“Here, wear this.” Without thinking, I looked toward Maddison’s voice and found I was directly in the line of Grace. I shivered. Wow, what a look. Forget the tube of lipstick Mad was holding out to me, forget the silence that had now filled the air around me. Grace, she was all I could focus on. She looked defeated, even with the hard eyes that bored into me. It was heartbreaking.
“I’m sorry.” The words tumbled from me without any hope of holding them back. “Apparently, I get all wordy when I’m drunk. I have no control, it just comes flowing out, and it would also seem that I have no ability to think logically.”
Grace continued to glare at me.
“It’s true.” Sliding closer, I did my best to ignore that anger in her eyes, and I focused on all the things rolling around in my mind. “First I got drunk at a bar and hit on Landon, completely embarrassing myself, practically begging him to take me home with him and do naughty things to me. I actually told him that he couldn’t handle me. Talk about embarrassing.” The words flew out so fast I felt like I couldn’t catch my breath. “Then I got drunk at a bachelorette party, and I called him up again, further embarrassing myself when I told him that the strippers don’t turn me on nearly as much as he does. I blame the booze; it’s the booze, not me.”
AJ, Raven, and Maddison were having a blast laughing at my attempt to apologize and backpedal. Grace was obviously still irritated.
“I can’t drink. Clearly, you all shouldn’t allow me to. It backfires every single time. I do things I can’t control, out the window goes all sense of sanity, and I am nothing more than a mess. A blubbering, foolish mess.”
I hung my head in defeat, not knowing what my words would fix. Grace was mad; that was clear. Frankly, I couldn’t blame her. She lived with the world’s most protective men. Though after the other night with Landon, I would have to say he was right up there with them.
“As if I wasn’t being watched like a hawk already…” Grace gripped the chair arms and narrowed her eyes at me. “Now I can’t even hiccup without my brother or dad noticing. One night, it was all I asked for, but no, you had to get drunk and call up Landon, spilling the entire events of our night. Then the cavalry comes storming through town, completely destroying any sense of fun. I swear I am never going to meet a man. I am going to die a virgin.”
That was the very second Kori, Maria, and my mother decided to enter the room. All of them paused in the doorway, staring at us, looking between Grace and then me, Maria and my mother of course smiling, but Kori, I half expected her to be agitated with Grace. Only she looked sympathetic to her daughter.
I knew right then and there that this wedding was going to be anything shy of entertaining.
Chapter Thirty
Landon
Chloe danced slowly, moving her hips with the beat of the song as she held Blake in her arms. There was something amazing about seeing her with a child in her arms, holding him so close, her lips moving to the words of the song. Like she was singing to the baby, her lips kissing his forehead and cheeks as he watched her in awe.
The sound of the chair squeaking against the tiled floor at my side made me jump in surprise, and I turned quickly. Ben, Chloe’s father, sat at my side, staring ahead at his daughter, obviously aware that only seconds before that was exactly where my focus lay.
“She’ll always be my little girl.” He didn’t take his eyes off of her when he began to speak to me. “I’ll always want to protect her, and I will always go after any man who treats her as anything less than a queen. She is and will remain my little girl.”
I nodded, though I was not sure he saw it.
“I know she’s grown up, but the fact remains that in my eyes she will always be the starry-eyed, pigtailed girl that believes in Santa and fairy princesses.” He stared ahead, watching, and I waited for him to tell me that I wasn’t good enough, though I hoped like hell that I was wrong for expecting that.
“I’m trying to look past that, trying to accept that she is a woman and that what I say or think doesn’t matter.”
“That’s where you’re wrong.” It’s then that Ben looked away from his daughter and finally at me. “She’ll always need you, and she’ll always value what you think or how you perceive her. Your daughter is an amazing woman, and that is because of you and your wife. You raised her to want more, to expect more, and she deserves the best.” I could truly be digging a hole for myself, but I didn’t let the fear of saying the wrong things stop me. “I care about Chloe, and I have no intentions of ever hurting her. She is the sweetest, kindest person, and I’m a good guy. My parents raised me to be respectful, and I respect your daughter. I also respect you and Mrs. Rigdon. All I’m hoping for is a chance to show you that Chloe’s happiness means as much to me as it does to you.”
Ben looked away from and back to his daughter, and I did the same. She was completely oblivious to her father’s and my conversation. She was so lost in AJ and Rhett’s son, so lost in her own joy
