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We parted, and I felt as though I’d lost a limb.
I couldn’t think, much less speak, so Gabe and Dustin introduced themselves while I tried to get my brain and body under control.
Never in my adult life had any woman had such an effect on me.
“I see you two finally caught up with each other,” I heard my sister say from somewhere in the back of my dirty thoughts.
She also pinched my arm, which spun me right out of my fantasy.
“Yes,” I said. “Yes, finally. Can I get you a drink?”
“Maybe later,” Nat said, as she locked her arm through Emily’s. “Right now, we need to go over the seating in the other room. We’re about to go in for dinner, and I don’t want any problems. None whatsoever. At any time.”
She stared right at me as she spoke.
I shook my head. “Nope. No problems whatsoever.”
When they walked away, I felt as if all the air had gone out of the room.
Gabe slapped my shoulder first. “Good luck, buddy.”
“Pure stardust,” Dustin said. “We should probably leave now. Might be for the best.”
“When did we ever do what was for the best?” I asked.
“You’re fucked,” Dustin said.
“We’re all fucked,” Gabe added. “A woman like that around the three of us can only lead to trouble.”
“Oh yeah… triple country fucked,” I agreed.
Emily 2
As soon as I saw Cody Days again, my heart danced in my chest, and my stomach fluttered.
Oh my God, could he be any more adorable?
I remembered him being cute from when we were kids, and I’d had a crush on him as wide as the Grand Canyon. I’d seen him on TV performing on the CMA awards and on YouTube performing his latest hit song, Putin’ Off Forever with his band, Wilder and Days, but nothing compared to seeing him in person. Those big, blue eyes, that scruffy chin, and a smile that could melt iron.
Then there were his two band members, Gabe and Dustin Wild. Don’t even get me started on those bad-boy brothers. Both tall, dark, and so fiercely handsome, I felt as though I’d been surrounded by what a perfect male encounter of the wickedly hot kind might feel like if an ancient goddess had been planning a polyamorous moonbeam ballet.
I had no idea where that thought came from, but it perfectly described what I was feeling.
On the one hand, I didn’t want to ever leave their company. On the other, I was glad Natalie had pulled me away. I couldn’t seem to find true love with one man. Why the hell was I thinking I could ever find it with three? A completely preposterous notion, especially for someone like me.
I was a serial commitment-driven dater. Anything short of that, and I’d bail.
Although, that philosophy hadn’t been serving me well. Not well at all, which led me to taking a brand-new stance on dating. A stance so new, I couldn’t even remember it when the appropriate time came… which was absolutely now.
So far, love, true, totally committed, all-in kind of love, had completely alluded me, which was one of the reasons why this would be the very last wedding I’d ever plan. I was done with the whole Happily Ever After industry and didn’t want to think about it for a long time… a very long time. Planning other peoples’ weddings had eaten me alive, and if I ever even saw a wedding again, or participated in one, it would be a cold day in hell.
Fine, so my parents owned and ran a wedding chapel in Houston, my hometown, and I couldn’t definitively say I would never see a wedding again, but I only traveled back home for the Christmas holidays, and those were short family visits.
No weddings involved.
My love affair with all things romance was officially over. I wanted a break, a long break from even considering any type of relationship. From now on, I was a serial dater… whatever that looked like.
No emotions involved.
