BEACH BLANKET BRIDESMAID
Margo Bond Collins
www.margobondcollins.net
Copyright © 2016 by Margo Bond Collins
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval systems, without prior written permission of the author except where permitted by law.
Published by Bathory Gate Press
The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
* * *
About Beach Blanket Bridesmaid
Love isn't always a breeze…
“Always a bridesmaid, never a bride.” If one more person says that, Ava Jordan is going to scream. And now she has to be in her brother’s wedding before she can hang up that ugly taffeta permanently.
Even worse, the man she’s been avoiding is the only other guest in this destination wedding to Antigua. Sure, she’s had a crush on Grant for as long as she can remember, but he’s out of her life. Their steamy fling that turned way awkward made sure of that.
Now she’s going to be stuck on a small island with him—so maybe she could have one more steamy fling before it's over for good? But Grant wants forever. And he’s going to do everything he can to convince her of that.
Beach Blanket Bridesmaid
A Novella of Necessity
Margo Bond Collins
Prologue
My brother is insane.
Ava Jordan waited in line to have her passport stamped. A light breeze blew through the open walls of the Antigua airport, and she lifted her hair off her neck with one hand to take advantage of the cooler air.
Why couldn’t Seth and Kristin get married in Cancun, like normal Texans who want a destination beach wedding?
Maybe Ava would have been able to pay her own way, then. She wasn’t sure which was more embarrassing—having to tell her big brother that she couldn’t afford to go, or having his rich fiancée pay her way.
At least Cancun would have meant a shorter flight. Dallas to Puerto Rico had been rough, and even the comparatively short hop out to the island had unsettled Ava’s stomach, especially after the combination bachelor-bachelorette party for Seth and Kristin at The Chargrill the night before, back in Necessity, Texas.
I shouldn’t have stayed behind to help clean up.
For that matter, Ava probably should have taken the chance to be only a guest, instead of a waitress.
But working the party meant extra pay, and Mr. Tremont turned a blind eye when she joined her brother and his friends when they did tequila shots.
Most of his friends.
Pretty much everyone except the one friend who mattered—the best man, Grant Porter.
The short line moved forward and Ava stepped up to the wooden booth, handing her passport to the bored man checking it, glad to have a reason to quit thinking about the one friend of Seth’s that she least wanted to see—and the one she would be spending the most time with over the next few days.
* * *
Moving into the line to go through customs and enter the small island of Antigua, Grant caught a glimpse of the one woman he least wanted to see—Ava Jordan, the maid of honor in her brother’s wedding.
His best friend’s little sister.
The only woman who had ever touched his heart.
The one woman he couldn’t have.
He would have known her anywhere. She stood lifting her wavy brown hair off her neck, as he had seen her do hundreds of times before. Once, when they were kids, he had asked her why she didn’t just cut it off if it bothered her so much, and she had looked at him like he was crazy.
Maybe he was crazy.
He certainly wasn’t entirely balanced when it came to her, anyway.
Nope. He wasn’t insane. But he wasn’t going to try to talk to her right now, either.
Ducking out of line, he made a show of digging through his carry-on baggage to find his passport until Ava moved through the immigration line and took her stamped passport off into the rest of the airport, presumably to make her way to the resort hotel.
It could have been worse. He could have agreed to Seth’s plan for the four of them to fly together, and been stuck in an airplane seat next to her for the last nine hours.
Because that would be torture—the same kind that made him try to avoid her every time he ended up back home in Necessity.
The kind that made his heart race, and his entire body come to attention.
This time, though, there was no avoiding her—not once they all got settled at the hotel. He might not see her tonight, but he was going to have to figure out how to deal with her for the next several days as they helped Seth and Kristin prepare for what Grant hoped wouldn’t turn out to be the biggest bust of a wedding ever.
I take that back. I clearly must be insane.
Chapter 1
“The wedding coordinator is looking for you.”
A shadow fell across her, and Ava dug her toes into the heated sand at the end of her beach chair, imagining the glittering particles falling across her bright pink toenails.
Twenty-four hours.
She’d had twenty-four glorious, sun-drenched hours, during which no one had asked her for anything.
In that entire time, she hadn’t had to fetch, carry, deliver, or clean a single item.
No dirty tables to wipe. No menus, sticky with children’s fingerprints rendered in honey and decorated with biscuit crumbs waiting for her to scrub them. No napkins to roll, no silverware to sort. No coffee mugs to top off or extra gravy orders to fill.
Not a single person had said “Excuse me, miss, but could you.…”
Until now.
She counted the seconds in her head, waiting for Grant to speak again. That’s how much longer she had until she was back on duty.
… Eight. Nine. Ten.
Grant cleared his throat impatiently. “You awake?”
Finally, Ava cracked open one eye behind her sunglasses and peered up at her brother’s best friend. Best man, in just a few days. “Yeah,” she said. “Wedding coordinator. I’m on it.”
When she had agreed to be the only bridesmaid at her brother Seth’s wedding to Kristin Rittman, Ava had known it would come with some obligations, some of them not that different from her daily duties at The Chargrill. But in the end, she hadn’t been able to resist Seth—or his offer of a vacation in Antigua.
Not even after she discovered that Grant Porter was going to be the best man.
* * *
Not that Grant being the best man should have come as any surprise, Ava reflected as she wrapped her batik cotton cover-up around herself sarong-style, self-consciously tucking the ends in around her waist, aware of Grant’s eyes on the expanse of skin between the makeshift skirt and her red bikini top.
It was ridiculous to be embarrassed around him. He had seen her in bathing suits every summer for most of her life, at the city pool, in friends’ backyards, at the lake the summer they all learned to water-ski.
Ava had yet to determine why it was different now that he had seen so much more of her than any bikini revealed, but she could feel him watching her as she trudged through the sparkling sand back up toward the resort.
Along the way, she paused to pet one of the ubiquitous black-and-white cats that seemed to populate the entire island. It bumped its head up against her hand and she pretended not to take the opportunity to glance sidelong at Grant, still standing
where she had left him on the beach, staring at her as she moved away. “Come find me at dinner,” she told the half-grown cat. “Maybe I’ll have food then.”
Grant Porter. The bane of my existence.
The thought was a little melodramatic, Ava knew. But it felt accurate at the moment, anyway.
If only his job as bearer of bad news had been the only reason for her to loathe him. That, she could probably have dealt with, eventually.
She even could have handled Grant kissing her at midnight one New Year’s Eve—and not even the friendly you’re my best bud’s little sister so I should be killed for this peck on the cheek kind of kiss, but the most passionate kiss Ava had ever experienced.
It was following up that kiss with a night of amazing, mind-blowing sex, then going back to being as good as related themselves the very next morning that was more than Ava was willing to handle.
It had been a year and a half since that asinine decision.
Asinine on his part.
The decision to return the kiss of the man she’d had a crush on for as long as she could remember? That part wasn’t asinine. At least, it hadn’t seemed it at the time.
In retrospect, following him without asking any questions as he led her to the bedroom had probably been a stupid move.
Well, she had learned her lesson. No more kisses for Grant Porter. In fact, she hardly even spoke to him at all. He could just keep his kisses to himself.
Not to mention the rest of it.
She shook the thought off and headed up the winding path to the covered verandah that served as bar, restaurant, and nightclub, depending on the time of day. At the moment, one of its tables was serving as the workspace for the resort’s wedding planner, who sat alone in the space with three-ring binders all around her, a computer tablet in hand.
Ava waited for her to finish making a note and tried not to let anxiety overcome her.
Before Kristin and Seth had decided to elope to Antigua, their wedding had been the event of the season—such as the season was in a dusty little town like Necessity, Texas.
“But that,” Seth said when Ava teased him about it, “is the price you pay if marry into the Rittman family.” His adoring glance at his fiancée took any sting out of the words.
Then Kristin’s uncle, Duke Rittman, had been arrested for attempted murder after he sabotaged a gas well tank on his land so it exploded when the petroleum company owner was present. The scandal had turned Necessity society (again, such as it was) upside down.
Kristin had gone from being the belle of the town to being a pariah, almost overnight. Most of her friends had deserted her. And she and Seth had decided to cancel the big wedding at the First Baptist Church of Necessity and run away to the West Indies to get married.
So here I am, the last bridesmaid standing.
Finally, the wedding coordinator finished what she was doing and glanced up, her dark eyes assessing Ava swiftly. “Ah, hello. You must be”—she checked the paperwork in front of her—“Ava, with the Rittman wedding?”
Her voice was clear and cultured, almost British-sounding, with the soft lilt of the island Creole underscoring it.
“Yes. I’m Ava Jordan.” To her own ears, Ava sounded too harsh. Too country, too twangy—too Texas.
“Rose Caba.” The coordinator half-stood to shake Ava’s hand, then waved her to a seat at the same table. “I assume Kristin has told you about the problem with the dresses?”
Ava’s stomach clenched. “No,” she said slowly. “I haven’t actually seen Kristin since I got here last night.”
“Ah. Well. The bride’s dress arrived just fine. Kristin had it in a dress bag on the plane with her.”
Ava took a breath. It could be worse.
“Your dress, on the other hand, was apparently lost in transit.”
But not much worse.
“You mean I’m going to have to find another dress?” Ava’s voice came out in a strangled whisper.
Finding the perfect bridesmaid’s dress for this wedding had been a nightmare. Ava had assumed, when Kristin had invited her to go dress shopping, that they would find something simple and beach-wedding appropriate and be done.
No such luck.
It was as if, having had the wedding of her former dreams cancelled, Kristin had focused all her bridezilla tendencies on finding the perfect bridesmaid’s dress for Ava.
Rose’s dark, perfectly manicured eyebrows drew down into a frown. “I assure you, St. John’s has a number of lovely bridal shops. I work with several of them on a regular basis.”
“I’m sure,” Ava said faintly.
“Or I could arrange to have a selection of dresses brought here.”
Ava couldn’t decide which sounded worse—spending her vacation days trudging all over the island with Kristin, going from bridal shop to bridal shop in search of the perfect dress, again, or being trapped in the hotel with Kristin as a series of imperfect dresses were paraded past them.
“I guess…” She hesitated. “I guess we should ask Kristin what she wants us to do.” Merely saying the words hurt. No matter what Kristin chose, it was going to be an awful experience.
“I think you and Grant should go pick something out.” Kristin spoke from behind her, and Ava spun around, startled.
Dress shopping with Grant? That was a type of awful she hadn’t expected.
As usual, Ava’s future sister-in-law looked perfect. She wore her long, blonde hair slicked back into a high ponytail that swung halfway down her back. On Ava, a ponytail like that would look adolescent.
On Kristin, it looked elegant, swinging around her like something out of a shampoo commercial as she turned to glance back at Seth and Grant, who trailed behind her. “Don’t you agree?” she asked her fiancé. “That way, Grant can get a matching tie. And we can go pick up the wedding license in St. John’s. We can make an afternoon of it.”
So much for an afternoon on the beach. I knew that countdown was to the end of my freedom during this trip.
She swept Ava up into a hug, enveloping her in a cloud of coconut-scented fragrance.
Island appropriate. Of course.
Ava suddenly became aware of her own chemical aroma of sunscreen.
With a slight eau de sweat.
Nope. Neiman Marcus would never carry that perfume.
“I’m so glad you’re here to deal with these things,” Kristin said. “You know what I like by now. You will take care of it, won’t you?” Without actually waiting for an answer, Kristin dove in for a hug from Rose. “I just saw the gazebo. It’s perfect, absolutely amazing.”
Ava glanced at her brother, hoping he might jump in and rescue her, but Seth was watching Kristin, a besotted grin on his face.
When she flicked her gaze toward Grant, she found him staring at her intently.
You can do this, she admonished herself sternly. After all, it was just one trip.
One shopping trip. One wedding. One week.
If I can deal with the dinner rush on Saturday half-price chicken fried steak night, I can deal with anything.
Time to suck it up, buttercup.
Still, the gleam in Grant’s eyes made her nervous.
Chapter 2
Grant stood in the covered portico of the hotel’s circular drive, waiting for the rest of the group to arrive so they could take a taxi into Antigua’s capital city.
A shopping trip with Ava. This could be fun.
Okay, so shopping for clothes wasn’t Grant’s favorite thing in world. But at least it would mean time with Ava.
Time with Ava could mean a chance to regain the closeness they had shared once.
But not too close.
No. She was Seth’s baby sister, and she deserved better than anything he could ever offer her. She deserved a real life, full of laughing children and a real home in Necessity, the town she had never wanted to leave, and a husband who could actually live in that home with her.
Grant spent his days surrounded by roughnecks and pumpers. He loved his job as a petroleum engineer, but it was no life for someone as beautiful and delicate as Ava.
She deserves better.
The general lack of women and children on-site made it clear how unsuited it was for someone like Ava.
Well, other than the women who work there, he admitted to himself.
The fact that he couldn’t imagine dragging her into his life didn’t mean he and Ava couldn’t be friends again, did it?
After all, they had been friends before.
Until he had ruined it all with one drunken New Year’s kiss—a kiss that had led to the most amazing night of his life.
Even now, he couldn’t say he wished he could take it back.
He did wish he could find a way to restore their easy camaraderie, though.
He heard her laugh from the hotel lobby before he saw her. As usual, the sound of her voice went right through him, like it had since she was thirteen and he was sixteen, and he had turned around and really noticed her for the first time.
She and Kristin moved out from behind a pillar just as the hotel shuttle pulled up, and then they were all piling into the van. Grant stood back to let the women climb in first, and found himself staring at Ava’s perfect ass as she stepped up onto the van’s running board. Her brightly colored sundress swirled around her calves, and it was all he could do to stop himself from reaching out to brush his hand against the soft skin of her legs.
Because that’s not creepy at all.
Get ahold of yourself, Porter.
Kristin and Seth settled into the first row, and Grant followed Ava to the back bench seat. As he sat down, the scent of her wafted across him, a mix of her apple shampoo and something sweet, a smell that was pure Ava. He would recognize it anywhere. Even here, covered as it was with the smell of sunscreen.
Beach Blanket Bridesmaid (Necessity, Texas) Page 1
