Best Man

by Christine Zolendz

  I gulped back the rest of my beer and swiveled around, turning my back to him, and started walking away.

  “Never had a girl walk away from me,” he said in a low rumble.

  I swallowed back a thousand words—a million words I wanted to throw at him, but I thought better of it and went for classy. “Then go find one that won’t.”

  “Think I like this view a whole lot better,” he said.

  “Goodnight, Luke,” I called over my shoulder.

  “It certainly is from where I’m standing,” he chuckled back.

  FIVE DANCES LATER—three fast and two slow—five different random men, Luke leaned against the bar and watched it all. It made me ache for something stronger than one beer and a few dances. I made my way up to the bar and ordered a whiskey and tossed it back in one long gulp.

  A slow melody drifted through the bar—one of the boys in the band playing on the piano—and that’s when I felt a pair of strong hands around my waist. They were heavy and warm and made me swallow back a gasp. I tried to whirl around, but a hard, hot body pressed me up against the bar and a mouth was against my ear. “Dance with me,” Luke’s voice growled in my ear.

  I shook my head and slid my empty whiskey glass to Taylor, who nodded his head and refilled it without question. “No, go away.”

  His hands fisted the hem of my shirt and dug into my skin, and fuck if that didn’t get me wet and a little breathless. He slid his face into the crook of my neck and took a deep breath. “One dance,” he whispered, “just one. Want to feel you in my arms again.”

  I downed my drink again and wiped the back of my hand across my mouth. Then, I shoved him back with all my strength. “Then you shouldn’t have left the first time.”

  He stumbled back drunkenly, his face a sad mask. I looked to my left and saw one of the regular millers, Jason something or other, watching our little drama unfold with hawk-like eyes. I knew Jason a little; he was cute, a real nice guy—quiet, kept to himself. “I’m here with Jason tonight,” I said, whirling around on Luke and stepping back to keep the distance between us.

  Luke’s eyes narrowed from me to Jason. “Oh, are you now?” he asked with a smirk.

  Asshole knew I was lying. Fine, whatever, this was where I usually got myself into trouble. But Luke—he wasn’t worth me spending a night in a cell for. So, I opened my clenched up fists and put on a pretty little smile instead. “Yep. Jason, I’m tired of dancing. I want you to take me home now.”

  Jason nodded his head and played along, thank God. “Sure thing, Maddie.”

  I reached for his hand, led him to the front door, and then waved to Ava. His warm fingers squeezed mine as we walked to his pickup truck, and I chanced a look behind me. Luke leaned up against the entrance; arms folded over his chest, watching me leave with another man. I didn’t want to care. I didn’t want him to care. I wanted him to go back to wherever the hell he’d been hiding for the last few years and leave me alone.

  Jason pulled out of the parking lot and looked over at me. “You okay, Maddie?”

  “Right as rain. Thank you.”

  Jason knew where the cabin was. I wasn’t sure how he knew I’d been living there—but he did. I didn’t have a care in the world how he did, but I asked anyway. “How did you know I lived here?”

  He shrugged his shoulders and pulled the gearshift into park, leaving the truck to rumble around us. “You’re the prettiest girl in town, of course I’d know where you live.”

  Prettiest, no—not in the ways that mattered. “Prettiest girl, huh?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Jason, you want to come inside? Show me how pretty you think I am?”

  He didn’t hesitate for a second, and we didn’t even make it into the living room. I had him press me up against the front wall as fast as anything, and I came hard with thoughts of another man’s hands on my hips and his whisper in my ear.

  CHAPTER 5

  LUKE

  Best man duties suck. I knew nothing about weddings or marriages or anything that had to do with boutonnieres or cummerbunds. I didn’t even know what those things were. But there I was standing with my best friend picking out a fucking flower that he expected me to pin to my lapel—whatever a lapel was.

  I held up the sample flower. “Pink? You want me to wear a pink flower?”

  “Casey wants the boutonnieres and the cummerbunds to match the color of the girl’s dresses,” he said this with a smile, which made me want to punch some sense into him.

  “What the hell did you do with my best friend? Have you seen him? He used to be cool with a pair of balls…”

  “Shut up. I love her, and she means the world to me. I want to make her happy,” he said, laughing as he pointed to a bright pink handkerchief to match the rest of the pink crap piled on the counter in front of us.

  “But this much pink? There’s got to be a limit…”

  He shook his head and laughed again. “You have no idea.” He slid his credit card across the display case, and the woman on the other side of him cooed and blushed in our direction. “Have you stopped by the house yet? My mother’s been dying to see you. Thinks you’ve been walking around with bullet holes all over your body.”

  “Nah, haven’t been. First time I went out was last Saturday. Had a few beers at The Miller’s Brew.” I shrugged. “Just needed to get out and away.”

  “Yeah? You should’ve called me. Maddie works there. We could’ve gotten a few free drinks.”

  “Yeah, I noticed she was there. I thought she was going to NYU…”

  “Yeah, she did for a semester. Then when Mom got sick she came back to take care of her.” He shrugged like it was no big deal, giving up on your dreams and all. “She had responsibilities here anyway after everything that happened in high school. One day that kid is going to grow up and straighten up her life…at least I hope she does.”

  “What happened to her in high school? I don’t remember anything happening?”

  “Dude, you’ve been in the city, living the life. Of course you don’t know any of our small town crap,” he said, chuckling.

  “So what’s the story?”

  He shook his head and laughed. “The little shit got herself arrested.” He chuckled as he signed his name to the receipt the cashier plopped in front of him. “Same night my father had his heart attack. She was the talk of the town.”

  “Maddie? Arrested?”

  “Oh, my little sister has gotten quite used to the back of the sheriff’s car over the years. She’s lucky nobody ever presses charges against her.”

  We walked out of the shop with him laughing and grinning ear to ear. I didn’t get a chance to pry further into the stories though, because just outside stood Casey and Maddie, who were holding hands with a little girl with black pigtails.

  “Uncle Travis!” the little girl yelled, running into his arms.

  Uncle Travis? My pulse raced and the sound of my own heartbeat thrashed violently in my ears.

  “There’s my favorite girl!” he said, picking her up in his arms for a hug and swinging her around. The girl squealed in delight and kicked her feet into the air.

  My jaw clenched so tightly my chin ached with pain. Maddie was a mom? What the hell did I miss?

  A sharp dryness crept down my throat and cut like razors across my chest. The kid had to be around four years old. Dark hair…blue eyes…holy shit.

  Maddie had a kid.

  Maddie had a four-year-old kid?

  She’d have to have gotten pregnant before I left…around the same time we…oh shit.

  CHAPTER 6

  MADELINE

  I rolled my eyes dramatically at the asshole. “Please. Stop looking at her like that,” I snapped under my breath.

  Luke’s eyes were wide as he walked alongside me watching Casey and Travis swing Chloe between them. He fixed his eyes on mine. “You got something you want to tell me?”

  I stopped walking and jammed my hands on my hips. “I should just let you go o
n and think the world does revolve around you and then watch you make a damn fool out of yourself when the truth comes out.”

  He stepped closer to me and leaned his face toward mine. “Who’s the father?”

  “She’s not my daughter, Luke.” I sighed. “Stop thinking whatever the hell you’re thinking. She belongs to Ava. And the father was Mr. Rouke.”

  Luke’s eyes narrowed. “Mr. Rouke, the biology teacher? He had to be fifty years old when I had him!”

  “Well, then it’s a good thing you didn’t have to sleep with him to get your diploma, asshole.” I continued walking, trying to catch up with Casey, Travis, and Chloe.

  “Shit,” he said, catching up to me and tugging me back by the sleeve of my jacket, “I thought…I thought...”

  I stopped again and poked him in the chest hard, hissing under my breath, “I know what you thought, jerk. You thought I would have a baby, have her grow into an amazingly brilliant four-year-old, and keep it from you. Glad you always thought so highly of me. Now that that’s all settled, stay out of my life.”

  His hand was around my wrist in an instant. “Why the hell are you so angry with me?”

  I smacked his hand until he let go of my wrist.

  “No reason,” I snapped.

  “Bullshit, little girl. Since the moment you saw me in that bar you have had it out for me. Why?” he ground out.

  “I’m not a little girl, idiot.”

  “Then stop acting like one,” he grumbled.

  “Stop talking to me, and I will,” I said, poking a finger into his chest.

  “Fine. Fine,” he threw his hands up in the air. “Just tell me one thing and I’ll leave you alone.”

  “What?”

  “What did you get arrested for?” He was smiling, teasing me like when we were kids. I shoved my hands deep into my jacket pockets to stop myself from throat punching him.

  “Well?” he said, reaching up and tugging on a strand of my hair.

  I folded my arms across my chest as the anger boiled in my blood. I was on the edge, about to explode. “You remember that night?”

  His face softened, but his eyes flittered around us to gage how close any prying ears were. I was still a dirty little secret to him. “Yeah, Maddie, of course I do.”

  “I told you I had loved you since the first time I laid eyes on you.”

  He ran his hand through his hair and lowered his eyelids but never broke eye contact. “I know, Maddie. We were kids, and I was so damned stupid. You were my best friend’s little—”

  “—I know. I remember, Luke. I won’t ever forget where I stand with you; believe me. But you told me something that night, after. After all the times. How many was it? Five times? Five times until the sun came up,” I whispered.

  He swallowed hard. Maybe he was remembering, I didn’t know. I didn’t know if I was anything special after five years of being gone and living his life out there.

  “You told me you’d stay.”

  He stepped even closer. “I told you I’d stay if I could live here without remembering my father and everything he’d ever put me and my mother through. I hated driving past that damned factory every day and hearing him screaming at me about what a no good piece of shit I was for not taking the job there, being one of the ones to let it close down, and failing him and his fucked up little town.” He leaned his head down and spoke lower. “I can still hear that dead man’s voice in my head.”

  “Yeah, I remember real well.”

  “So what’s that got to do with you? You think I left because of us? No. No, Maddie. I left because of him. I needed to get away.”

  “You get to pass by that mill in any of your visits to see your mother?”

  He shook his head and said nothing.

  “It isn’t there anymore. Some dumb love-struck teenager burnt it to the ground years ago. She got to stay locked up in county for six months, but she was really happy when they decided to build the new sheriff’s station there. Thought maybe you’d come back like you promised. Be a deputy or something, maybe even the sheriff. But you never did.”

  “I wrote you…”

  “Two stupid postcards. Then you stopped.” I looked ahead to Casey and Travis waiting for us on the next corner. Chloe was waving for me to hurry. I had promised her ice cream. “Doesn’t matter now, Luke. Just don’t come back here after five years and think I’m going to let you sweet talk me and dance with me. I’m not that girl anymore. And you wouldn’t deserve her even if I was.”

  CHAPTER 7

  LUKE

  T ravis dragged me into the ice cream parlor, much to Maddie’s dismay. The sweet smell of chocolate and caramel seemed comical against the disgusted expression she wore. She was still a pretty sight though—a damned pretty sight.

  We sat around a booth and ordered sundaes from a pimple-faced teen, who stared longingly at Maddie the entire time he stood by the table. It was a wonder he got any of the orders correct, but I sure as hell noticed that Maddie got extra whipped cream and cherries. When I brought it to the guy’s attention, she kicked me under the table. She was always a violent one.

  After eating, Travis gave Chloe a handful of quarters and sent her to play the old fashioned nickelodeon that still sat in the corner from when I was a kid. The four-year-old squealed like some sort of a wild animal and danced around to the music with a half melted ice cream cone in her hands. I shook my head and squeezed my eyes shut. I didn’t realize kids could be so damned loud.

  “Heard you had a great time at the Brew last night,” Travis said pointedly at Maddie.

  She shrugged and shoved a spoonful of vanilla into her mouth. Fuck if I wasn’t jealous of that spoon just then.

  “Jason said he had a good time with you,” he continued.

  “I’m sure he did. I let him fuck me up against the wall of the cabin after he took me home,” she said, smiling.

  Yeah. I choked on my ice cream. I choked and coughed, and my eyes stung as Travis whaled on my back. Maddie smiled like she had the devil himself as her backbone. I wanted to find that guy and rip off his extremities. All of them.

  “Why do you have to embarrass yourself like that? What the hell where you thinking?” Travis snapped. Now, I wanted to rip off all of Travis’.

  “Travis, that’s enough,” Casey murmured, grabbing his hands. “Leave her alone.”

  “It’s okay, Casey, I’ve heard it before.” She stood up, dug into her pockets, pulled out a crumpled twenty, and threw it down on the table. “I was thinking I wanted to get laid. That’s all, Trav. Just like any of you or your friends would.”

  Shit. That was definitely aimed toward me. I had to make this right. I screwed up five years ago; I was a stupid kid running away from a shitty life, but she thought I ran away from her. Hurting her was never my intention. I never thought it was anything more to her than just that one night. Yeah, I knew she had a huge crush on me, but I wasn’t thinking about anything but how badly I wanted to get under her red sundress and get out of small town hell.

  “Come on, Chloe,” she called to the little girl who froze as soon as she heard her name.

  “We going?” Chloe yelled over the music.

  “Yes, sweets. Let’s get outta here and go swing on some swings.”

  “The park!” the kid screeched, most likely making everyone in the shop’s eardrums rupture.

  Casey stood up and tried to stop them. “Maddie, no. Please, you don’t have to go. Ignore your brother. He’s just worried about you.”

  “There is nothing to worry about.” She smiled and shifted her head to look at Travis. “You do you, and I’ll do me.” Then she swayed that amazing ass out the door, holding hands with that kid who was still screaming loudly as they made their way down the block. We could still hear her at the corner, followed by a low roll of thunder.

  “Are kids supposed to be that loud?” I asked, still watching her ass as she walked away.

  Travis sighed. “That kid only comes in one volume...high.” He dr
opped the spoon into the ice cream dish and shoved it away from him. “I don’t know what to do about her.”

  Casey shook her head and licked some ice cream off her spoon. The girl was pretty, but the whole spoon-licking thing didn’t affect me as much as when Maddie did it. Maybe I needed to go after her. But right now, the thought that someone had her up against the wall had me sweating and angry. It’s been too long, and she said to stay away. I just hope I can. Never had much will power around her. “Trav, you can’t do anything about her. She’s a grown woman. Leave her be. She’ll find someone someday and settle down.”

  “Nobody would ever put up with her bullshit.” He wiped his hands on a napkin and threw it down, “I’ve tried to set her up with nice guys her age, but she runs through them like they’re made of fire.”

  “Dude, stop setting her up with guys!” I said, maybe a little too angrily.

  They both flinched back and stared at me with curious expressions. “Don’t,” Travis said, pointing his finger in my direction. “Don’t you even dare go near my little sister—”

  “—What? Why would you even say that to me?” I asked.

  “I see that look in your eyes. She’s off limits to you. You’re going right back to the city and forgetting about her pretty little face.”

  “I would never intentionally hurt her…”

  “Dude, it’s not her I’m worried about getting hurt.”

  CHAPTER 8

  MADELINE

  We were at the park for twenty minutes when the rain started and Chloe and I pulled our thin sweaters up over our heads to try to stay dry. It was no use though; after a few minutes, we were soaked to the bone.