by Elena Aitken
“Right?” Her mom linked her arm through Katie’s and all but dragged her into the store. “I am so excited to help you with this today. I just know we’re going to find the most perfect dress.”
“And with your cute little body…” Faith jumped in. “I actually might need to take a few pictures of you for some promotional pictures Hope was talking about. Especially because I know we’re going to find the perfect dress.”
Katie felt a little like she’d just been thrown into the middle of a tornado. But, on the other hand, she was relieved to have someone else take charge of the whole process. For the next two hours, she let her mother, and Faith—who seemed to be enjoying herself a whole lot more than Katie would have guessed—and a sales attendant named Betty take charge as they pulled dress after dress off the racks, and helped her into them. Each one was more beautiful than the last, and even Katie had to admit that she was enjoying herself.
“Oh wow,” Betty exclaimed, the way she did with every dress as she zipped her up. “This is…oh, wow…wait until you see this one.”
Katie turned to see the tall, blonde woman with a huge grin on her face. She always looked excited, but in all the dresses that Katie had tried, the saleslady hadn’t worn this particular expression.
“Are you ready to see it?”
For the first time since the whole experience had started, Katie wished there was a mirror in the change room.
“Let’s go.” She shrugged and let Betty lead her to the small podium with the three-way mirror in the waiting area where Faith and her mom sat.
The moment she walked in, her mom gasped and Faith jumped up from her chair. “Oh, Katie.” Her mother dabbed a tissue to her face.
“Mom? Is it that bad?”
Faith shook her head slowly. “Just wait…”
Betty fluffed her skirts and gently turned her so she faced the mirror.
“Holy shit.” It was probably not the most delicate thing to say, and definitely not the most appropriate. But it was the only thought that Katie could put together as she took in her own appearance.
Her eyes moved slowly down her body, taking in the entirety of what was in front of her. They’d put her in a simple, form-fitted, satin ivory dress that fell off her shoulders. It was unbearably elegant and absolutely perfect.
“Well?” Betty asked gently. “Can you picture walking down the aisle in this one?”
Katie turned a little so she could examine herself in the mirror from all angles. She’d never imagined herself in a dress quite like it, but somehow it was absolutely perfect.
“Can you see it?” Faith came to stand next to her. “Can you see yourself saying I do in this dress?”
Her friend’s words hit her in the gut. Katie stared at herself for a moment before closing her eyes. She could see it. The entire moment was crystal-clear. Damon at the end of the aisle. Walking toward him. Taking his hands. Marrying him.
She nodded and opened her eyes. “Yes,” she whispered. “I can absolutely imagine marrying Damon.” She looked to Faith and then her mom, and almost started crying. “This is the dress.”
It was late by the time Katie got home from the city and more than once she regretted turning down her mom’s offer to grab them a hotel room so they could stay in the city. It would have been fun to spend a night drinking wine and chatting with Faith and her mom, and of course it also would have meant that she wouldn’t have had to spend the last three hours driving through the mountains in the dark. But despite all the reasons she should have stayed, there was one big draw for her to get home.
Damon.
She couldn’t help it, but the draw to make the drive back to Glacier Falls and the little guesthouse at ElkView was strong. Really strong. She’d always loved being around him, but the last few days had been different. More intense. Of course, it was because of the whole wedding thing.
But Katie couldn’t help shake the feeling that it might be more. The kisses they’d shared had been intense in a way she would never have expected and had awoken feelings in her that no man had ever done before. It was…unsettling but also, it gave her a feeling of peace, too.
The feelings were so conflicting that if it had been anyone else, she would have laughed at the absurdity of it all. But Katie was definitely not laughing. Especially with her mom and Faith’s comments about how they’d always thought she’d end up with Damon repeating through her head. Maybe she should just talk to him about it and get it out in the open. No doubt he’d laugh, and then she’d laugh, and they could go back to being friends and she wouldn’t have to worry about all of these potential feelings clouding her thoughts.
The thoughts consumed her, and had the added benefit of making the drive go quickly. Before she knew it, she was punching the code into the ElkView gate and driving up to the cottage. She put the car in park next to Damon’s truck and shut off the engine to sit in silence for a moment.
Katie let her mind travel back through the day she’d just had. Her last final exam. Barring any major malfunctions, she was done and she’d have her degree. Finally. But that wasn’t even the most monumental part of the day. She glanced behind her at the garment bag filling her backseat. That had been the most monumental part of the day.
Her wedding dress.
Fake wedding or not, the dress was gorgeous and it was everything she ever could have imagined, if she’d been that kind of girl—which, admittedly, she hadn’t been…until now. But it wasn’t just that the dress was beautiful; it was the realization that in just a few days she was going to be marrying Damon Banks in that dress. And that thought didn’t scare the hell out of her the way it probably should have. No, the way it really should have. She was getting married to her best friend as a big, giant lie and they were deceiving everyone. She should definitely not be excited.
No. Katie shook her head. She should be pretty much anything but excited.
She gave herself one more moment of quiet in the car to pull her thoughts together before gathering up her things, including the oversized garment bag, and heading inside. The guesthouse was dark. Damon must have gotten tired of waiting up for her. Not that she’d expected him to, but it would have been nice.
No. She was quick to chastise herself. She turned her key in the lock and with her arms loaded, walked straight to the couch in the dark to dump her things when the light flipped on, startling her into dropping everything in a crash on the floor.
“What the hell?” Katie spun around to see Damon standing in the small kitchen, a glass of wine in one hand, a rose in the other.
“I didn’t mean to scare you.” Damon’s face changed, concern replacing the grin as he took in the sight of her with her purse scattered on the floor, the giant garment bag at her feet. “I’m sorry, Katie.” He put the wine down and rushed over to her. “I really didn’t mean to scare you. I was just going to surprise you and…shit.” He looked down at her things and back up at her and for a brief moment, she thought she might cry. But then the shock wore off and she started laughing.
“You should know by now that I don’t love to be surprised. Especially not after the longest day ever.”
In an instant, the concern on his face vanished and he once again smiled devilishly. “And that’s exactly why I wanted to surprise you with this.” He held the rose out to her as if it were the prize she’d been fighting for. “Congratulations on your last exam and being finished.”
She took the flower and held it to her nose. “Thank you.” The shock and surprise had totally vanished, as well as the idea that she was meant to remember that this thing with Damon wasn’t a real relationship. Because, in that moment, it sure as hell felt real. “That’s actually really sweet of you, Damon.”
“I know.” He winked and bent to pick up her things. When he straightened again, he had the huge garment bag in his hand. “Is this a—”
“Wedding dress.” She snatched it away from him. “And you can’t see it. It’s bad luck.” She realized what she’d said the moment i
t came out of her mouth. It wasn’t a real wedding, so there was no need to worry about things like luck. She turned away. “I mean…if we were worried about that type of thing. Which we’re—”
“Stop.” Damon put a hand on her arm and turned her back to face him. There was a question in his eyes, and more than anything, Katie wanted him to ask it. But he turned and hung the bag on the back of the bedroom door. He stared at it for a long minute before turning around again. “I’m really sorry, Katie.”
“For what?” She picked up the wine and took a sip.
“For all of this. For the wedding that’s not everything it should be.”
“What are you talking about?” She crossed the room. “This is exactly what it’s supposed to be,” she said. “It’s a wedding and we’re going to pull it off so you can have ElkView and—”
“It’s just that your first wedding should be—”
“My first wedding?” She couldn’t help it; Katie burst out laughing. “You make it sound like I was always destined to have more than one wedding.”
Damon wasn’t laughing and Katie’s laughter died quickly when he reached out and touched her cheek. “That’s not what I meant.” His finger traced her jawline and finally came to rest, cupping her face. “I just meant that I’m sorry if this isn’t what you’d always dreamed about when you thought of your wedding.”
“Honestly?”
“Of course.”
“It isn’t really what I was picturing.” She shrugged. “I mean, even if it were real.”
“Of course.”
“But I guess I thought all of our family and friends would be there. I mean, my family and friends.”
He winked at her and she laughed before continuing.
“And there’d be a big dance and we’d all eat.” She mulled it over. It was the most honest thing she could have said, despite the confusion of feelings flooding her head and her heart. Katie’s gaze flicked over his shoulder to the dress hanging in the garment bag behind him. That dress was everything. Her eyes once again focused on Damon, on her best friend. The best man she knew. “But all of that being said, this wedding will be everything.”
For a moment, Damon didn’t respond. But then he leaned in and pressed his lips to hers in a warm, deep kiss that both froze her to the spot and at the same time caused every sensation within her to come alive. This was different. No one was watching. This wasn’t for show. This was…real?
It sure as hell felt real.
Katie leaned into the kiss and deepened it. His arms came around her and held her tight as she melted into him and gave herself over to the moment. Whatever questions she had about what was going on could wait until later.
Much later.
“I really am proud of you, you know?” Damon broke the kiss, but kept his arms around her. “I think it’s amazing that you went to school all on your own and now…well, it’s pretty impressive.”
There were so many other things he wanted to tell her, but if his brain couldn’t even begin to make sense of anything, how was he going to actually verbalize it? “And I do think we should celebrate.”
“Celebrate?” Her eyebrow lifted and she tilted her head in question. “Is that what we were just doing?”
“No.” He shook his head. “That was just me, showing my fiancée how proud I am of her.”
She grinned, but he didn’t miss the flash of disappointment in her eyes as well. “Well, then…that was—” She moved to turn from his arms, but Damon spun her back and kissed her again.
This time, the kiss was deeper and more intense.
She responded with a small groan that made Damon’s dick instantly hard. Since when did Katie provoke these kinds of feelings in him? The answer didn’t matter, because the only thing that mattered was how he was feeling, right then. And judging by the way she kissed him back, she felt it too.
But then it was over.
Her lips were gone from his and she stood on the other side of the room so quickly that Damon didn’t even realize what had happened for a few seconds. He blinked hard and shook his head. “What…did we…did you...what…”
Nothing coming out of his mouth made sense, but she still seemed to understand what he was trying to say.
“Maybe we should just slow down?”
“Slow down?”
She nodded. “Just…well…everything is changing so fast and with the wedding in only a few…”
“Right.” Right. The wedding. He nodded, although his body definitely didn’t agree with what his mouth was saying. “Let’s slow down a little. That makes sense.”
It didn’t. Nothing made sense. But he nodded anyway. “We should just focus on that.”
Damon turned and walked to the other side of the kitchen, needing a moment to himself. He took a breath before he turned around to face her again. “You’re exactly right. But we also need to focus on the fact that you just finished your exam. And that is absolutely incredible. Oh, and I almost forgot. I planned a little surprise for you.”
Katie’s face lit up. “You did?”
“I did.” Damon grabbed his own glass of wine and tipped it back, drinking deeply. “I spoke with Faith a few hours ago, and we’ve arranged some mountain biking tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow? Really?”
He laughed at her surprise and poured himself some more. “I did. She called to go over a few expenses on her way home from the city and she said you seemed a little tense. I thought it would be nice to go do something fun. So…mountain biking it is.”
She shook her head, but there was no mistaking the smile on her pretty face. “Was it Faith’s idea?”
“Busted.” He laughed. “She said something about you and her discussing it the other day. And she thought it might be—”
“So fun!” She cut him off. “It’s perfect. Thank you, Damon. I can’t think of a better way to unwind and have a little fun.”
He could think of a few other ways he’d like to unwind and have a little fun. But having sex with Katie would probably be a bad idea. Well…it would be a very good idea, but…he’d just have to settle for platonic fun with her…for now.
Chapter Eight
The next morning, after yet another night of barely getting any sleep, Katie poured herself another cup of coffee and stared out the glass window. She had no idea how she was going to get through the…however many more days it would be…running on next to no sleep. But the one thing she did know was that she could not sleep when Damon was lying next to her. There was no way.
Her body was way too aware of his proximity. Especially after that kiss.
Or…all the kisses. Each one got a little more intense than the last. And even though her brain knew it was Damon kissing her, her body certainly did not. She needed to find something to distract her if she ever planned to get some sleep again.
Either that, or she would need more coffee.
Katie raised her mug to her lips and took another long drink as her cell phone rang.
Welcoming the distraction, she pressed the button to answer Faith’s call. “Good morning. Please don’t tell me you’re cancelling mountain biking,” she said as way of a greeting. “I really need the distraction.”
“Good morning to you too. And no, I’m not,” Faith answered. “Why do you need a distraction? Wedding stresses?”
Katie nodded even though she hadn’t even thought of the actual wedding that morning. “Yup. Wedding stress,” she lied. “But going for a ride will help. You ready?”
“Very ready,” Faith said. “And that’s why I’m calling. How many bikes do you have?”
Katie did a quick mental count of the old bikes they had in her barn. “A few for sure. Why?”
“Well, I mentioned it to Sarah. Do you remember Sarah?”
“Sarah Lewis. Of course. Don’t forget, I never left this town.”
“Right,” Faith said. “Well, we’ve been hanging out a bit more lately and it turns out that there’s something going on with her and Brody
.”
“Brody Morris? Everyone knows that.” Katie laughed. Brody and Sarah were almost always together. And no matter what Sarah said about being just friends, it didn’t take a genius to see that both of them wanted it to be more, if it wasn’t already.
“Well, I didn’t know.” Faith sounded a little affronted, but then she laughed. “But I guess it makes sense.”
“Exactly.” Katie took another big gulp of coffee. “Hopefully they sort themselves out soon because I think it’s a great thing.” It was better than a great thing. Sarah had a run of terrible luck when her husband died tragically in a drowning accident. They’d been childhood sweethearts, and it had been incredibly hard on her. She’d spent the next few years completely dedicating herself to her daughter. She was a great mom with a heart of gold and she deserved so much out of life. Katie was genuinely happy for whatever it was that was going on with her and Brody, who was also a great person.
“So what does this have to do with mountain biking?”
“That’s the best part,” Faith said. “I heard through the grapevine that you were hoping to start up a rental shop and offer tours and things. And…when Sarah mentioned that she’d never tried it…well, it seemed like the perfect fit. And then after I spoke to Damon last night, I had this great idea that it might be more fun with more people and—”
“Right,” she interrupted, despite the fact that she’d mostly stopped listening after hearing Damon’s name. It was ridiculous the way her body reacted at the mere mention of him. Again, she had to remind herself that Damon was just her friend. That was all. She was acting like a ridiculous teenager. “Sounds fun to me. And like I said, I could totally use the distraction.”
“Perfect! We’re all going to have so much fun.”
“Who is we all?”
Faith laughed again. “Sarah, Brody, myself, and Damon of course.” Of course. “Oh, and Logan,” she added as an afterthought.
Katie ran her hand through her hair.
