Chapter 9
Hudson
Trouble in Paradise
Wedding festivities are well underway for Dylan Savage and Rosie Forrester.
Plans for this star-studded event have been kept under wraps until this week, but as always, we have the inside scoop.
Amelia Blaire, wife of the late Shiloh Blaire, was spotted wearing a bridesmaid dress today, but has not been listed anywhere as an official bridesmaid.
Is Amelia replacing two-time Grammy winning country singer, Aurelia Halifax, who has yet to arrive?
—Hot Goss Magazine
Amelia walked into the Savage’s backyard, holding hands with Quinn, and wearing a low-cut dress that made my brain completely close up shop.
The dress was long and dark green, and covered with purple blossoms, and if I was going to keep my sanity, I had to look away.
Her sandaled feet peeked out from the bottom of the dress with every step, revealing purple painted toenails.
Bret ran into me from behind with an armload of folding chairs. “Her eyes are up there,” he said with a knowing smile.
I elbowed him away and put more of my energy into helping set up chairs for the backyard lunch.
There are twenty-seven bones in the human hand.
Each finger has three phalanges: distal, middle, and proximal.
Then there are the metacarpal and carpal bones, with five and eight bones respectively.
I had to get all the way to listing the bones in a foot before I could fully remember that Amelia and I were just friends, had only ever been friends, and would continue to just be friends. Forever.
Even though we were told to bring our own meat, Sheriff Savage had several dozen elk burgers from his freezer already cooking on the grills.
Amelia and Quinn were helping inside to carry out sides and place them on the tables we’d already set up.
Mrs. Savage had matching aprons for everyone who offered to help, including Amelia, and even Quinn, whose apron dangled down at her ankles like a dress.
They were all light green with lacy cream edges—which, I had been informed, were the wedding colors.
Amelia and Rosie chatted nonstop together, and I found myself pausing more than once when I heard Amelia laugh. She’d gone so long without a single smile that every single one still felt like a gift.
“When are you going to tell her?” Dylan asked. His shoulder shoved into mine as he walked past carrying another table.
“Tell her what?” I groused as I followed him to help him set it up. Bret and Gage stood in my way. They each put a heavy arm around my shoulders and directed me to where I’d already been going without them.
There were too many hockey players in this town. Everywhere I went, I was getting affectionately shoulder-checked, hug-wrestled, or gut-elbowed. Manhandling was their bro love language.
“That you love her,” Bret said, shaking me until my teeth rattled.
I shoved him and Gage off and turned to glare at them. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Gage sighed like I’d disappointed him. “Denial. So typical.”
“It’s a good thing he has us,” Bret said.
I looked at Dylan for help, but he held both of his hands up. “I’m with them, bro. They can have good advice when it comes to these things.”
“I don’t need advice.” I needed to get through this wedding and get out of Winterhaven. “Move,” I growled when they continued to stand in my way.
They obliged, but Bret and Gage remained together, talking in low voices that made me uneasy.
People started to arrive, and lunch was in full swing. Rosie’s maid of honor, Charlie, spotted me from across the lawn and raced over to give me a huge hug. She was wearing the exact same dress as Amelia, but it was definitely not causing the same reaction in me.
“Hudson!” she squealed. “It’s been way too long.”
I hugged her tightly, and then kept my hands on her shoulders as I pulled her back to take her in.
She looked exhausted. The kind of tiredness that went bone deep.
She’d been engaged for three years now, but the wedding kept getting pushed back for one reason or another.
It was probably hard to see your best friend, who got engaged well after you, get married before you.
But Charlie wasn’t the kind of person to make any of this about her.
She would be genuinely happy for Rosie. I worried about her though.
“How are you?” I asked quietly.
“I’m good,” she said, too brightly. I’d known Charlie my whole life. Long enough to know when she was lying. “How long are you in town for?”
“Till the wedding, then I’ve got to get back to work.”
Amelia popped up at my side, her arm brushing against mine, the floral scent of her hair making me forget what Charlie and I were even talking about.
She leaned even more into me to pick a leaf from my hair.
Fibula. Tibia. Lateral cuneiform. I was going to run out of bones before I ran out of obvious attraction to Amelia.
“Hi, Charlie!” she said as she dropped the leaf onto the grass with a laugh.
Charlie raised an eyebrow at me as she pulled Amelia into a hug.
I willed the heat in my cheeks to fade while Amelia was distracted with their quick catching up.
“Are you sure you don’t mind that I’m wearing a bridesmaid dress?
Rosie dropped it off and insisted I wear it.
” Amelia said, sounding self-conscious. Since she mentioned the dress, I looked at her again, and I nearly groaned.
Even half-covered with an apron, it clung to every curve I should most definitely not be noticing. Rosie Forrester was trying to kill me.
“I love that you’re wearing it,” Charlie said sincerely.
Well, that made one of us.
A relieved grin spread across Amelia’s face. Charlie had a gift of making everyone feel like they were her best friend and the most important person in the world.
Charlie’s gaze narrowed on me. “Hudson, be honest. Have you heard rumors of anyone planning to sneak onto the cruise ship for Rosie’s honeymoon? She’ll literally throw them overboard.”
“I’m not sneaking on,” I said, holding up both hands.
“Would she really throw someone overboard?” Amelia frowned. “I don’t swim well, so I can’t imagine.”
“She’d allow you to stay,” Charlie said reassuringly.
I took a step back. “Talk to her brothers.”
“Oh. I will.” Her eyes narrowed, and she walked away with purpose.
Amelia laughed. “I love this town.” She went to pull off her apron, but the tie was stuck around her waist. She tugged at it a few times, and then turned her back to me, exasperatedly. “Can you get this knot undone?”
It had been pulled really tight. I worked on it and tried not to think about my knuckles brushing against the silky material of the dress.
Or the strip of tan skin near her shoulder that showed when she tilted her head to the side to check on Quinn where she was running around with a few other kids playing a game.
Or how I wanted to wrap my arms around her waist and bury my face in her neck.
My fingers were shaking by the time I got the knot undone and handed her the apron. “I’d better …” I didn’t even know how to finish that sentence before I took off toward the grill like I heard someone calling my name.
Luckily, Sheriff Savage had a full plate of elk burgers ready for me to take to the serving table.
“Hud,” Dylan called out, waving me over to their table. It was the fullest table by far, with most of the wedding party, plus Amelia. She motioned me toward a seat she had saved right next to her. I let out a long exhale. There was no escape.
I filled my plate and sat beside her.
“Your ring is gorgeous,” Amelia said to Rosie, who held out her hand for closer inspection. “I’ve always loved emerald-cut diamonds.”
“Sometimes I just stare at it and can’t believe it’s mine,” Rosie said. “We had to have it specially fitted so my mom’s wedding band could fit next to it.”
“You have your mom’s band?” Amelia put a hand over her heart. “My dad buried my mom with hers on, but I wish I had it.”
“I get that so much. Having it makes me feel like she’s here with me,” Rosie said, her eyes misty. Rosie’s mom had died when she was a child, and her three older brothers had raised her. “You have the band, right, Haydn?”
Haydn, Rosie’s oldest brother, shook his head.
“I gave it to Jules. I didn’t want to accidentally forget it in Nashville.
” Haydn lived with his wife, country singer Lia Halifax, in Nashville.
Lia hadn’t arrived yet due to her touring schedule, but would soon, along with the press that always followed her.
Some of the press were already here, but luckily, they were steering clear of the Sheriff’s house.
“I gave it to Bennett,” Jules, her second brother, said through a mouthful of food. “Same reason, except Seattle.”
Everyone looked at Bennett, the last brother, who had a deer-in-the-headlights expression.
“You have it, right?” Rosie asked, sounding panicked.
“I have it, in a sense,” he said cagily.
“In a sense?” she stood up, her voice shrill. “What does that mean, Bennett Forrester?”
“I have it in a very safe place,” he reassured her. “At the cabin.”
“The island cabin?” Southeast Alaska was studded with nearly three thousand islands, and their family owned a tiny one about two hours off the coast from Winterhaven.
“It’s the only one I know of,” Jules said unhelpfully.
Rosie huffed, and I was glad to not be on the wrong end of her anger.
“It’s no big deal, Rosie,” Jules said. “We’ll go grab it after we eat.”
Through her teeth, she said, “You have your tux fittings this afternoon. And tomorrow is pictures and the movie marathon. Then it’s the rehearsal, and the wedding. Oh my gosh.” She collapsed into the chair, all the air deflating from her. “I’m not going to have my mom’s ring for my wedding.”
The table was silent until Bret spoke up. “Someone else could go get it. A wedding assignment.”
Rosie lifted her eyes to meet his, a grin slowly spreading across her face. “Yes, exactly.” She met my gaze pleadingly. “Hudson?”
“Sure, I’ll get it,” I said, standing quickly. This was perfect. I needed an escape. A few-hour round trip to get my head on straight around Amelia. I’d been to the cabin dozens of times.
“It’s in the nightstand drawer in my bedroom,” Bennett said. “Where I knew it wouldn’t get lost.”
“Just forgotten,” Rosie growled.
“It was remembered in time,” Haydn said, soothingly. “Hudson will go get the ring and have it back here by tonight.”
“I’ll leave right now.” I stood to go and ran into a wall of muscle. More specifically, Gage and Bret, arms folded like bodyguards.
“Amelia, have you seen the cabin?” Bret said. “It’s worth checking out.”
“I haven’t,” she sat straighter, looking intrigued.
The two men ignored my glares.
“You should go,” Gage said. “When are you going to have a chance like this again?”
She hesitated, and I held my breath. Say no. Say no. “I hate to leave Quinn.”
My mom popped up from behind the hockey players. She rounded them and approached Amelia, as if she’d been waiting for this moment. “Elm and I will watch her.”
“Really?” Amelia started to slowly nod. “She’d love that.”
“You don’t have things you need to do?” I asked, a little desperately. “Grading papers or something?”
She shook her head. “It’s summer, Hud.” Then her eyes narrowed on me, and I squirmed. “Yes, I’d absolutely love to go. I think it’s exactly what I need.”