The Funny Thing about Love: Feel Good Sweet Romance stories

by Laura Burton

  Regardless of how she felt about Taylor, she owed it to Layla to behave herself. But Onyx knew it wasn’t going to be easy.

  “What about the ties?” Josie asked.

  “The ties are going to match the bridesmaid dresses. Layla is waiting to pick those until she chooses her dress, but I think she’s decided on a blush pink. I just have to work my magic and find dresses that won’t make us all look like buffoons.”

  “But isn’t that what bridesmaid dresses are supposed do? Make us look ridiculous so we don’t upstage the bride?” Josie teased.

  “Not on my watch,” Onyx insisted. “My goal is to make all of us look fantastic.” Because there was no way she wanted to look like a buffoon around Taylor. Especially when she knew he was going to look flawless in that suit.

  She scolded herself for allowing herself to fantasize about Taylor again. She had to get a hold of herself. Because if she was caught drooling over Taylor, she was going to look like a fool in front of everyone. And she couldn’t have that.

  Layla walked from the dressing room, and Onyx gasped. The vintage lace gown fit Layla perfectly. Crystal beading adorned the empire waist, and the skirt swished loosely around her as she walked across the room. A slight train flowed behind. Onyx knew immediately when she saw Layla that they’d found the one. But she held back to allow Layla to come to that conclusion herself.

  Sure enough, when Layla stood on the platform, her fact lit up, and Onyx knew she’d been right. “I think this is it,” Layla said, her eyes glittering with the realization. It was a big moment every bride anticipated. To find the perfect dress. And this dress was indeed perfect for Layla.

  Onyx watched dreams come true every day for brides. It was why she’d opened her wedding dress shop. But would that moment ever come for Onyx? She’d been asking herself that question since she’d started her business. But she was beginning to lose hope that the magical day would ever come for her.

  And that thought broke her heart.

  Want to find out Onyx ever gets her happily ever after? Buy Kiss Me, Baby, One More Time to keep reading! My Book

  About the Author

  Cindy Ray Hale loves writing Young Adult Contemporary Romance and Clean Romance. She was born and raised in the hills of Tennessee and has moved all over the United States. She's finally settled down in a small town in the mountains of western Virginia. Want to be the first to know about a sale or a new release for Cindy's books? Visit www.cindyrayhale.com to join her newsletter or follow @CindyRayHale on Twitter. You can also follow her on BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/cindy-ray-hale

  Rules Don’t Apply by Mylissa Demeyere

  Rules Don’t Apply

  Copyright © 2020 by Mylissa Demeyere

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictionally.

  Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations,

  or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case

  of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  Cover art by: @ studioloco via depositphotos.com

  Cover design by: Blue Water Books

  Author photo: Lauren Buysse

  Edited by: Jenny Proctor and Jennifer Henkes

  PRINT ISBN:

  Created with Vellum

  Dedication

  To Lauren and Pieter. Falling in love is messy and confusing. But oh, what an adventure.

  -Chapter 1-

  The thing about weddings was they softened up even the hardest of hearts. Yes, even mine. Something odd and foreign tugged inside my chest. Most girls would be blubbering by now. Most were, by the sound of all the loud sniffles and nose-blowing around me. But not me. I was one of those rare few. The realist that didn’t believe in happily ever after. At least, not for me.

  So what was happening to my emotions? Was I, with my analytical mind that needed an explanation for everything, feeling warm fuzziness watching the happy couple?

  My cousin, Will, the forever player, finally married the girl of his dreams.

  My mom leaned over and swooned. “Oh, Abby, isn’t it wonderful?” she shouted in my ear. Okay, maybe it was more like a whisper, but with the loud wedding music blasting through the speakers as Will kissed his bride in true over-the-top Will fashion and the loud applause, her words rung in my ears.

  Mom? She’s the complete opposite of me. Fell in love with my father at first sight. She’s told me the story way too many times in my twenty years, but oh, brother. Who believes in that anymore?

  “Great.” I forced a smile and tried not to let the sarcasm ooze too heavily through those five letters.

  “Oh, Abigail. Are you still upset Chris couldn’t come as your plus one?”

  My mother. She always meant well, but her words stung.

  “He needed to work. You know he’s got a lot going on with school.”

  “So, it had nothing to do with his girlfriend, then?” She stood up, a bright smile plastered on her face.

  “I told you. They broke up at the beginning of the summer. She went back to London. And they decided not to do the whole long-distance thing.”

  “So.” Mom kept her wide smile stuck on her face. “Why didn’t you tell him how you feel? Ask him to come anyway?”

  “Mom.” My voice rose, causing her smile to appear more forced than sincere. “You know we’re just friends.”

  She glanced my way, her eyebrows rising high up to her hairline. With the amount of makeup she wore and how put together she looked for this wedding, it was quite the feat.

  “Seriously. Stop it. Chris doesn’t look at me like that.”

  Chris. He’s why I’d decided to come back home for the summer. I needed a break from the drama that was my life. And coming home had been just what I’d needed. Dad had offered me a job at his software company. Southern Cali meant warmer weather and time with the family. Also, the wedding had been a great incentive to return home. I loved Will, even though he was seven years older. Our families had vacationed together at Bear Lake for as long as I could remember. Will had been like the older brother I’d never had. He took me out on the boat and taught me how to water ski when I was ten. And it hadn’t hurt that he’d always had cute friends, either.

  “Don’t fret, Abby. These things have a way of working out.” Mom dropped a kiss on my temple and gave me another bright smile.

  I had to have been adopted. I didn’t even know how to smile like that. “Come on; let’s go find a cool drink and something to eat. That will turn that frown upside down in a matter of seconds.”

  That did cause my lips to curve up in the slightest of smiles. Nothing made me instantly smile, not like those typical cheery girls with their toothy grins and bright complexions. I was the complete opposite with my brown hair, brown eyes, olive complexion, and black-rimmed glasses. But food did bring a smile to my face. A genuine one. Luckily, I’d inherited my father’s height and metabolism. He still had a few feet on me, but at five-seven, I was taller than most girls. I didn’t consider myself rake thin, but not fat, either. At least, I didn’t think so. Some soft curves, for sure. I was more concerned about the condition of my brain and the speed at which I could solve an integral than if I could squeeze my thighs into skintight jeans.

  I had no qualms following my mother to the reception area, filling a generous plate, and finding a place to munch and not mingle.

  “Ah.” Mamie, the bride’s grandmother, sat down next to me. She looked glamorous with her makeup done to perfection, right down to her winged eyeliner and bright-red lipstick. Her nails were perfectly manicured, and her silver hair was pinned up in an elegant style, a few curls framing her face. She always looked perfect, but her makeup today was even more detailed than usual. “You’re looking well, Abigail.”

  “Abb
y,” I corrected her in between big bites of my hot cinnamon roll. The spread on the table was to die for. Must be because of Will’s wife, Charlotte, who owned and ran her own bakery.

  “No Chris?” Mamie tilted her head to the side. She knew Chris from the few times she’d met him at Bear Lake when he’d spent a holiday break with us.

  I shook my head, licking the sugar glaze off my lips.

  “That’s a shame. Such a nice young man.”

  I just harrumphed and took another bite of my roll.

  “Are you two finally dating?”

  I coughed, the piece of fluffy dough going down my windpipe instead of my esophagus.

  Mamie didn’t blink as she reached out and tapped my back with much more force than I thought those tiny, frail hands could possibly possess.

  “Well?” she demanded.

  “No.” I wheezed, my voice barely above a whisper as I struggled to get the air out of my lungs after that spell.

  “No?” She pressed her lips together. Somehow her red lipstick stayed perfectly in place, and when she spoke, not a single trace was on her teeth. I’d tried red lipstick once, in an attempt to make Chris notice me. Pathetic, for sure. The stuff had ended up all over my lips, chin, and teeth. Needless to say, I never tried it again. Clear lip gloss was about as daring as I got.

  “No,” I replied, sounding much harsher than I intended. But after explaining the same thing to Mom, and now for the second time around to Mamie after nearly choking on a perfectly good cinnamon roll, I was getting crabby. Crabbier than I’d been before I got there.

  “Well, what is the plan, then?” Mamie rested her arm on the table, shifting her body to face me. Instinctively, I turned toward her.

  “There is no plan,” I admitted. What plan could there possibly be? I’d loved Chris for four years, since that first day he’d walked into Mr. Thompson’s AP Math class and sat next to me and we’d talked and found out we both wanted to go to Berkeley. He had dreams of doing a couple of years there before going to medical school. I’d been set on the engineering program, following in Dad’s footsteps, maybe one day taking over the family business. Who knew? But so far, Chris had only ever been my friend. My best friend. But nothing more. He loved our relationship the way it was. And I did, too. I wanted more, sure. Had from that first day. But I wasn’t about to ruin what we had when I knew he didn’t feel the same way.

  “So, you’re going to carry on like this?” Mamie pointed to me, my food, and me again.

  “What?” I questioned, my mouth full of food again. Some might have even fallen out; I wasn’t sure. I certainly didn’t care. It wasn’t like I was there to impress anyone.

  “Exactly, child. You need a game plan. Look at those two.” She pointed to the happy couple talking to some guests I didn’t recognize. “That didn’t happen just like that. It took a lot of hard work and a few pushes in the right direction. What are you going to do?”

  I sagged in my chair and exhaled loudly. Luckily, I was done with my cinnamon roll. I did have manners. They just seemed to have left in the wake of my despair. When my eyes took in all that food, it was like that little voice in my mind yelled, Abby, eat. It’ll all be better when your stomach is full.

  The whole everything-will-look-better-in-the-morning thing? It only looked better because morning meant breakfast. And lots of it. Trust me, I knew.

  “Let’s start at the beginning. Have you told him how you feel?” Mamie looked at me, hopeful.

  “Um. No.” I balked at that suggestion.

  “Okay. Have you made it clear to him that you like him?”

  In high school, he’d dated Amber Marshall on and off. I hadn’t wanted to get involved in that. At Berkeley, I’d finally thought I had a chance, and then he’d gotten involved with a foreign student from London. How was I ever going to compete with someone from London?

  “No.” I was intelligent enough to offer more of an explanation but chose not to. You didn’t make it into the M.E.T. (Management, Entrepreneurship, & Technology) program at Berkeley if you were a halfwit, but I was still struggling to make sense of the situation myself, let alone explain it to Mamie. I didn’t know her, not like Will knew her, but I knew enough to know she wouldn’t let this go. Best to not give her too much to work with.

  “So, what are you planning when you go back next week?” She was growing antsy. I couldn’t blame her. I was beyond fed up with the whole situation.

  “I don’t know.”

  “Well, you’ll have to come up with something.” Mamie’s eyes twinkled. “There’s nothing worse than letting an opportunity pass. You never know when one might come around again.”

  With that sage piece of advice, she got up and left me. Suddenly, my half-eaten plate of food didn’t look all that appetizing. Mamie was probably right. What was I thinking? She was most definitely right. That woman was as old as time, and as wise as her years. I needed a plan. If I kept this up, I’d be thirty and still pining away, hoping Chris would finally notice me and give us a shot.

  “Hey, Abs.” My thoughts were interrupted, but I didn’t need to even turn to know who it was. Will was the only person on the planet who thought shortening my name from Abigail to Abby wasn’t enough. He had to make it Abs. Not that I had impressive abs that would warrant the nickname, but here we were. Twenty years of me insisting he call me Abby hadn’t changed his determination to hang on to that pet name.

  “Hi, Will.” I kept my back to him, still distracted by Mamie’s words.

  Will dropped down in the seat next to me. Across from me, a sickly sweet couple I didn’t know stared into each other’s eyes; they had been so preoccupied with being cutesy, they hadn’t even noticed me at the table or bothered to look up, even when Mamie had sat next to me. When Will sat down, they looked up and gave him a broad smile, which he returned with a nod.

  “What, Abs? No protests today?” Will grinned, and his white teeth sparkled.

  “Not on your wedding day.” I faked a smile, but I couldn’t fool Will.

  “Ha. I know you, Abs. You’d never let me off the hook. Not even today. What’s up?” He snagged a cookie off my plate and popped it in his mouth in one bite, munching on it as he raised his brows.

  “I was just talking to Mamie.”

  “Oh.” Will laughed. “Let me guess. She questioned you about Chris?”

  That was the thing with this family. We were tight. And there were no secrets. Will made sure to look out for me, and he kept a close eye on who I liked and dated. No problem on that last one, since I never dated. I was a lost cause. I’d fallen for Chris and had waited endlessly since that first day for him to see the light and ask me out. Will had noticed what was going on the first time he’d seen me with Chris. And he’d listened to me over the years. He’d offered advice at first, but when he’d realized I’d never do anything about it, he’d left things alone. But he’d always been there. Listening when I needed it. That was a side of Will few people knew about. There really was more to the infamous Will Henderson than people thought.

  “Of course she did. This is Mamie we’re talking about,” I shot back, a small smile tugging at the corners of my lips as I remembered all of the conversations we’d had in the past couple of months when Will had told me about Mamie’s interference and how it had helped him and Charlotte get together. Still, I didn’t know it would transfer to me, her granddaughter’s husband’s cousin. I guess in the broad sense of the word, we were family. But Mamie had always just treated me like Will and his sister, Kelsey. Like family.

  “Did she give you anything to work with?” Will reached out and grabbed a cream puff off my plate, plopping it in his mouth in one go. Again.

  “Hey!” I extended my hand and smacked his fingers before he could make an attempt to take anything else from my plate. “This is your party. You can get your own food, you know.”

  “Ah.” Will chuckled. “But that wouldn’t taste nearly as good as yours.” Before I knew it, he’d snatched the last of my cookies f
rom my plate. Typical Will. It was probably one of the last times we’d get to tease each other like this, now that he was married. So, I let it slide. Who knew? Will might be a dad in a year. A pang of sadness swelled in my chest.

  “Seriously, Abs. I think it’s time to either go for it or walk away. You’ll drive yourself insane if you keep doing what you’re doing.” Will reached out and squeezed my hand.

  I dropped my head, my chin nearly meeting my chest. “I know.” I released a breath.

  “There you are.” Charlotte joined us, standing behind Will and resting her hand on his shoulder.

  “Hello, gorgeous.” Will beamed up at her, the adoration so obvious in his eyes, it was almost painful to watch.

  “You two know that you’re disgusting, right?” I griped, but it was half-hearted. I couldn’t be happier for Will to finally have all that he’d ever wanted. He’d loved Charlotte for a long, long time.

  “I know,” Charlotte agreed. She leaned down to give Will an even more disgusting kiss.

  “Excuse me,” I said, clearing my throat. “People here. Enough with the PDA already. Save it for the honeymoon, you two.”

  “Oh, we’ve got a lot more saved up for that.” Will laughed, and Charlotte swatted him on the shoulder as he stood, holding onto her hand and pulling back to avoid her smack. Charlotte’s cheeks were flaming, but her face shone with contentment. These two would be just fine.

  “Think about what I said, Abs.” Will walked away, his back to the crowd as he faced me, waiting for me to acknowledge his comment.