Joel (BBW Bear Shifter Wedding Romance) (Grizzly Groomsmen Book 5)

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Joel

Grizzly Groomsmen V

by

Becca Fanning

Lisa had only felt time stop like this one time before in her entire life. It had been when she was eight, and Tom was ten- they were in the car, their parents arguing in the front seat, when the back wheels had caught on a patch of ice and spun out across the empty road, sending the car careering towards a patch of ancient trees standing only a few feet away. It was late, there was no-one else around, and Lisa remembered staring out at the trees speeding towards her side of the vehicle. She felt calm- strangely, totally calm, feeling as if her breath was coming in long, slow gasps, as her brain desperately tried to come to terms with what was about to happen. As it turned out, the car had drifted to a stop a few feet further down the road, leaving her father cursing in the front seat as he tried to get it restarted. She and Tom had exchanged a look- a long, silent stare in which both of them seemed to acknowledge what had just happened, noting their mutual relief and the fear that was still pulsing through their systems. That was the only other time she could remember anything like the feeling she had at the moment she saw one of the wolves lunge towards her brother.

Lisa remembered rolling her eyes when Tom told her that he and Dina were getting married on this island. It was totally something he would do- she knew her brother well enough to be sure that running off to some tropical locale was exactly the kind of desperate-romantic thing he would try to pull off. But she'd been happy for them both, because they were happy- this was what they had wanted, and she supported that. She had been a little suspicious of Dina after they first got engaged- a little too flighty, a little too hung up on that weird ex of her's- but since she'd gotten to know her, Lisa had found herself growing fond of her sister-in-law-to-be. And it seemed like the feeling was mutual, as Dina had invited Lisa to be one of her bridesmaids. Lisa had never so much as caught the bouquet before, let alone becoming part of the wedding party, so she was pretty nervous at first. But Dina had infected her with her passion for dresses and flowers and locations and cake, God, all the cake in the world. So, when Lisa had arrived on the island the night before, she had been pretty confident that she was in for a good weekend. And then…well, all of this happened.

On the scale of stuff that could go wrong at a wedding, being invaded by a pack of psycho shifter wolves was probably a fair few steps higher than the caterers forgetting vegetarian option. Up until that moment, though, Lisa had been impressed with how Dina had been handling the whole affair- she was calm, certain they would figure everything out and get the whole wedding party off the island unharmed. But then…well, as Lisa hurtled towards her brother, all she could think was that she couldn't see a way in hell they were getting out of here unscathed-or even alive.
 

Grabbing hold of Tom's hand, Lisa dragged him towards the stairs, pushing him in front of her into a small hollow under the steps in the hopes of keeping him out of danger.
 

"Lisa, I can't-"

"Leave it, Tom!" She hissed in response, backing into the dark with him and praying no-one could see them. She knew what he was about to say- his fiancée, the woman that Lisa herself had found herself growing grudgingly fond off over the last year, was out there. Which would have been terrifying, were it not for the fact that Dina had somehow transformed herself into a wolf and taken on the leader of the pack. Lisa was still getting over that part- how the hell had she not figured it out? How hadn't it come up? Tom hadn't acted surprised at all, so he must have known- were they just planning on getting married and pumping out a happy little flock of shifter children without telling anybody?

Lisa closed her eyes and rubbed her temples, trying to clear her head. Her thoughts had a habit of doing this-piling up on top of one another until she didn't know what was what. She knew it was the shock- well, the shock of finding out about Dina, and the shock of seeing a guy she thought she had the beginnings of a crush on shift into an enormous bear.

In all fairness, though, Joel had given her fair warning about that part of him. Lisa found herself focusing on the memories from the night before- anything to drag her mind away from the current situation. They were chilling at the reception party, glad to have found someone that either of them even half-recognised. He narrowed his eyes at her as he sat down, and she looked up at him with her eyebrows raised.
 

"Lisa, right?" He held out his hand. "You're Tom's sister, unless I'm much mistaken."

"Yeah, that's me. I'm on bridesmaid duty this weekend." She smiled, taking his hand. "Sorry, I do know you, I just can't place where from."

"I think maybe at Tom's last birthday party?" He suggested. "Frankly, I'm hurt that I didn't make any kind of impression on you."

He feigned an insulted face, and Lisa couldn't help but laugh.
 

"Well, maybe you'll do a better job this weekend," she suggested, raising a glass in his direction. Was she flirting? Maybe it was the couple of glasses of champagne she'd already had, but she certainly didn't mind finding herself the centre of attention from this exceptionally handsome man. He was right, she had no idea how she couldn't remember him- he had sharp features, a pointed chin, and high cheekbones, and a skinny build that landed him squarely under the "her type" banner.
 

"I'll do my best," he grinned back, tapping his glass against her's and taking a sip. Lisa found herself admiring him for a moment longer- she hadn't come to this wedding with any plans of hooking up, but
look
at him. She'd be kicking herself forever if she didn't at least give this a go.
 

The rest of the evening floated by in the most pleasant of hazes- Joel was fun, one of those guys who wasn't afraid to get up and dance like a crazy person just to keep his date entertained. They drank, they exchanged stories about Tom (Joel had met him in college, so he had plenty of embarrassing stories that Tom had chosen to keep from Dina over the years), and he even convinced Lisa to a dance as the night wore on. She wasn't much of a mover-in fact, she was far more the sit-in-the-corner-feeling-awkward-as-heck type- but she found herself letting go, easing up, and actually having fun. She always associated family weddings with ludicrous amounts of stress and at least three major fallings-out, but now she could drink and flirt and wasn’t stuck at the kid's table picking at her buffet-meal fare, she could see their appeal a lot more clearly.
 

When the band had pulled out a slow number just after the two of them had collapsed back into their seats after a raucous three-minute jig to some old swing classic, Lisa found herself peering at Joel out of the corner of her eye. He noticed, and dragged himself back to his feet and held out a hand.

"M'lady?"

"Never call me that again," she warned, but took his hand anyway. He led her out on to the sparsely-populated dance floor, and pulled her in close to his chest. She inhaled the scent of his aftershave- she couldn't remember the last time she'd danced with a guy like this. Hell, it was probably at the last family wedding, and it was probably a lot more chaste because it was either Tom or her father insisting that she get involved with everyone else's good time. She certainly couldn't recall the last time she'd had a date quite as charming as this one. Joel was the kind of old-fashioned but unpatronising gentleman that she could never seem to find on the dating sites she frequented or the blind dates her friends set up for her. Trust Tom to be hiding away the perfect bachelor all this time.