10. Reid
CHAPTER TEN
reid
I answered Isa’s FaceTime call, unable to help the grin pulling at my cheeks.
She looked annoyed with Ellison and Colter’s clear tactic to get us alone, even if it was just digitally.
“Hey, Short Stack.”
“Hi, Cowboy. Let’s get this done. Quick and easy,” she rambled, picking at her split ends then looking at things past her phone’s camera, doing whatever she could to avoid eye contact. I didn’t know why she was acting nervous, but then again, my heart beat faster than it normally did whenever I was around her.
I didn’t mute the group chat Mikey had made, and texts were still popping up on my screen. The last one I saw was from Mikey—something about why we should go all out for Colter’s bachelor party. He was still set on going to the strip club, for some reason. It wasn’t even Mikey’s party. If he ever settled down—and that was a big if—we could talk about it then.
I thought he would have outgrown his playboy ways in the last two years; after all, he was thirty now. But no, he was still the same Mikey he’d always been. One of us had ought to find him a stable relationship. Or at least help him attempt to settle down. But it would take a strong-willed woman to put up with Mikey. Even more strong-willed than Ellison.
“Are there any songs you know for certain Ellison wouldn’t want?” I asked. I knew from helping Colter and Sophie that generally the DJ asked for a list of songs not to play .
“Oh, I can name a whole list of them, but that would take all day. I’ll let her handle the do-not-play list, and if a song I know she doesn’t want comes up, I’ll say something.” She did the thing she always did where she tossed her hair over her shoulder. Every time, though, tendrils would fall back into her face again. “Where do you get your music?”
“What do you mean?”
“You know, a music streaming app?” She raised an eyebrow before groaning. “No, wait. Don’t tell me you listen to CDs.”
“Of course not. I use my Walkman.” I rolled my eyes.
“I’m going to hang up on you.” She lifted her finger so it was in view of the camera, pretending to threaten to click the red X button to end the call.
“Okay, okay, I use Spotify. Or I listen to the radio. Don’t hang up on me!” I pleaded as she laughed on the other line.
“Great, well, I’ll make a playlist and share it with you so we can add songs to it. I’ll add Ellison and Colter to it too.”
We stayed on the phone as we added songs. Isa added a lot of newer pop songs I had never heard of while I was adding older country songs, many of which got a veto from her for being too depressing because, “It’s a wedding reception!”
“We should Rick roll them.” Isa giggled about thirty songs in.
I snorted. “You sound like Mikey.”
“Mmm, never mind.” She pursed her lips in disappointment. “Ells probably wouldn’t think it’s funny anyway.”
“Colter would.” I chuckled.
“Yeah, well the Grease soundtrack is strictly off limits, according to Ellison, so there’s probably a lot of songs Colter likes that won’t make it.” She rolled her eyes, and I watched as songs continued to be added to the playlist. Lots of Taylor Swift. So much Taylor Swift. I had a feeling Ellison would be doing some deleting of her own. She, Colter, and I were more George Strait and Alan Jackson people.
“You know, I can see why Colter hasn’t helped much. This wedding stuff is a lot of work.” Granted, I hadn’t done a whole lot of it myself, even as best man. It had mostly been the girls, but they recruited us to plan a small engagement party and work together on a few other small tasks. I’d also been put in charge of planning the bachelor party, but that was easy.
“I mean, it’s a day pretty much every girl dreams of when they’re younger,” she pointed out.
“So, what you’re telling me is you’ve had your wedding planned out since you were twelve?”
“Eleven, actually.” She looked into the camera. “What? You’ve never thought about your wedding day?”
“Nah, not really.” I shrugged. “I mean, I want to get married, I think. But it’s not something I just think about .” The thing was, getting married required being in love. And I hadn’t really believed in that stuff. Not until recently.
“I definitely want to get married. I didn’t spend thirteen years meticulously adding photos to inspiration boards for nothing,” she joked.
“I think you would get along well with my sister. She seems like the type to do that too.”
“I feel like every girl has saved at least one photo to keep in mind for their wedding day. It’s like a requirement.” She ran her fingers through her hair. “Okay, well, maybe Ellison didn’t, but she’s different. I was convinced for a while that she wouldn’t get married.”
“You think so?” I knew Ellison. She was guarded and had high walls when she met Colter, but I wouldn’t have painted her the type to never let anyone in. But Isabelle probably knew her better than anyone, besides maybe her mom.
“I mean, she dated in college, but it wasn’t like they were serious relationships. She never let anything get too deep. But that doesn’t matter. She’s found her person now, and it proves love is real. If Ellison can find love, then there’s definitely hope for the rest of us.”
I chuckled to myself, listening to her ramble on about love. I knew Isa was a romantic, but I didn’t know just how much of a romantic she was until we started working together on wedding planning things a year ago.
Early in the process, we spent a lot of time on FaceTime calls with Ellison and Colter. They wanted us to help compile the guest list since we were the two people who knew them best and could help remind them of people they may not have thought of in the moment.
I learned a lot about Isa during those FaceTime conversations, because we’d tend to stay on the phone well after Colter and Ellison had left the call.
“What were you like as a kid?” I asked.
“Busy,” she said with a laugh. “I was always on the go. I don’t think I ever sat still. At least that’s what my parents always told me. You never saw me without a book in my hands, they joked that I never had a ‘first word’ because I just started talking in sentences, and I never met a stranger, I made friends with everyone . My first day of preschool, my parents practically had to drag me out of the building because I loved it so much.”
I enjoyed hearing about her childhood, so I didn’t interrupt her when she continued.
“I begged my parents to get me a puppy when I was ten, but they didn’t want that big of a responsibility, so they got me a hamster instead. That thing was a nightmare. You know how people tell horror stories about hamsters? Well, I never believed them until I had one for myself. I think I might be traumatized from it.”
I tried my best to hold in my laughter but failed. “That sounds about right,” I teased. “Maybe your parents should have gotten you a goldfish or something.”
“Yeah, probably, but I really just wanted something of my own to take care of. And what about you, then? What were you like as a kid?” She tilted her head, resting her head on her palm.
“Busy, but not in the same way you were, by the sounds of it.” I chuckled before deciding to change the subject. “If you could go anywhere in the world right now, where would you go?”
“Ooh.” She tapped her lips as though in deep thought. “There’re so many beautiful places I’d love to go to. But I think somewhere with mountains.”
You’d love Montana. The thought of her being here rolled through my mind.
“Montana has some of the best mountains,” I murmured without thinking twice. “You should come here. ”
“I will be! In July,” she exclaimed. “Ellison told me to come out for the fourth.”
The Fourth of July was one of the holidays I actually liked. Mostly because I always competed on that day and it wasn’t a holiday with the obligation of going home. Most people, in fact, weren’t home. They were taking trips to the lake and having barbecues or going to rodeos.
“I also really want to go to Europe. I think that would be really fun,” she continued, looking like she was in a daydream.
“I’ve never left the country.”
“Me either. Maybe we…” she trailed off.
Maybe we could go together one day? I silently finished the thought for her.
“I’m excited to be back in Montana soon. It’ll be great to see everyone again.” Isa waved her hand in front of the camera to get my attention. “Are you listening to me?”
“Sorry, yes. I am listening.”
“What did I say then?” Her sassy tone made me blush.
“You’re excited to be back in Montana.”
“Yes. Yes, I am.”
I’m excited for you to be back too.