Bridesmaid for Hire

by Chance Carter

  My heart lurched at the thought. I shook my head. “Nope. Safer this way. Smarter.”

  Val might not agree with me but she kept her thoughts to herself as I finished getting ready.

  I made it to the lobby with a few minutes to spare. Levi was waiting by the front doors and he smiled when he saw me. I wondered if he knew how disarming that smile was, how it made butterflies wheel madly around my chest. Was it a mistake for me to come here? The last thing I needed was for Levi to embed himself further under my skin.

  “Why are you doing this?” I asked when I reached him.

  I needed to know before I went anywhere with him. My life would be so much easier if Levi had a ticker tape sign going across his forehead that displayed his thoughts. Speculating would only drive me crazy.

  Levi stepped closer to me, his mouth twisting to the side. “You’re right. You’ve been saying since the beginning that we need to get along and all I’ve ever done is fuck that up.” He extended his hand. “I propose a truce.”

  I eyed his hand skeptically. “Haven’t we already tried that?”

  “We have,” he acknowledged. “But if at first you don’t succeed...” He sighed. “I’m sorry for what I said yesterday. It was wrong of me. I want us to be friends.”

  Friends.

  The word flashed neon red in my brain. Levi wanted us to be friends. I don’t know what I expected. He wasn’t going to drag me out of bed for a morning tubing adventure and cap it off by declaring his undying love for me, and I’d already scuttled the idea of us ever jumping back into bed together. Friends was the best option on the table.

  I clasped his hand and shook. “Thank you for the apology. Friends it is.”

  His lips quirked at the corners and I had to remind myself not to swoon. Friends didn’t swoon over each other.

  “Ready to go?” he asked.

  I nodded. “Ready as I’ll ever be.”

  Our truce held through the morning, even though several occasions of Levi greeting me at the bottom of the hill with a snowball made me want to clobber him. I expected us to be awkward around each other for the first little while but we weren’t. We went straight back to our mountain selves, except with less hanky panky.

  After tubing, Levi suggested we go grab some lunch. I agreed, because all that exercise left me starving. We made our way to the cafe and snagged a table near the fire place. I surreptitiously slipped off my shoes under the table and stuck my feet next to the brick.

  “How’s your dad doing?” Levi asked. “Garrick told me about his surgery.”

  I flexed my toes, soaking up the fire’s warmth. “He’s good. He complains a lot about all the stuff he has to be careful of now to stay in good health, but my mom’s got him on a tight leash.”

  Levi chuckled. “Sounds like my old man.”

  “Your dad reminds me a lot of mine, actually. They’ve both got such big personalities.”

  “Yeah? What’s your mom like?”

  “A force to be reckoned with.”

  Levi smirked. “Must be where you get it from.”

  I lost my grasp of the English language for a second, but luckily the waiter came around to take our drink order. Levi ordered us each a hot chocolate and my mouth watered.

  The waiter left to make our drinks and my tongue untangled itself.

  “I grew up with two brothers and a sister,” I said. “In my house, you had to yell to be heard, and sometimes family events still resemble more of a war zone than a peaceful meal.”

  “That explains a lot.”

  “Yeah?” I challenged. “So where does all your moodiness come from? Were you the misunderstood one in your family?”

  Levi chuckled. “Hardly. I was battle-hardened on the playground.”

  “Pull the hair of a few too many girls?”

  “Just the life of a protective older brother. Garrick was a weird kid. Scrawny too. Kids used to tease him and I used to make them pay for it.” He reclined, tilting his head against the chair. “I had a quick temper and a low tolerance for abuse when it came to the people I loved. I guess I still do.”

  “Levi Wheeler, the Playground Protector,” I mused.

  “It wasn’t just the playground,” he said. “Garrick didn’t shoot up until after high school, but most people liked him and girls were inexplicably drawn to him, which made a few guys pretty angry. Garrick abhorred fighting but I sorted out anyone who I thought might be a threat to him, so he never had to.”

  I imagined Levi as a teenager, a scrappy thing with wild, dark eyes. I could see it still, under his veneer of civility. His suits and spreadsheets hardly screamed “brooding bad boy”, but I had no doubt that in his youth he would’ve been exactly the kind of guy I’d risk sneaking out after curfew to see. This image was so not helping me keep my mind in friends territory.

  “Garrick seems pretty unscathed by his youth,” I said.

  Levi nodded. “Sometimes I wonder if I should have let him get beat up a couple times. Maybe then he wouldn’t walk around with his head in the clouds so much.”

  “I disagree. I think it’s a beautiful quality for a person to have.”

  Levi cocked a brow. “Beautiful? It’s naivety disguised as positivity. That man is a sitting duck.”

  “I don’t think you give him as much credit as he deserves. Does he do a good job of helping your dad run the company?”

  Levi rolled his shoulders and sat forward. “Yeah. He misses things sometimes but never anything important.”

  “So he’s successful at his job, he’s about to marry one of the world’s top people, and he’s unwaveringly happy.” I caught Levi’s eye and pulled up one side of my mouth. “To me it seems like he’s doing a fine job at life.”

  Levi studied me for a moment, a thousand thoughts flashing over his face, and finally smiled.

  “You’ve got me there.”

  I batted my lashes playfully. “I did debate in high school.”

  “The puzzles pieces just keep falling into place.”

  Our waiter returned to take our food orders and dropped off two hot chocolates in tall glass mugs with generous squirts of whipped cream. My face broke into a cheek-numbing smile at the sight and I immediately went for a sip. I retreated with a burned tongue.

  Levi laughed. “Don’t be so impatient. We’ve got all day.”

  “I feel like if I don’t get this beverage in my body right now I’m going to die.”

  “Did you do theater in high school too?” He rolled his eyes.

  I gasped in mock indignation. “Did you just call me a drama queen?”

  “Your words, not mine.”

  “No wonder you got in so many fights,” I said. “I’ve half a mind to throw a glove down right here and now.”

  Levi’s lips curled into a predatory smile, showing just enough of his teeth for me to imagine them sinking into my flesh. “I dare you.”

  A tremor ran down my spine and I gulped. I had a sudden vision of us rolling around on the floor, wrestling for dominance, and I squeezed my legs together to help soothe the pulsing ache that settled between them.

  “Not a good idea,” I forced out. “Can’t maim the best man days before the wedding. Think of what people would say.”

  Levi laughed and suddenly I could breathe again. “You’re probably right.”

  I went for my hot chocolate again, taking a smaller sip this time, and found it drinkable.

  Levi and I chatted for the rest of our lunch without further incident. Anyone walking by might easily draw the conclusion that we were old friends. By the end, it certainly felt like it.

  It was nice, in a way, even though I was still trying to put my feelings for Levi to rest. If we couldn’t be together in a romantic way, being friends with him seemed like a pretty stellar compromise. It was better than fighting or avoiding each other. It helped to know that the hurt would fade with time.

  Chapter 31

  Levi

  We walked slowly back to Frankie’s room, like neithe
r of us was ready for the afternoon to end. The day went better than I hoped it would. Frankie didn’t hate me, I didn’t feel like punching anything, and we had established a firm footing with one another.

  We were friends. Friends who had seen each other naked, sure, but friends all the same. It was better than being enemies, though not as preferable as continuing to see each other naked would have been. I was comfortable during lunch and a few times I thought about asking Frankie why she didn’t want to mess around anymore. I didn’t. It wasn’t the kind of thing friends did.

  We stopped at Frankie’s door and she knocked.

  “Why are you knocking on your own door?” I asked.

  “Garrick and Val don’t have their own room,” I replied. “Better safe than sorry.”

  “Good point.”

  With no reply from inside the room, Frankie decided it was safe and slid her key into the lock.

  “Thanks for lunch,” she said. “I’m going to face plant in my bed and take the best nap the world has ever seen.”

  “I’ll probably do the same, unless Garrick and Val chose my room to conduct their business in.”

  Frankie’s tinkling laugh was music to my ears. “If you can’t get in there feel free to come sleep here.” Her eyes widened and a flush coated her cheeks. “In Val’s bed, I mean. Like a nap club.”

  She licked her lips and my eyes instinctively tracked the movement, stirring heat in my chest. A goodbye kiss seemed like the most natural thing in the world, but I knew it wasn’t the right thing to do. Friends didn’t kiss friends.

  “Have a good nap, Frankie,” I said. “I’ll see you at dinner later.”

  “See you then,” she said, waving before disappearing into her room.

  I let out a sigh and turned in the direction of my room, half-hoping Garrick and Val would be in there and half-hoping they wouldn’t. A nap sounded like a fantastic idea. Maybe when I woke up my head wouldn’t be in such a spin over Frankie.

  At first I thought this unquenchable desire was just because I knew I couldn’t have her anymore, but I was beginning to suspect that it was rooted somewhere deeper than my vanity. Much deeper. I wasn’t sure what to make of it.

  A disgusted snort pulled me from my thoughts and I saw Josh heading down the hallway toward me. He arranged his features in a sneer as he approached, stopping in front of me.

  My jaw tightened with disdain. “You’re in my way.”

  “I know,” he said. “If it weren’t for me, you’d have Frankie all to yourself. Doesn’t it gnaw at you that she likes me better?”

  I let out a barking laugh, surprising Josh.

  “You think that’s funny?” Josh tightened his fists at his side.

  I just smiled in response. His eye twitched with irritation.

  “Are you done?” I asked.

  Josh let out an indignant huff and stormed away down the hall, probably to go call his mommy and complain. I thrust my hands in my pockets and continued to my room, which I found empty. Disappointing. Not that I could imagine being in a bedroom alone with Frankie and not succumbing my desire to kiss her, which would have likely earned me a slap and an immediate dismissal from the nap club.

  I spent most of dinner talking to my parents so it wasn’t as obvious that Val’s parents were ignoring them. It was a relief when Val and Garrick announced their desire to go to the bar and the older folks all declined the invitation. Frankie agreed to go, which meant her personal leech decided to as well. More of Val’s family was due to arrive tomorrow, and I hoped once they did I’d be seeing less of Josh.

  Probably wishful thinking, but a guy could dream.

  Frankie surprised me by looping her arm through mine on the way to the bar, leaving Josh no option but to catch up to his cousin and talk to her instead.

  “Don’t gloat, but I need a break,” she whispered, staring ahead as Josh attached himself to Val’s side.

  I chuckled. And, like a gentleman, I didn’t gloat.

  “How was your nap?”

  Frankie smiled dreamily. “Almost too good. If Val hadn’t come in and Full-Nelson-Slammed me, I might have never gotten up. Did you get any sleep?”

  “More or less,” I said, thinking back to the boner I’d had to vanquish before my body would let me get any sleep. Frankie had that effect on me.

  “I ache everywhere,” she whined, stretching her head from side to side. “No more activity for me. Until it’s time to walk down that aisle, I’m sequestering myself in a chair like an old lady waiting for her grandkids to come visit.”

  “The ache’s good,” I said. “It means you did something.”

  She laughed. “Yeah. Did something stupid like thinking I wouldn’t embarrass myself skiing.”

  “You’re shortchanging yourself. All you need to master anything is tenacity, and you’ve got that in spades.”

  She looked up at me, eyes bright. “Thanks, Levi.”

  “No problem.”

  We entered the bar area and I did a double take. Frankie’s mouth fell open as she took in the scene.

  The place looked nothing like it had any of the other times we’d been in there. White string lights dripped down the walls, a band was playing a cover of a nineties classic in the corner, and the tables in the middle of the room had been cleared to form a dance floor.

  “It looks amazing in here,” Frankie said. “It’s miles different from our cozy little pub.”

  “More people, I guess,” I replied, shrugging.

  Val waved us over to a table. “I’m so glad we escaped my parents,” she said when we took our seats. “They were driving me crazy.”

  “What?” Frankie asked. “You don’t want to talk about stocks and bonds when you’re on vacation? What a crazy thought.”

  The girls laughed and started talking about what they were going to drink. I made eye contact with one of the circulating servers, who came by to take our order. As he departed, I turned back to the table and caught Josh staring at me. He looked away quickly but I didn’t miss the malice in his gaze. Frankie and Val were too engrossed in conversation to notice.

  I wondered what Frankie meant when she said she needed a break. Had my run-in with Josh this afternoon shaken him to the point of pushing himself on Frankie even harder? It wouldn’t work. I only hoped I got to watch him fail.

  Later in the night, when the floor began to fill with couples, Josh staggered to his feet and extended a hand to Frankie. I couldn’t hear what he was saying but presumed he was asking her to dance, since a second later she took his hand and followed him onto the dance floor.

  Garrick and Val were snuggled up together, giggling at some private joke, so I decided to people watch instead. The bar was bustling, tables crammed full of people laughing and drinking. It seemed like the entire hotel had showed up tonight, old folks rubbing shoulders with mulleted snowboarders still decked out in their goggles. They provided a wealth of opportunity for entertainment, but I kept finding my eye drawn back to her.

  To Frankie.

  She wore a slinky black dress that draped around her curves enticingly, though only showed the barest amount of skin. Her hair was tousled in loose curls over her shoulders and I longed to bury my hands in it. Her smile as she danced with Josh carried more politeness than it did actual enjoyment, and I caught her leaning away as he barked something in her ear. Her gaze landed on mine for the briefest of moments, and I knew I should look away. The last thing I wanted was to be caught staring at her. Still, I couldn’t. I smiled. Frankie smiled back.

  It was such a simple, understated moment, but even in the mess of bodies it felt private.

  Josh noticed his partner’s attention had strayed and glanced over his shoulder to see what had caught her eye. When he saw me, his brow creased and he whipped her around so her back was to me. I enjoyed about one second of delectable satisfaction before I watched Josh bend forward and plant his lips on Frankie’s.

  Searing rage flooded my limbs, fingers squeezing my glass so hard it was a w
onder it didn’t break. I could have guessed that seeing Frankie kiss another man would irritate me, but I never imagined it would physically hurt. It was like he’d driven a knife through my chest.

  Then, wonder of wonders, Frankie pushed Josh away.

  I could only see part of her face, but from the look of things she was apologizing, one of her hands on his chest to hold him at bay. Cool relief swam up and swallowed my anger. Before I got too comfortable, though, Josh grabbed Frankie’s shoulders. His face purpled in annoyance.

  I’d seen enough. Experience had taught me that Frankie could handle herself, but it wasn’t my style to sit by and watch when I could intervene.

  I crossed the floor and tapped Frankie on the shoulder. “Mind if I cut in?”

  “Yes,” Josh snapped. “You’re interrupting.”

  “That’s the point.”

  “I would love if you cut in,” Frankie said, turning around. She turned a scolding eye to Josh. “Goodnight, Josh.”

  I looped and arm around her waist and held her other hand aloft. Josh stomped away, but I didn’t watch him to see where. I was too busy staring at the gorgeous creature in front of me.

  “Thanks,” Frankie said, releasing a breath. “I think Josh had a little too much to drink.”

  “What on Earth gave you that impression?”

  That earned me a flat look.

  I laughed and spun her under my arm, and when I pulled her back she stumbled and steadied herself with a hand on my chest. The touch ignited an inferno in my belly and I had to work to keep my expression neutral.

  Frankie moved her hand to my arm so quick she all but slapped me.

  “I feel bad for the guy,” she said.

  The tactic to distract me worked. “Why’s that?”

  “I just don’t think he’s very happy.”

  “Interesting conjecture,” I said. “Most people would assume that a rich, handsome lawyer would have everything he needed for happiness.”

  “Well he’s got a helicopter,” she muttered. “He kept asking me to let him take me out in it once the wedding was over.”

  “And you said no?” I blew air through my teeth. “That sounds romantic as hell. What’s wrong with you?”