Be Mine, Sweetheart (Something Borrowed)

by Codi Gary

  “If I hadn’t invited your parents, that might have been the case.”

  Chris searched the crowd and found his parents at the edge closest to the bar. His mom was already halfway through a glass of white wine by the looks of it, while his dad held a glass of dark liquid in his hand.

  “I’ll run over and say hi.”

  Kelly untangled her arms from around him. “I’ll go tell the kitchen we are ready to bring the food out.”

  “What are we having?”

  “Bacon and avocado sliders, garlic fries, coleslaw, and fruit salad.”

  Chris nodded, his mouth watering eagerly. Shotguns sliders were like potato chips; you couldn’t eat just one and although the garlic fries made your breath stink to high heaven, they were delicious.

  He headed over to his parents, kissing his mom on the cheek first.

  “Hey, guys. Thanks for coming.”

  “Of course. It’s not every day my baby turns thirty-two.” His mother sniffled and she pretended to dab at her blue eyes.

  Chris snorted. “I’m hardly a baby.”

  “You know what they say. You’ll always be my baby.”

  Chris’s cheeks burned. As much as he loved his mother, having only one child had made him the center of her undivided attention. As a kid, it had been wonderful. As an adult, it was almost a curse.

  “You two look great,” Chris said, changing the subject. “Retirement obviously agrees with you.”

  It was true. Both of his parents were tan, and his mother’s usual dark blond hair had been bleached by the sun. His mother was a retired teacher’s aide and his father had managed the local Wells Fargo Bank until just a few months before. He’d thought that his dad would have gone nuts by now, but he smiled warmly, the lines by his green eyes crinkling.

  His dad raised his glass to him. “Your mother has me doing yard work every day. Took me to Home Depot yesterday and cleaned out the garden center. I don’t think there was a flower left in the whole place.”

  His mother scowled at him. “You are so full of dung noodle. I bought a couple flats for the flower beds under the windows. Hardly a dent in their inventory.”

  Chris smirked as his dad ran a hand over his sandy hair, which was a bit grayer since their last family dinner two weeks ago. “It was more than a few flats, dear. My wallet cried the whole way home.”

  “Oh, you.” She tossed her head, but her blond bob had so much product it hardly moved. His mother ignored his dad and focused on him instead. “We were so glad that Kelly invited us. You know, I always thought she was a nice girl and would make someone very happy.”

  The pointed compliment was not lost on Chris, but he was not going to argue with his mother in the middle of Shotguns with half the town listening in. It wasn’t as though he hadn’t told her countless times before that Kelly and him were just friends.

  His father placed his hand on Chris’s mom’s back, and shook his head. “Leave them be. If they are meant to be, then it will happen without you meddling.”

  “I don’t meddle.”

  His father shot him a grin of conspiracy. “Don’t worry, we won’t be staying long. Just going to fill our bellies and take off. You have fun.”

  As his father led his protesting mother away, he was suddenly lost in a crowd of well-wishers buying him drinks. Every once in a while, he’d catch a glimpse of Kelly in the crowd and by the fourth shot, he was pretty loopy.

  That had to explain why his mother’s words kept haunting him.

  She would make someone very happy.

  Correction. Someone other than him very happy.

  Why was that thought so depressing?

  Chapter 5

  Kelly came around the side of her car several hours later, wishing she’d remembered to leave the porchlight on. Her two-story Lindal home was dark and the cobblestone path to the steps was barely visible in the sliver of moonlight from above.

  She held onto the car and gingerly made her way around to the passenger side. Kelly stared down at the ground, watching for movement. The last thing she wanted was to step on a snake by mistake. It didn’t matter what kind of snake; she was terrified of them all.

  She opened the door to a very inebriated Chris grinning at her in the dome light, his short hair in disarray and his blue eyes heavy lidded.

  “Happy birthday to me!” he sang.

  Kelly laughed as she reached in to help him out. She grunted under his weight as she pulled him unsteadily to his feet.

  “I think this was the best party you’ve ever given me.”

  Kelly held onto his waist to keep him upright. “I’m pretty sure that’s the bottle of Jose talking.”

  He threw an arm around her shoulders and gave her a squeeze.

  “Nope, it was all you. I appreciate it.” He gave her a smacking kiss on the cheek. “Wait? What about my presents?”

  “We’ll grab them tomorrow.” She led him up the walkway to her porch, ready to abandon him if anything slithered across the ground.

  “You could have taken me home. I’d have been fine.”

  “I’d rather keep an eye on you.” She’d already made up the spare room for him, knowing how he liked to tie one on. It was kind of funny to see her so serious, proper best friend get shit faced once a year on his birthday. The rest of the time, he stuck to beer or a glass of wine.

  “You are the best friend a guy could ask for.”

  “Now you’re making me blush.”

  She turned the knob on the front door, stumbling a bit as she balanced him. She pushed it open a crack and used their bodies to increase the gap when the door caught on her rug.

  I really need to find a better place for that.

  Kelly flipped the switch by the door and her living room lit up. Her cat, Pepper, lifted his black-and-white head from his position on the back of the large couch and yawned. He stretched his paws across the colorful quilt she always kept there, giving her otherwise brown-and-white living room a pop of color. She liked her furniture simple, and neutral, but made up for the boring palette with bright blankets and colorful paintings on the walls. She wasn’t much of an art connoisseur; she didn’t know what made a painting good or bad, she just bought what she liked.

  Pepper watched them pass with sleepy eyes, before rolling onto his back...

  And right off the couch. He landed on the wood floor with a plop and an affronted meow, as though it was Kelly’s fault he was such a dork.

  “Hey, I could have told you there wasn’t enough room for tummy rubs.”

  Pepper sneezed and trotted into the kitchen, probably to hover by his food bowl. Although she’d fed him before she left, he was never satisfied.

  “It is weird to talk to animals.”

  Kelly laughed. “You only say that because you don’t have one. Believe me, if you got a dog or cat, you’d be just as crazy as the rest of us.”

  “Yeah, maybe. Speaking of crazy, I never told you, but I had a hefty crush on you in eighth grade,” Chris said, abruptly.

  Kelly stumbled in astonishment, slamming Chris into the wall just outside the guestroom door. The pictures that decorated the wall shook under the force as Chris grunted.

  “Ow, geez, don’t kill me!” he said.

  Kelly leaned against the wall and stared up at him, completely thrown. “What did you just say?”

  Chris met her gaze with his bleary blue eyes. “I said, I had a crush on you too, but Ray called dibs. So, I let him have you.”

  She spluttered with indignation. “You let him have me? Like I’m a freaking ball you two found on the playground? Because if you had told me that you liked me, I might not have gone with Ray?”

  His mouth flopped open and shut like a fish trying to get air, his brain obviously not working at full capacity. “No, I just meant…I just didn’t want to fight my best friend over a gi
rl. You know, bros before—”

  Kelly poked him in the stomach. “If you finish that sentence, I will drop you right here and let you sleep on the hardwood floor.”

  “I’m only saying he told me about his crush first, so I was the good guy and kept my mouth shut.”

  Still irritated with him, Kelly scoffed. “You know, good guys finish last, right?”

  “That seems to be the truth, at least for me. I keep getting dumped.” His expression drooped like a hound dog denied a car ride. “Why do you think that is?”

  Kelly honestly didn’t have a good answer for him. Chris was sweet, funny, successful, and all in all a great catch, when he wasn’t saying stupid drunk shit. She had no idea why women kept letting him get away.

  “Maybe it’s because you still say things like ‘bros before hos.’”

  “Technically, I only started to say it. You actually said it.”

  His sloppy grin hit her right in the stomach, melting her irritation and leaving her giddy.

  Giddy? Where the hell had that come from?

  “All right, I’m going to put you to bed before you do say something that pisses me off.”

  She helped him through the doorway of the guest room and onto the bed. The minute his butt hit the comforter, he flopped back on it, staring up at her pensively.

  “Did you ever think about it?” he asked.

  She paused in the process of bending over to untie his shoes. “About what?”

  “About you and me? If you hadn’t gone out with Ray?”

  Kelly’s cheeks warmed up, and she was thankful she hadn’t turned on the light or her blush would have given her away. “When you were a skinny, towheaded kid? Nope, not once.”

  “Hey, I was a little awkward! I wasn’t that bad though.”

  No, he hadn’t been bad at all. And she’d never said anything out loud, but, when Chris had approached her, she’d thought he was going to ask her out.

  And she’d been a little disappointed when he didn’t.

  Not that she hadn’t loved Ray. She had with all her heart. But she’d been a thirteen-year-old girl noticing boys for the first time and Chris, well…

  Chris had been really, really cute in a nerdy way.

  Kelly slid up next to him on the bed and leaned over to kiss his forehead. “No, you weren’t bad, but there’s no use wondering about it, is there?”

  “I guess not.” Before she could go back to removing his shoes, he grabbed her hand. “Hey, Kel?”

  “Yeah?”

  “What about that time sophomore year?”

  Kelly’s heart skipped several beats. “What time?”

  “That winter break when you and Ray broke up for a few weeks.”

  She knew exactly what time he was referring to, but was surprised he was bringing it up, considering he’d acted as though she’d imagined it all. “What about it?”

  “I don’t know,” he mumbled. “I just wonder…”

  “What?”

  Deep, even breathing was her only answer. Frustration ripped through her and for some reason, she wanted to shake him awake and ask him what he was about to say.

  Instead, she finished with his shoes and grabbed the folded quilt from the end of the bed, spreading it out over his passed-out form. She left him to get a bottle of water and two Advil from the kitchen. Considering how he’d downed those drinks tonight, he’d need both in the morning.

  Kelly flipped the light switch as she passed through the doorway. As she headed to her stainless-steel fridge first for the water, her mind drifting back to that December.

  Right before Christmas break, Ray had picked a fight with her about something stupid. She couldn’t recall what it was now, but she did remember him saying they should take a break. He was going with his family to Tahoe for the holidays, and he suggested they reevaluate things when he got back.

  She’d been devastated and called her best friend, Jackie, but she hadn’t picked up. Then, she’d called Chris, bawling her eyes out. They had never really hung out without Ray, but he’d shown up a half an hour later with junk food and DVDs. At first, he’d just held her while she cried, but after an hour or so, he’d given her a little shake and said, “Don’t stress about it, Kel. Ray is going to realize he’s a moron and come crawling back.”

  “What if he doesn’t?” she asked.

  “Like I said…moron.”

  Kelly smiled as she set the water bottle down on the counter and opened the cabinet to the left of the sink. She’d been mopey the first few days after Ray had left, but Chris had come by every day to take her on some adventure. They’d gone to Apple Hill, a stretch of road filled with pumpkin patches, craft fairs, and fabulous fall and winter treats. Before calling it a day they’d bought a pie, which they devoured with a half-gallon of vanilla ice cream as soon as they got back to her house. They’d been so sick the next day, neither one of them had left the house, but they’d still talked on the phone, both bitching and moaning about how much they ate.

  The next day, once they’d recovered from their over indulgence, they’d gone to check out Christmas lights in Orangevale. They’d sipped hot chocolate as they’d walked along the sidewalk with other pedestrians, taking in the intricate light displays. By the time Christmas had passed and Kelly was actually having fun. Chris has taken her sledding. Dancing. Although Ray hadn’t called her once, Chris had done his best to keep her from thinking about it and she’d appreciated it.

  Kelly found the Advil in her medicine basket and opened the bottle up. Once she’d dropped two pills into the palm of her hand, she put the basket back and picked up the water bottle. Chris had done nothing but try and make her feel better forever, so she didn’t mind helping to prevent his massive, post-birthday hangover.

  The thought of drinking too much took her back to Will Yates’s New Year’s Eve costume party. Kelly had stopped feeling so sad about Ray by that time and had gone to the trouble of finding a mermaid costume to wear. Chris had shown up as James Bond in a black tux. He’d agreed to drive, so she could drink, and once they’d arrived, she’d hit the sauce hard. Midnight rolled around, and there were only about ten people left at the party, including her and Chris. Will, and a couple of other guys had given her sloppy, New Year’s Eve pecks, but Chris hadn’t kissed anyone. In fact, when they’d gotten in the car that night, he’d seemed pissed at her.

  “Are you mad at me?”

  “No, why would I be?”

  “I don’t know but you keep giving me the stink eye.”

  He hadn’t said anything else until he’d reached her house, where he’d slammed the car into park. She remembered jerking forward with a cry, and turning to give him a piece of her mind, but stopped when she’d seen the expression on his profile as he stared out the windshield. His jaw stiff and his eyebrows slashed down over his eyes. She’d never seen him look like that before.

  “You’re right. I’m mad.”

  “Well, duh.”

  He’d turned in the seat to face her and even with the headlights off, she could feel the intensity of his gaze.

  “I’m mad because I wanted to kiss you tonight. Instead, I stood around watching you kiss everyone else but me.”

  Going back to that moment, she could still remember the flash of shock, followed quickly by excitement and confusion. A part of her was thrilled by Chris’s admission and she leaned toward him, her eyes fluttering closed.

  Then someone knocked on her window and she’d jumped a mile in the air, thinking it was her dad…

  Only when she’d opened the door, and the dome light flashed on, it was Ray on the other side. He’d been bundled up in a jacket and beanie, holding a bouquet of bright Gerbera daisies, her favorite flower, in his left hand and that beautiful, lopsided grin she loved on his handsome face.

  “Hey, Kel.”

  Sluggishly, she’d clim
bed out of the car to face him, leaving the door open behind her. “What are you doing here? It’s one in the morning.”

  “I know. We came home a day early, and I just couldn’t wait to see you. To tell you what an idiot I was. I am really, really sorry. I know I hurt you, but the distance made me realize how much I love you, Kelly. How wrong I was to think there was anyone else out there for me but you. Please, forgive me?”

  She’d stared at him, the light from inside Chris’s car glistening off his dark skin. His eyes sparkled in the dimness, and Kelly’s stomach flopped over. This was Ray. They’d been together two and a half years. He was her friend and her first love.

  Behind her, Chris cleared his throat and when she turned around, he was standing in the open driver’s side door. Smiling as though moments ago he hadn’t been admitting to wanting to kiss her.

  “Glad you’re back, buddy. I’ll talk to you later, Kel.”

  Kelly hadn’t had a chance to even say bye before he was back in the car. She’d closed his passenger door, completely thrown for a loop by the roller coaster of the night’s events. As he’d pulled out of her drive and his taillights had disappeared, she kept replaying his words in her head, even as Ray pulled her in for a hug.

  It had felt good to be held by him again, but a lot had happened, and she needed time to consider what she wanted. She’d taken the flowers from Ray and told him she needed a few days to think. That she’d see him at school. He’d been disappointed, but he’d had two weeks to realize that he wanted to be with her. She was due some time.

  After a weekend of stressing, she’d been at Chris’s locker on Monday, waiting impatiently. Just before the bell rang he’d come up, and although she could have sworn something foreign flashed across his face, it was replaced to swiftly by his usual gamin grin for her to be sure. “Hey, Kel.”

  “Hey.” She’d shifted from foot to foot in front of the blue aisle of lockers, drumming up the courage to be straight with him. “Did you mean what you said to me on Saturday?”

  “What?”