Chapter 6

CHAPTER 6

Friday morning brunch was for the entire wedding party. He and Molly walked into the hotel restaurant together, right on time. The space was half-filled. Some were sleeping late, after last night’s activities. When a couple of the groomsmen walked in bleary-eyed and stumbling, Ben was doubly glad he’d left the stag party early.

It had given him a chance to talk to Molly on the balcony again. He was ready to get home, anxious to leave the wedding festivities behind, but he’d miss the evening conversations with the woman who’d once been a friend. Could she be a friend again?

He wanted more than friendship from her, wanted more every time he looked at her. Did she want the same or was he just a way to kill time in a setting where she didn’t know many people?

They sat side-by-side near the end of the long table, leaving the seats near the bride and groom for family. Maybe Rosie would sit near her brother and her parents.

She didn’t. Instead Rosie and a cousin, a blonde about her age, took seats directly across the table. She didn’t waste any time. “So, you two, tell me all about this secret engagement.”

Mimosas and interrogation. Great.

“It’s not a secret any more,” Molly said with a smile.

Rosie turned her attentions to Molly. “Where’s the ring?”

Since that question took his fiancée by surprise, Ben answered, “I want to give her my grandmother’s ring. I plan to ask for it when I go home for Christmas.”

Molly sighed. “Your granny makes the best sugar cookies!”

Rosie rolled her eyes. It was a bad habit she had. She followed the eye roll with a condescending, “I don’t eat cookies. They make you fat.”

Instead of being insulted, Molly laughed. “I’d rather be fat than never eat another cookie.”

The cousin spoke up: “You left the bachelorette party awfully early last night. Did you feel sick or something?”

“No,” Molly answered, without offering anything more.

“I left the bachelor party pretty early myself,” Ben said. “I guess we’re not party people.” He leaned in and down and kissed Molly’s cheek. In surprise she turned her head and he gave her a quick kiss on the mouth.

Rosie and her cousin took their mimosas and moved to the family end of the table. As a couple of worse-for-wear groomsmen took their seats, Molly leaned close and whispered, “That worked well!”

Ben didn’t tell Molly he hadn’t been thinking of Rosie at all when he’d gone in for that kiss.

Molly ironed her dress for the rehearsal festivities well past the time necessary. There were no more wrinkles to be obliterated from the pretty turquoise sheath, and still she moved the hot iron back and forth. Her mind wandered. It wandered from unexpected kisses to whether or not Ben was right about romance being for suckers, and then back again. The knock at the door made her jump. Housekeeping had already been. Who would come to see her in her room but… Ben?

Did she want to answer?

She unplugged the iron and set it aside, then opened the door ready for anything.

The bride. She’d been dying for time with Nat, so why was she disappointed?

Natalie waltzed into the room. “Oh my God, we’ve barely had time to talk!”

“It’s been a while.” Molly hung the freshly ironed dress in the little closet, put away the ironing board, and turned to her old friend. “I didn’t realize how much I’d missed you until I got your call about being a bridesmaid.” A replacement bridesmaid.

Nat plopped down in the chair that blocked the connecting door to Ben’s room. “I wanted to ask you all along, but Tristan’s mom insisted that I use his cousin, the one who thank God broke her ankle. I shouldn’t say that. I guess it’s mean. I just really wanted you here!”

“We have lost touch,” Molly said. “Let’s don’t let it happen again.”

“Deal.” Nat said with a smile. The smile faded. “I swear, I thought the mother of the groom was just supposed to sit back and let the bride have whatever she wanted, but nooooo.” She glanced toward the open closet and wrinkled her nose. “I’m so sorry about the bridesmaid’s dress. My soon to be mother-in-law insisted that this was the color we had to have. I got tired of arguing with her.”

Molly sat on the edge of the bed. “You did say you should’ve eloped.”

“Every day for the past three months.”

They both laughed, and the years slipped away.

“Tell me about you and Ben!” Nat said. “I mean, I know we don’t talk often, but this is the kind of news I should’ve heard by now.”

And there it was, the thing she dreaded most about this silly ruse. Lying to Nat. “This is your special week. No need to give a moment’s thought to my love life.” Such as it was.

“Ben grew up nicely, didn’t he?”

Boy, did he . “Yeah.”

“As a kid he was kinda skinny, a little short, super quiet. He was pretty young when his family moved. What was he, ten or eleven?”

“Twelve,” Molly answered. She tried to remember if she’d ever told Natalie about the playground proposal. She would’ve. She should’ve. But if Nat didn’t remember, she wouldn’t mention it now. “His parents have moved back to Huntsville.”

“I know! Ben was in town to see them last December, and I ran into him in the mall. He and a couple of other baseball players were doing a signing at one of the sports places. I would never have recognized him, but I knew the name. We talked a bit, and he introduced me to Tristan. The rest, as they say, is history.”

“Love at first sight?” Did such a thing exist?

“Yeah. Tristan was only supposed to be in town for the day but he ended up staying the weekend. After he left we started texting, and we talked on the phone, and he came back to Huntsville to visit. When the season started I went to a few games, and here we are. Do you travel to watch Ben play?”

“Oh, no. I hate baseball,” Molly said.

Natalie laughed. “You better get over that, or at least learn to pretend.”

Molly started to say she’d never been good at pretending, but here she was…

Time to change the subject. “I haven’t had a chance to talk to your Mom yet, except to say hello at the bridal luncheon. She hasn’t changed at all!”

“If you don’t get any time with her this week, stop by and see her when you’re home. My folks are right where they’ve always been.”

It was so easy to lose touch with the past, with people who’d once been such an important part of her life. Nat, her family, other friends she hadn’t talked to for years.

Ben.

Weren’t rehearsals supposed to go smoothly? Ben stood back and observed quietly. He’d like to say the problem children were the actual children, but the young ring bearer and flower girl minded better than the adults.

The first issue was that they’d changed the order of things so he’d be walking down the aisle with Molly. Natalie’s idea, he suspected. Rosie wasn’t happy because she’d wanted to walk with him , fake engagement or no, and now she was going to be escorted to her place near the bride on the arm of her cousin. The short one who had a tendency to trip over his own feet. Ben didn’t mind the change at all, but it did cause some consternation among the masses. The wedding planner was not at all happy. She insisted it was too late to make changes. When the mother of the groom balked as well, it was Tristan who stepped up and whispered in her ear.

His old friend wanted him to be as happy as he was. Or else, misery really did love company.

No, Tristan wasn’t at all miserable. He was happy. He was in love. And he wasn’t carrying a grudge about Ben harping on him about a prenup. Time to let that go. It was too late, anyway. In less than twenty-four hours, the deed would be done. Then the reception, one last night in the hotel, and everyone would head out. Hawaii for the newlyweds. Home for everyone else.

He’d visit his parents for the holiday, then go to his place in northern Georgia for the remainder of the off season.

Alone.

Normally he loved being alone, but dammit he was going to miss his nightly balcony conversations with Molly. He was going to miss her. All this wedding crap had screwed up his mind.

The rehearsal dinner was buffet style, with too much food and not enough booze. Fortunately Rosie sat with her family on the other side of the room; Ben and Molly were seated at a table with other groomsmen and their wives or dates. Two were players from Tristan’s current team; the talk was all about baseball.

Molly looked to be bored out of her mind.

After dessert he rescued her. Took her hand, stood, and said goodnight. She did the same, focusing on the wife she’d been sitting next to. They’d talked a bit during dinner, had seemed to hit it off. Molly was easy to talk to, not just for him. She was a nice person who didn’t try too hard to fit in, to be popular, to impress. And still, he was impressed.

Since they were the first to leave he and Molly had the elevator to themselves. He kissed her between the third and fifth floors. The kiss took her by surprise, but she kissed him back.

He wanted her. Maybe it was the wedding and all the romantic nonsense associated with it. Maybe it was her; the old Molly, the new Molly, the girl and the woman. Whatever the reason, he wanted her so much it hurt.

At his door, he kissed her again. “Want to come in for a drink? I have crappy coffee and a bottle of water.”

“As tempting as that sounds, I’m going to have to pass.”

His heart dropped into his stomach.

Then she added. “Meet me on the balcony.”