Bree looked crestfallen, her eyes downcast, lost and out of place. Trent hated that he was the one who’d made her look that way. She was even more beautiful now than she had been the last time he’d seen her, that day at the convenience store when he’d insisted on stopping, despite his then-girlfriend’s objections. He’d seen Bree’s car, knew she was in town for Christy’s party, and wanted to see her even though he knew it wasn’t in his best interest.
He hadn’t regretted seeing her, only that she didn’t want to
Bree woke up to the sound of the ocean calling her, both figuratively and literally. She sat up in bed and looked straight out at the crashing waves. It couldn’t possibly be that late as the sun was still in the process of painting the horizon with brilliant coral colors, but she wasn’t going back to sleep. It was hard enough to believe that she was awake now; everything that had happened the evening before seemed like a surreal dream.How could Trent be marrying her former roommate’s sister? How could Trent be marrying anyone at all? Even though she
The beach was everything Bree had hoped it would be and then some. Lying on a towel in her two-piece, watching the clouds trace across the sky, feeling the warm sea breeze while the relaxing scent of the ocean filled her lungs had Bree feeling calmer than she had in as long as she could remember, certainly since before she’d realized Trent was getting married.Seeing him that morning brought a new perspective to her. He was the same Trent he’d always been, her friend from high school, the one who always cheered her on, made her smile, knew her better than
It was no surprise at all that Hank was late. In fact, Bree would’ve been shocked if he’d been on time. But when he knocked on her door at 9:30 that evening, she wasn’t upset at all that he was late. It had given her a little more time to work on a new song she was writing and a little less time to be in the same room with Monica and Trent.“You look purty!” Hank exclaimed as she opened the door.
“Man, that’s bullshit,” Hank was saying as he and Bree walked home. The streets were a little crowded around the club, but once they got closer to the resort, there were less people, and Bree felt herself sobering up with the beach air in her lungs.“I mean, I guess I can’t blame her for being upset. I’d be upset if my fiancé was dancing with someone else, too. I guess.”
“God, Bree--do you have any idea what time it is?”Christy’s voice sounded in her ear, and even though she was annoyed, Bree was just happy she’d answered. At a time like this, when she needed to talk to someone who knew the background and was capable of saying the things she needed to hear, Christy was her go-to girl and had been ever since high school.
Dozens of hunky, shirtless guys on the beach, and all Bree could think about was one of them--the one she couldn’t have. The night before on the phone, Christy had asked if Matt and Dwayne were still hot. Now, seeing them in swimming trunks with the early light of morning illuminating a thin layer of sweat that dampened every rippling muscle, the answer was a resounding, “Yes!” Hank looked good, too, though it was apparent from his bloodshot eyes that he had gone back to his room to drink a little after he’d dropped her off the night before. Some of the cousins had come to play, too, and a few of them were also pretty good looking, not to mention all of the other random dudes out on the beach jogging, playing frisbee, walking through the surf. Yeah, a few
A long run on the beach at dawn hadn’t been enough for Trent to escape the uneasy feeling he had inside. After Monica had broken up the dance he shared with Bree at the club the night before, he’d laid awake most of the night thinking about her. He knew the fact that she’d wrapped her arms around his neck to dance had been partially the alcohol and partially Bree’s innocence. She certainly hadn’t meant to offend Monica, but that was easy to do, and once his fiancée was up in arms about something, it was difficult to get her to let it go. She’d been talking about Bree for the rest of the night.
The ocean waves rolled beneath the boat as Bree looked out the window at the setting sun. Normally, a dinner cruise would seem like a relaxing, romantic event. This evening, sitting in a dining room with the wedding party, romantic was the last word she would’ve used to describe it.Dinner was delicious. The lobster was buttery, the crab cakes flaky, and the wine was flowing. She sat with some of Trent’s family, aunts and uncles, a cousin, no one she’d met before. All of them had arrived earlier that day. The rest of them spent a great deal of time t