Chapter Ten
Alex
The hard part is over. The ceremony, the dresses, remembering the ring and all the pictures, so many pictures, and the dances!
Watching Mason and Mom just about destroyed me.
Pretty sure it destroyed everyone else, too.
Especially when Mom took his face in her hands afterward and mouthed, “I love you so much.”
Yeah. I’m happy Mom got her dance with him, but I’m so glad it’s over.
Now that I’ve changed into something more comfortable and had a solid cry, and then another cry in my room by myself, I’m ready to actually celebrate.
Back down at the reception, I find Jules and Chloe hovering by the d’oeuvres, piling cheese on a mini plastic plate.
I take a minute to look at Jules, from her neatly done up hair down to her freshly manicured toes.
I try not to linger at the dip in her neckline.
She wasn’t wrong about the dress.
It stops mid-shin, but there’s a high slit almost all the way up to the waist, showcasing her legs when she stands just right. And the V-neck, my God. It’s like it was made just for her, showing off a tasteful amount of cleavage and for me, not nearly enough.
Someone stops to congratulate me, one of the nurses at the hospital where my mom works, and I politely engage in small talk, but I’m unable to keep myself from glancing at Jules.
I don’t know if it’s the dress or the love that seems to be scattered throughout the air, but she’s absolutely breathtaking.
Once I manage to get away, I make a beeline toward her and slip my arm around her waist. “You look amazing.”
She smiles at me, not at all startled, and leans into the kiss I plant on her temple. “Thanks. So do you in your comfy linen outfit.” She reaches out to feel the cotton of my button-up.
“Is this regular salami or the fancy kind?” Chloe asks, pointing to one of the platters of sliced meat.
“I think it’s finocchiona.” Jules says. Chloe stares at her with a blank expression, and Jules rolls her eyes. “The fancy kind.” Chloe plucks a couple of pieces and drops them on her plate.
There’s a slight smudge under Julia’s otherwise perfect eye makeup, and I gently wipe it away. “How many times did you cry?”
“Twice during the ceremony and twice during the dances.” Her attention shifts to something over my shoulder, and I turn to see my mom and Richard making the rounds. “Your mom looks so beautiful. I’m so happy for her.”
Mom has given up so much for me and Mason. Everything she’s been through, how hard she works, she deserves someone who makes her happy and who looks at her like she hung the moon. She deserves a fancy wedding and a pretty dress and to be surrounded by people who love her.
Speaking of…
“Dinner’s about to start,” Mason says, breezing by with a drink in both hands. He stops when he reaches his date, who’s sitting at a table making small talk with Richard’s great-aunt Helen.
“Sarah seems nice,” Jules says.
I hum, agreeing. “Better looking in person, too.”
Jules gives me a disapproving look, but come on. I’ve only ever seen her inside a small box on a computer the few times I jumped in on their D&D sessions. She’s always given me a good vibe, though, naturally kind and easygoing in the way my brother needs.
Chloe steps beside Jules with a plateful of food and joins us in watching Mason dote on his date. “Think Mason will get lucky tonight?”
“Ew.” And that’s the end of that conversation for me.
“I mean, he shaved,” Chloe supplies.
“What does that have anything to do with anything?” Jules asks.
Chloe shrugs. “I dunno. Some girls don’t like a bush in their, you know, bush.”
“What are you even talking about?” I say at the same time Jules says, “That’s not a thing.”
A server walks by with a tray of red and white wine. He’s young, probably only a couple years older than we are, and he flashes us a wink. “Ladies.”
“Hi,” Chloe says breathlessly and stares at him as he walks past. “He’s hot. There are a lot of hotties working this party.”
She’s not wrong. It’s the country club’s busy season, packed with weddings, so I guess it makes sense that a place like this would be a good way to make some extra bucks for the local college kids.
The server, come to find out when Chloe calls him back, is named Thom, and he has no problem pretending that we’re not underage. He lets us grab two glasses each and disappears with his empty tray and another wink.
“Does he have something in his eye?” Jules asks. I almost spit my Sovereign Blanc all over her brand-new dress.
Mom gives us a knowing look when we pass but says nothing, and thankfully, the Marrows feel the same because the only one who gives us crap about drinking is Aunt Helen, and I pretend I can’t hear her sitting across the table when we sit to eat.
Once dinner is finished, the deejay finally kicks it into gear, and the dance floor officially opens. Chloe disappears to find Thom, and Jules makes the obligatory rounds with me so I can thank everyone for coming, which is way more fun with her on my arm.
Midway through a conversation with one of Richard’s cousins, Jules tightly grabs my arm when the familiar notes of “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” pumps through the speakers.
Whitney has always been one of our weaknesses.
Taking that as my cue, I politely pose for one more picture and then allow Jules to lead me to the dance floor.
Several songs later, when we’re winded and sweaty, we head to the bar for a break and some water. The bartender, Jensen, also doesn’t ask for our IDs, and we take advantage. He tries to make small talk with Jules while he mixes her a strawberry margarita, blatantly staring at the dip in her dress.
I’m tempted to tell him to direct his gaze further north or suffer the wrath of my fist.
“On the house.” He flashes Jules a smile and begrudgingly tends to the line forming at the other end of the counter.
“On the house? Isn’t it an open bar?” Jules asks me with a confused look.
I roll my eyes because of course she would miss the fact that he was flirting and staring. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d think that Jensen is trying to get in your thong.”
Jules picks up her margarita and slowly stirs it with her straw. After a beat, she leans into my space. “And how do you know I’m wearing a thong?” She wraps her lips around her straw and peers at me through her thick lashes while taking a sip.
I just about fall off my stool. I’ve never heard her voice so purposefully breathy and seductive, and definitely not directed at me. Is she being serious? Or is she just messing around?
There’s only one way to find out. I meet her gaze. “No panty lines.”
I’m prepared for her to smack my arm and call me a pervert, not for her to lean farther in and brush her lips against my ear. “How do you know I’m wearing anything at all?”
A jolt shoots straight through me. A flash of desire so strong it almost hurts.
She takes another long sip of her drink and arches a brow. I stare at her mouth and blindly fumble for my Jack and Coke.
“Well played,” I murmur, not sure I can keep going with this kind of flirting. Especially when it’ll lead to a one-way path to nowhere.
Thankfully, things seem to go back to normal after that. Mom and Richard cut their cake and make another round with the guests and even manage a dance or two. Jules, Chloe, and I maintain an even buzz, thanks to Jenson and Thom, but we’re careful not to get too tipsy and cause a scene.
When the reception finally dies down and people start to say their good nights, Mason finds me and Jules polishing off a second piece of cake before they can pack it all away. “Some of the guests are going to the bar across the street,” he tells us and slips his arm around Sarah’s waist.
“You up for it?” I ask Jules.
“Yeah, let me find Chloe.” We look around but don’t see her. Not that we’re surprised. She bailed on us on the dance floor not long ago with the excuse of hoping to get sweaty in other ways.
I wash down the piece of cake with a glass of champagne that was left on the table, and Mason gives me a look. “You know they aren’t going to serve you alcohol over there.”
I wave my hand, dismissing his accusing glare. “Yeah, yeah, calm down, Nancy. I’ll get a Shirley Temple.”
“I love Shirley Temples,” Sarah says.
Jules shoves her phone back inside her clutch. “Chloe said she’s busy and to go without her.”
“Guess she found someone to get sweaty with,” I say, and Jules scrunches her nose. I nod toward the front of the reception hall and hold out my arm for her to take. “Shall we?”
When we get to the bar, Mason and Sarah head for a cozy booth on the other side of the room. Jules and I find two empty stools at the end of the bar and go there instead.
“Think your mom will show up in her wedding dress?”
“Nah, she looked exhausted. I bet she and Richard head back to the room and go to sleep.”
The bartender appears and places two napkins in front of us. “What are you drinking?”
“One Shirley Temple and one iced tea. Hold the Long Island, sadly.”
He smiles warmly. “You got it.”
Once he disappears, Jules faces me in her stool and crosses one leg over the other. “You don’t think your mom has it in her to consummate the marriage?”
I immediately cover my ears and pretend to gag. “Come on, Jules. Why?”
She laughs. “Speaking of sex—”
“We were not speaking of sex.”
“Tell me about Greece,” she finishes undeterred.
The bartender places our drinks in front of us, and I pretend I didn’t hear her.
She puts her hands on my knees and shakes my legs.
“Come on. We can share confessions and blame it on the alcohol.” She wiggles her eyebrows.
“Can I see her?” I freeze. Jules seems to notice my hesitation.
“The only thing you never want to talk about is girls. So there had to be a girl in Greece. Do you have a picture of her?”