I might as well get this over with.
“Nate’s the guy,” I tell her. “The one from the airport.”
“Are you kidding me?” She’s so excited that I’m a bit worried that she’s going to hyperventilate. “What are the odds of that? Holy shit.”
“I bet they’re pretty long,” I tell her. Seriously long. “But I know that look on your face, and it’s not-”
“It’s fate,” she says, clasping my hands in hers. “How can you think it’s anything but fate, Callie?”
“I can think it’s a coincidence, Gab. Because that’s what it is.” It’s a delightful, scary coincidence.
“He likes you.” She’s not going to give up very easily.
“Stop it.”
“Maybe one day-”
“No,” I say firmly. I don’t want her getting any more ideas or thinking that she can just bulldoze through my plans with her iron will. “You know I don’t want that.”
She rolls her eyes, but I shoot her a death glare that lets her know that I’m not kidding.
“He’s the best man and you’re the maid of honor. I paired the two of you up at the bridal party’s table and everything.”
I sigh. “As long as that’s all the pairing up you do, that’s fine.”
“It might be out of my hands. He’s super charming,” she says slyly, looking at me out of the corner of her eye. She’s always doubted my commitment to my new life goal of never having my heart smashed again by someone I stupidly fall in love with. I wonder what it’ll take to get her to believe that I’m serious.
“I think I’m aware of how charming he is,” I tell her. I mean, the man charmed my pants right off. “How come I haven’t met him before? I don’t even remember ever hearing about him.”
“You knew Ben had a brother,” she says in a not-so-subtle chastising tone.
“I knew he had a brother, but I didn’t know he was hot.” I didn’t know he was Nate.
Gabby rolls her eyes. “When was I supposed to tell you that? When you were dating Ethan or when you were swearing off men?”
“Swearing off love,” I correct her. She has a point though, I don’t try to argue that.
“Oh, excuse me,” she says, smiling. “He lives in Boulder and manages a chain of sporting goods stores, in case you wanted to know.”
“I didn’t,” I say, even though that’s a tiny white lie. I shouldn’t want to know, that’s the real issue here.
“The way he looked at you, Callie,” she says dreamily, and I can tell that I’m not going to like where that train of thought is heading.
“Can we please stop talking about this now?”
“If we stop talking about this, I’m dragging you to the garage to help me make centerpieces.”
Arts and crafts time sounds like paradise compared to twenty questions. I stand and brush off my pants.
“All right, let’s go.”
THREE HOURS and thirty centerpieces later, I’m sitting on the front porch sipping an iced tea that Amy made especially for me. My right hand is throbbing, because apparently I’m not cut out to make centerpieces and my fingers swell after an afternoon of light manual labor. If I never see another bow again it’ll be too soon. I was intrigued when Gabby first told me about her plans for a small wedding on Ben’s family’s farm in Virginia, but I find myself wishing that she had gone even smaller. Like a courthouse in Dallas kind of small. Then I wouldn’t be dealing with centerpieces and swollen fingers. And I wouldn’t be worrying about what’s going to happen with Nate.
I can understand what drew her to this place, though. The land is gorgeous, and the house, it’s absolutely breathtaking. Somehow both large and quaint at the same time, the Wright home is hugged by a wide wraparound porch. Brightly colored azaleas line the perimeter, popping against the white siding. There’s a smaller guest house down a short path connected to the back of the main one, which is where I’m staying along with the rest of the wedding party, whenever they arrive. The guest house is nicer than the one I grew up in. I’m admiring the cozy looking patio attached to it when the screen door behind me opens with a high-pitched squeak. The wood planks along the length of the porch creak as someone walks toward me. Every nerve in my body comes alive before I even turn around. My body knows who it is before my mind can even process it.
“Mind if I sit?” Nate asks.
I look up at him, squinting against the glare of the sun. “No, I don’t mind,” I reply, shaking my head.
He sits down next to me, stretching his long legs out in front of him, and he’s quiet for a few moments, fiddling with a string that dangles from the frayed hem of his khaki shorts. As I watch his fingers, I wish there was some way to get rid of this light nervous feeling I have in my stomach.
“So,” Nate says. “I have to admit that you were a first for me. I’ve never been so bad in bed that a woman felt the need to leave before the sun even came up.”
Regret fills my chest, making its way up my throat, and I have to swallow it down. Nate must understand the look on my face, because he bumps his leg against mine to let me know that he’s just kidding, even though I’m sure he would like an answer as to why I abandoned him while he was still naked and wrapped up in the sheets on the bed in my hotel room.
“I think you know you were anything but bad,” I say. I can’t help but smile at him, like I don’t have any control over what my body does when he’s around me.
“But you wanted to leave.”
“I had to leave,” I clarify. “I’m sorry that I did it the way that I did, but I went to the airport that day to catch a flight here, not…to do that. I was totally not expecting it. Even after I did it, strange as that sounds.”
He studies my face, and I don’t like the way his eyes seem to cut right through me, down the parts that I don’t want anyone to see. “It’s okay,” he finally says, and I get the sense that it really is.
“I don’t date,” I blurt out. I immediately regret saying it, because while it’s the truth, it makes it seem like I think he wants more from me when all we shared was some meaningless sex. A one-night stand. “I mean, I wasn’t sure how to say goodbye to you, so I figured it would be best to go while you were sleeping. I just…I haven’t done anything like that before.”
“So you said.” Nate’s grinning, and he’s seemingly beyond expecting an explanation. He’s just enjoying watching me tie myself into knots while trying to rationalize my behavior.
“I’m sorry, I’m bungling this,” I tell him, frustratedly running my fingers through my hair.
“So what you’re telling me is that you used me for my body?”
“It’s such a nice body.” The words slip out before I can even stop myself from saying them, and I know, I just know my mouth is going to get me into some big trouble around this man.
Nate laughs again; it’s a deep, genuine laugh and his eyes are so bright when they look into mine. “You’re welcome to it anytime.”
Even though he’s just teasing me, I know he means what he said. My cheeks grow hot, and I accidentally knock over my glass. Tea seeps across the bottom step, and I bend down to pick it up at the same time Nate does. Our heads bump together and Nate presses his palm against my forehead at the same time I do, and we’re sitting there with our fingers kind of entwined against my head. The situation is so weird that I’m fairly certain it’s a concussion-related hallucination.