Bad Boy's Bridesmaid (25 page)

I frowned,
climbing into the SUV. “What are you doing here?”

“Promise not to
laugh?”

“Have I
ever
made that promise?”

“Fair enough,”
he said. “I was waiting for your momma. I hoped I could talk to her.”

That made one of
us. “Good luck.”

“Uh-oh. What
happened?”

I was sure the
bridesmaids had filmed it. I didn’t have the energy to explain. “Can you take
me home?”

“Don’t you want
to head to the church?”

I shook my head.

Dad squeezed my
hand. “Okay. I’ll take you home.”

He reached for the
steering wheel, but I didn’t let his hand go. In that moment, I didn’t care if
I was twenty-three and carrying a baby or if I looked like I was three years
old clinging to my father. I needed him. If anyone would understand, it’d be
him.

He drove me to
my apartment, and I welcomed him inside even though the tiny kitchen still
cluttered with pots and pans and messes from the tacos. I wished I could’ve hidden
it, but Dad smirked.

“Looks like my
place. Like father, like daughter.”

I hated myself
for sniffling and being so sensitive. “Sorry, Dad.”

He pulled me
into a hug. “Don’t you
sorry, Dad
me. Tell me what’s happening. Why
aren’t you getting ready for the wedding?”

“Lindsey kicked
me out.”

“She
what
?”
Dad pulled away. “
Why
?”

My lip trembled.
He’d hear it soon enough anyway. “Because…I’m pregnant.”

He didn’t yell.

Didn’t swear.

I held my breath
as Dad plopped into the couch and stared at the wall. He cleared his throat.
Once. Twice.
Three
times?

Uh-oh. He was
upset.

“I’m so sorry,
Dad.”

Dad’s eyes
widened. He looked at me and broke into a smile. “Don’t be sorry about a baby,
Mandy.
Never
be sorry about a baby.”

The pressure
eased, but my conscience didn’t. I didn’t know what to say.

“I’m not
apologizing for the baby,” I said. “I’m…I’m sorry I disappointed you.”

He pulled me
onto the couch with him. I rested my head on his shoulder just like when I was
little.

“You haven’t,
Mandy. How…did this happen? Is it Nate’s?”

“How did you—”

“I told you. You
can’t keep anything from your dad…” He flinched. “Except a pregnancy, I guess.
But I think I would have figured it out after a couple months.”

“Probably.”

“Do you care
about this boy?”

I nodded. “I do.
But…he didn’t take the news well.”

Dad tensed. “Why?
What did he do?”

“He offered to
marry me.”

Dad’s sigh of
relief was unnecessary. “Sounds like he did the right thing.”

“No, he didn’t. No
one understands. Dad, I can’t marry him because of a baby. We’ve only been
together for these past three months, and during most of them, I was hiding.”

“Hiding?”

“I’ve been
trying to keep this a secret until after the wedding, when I could tell
everyone without worrying about pissing Lindsey and Mom off. I tried to avoid everything
that happened just now, and it went even worse than I could have imagined.
Nate’s mad. Mom’s lost it completely. Lindsey is furious.”

Dad tugged me
closer. “Mandy, what’s the real reason you kept it secret?”

“Real reason?”

“I know you.
You’ve never hidden from anything in your life. You face your problems head
on…or, you used to. Why did you really hide?”

I didn’t ask if
he meant hiding the truth from Nate or the rest of our family. I swallowed.

“Our family has
been through enough,” I said. “I wanted one event that might have made us feel
whole again. Everyone’s been fighting and angry. I thought if I took the brunt
of all the insanity, maybe I could keep everyone calm enough to…I don’t know.
Be a family again, if only for a night.”

I felt stupid
saying it, like I was a little girl who couldn’t understand why her parents
split. I did understand, but that didn’t mean I liked it. Dad ruffled my hair.
I smirked.

“I don’t know if
you’ve noticed, but I haven’t been taking your divorce very well,” I said.

Dad chuckled.
“In case you hadn’t noticed, neither have I.”

“It’s just…no
one seems happy. I always thought love would be like…a fairy tale. You’d know
the instant you were meant for someone, you’d get married, and it’d
be…perfect.”

“There’s your
problem,” Dad said. “There is no perfect relationship, just like there’s no
right
time
for a baby. Every couple is different. They love and they hate and
they desire each other, and none of it is the same for other people. Don’t
measure your possible happiness based on the misery of others. Not when you
deserve to experience all the love in the world.”

“But what happens
if it fails?”

“Marriage is not
solely about
love
. It’s work and commitment. I don’t believe any two
people are
meant to be
, but I know plenty of people who rely on
fate
and
chance
to solve their problems. You have to nurture your
relationship. That’s the secret of marriage, and that’s why mine failed. And
it’s also why I’ve been trying to get your mother back. I know how it should be
done now.”

I sighed. “I
can’t believe you’re so forgiving.”

“Your mother
forgave more.”

“But even after Marcus
Washington, you’re still chasing her.”

Dad stiffened.
He frowned at me. “Marcus?”

I arched an
eyebrow. “She’s…been having an affair with him.”

“
She what
?”

Oh shit.

I leapt off the
couch. “I thought you knew! You said you had forgiven her!”

“
Forgiven
her? I didn’t even know they…she’s having an
affair
with Marcus?”

“Yes! Remember?
I walked in on them at the country club!”

“The
country
club—
”

Dad froze. His
eyes immediately averted from me, and he swallowed, hard. “Oh. You think…” He
cleared his throat. “Okay, kiddo. That wasn’t Marcus Washington with your mom.”

God, that was a
relief. “Then who?”

“That…was me.”

And the need for
therapy returned. Great. Mom wasn’t having an affair. She was just fucking the
brains out of her estranged husband.

Ew.

“Oh, thank God.”
I covered my eyes. “I’m sorry. I didn’t recognize you from…that angle.”

“I’m all right
with that.”

“
What
are
you doing back with Mom?”

Dad looked even
more ashamed, but he sheepishly shrugged. “It just happened. I’m sure
you
can relate. We got caught up in the moment.”

I nodded. “I
can’t get out of my moments with Nate.”

“You sure it’s
just a moment now?”

“I don’t want it
to be.”

“Then you better
tell that boy and tell him quick. It’s easy to fall in love, but it’s hard to
make a relationship work.”

“Do you think
he’d even…”

“Want you?” Dad
pulled me into a hug. “That boy has loved you since you were kids.”

“He…has?”

“A father always
knows. You tell him you want him, and he’ll be tripping over himself to buy the
cutest damn onesie he can find for that baby.”

“How can you be
so sure?”

“Because I have
two babies of my own, given to me by the woman I love. No man in his right mind
is going to walk away from that blessing.” He didn’t let me cry. His smile
helped to rebuild what had been shattered. “Now you have a wedding to get ready
for.”

I shrugged. “Lindsey
doesn’t want me there.”

“The wedding
wouldn’t have happened without you. Your sister is like your mother. They won’t
ask for help, and they get…defensive when they’re scared. Right now, your
sister is scared. She needs you.”

“What if she
gets upset that I crash the wedding?”

Dad picked up
the bridesmaid dress from my bed and handed it to me. “Good thing you know best
how to calm your sister down. Get changed. I’ll take you to the church.”

I twisted the
dress in my fingers. I wished I hadn’t teared up when I said it, but at least
Dad was a little misty too.

“You know I love
you, Mandy-Pandy.”

I smirked. “When
the baby comes, I hope I’m half as good a parent as you are, Dad.”

“And I hope you
have a child just as perfect as you.”

The tux wasn’t
mine.

Just my fucking
luck.

The jacket was too
tight over my arms and chest. It must have been Josh’s. I figured Bryce mixed
them up when he left my tux in a pile of formal wear bundled on my bar. My
bartender said he was pissed when I didn’t show for the rehearsal dinner.

Except I had
been there.

And I witnessed
everything I needed to see.

I ripped the
jacket off, but the rest of the tux fit like shit too. I’d have to fix it at
the church.

If I went.

I spent all
night trying to figure out what the hell to do, and every twisted thought in my
head led to the same resolution.

I had to get
Mandy back.

I was an idiot
for leaving after she told me about the baby, and an even bigger idiot for
trying to sort through this shit without her. Christ, it had only been two days
since she revealed the truth to me. How the hell had she dealt with that monster
of a secret for three
months? Alone
.

It still pissed
me off that she hadn’t told me, but it didn’t matter now that the truth was
out.

Mandy was mine,
and I’d be damned if I sat by and let another man take her from me.

The church was packed.
The wedding party had crashed inside one of the Sunday school rooms. I hauled
Josh out of the clouds of hairspray and shrieking, tipsy bridesmaids attempting
to fix Carmen’s melted hair extensions. He wasn’t happy about swimming in a tux
two sizes too big for his scrawny ass frame.  

I patted his
shoulder and pointed him towards the bathroom so we could switch.

“
There
you are!” Bryce charged at me. “Where the
fuck
have you been?”

Suddenly my best
friend sounded like his former, non-wedding planning self.

“Sorry,” I said.
“Something came up.”

“Dude, this is
my
wedding
. If it isn’t perfect, Lindsey is going to have my balls for
the next fifty years,
if
she doesn’t kill me first.”

“I know. I’m
here now.”

I searched over
the insanity that was the staging room. Music played, panty hose ripped, wine
bottles toppled. If it wasn’t for the church, I’d have thought the scene was
out of one of my old parties.

I couldn’t find
Mandy. That didn’t mean anything. Knowing the Prescotts, they tossed her into
the rafters to light the candles with flint and steel or ordered her outside to
trim the grass with a pair of manicure scissors.

“Where’s Mandy?”
I asked. “I gotta talk to her.”

Bryce actually
flinched. “You didn’t hear?”

“Hear what?”

“I thought she
would have told you. There was a…problem earlier.”

A
problem
?

Oh no. My vision
hazed, and my heart nearly ripped from my chest.

Something was
wrong. What if I got her upset? She was stressed. What if I hurt her?

Jesus fuck, what
if something happened to the baby?

The kid was so
new to me, but goddamn did it feel real. I’d sulked in the middle of the night,
pissed and raging after the rehearsal dinner. I didn’t know what to do, so I
hopped in the car and toured Target’s baby section. I bought the cutest damned
onesie I could find.

Green, cause Mandy
didn’t tell me the gender. Not that it mattered. I just wanted the baby

And I wanted to
raise him or her with Mandy.

My voice caught,
ragged and pained. “What happened? Is she okay?”

“She had a fight
with Lindsey at the salon. She’s kinda…” He apologized with a shrug. “Uninvited
to the wedding.”

“
What
?”

“It’s been one
hell of a day.” Bryce slapped my shoulder. “Thanks for showing up. We’re lining
up in fifteen minutes.”

Son of a bitch.

I couldn’t stay
for this. Knowing Mandy, she’d be goddamned radioactive now. I wasn’t about to
let her get upset and endanger herself or the baby.

“I gotta go find
her,” I said. “Sorry, Bryce.”

“Nate,
no
!”
Bryce trembled uncontrollably. “
Please
, dude. Find her after the
ceremony. Don’t leave or Lindsey will kill me.”

I already wasted
enough time fucking with my own idiocy. I hated to dick around more, but I
couldn’t screw over my best friends.

I’d call her.
Make sure she was okay. Then, as soon as they said
I Do
, I’d be gone.

“All right. Josh
and I gotta switch tuxes.” I pointed him towards the bathroom again.

“No. Stay here.
Sandra has to go over the routine once the ceremony starts. You weren’t at the
rehearsal. You don’t know what to do.”

I grunted. “I
walk Carmen down the aisle and stand on your side of the altar. It’s not rocket
science.”

“It’s a
wedding
.
It’s worse! Change here.”

“
What
?”

“I swear to God,
Nate—”

“Fine.” I waved
him off. “Whatever. Josh, strip.”

Josh was a
nervous kid who went into accounting because he didn’t like working in open
spaces. I hated causing someone’s nightmare to come to life, but we didn’t have
a choice. His fingers trembled just unbuttoning his coat.

Our shirts
switched first. I kicked off my shoes and unbuckled the pants, but Lindsey’s
shriek echoed over the church.

“Oh, no you
don’t, pretty boy!”

Bryce panicked
upon seeing his bride and turned away, hiding his eyes. I wasn’t lucky enough
to have permission to flee.

Lindsey tripped
over the layers upon layers of fluffy white lace and whatever they used to puff
the wedding dresses out like old-school princesses gowns. She poked a finger in
my chest then aimed south.

“Oh no. I know
what you’re firing down there.
Your
pants stay on.”

“These…aren’t my
pants.”

“Well, you’re
not getting in Mandy’s anymore, so
forget
it.”

“Thanks…” I
gritted my teeth. “But I’m trying to get in Josh’s now.”

Lindsey snorted.
“Well, at least he doesn’t have a uterus. Knock yourself out before you knock
someone else
up
.”

If my pants
weren’t at my ankles, and if every bridesmaid I’d slept with wasn’t staring at
the moneymaker I used to knock up the bride’s innocent little sister, I’d have
let Lindsey know exactly what I thought of her damn wedding. Instead I kicked
the trousers to Josh and worked on buttoning the dress shirt.

That’s when I
saw the son of a bitch.

Mandy wasn’t
here, but her knight-in-shining-armor dared to show his face. Granted, I
couldn’t fault the best man for attending his brother’s wedding, but he had a
lot of balls to confront me.

Too bad mine
were bigger…and very nearly on display for the bridal party.

Rick wasn’t a
classy bastard, but he thought he was witty. He glanced at my boxers and gave
me a goddamned smirk.

“So who’s the
lucky lady today?”

I didn’t give
him the pleasure of an argument. This was only gonna get settled one way.

I reared back
and swung, punching him clean on the cheek.

“Jesus
fuck
!”
Rick howled and staggered backward.

Rick wasn’t a
physical guy, but he never backed down from a fight. Today was no different. He
leapt at me, pushing at my chest.

“What the hell
is your problem?”

The bridesmaids
all squealed a different octave of drunken harmony. Rick swiped for my jaw, but
I dodged his punch.

I decked him
again. “What the hell are you doing
proposing
to Mandy?”

Rick made the
mistake of getting too close. I captured him in a headlock and rammed his back
into the wall. A crucifix fell, and the wedding party shrieked. Bryce tried to
peel me off his brother.

“I gave her an
option!” Rick swore. “In case
you
didn’t!”

“Fuck you! You
had no idea what I was going to do!”

“Neither did
Mandy!”

Jesus. I’d put
his goddamned head through the wall. We grunted, and I blocked his kick.

“I trusted you,
man. When Jada hit on me, I turned her down because I knew she was your
wife
.
But the instant Mandy gets upset, you offer to
marry
her? What the
fuck
!”

“I wanted to be
there in case you didn’t take responsibility.”

The rage
stiffened my spine. I launched at him, pummeling him with three more blows.

“That’s my
baby!”

The bridesmaids
abandoned their posts, kicked off their shoes, and rushed me with their
bouquets. A nasty arrangement of roses smacked my head. They hadn’t stripped
the thorns. The barbs dug into my ear and ripped. Another bridesmaid whipped my
ass with her bouquet. A third bit my elbow.

Lindsey screamed
at us both, an empty champagne bottle raised for the final blow on whichever
one of us assholes she punished first.

A startled voice
squealed from the doorway. The room silenced. Rick and I froze.

“What are you
doing
to each other?”

Mandy rushed
between us, pushing us apart. She stared at me and Rick, her eyes wide with
shock.

“Nate, what are
you doing? Why are you fighting? And why aren’t you wearing
pants
?”

Rick shoved me
away. “Don’t worry about it. We’re fine.”

We were so far
from
fine
I couldn’t spit to reach the line he crossed. He straightened
his tux and tossed me my pants.

“Nate just had a
crisis of conscience,” he said.

I rushed him.
“You son of a—”

Mandy stopped me
with a hand to my chest. “Stop it! We’re all friends! Back off.”

My anger
dissolved. Mandy wore the same hideous bridesmaid dress as the other girls, but
only she filled it out right. Her silken, dark skin complimented the god-awful
teal, and the soft curls of her hair fell over her shoulders and chest. She was
the most beautiful woman here, but she flinched away when I reached for her.

“
Don’t
,”
she whispered. “I can’t believe you’d hurt Rick. What’s wrong with you?”

“You know what’s
wrong. We have to talk.”

“
Now
?”

“Yes, now.”

She shook her
head. The bride stormed towards us in a cascade of taffeta.

“Now isn’t the
time, Nate.”

“What are
you
doing here?” Lindsey pointed at her sister. “I thought…I thought you weren’t
coming.”

I expected Mandy
to tear up. Instead Lindsey immediately wept. She fanned her face and stomped a
foot. Mandy took her hand.

“I wasn’t going
to miss your wedding,” Mandy said. “Even if you didn’t want me here now, I
think we’d both regret it when we’re all old and grey and cranky.”

“Speak for
yourself, noodlearms.” Lindsey sniffled. “I’m already cranky.”

Mandy’s lip
trembled. “I know you are, muffinbutt.”

The girls hugged,
holding each other tight. Rick thought he’d get a handshake out of it from me.

I wasn’t as
forgiving as
noodlearms
. He’d have to buy a round for me first.

Mandy pulled
away from her sister. “I brought you some things.”

She reached for
her purse, offering Lindsey a gold class ring from the front pocket.

“Something old,”
Mandy said. “You used to wear this all the time.”

Bryce swore.
“Goddamn it, Lindsey. I thought I lost that damn ring.”

Lindsey clutched
it to her chest. “No. I stole it after our first anniversary. Sorry, babe.”

Bryce grabbed it
from her hands, shoving it on his finger with a grumble.

“Something new.”
Mandy gave an apologetic shrug as she handed her sister a red air freshener for
a car rearview mirror. “I was…kinda in a hurry at the gas station.”

Lindsey tucked
it into her bouquet. “It’s okay.”

Mandy offered
her the picture of our sonogram. “Something
borrowed
. I want that back.”

“Oh…” Now she sobbed.
“This is
amazing
.”

“And something
blue.” Mandy smirked handing her a folded card. “Or…something indigo.”

The sample
wedding invitation looked as hideous now as it did then, but Lindsey actually
smiled.

Mandy shrugged. “I
couldn’t let you get married without some luck.”

“And I couldn’t
get married without my little sister.” Lindsey pulled her into a hug. “I’m
sorry I yelled and banished you from my wedding.”