to say to that. If she asked why she was concerned, her sister would probably list off so many items that her phone’s low battery would cut off the conversation before she finished.

  “I do, though. You’re always with your group of guys, and no one’s going to approach you because of them. You realize that, don’t you?”

  “How do you know the dentist didn’t approach me while I was with my friends?”

  Alexandria sighed this my-sister-is-so-clueless sigh. “I just know. But please, enlighten me if I’m wrong.”

  The temptation to lie was strong, but Alexandria always managed to see through even a hint of falseness, and becoming a mom had only heightened her ability. “Fine. I coach his niece, and then one day when I was running errands, we got to talking, and he asked me out.”

  “Has he seen you in something other than your workout gear?”

  “I wore jeans on our date. Dressy ones, too,” she quickly said before Alexandria could tell her jeans weren’t good enough, not when you needed to convince guys you weren’t as masculine as they were—yeah, she’d literally said that before, after Addie was upset and wondering why her college boyfriend broke up with her without a word of explanation.