Friday Night Brides (7 page)

“Okay, but…”

“A puppy is cute,” she went on. “Or a teddy bear. Grown women are not cute!”

Rather than try to interrupt a fourth time, Judith just sat back and watched and listened while her daughter rambled on.

“And on top of that, he makes fun of Logan! He calls him ‘pretty boy’ in that same condescending tone he calls me cute in. I hate it! Of course I shouldn’t be surprised, he clearly doesn’t have manners. I know there are a lot more male models out there we can hire who are far better looking and with better manners than Jack!” With a loud sigh, Hailey collapsed back down in her seat and looked at her mother. “Promise me you won’t use him in any more shows. Please.”

Shaking her head, Judith gave her a sympathetic smile. “No can do, sweet pea. You are the only one who has an issue with Jackson and that isn’t a reason for me to let him go. The other models like him, the guests and clients like him. Hell, I like him! You’re just going to have to learn to deal with him.”

“I could deal with him just fine if he’d leave me alone. Or maybe just not speak when I’m around. Or make himself look presentable,” she murmured.

“I never knew you to be such a snob.”

Hailey sat upright. “Excuse me?”

“You heard me. A snob.”

For a minute, Hailey simply sputtered and tried to form a retort, but Judith cut her off before she could find one.

“For the record, he prefers to be called Jackson and I’ve never seen or heard him be anything but polite and respectful to anyone. His mother and I are in the same yoga class together and we’ve become good friends.” She gave Hailey a pointed look.

“So you’re saying this is about me? That I’m the problem?”

“Well…I wouldn’t say that exactly…”

“And yet you are!” Once again, Hailey jumped to her feet and looked around until she found her purse. “I can’t believe you’re taking his side over mine!”

“I’m not taking sides at all,” Judith said wearily, placing her water on the end table and standing up. She wrapped her daughter in her arms and hugged her. “I just think you have quite a few…issues…right now that are making you a little more sensitive than usual.”

“That’s just another way of saying I’m being difficult,” Hailey mumbled.

Pulling back, Judith looked down at Hailey’s face. “I think you need to get things straight with Logan because it’s starting to wear on you. Don’t wait for him to make a move; you make one. Invite him to coffee after the show or maybe to dinner before it—just do something. You’ll feel much better once that part of your life is a little more settled.”

“I don’t know…”

Judith stepped away and sat back down. “I’m sure you’ve already talked about this with the girls. What do they say?”

Hailey shrugged.

“Hailey…”

“No one can figure out why he hasn’t said or done anything. Becca thought maybe he already had a girlfriend, but that theory got shot down.”

“And you all just left it at that?” She gave Hailey a disapproving glance.

And for some reason, in that moment, Hailey felt it was better to lie to her mother than admit what the rest of the conversation had consisted of. “We sort of got distracted by dessert and congratulating Ella on standing up to her mom. And, by the way, thank you for making that happen.”

The smile on Judith’s face conveyed how she knew exactly what was behind the sudden change of subject. “It needed to be done. That poor girl was miserable and I knew the exact reason why.” She shook her head. “Someone just needed to give her a push.”

“You’re too nice. I was thinking someone needed to give her mom a hard slap in the face.”

“Hailey!”

“I know, I know…”

“You really are out of sorts, sweetheart. Do yourself a favor and talk to Logan. If he’s not interested then you can move on. I know you’ll be heartbroken but at least you can move on.”

It was pretty much the same thing Hailey had been telling herself. She didn’t know why she thought her mom or her friends were going to say anything different. It would be different if Logan had even hinted about his feelings one way or the other, but he hadn’t.

“Promise me you’ll think about it,” Judith said.

With a small smile, Hailey nodded and knew she wouldn’t be able to think about anything but.

****

Friday afternoon, the girls were piled into Becca’s Toyota and heading to Greensboro. “Is it wrong that we’re not even there yet and I’m already wishing we had booked a hotel room for the night?” Becca asked.

“For crying out loud, we’re only a little more than an hour away from home. If you’re tired later, I’ll drive,” Angie said.

“It’s not just the drive. It’s just more fun when we make it like a mini-vacation. We could have relaxed after the show and got up tomorrow and ordered room service…”

“Call it what you want, but it still sounds a lot like laziness to me,” Angie replied.

From the back seat, Hailey cleared her throat. “Um…so since we’re doing the show tonight and have the long drive home, I was wondering if anyone would be upset if I missed lunch tomorrow.”

They all turned and looked at her—except Becca who simply caught Hailey’s eye in the rear-view mirror. “Why? What’s going on?”

Hailey took a steadying breath. “I’m going to ask Logan to have lunch with me tomorrow.”

“Finally!” Angie said as she clapped her hands with glee. “Do you know where you’re going to go? What you’re going to wear? Have you written down how you want to ask him?”

“Yes, yes and yes,” Hailey said with a grin. “I’ve been waiting for what seems like forever for him to do the asking, but I’m done with all of that. I want to move this thing along and if he’s too shy to make a move, then I’m going to.”

“You talked to your mom, didn’t you?” Ella asked.

“What makes you say that?”

“Because we’ve all been telling you this for months and you haven’t done a thing. Just like I was with my mom. Then I spent a few minutes talking with your mom and BAM! Things are happening!”

“So you’ve told your mom about how she needs to reel it in with your wedding?” Becca asked. “How did she take it?”

“Well, I still haven’t put it all out there. After the whole thing with the dress, I mentioned how the guest list was starting to get out of hand. I took her to lunch and explained how it was okay to
not
invite everyone we ever knew to the wedding.”

“How’d she take it?”

“She got a little offended at first and then when I mentioned all the extra money it was taking to cover all of the additional guests, she finally started to see how things were snowballing.”

“So then what’s left?” Hailey asked. “What else is bothering you about the whole thing?”

“Where do I even begin?”

“Ella, sweetie, how long have you been keeping this to yourself? And why?” Hailey asked.

With a shrug, Ella looked down and studied her hands which were folded in her lap. “You know I don’t like to complain. And I was fine with things for a while until…” she looked up. “I wasn’t. It all sort of hit me at once. It was the guest list, the invitations, the menu, the dress…it just went on and on and on. And then I started freaking out because I feel like I missed out on so much because Dylan and I have been together forever and I was thinking how maybe I shouldn’t be getting married at all and…”

“
What
?!” It was a collective cry from Hailey, Angie and Becca.

Ella sighed loudly. “Look, it’s not a big deal. Sometimes I just can’t help but wonder if getting married is the right thing. Dylan’s the only guy I’ve ever dated. The only man I’ve ever slept with. What if…what if we’re not really right for each other but we thought we were? What if I’m supposed to be with someone else? How do I know if we truly make each other happy if we have nothing else to compare it to?” She was nearing hysteria by the time Hailey reached over and hugged her.

“I can’t believe you’ve been keeping this bottled up!”

Spinning in her seat, Angie faced them. “Ella, seriously, why wouldn’t you talk to us about this? We talk about everything—even stuff we probably shouldn’t. Like poop. None of us were going to judge you! Hell, I think we’ve all probably wondered those exact same things about you and Dylan for years.”

“Really?” Ella asked as she pulled back from Hailey. “You’re not just saying that?”

“Do I ever lie?” Angie asked.

“Nope. You’re honest to a fault,” Ella said with a chuckle. “I know Dylan and I love each other. But now that we’re deep into planning the wedding, everything is making me freak out. I listen to all of you talk about your relationships with the guys you date and I can’t even comprehend what it’s like. Then I start to worry that one day Dylan’s going to come home and realize there’s another woman out there he wants more than me and…it’s just really making me crazy!”

“I’m sure it is,” Becca said. “Geez, that’s a lot to be taking on yourself. What can we do to help you?”

“Actually, just being able to say it all out loud helps a lot. I know a lot of it is just the normal stuff everyone goes through, but I can’t help but wonder about…you know…what I’m missing.”

“You mean the joy of wondering if a guy is going to call or if he’s going to dump you? The constant need to diet and always look good when you go out just in case you run into a guy or to hopefully get a guy’s attention?” Becca asked.

“Or how you think you find a great guy and then have him blow you off and you are forced to sit home with your cat and wonder what it is that you did wrong and what—in general—is wrong with you that you can’t seem to find a guy who wants to stick around for more than a month or two?” Angie added.

“Then there’s always the fun of feeling insecure because the guy you like doesn’t seem to now you exist six out of the seven days of the week and you—again—are left to wonder what is wrong with you. Yeah, Ella, you’re missing a whole lot of great stuff,” Hailey said with a hint of sarcasm. “You should dump Dylan and forget about how wonderful he is because there’s a whole crapload of guys out there just waiting to help you sit around and second-guess yourself.”

“Okay, okay, I get it. Sheesh,” Ella huffed. “Try and look at it from my perspective—what if the first guy you kissed, was the only guy you ever kissed and ever would kiss? How would you feel?”

“Ugh…” Becca groaned. “Billy Thompson. Eighth grade. His braces cut my lip and it was more spit than kiss.”

“Todd Reese,” Angie said with a smile. “Seventh grade and he was an excellent kisser. Not that I’d still want to be kissing him—it turns out he peaked in the eighth grade in the looks department.”

“Vinny Malone—also in the seventh grade. He looked like Tony Danza and was a pretty good kisser. Too much tongue,” Hailey said and then made a face. “But surely Dylan wasn’t a great kisser right out of the gate.”

“Neither of us were but we sort of grew into it,” Ella said dreamily. “Honestly, I feel like every time we kiss it just gets better.”

“So then why are you thinking about kissing other guys?” Angie asked. “If you’re happy with things the way they are with Dylan, why even question it?”

“Because I feel like I should! People look at us like we’re freaks sometimes because we’ve only been with each other!”

“Being with other people isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Trust me,” Becca said. “If you ask me, you and Dylan are the luckiest people in the world. You know every day when you wake up that you’re with the love of your life. You don’t have to deal with all the crap we already mentioned and at the end of the day, you know you’re going to bed in the arms of a man who loves you for all that you are.”

They were all silent for a few minutes before they realized they had arrived at the hotel where the bridal expo was being held.

“Well that drive went pretty fast,” Hailey said as she climbed from the car. She spotted Logan heading into the hotel and smiled. “Wish me luck, girls. I’m going after my man!”

As she walked away, Ella sighed and looked over at Becca and Angie. “I think that’s what I miss the most.”

“What?”

“The excitement of something new. Look at her, just going after what she wants and she has no idea how it’s going to go. She’s probably got butterflies in her stomach and wondering if her lipstick is okay. And then she’s going to see him and smile and he’ll smile back and…”

“And it can all go to hell from there,” Angie said, slamming the car door. “Don’t romanticize it, El. Yes, things can go great and tomorrow Hailey and Logan could have lunch together and find out they’re crazy about each other. Or, she could find out he’s married and has a wife and three kids waiting at home. Not everything is like a romance novel. Not every relationship has a happy ending.”

Ella frowned and turned back to watch Hailey walk through the front entrance of the hotel and smiled. “But sometimes they do.”

Together, Becca and Angie walked around the car and flanked Ella and hooked their arms with hers. “Come on, Cinderella. Time to get you ready for the ball,” Becca said. They laughed as they made their way into the hotel.

****

It took Hailey about ten minutes to get Logan alone. The ballroom was a flurry of activity and she took a deep breath and let it out as she made her way over to him.

“Hey, beautiful,” he said when he spotted her. “How was your week?”

Everything in Hailey melted. Reaching out, she put her hand on his arm and smiled. “It was good, Logan. How was yours?”

For the next few minutes she listened to him wax poetic about his job at…

“Wait? Where do you work?” she asked.

“Starbucks.”

She could only hope her jaw hadn’t literally hit the floor. “Oh…that’s…that’s great.”

Flashing his million-dollar smile at her, he nodded. “You have no idea how rewarding it is to work at a place where you help so many people.”

“You mean like customer service?”

He chuckled. “No…it’s more like…therapy.” Then he nodded again. “I’m telling you, I am practically a therapist. People come in and they need their coffee but they also need to talk and that’s where I come in. I listen to them while I’m making their coffee. And when they leave, they’re smiling.”

Oh. My. God
, she thought to herself. Was he being serious? “So…um…how long have you worked for Starbucks? Is it just a part-time gig until you get a job with a law firm or something like that?”