Chapter Twelve #2
“When are we doing it?”
Siobhan laughed. “Not yet, since the guys aren’t even back yet. And based on the last time they went riding, they’ll probably need some time to clean up. So approximately…later. Brian will text me when they’re ready.”
“So Scrabble first, then,” Lisa said.
“More mimosas first,” Keri corrected. “Then we play Scrabble. I found a website that taught me lots of new naughty words and my spam ads have taken quite a turn, so I intend to win.”
* * *
“This is the most ridiculous thing we’ve ever done,” Danny grumbled before blowing out a breath that made the toilet paper hanging in his face quiver.
“You look radiant,” Rob said as he snapped photos as fast as his camera’s shutter could fire.
“Stop fidgeting,” Joey ordered, trying to get Danny’s veil fixed.
The toilet paper bride pageant had been Siobhan’s idea, but she didn’t exactly have to twist Brian’s arm to get him on board.
Especially since the two of them, as the hosts of the pageant, were excluded from participation.
Technically Wes should be hosting, as the best man and brother of the groom, but he was a quieter introvert type and he’d privately told Kyle and Brian that he’d have a much better time if the Kowalski brothers stepped in for leading the festivities.
Since Siobhan had come to Brian with this party game, he’d called dibs.
Several heated rounds of Rock, Paper, Scissors had Kyle and Danny as brides for Team Groom. And Steph and Amber—sister-in-law of the groom—were representing Team Bride. The goal was to fashion wedding gown finery from toilet paper, and the most fashionable bride would win.
“Easy,” Rob cautioned Joey. “You’re going to rip it again.”
“Whose idea was one-ply?” Kyle asked. “If I was in charge, I would have sprung for two-ply.”
Danny snorted. “You can’t be in charge because you’re the groom. And we got one-ply because we needed a lot of it, and this was the cheapest we could find at the store after Brian here thought he’d raid the campground supply.”
“You make us buy it in bulk,” Rob pointed out.
Danny started to turn his head, but a growl from Joey stopped him. “It’s all fun and games until we run out of toilet paper and our campers are flushing who knows what down the toilets.”
“Okay.” Joey backed away from Danny. “Are we done?”
Brian had to admit they’d done a good job. Kyle’s looked more like a hula skirt than a gown on the bottom and they’d wrapped the toilet paper around his torso like bandages for a bodice.
Danny’s flowed from where the ends had been tucked into the neck of his T-shirt, with a sash tied just below his chest to hold it all in place. He had a traditional veil, though they’d finally given up on covering his face.
“We’re done. Team Bride?”
“We’re ready,” Kevin called back from the other side of the tarp they’d strung to divide the store into two “dressing rooms.”
“Texting Siobhan now,” Brian said.
I hope you’re ready because they’re going to sweat and we’ll have a ton of papier-maché on our hands.
Ready. I’ll count to ten and start the music.
Even though he was in the back, trying to keep Stella from grabbing at the trailing toilet paper, he heard the women’s laughter and knew the men had been spotted.
He wasn’t surprised the chosen brides threw themselves into their roles, walking regally across the grass to the tinny rendition of “Here Comes the Bride” coming from Siobhan’s phone.
The women—who were wound up from a lot of mimosas and a rousing round of dirty Scrabble, based on the shrieks of laughter coming from that end of the grass—clapped and cheered throughout the pageant.
It was all fun and games until somebody pointed out Steph’s headpiece was anchored with rolled up paper towels and not toilet paper.
The accusations of cheating got heated, somebody wearing a toilet paper gown got too close to the campfire, and whoosh, they segued straight into a game of Stop, Drop and Roll.
Brian was pretty sure the flash fire was fully out by the time his uncle Joe tossed the contents of the water dispenser from the picnic table onto them, but he didn’t begrudge anybody a good time. If he could have gotten to the hose in time, he might have joined in the fun.
In the aftermath, when their stomachs ached from laughing and the brides were a slightly charred sodden mess, it was Danny who asked the question. “So who won?”
More debate and laughter ensued, while everybody voted. Somehow it came down to a tie between Danny and Amber and, once again, it fell to Siobhan to vote.
“Nope,” she said, holding up her hands. “I was one of the emcees, so I don’t get a vote. I think it’s just a tie.”
“A tie?” several people echoed at the same time, and Brian chuckled at Siobhan’s expression. His family did win and lose, but not so much with draw.
“I think I should get an extra point for not setting myself on fire,” Amber pointed out.
Danny snorted. “I should get the point because I was more entertaining.”
“There was a lot of screaming, which your family seems to enjoy,” Siobhan said. “And you whipped that T-shirt off so fast, you were practically a stripper, which was one thing this bachelorette party didn’t have.”
They all laughed again, and Brian knew Danny being the stripper at Steph’s bachelorette party was already part of the Kowalski family lore. Then Siobhan turned to face him and his breath caught. She was so beautiful when she was laughing, her eyes sparkling with mischievous amusement.
How could he ever have thought this woman was cold?
The win finally went to Team Bride after a tiebreaking round of Rock, Paper, Scissors, and then Johnny somehow convinced Nora and Oliver that a race to pick up toilet paper would be the most fun game ever. They rushed over from the playground and started gathering it up.
“We could have reused some of that,” Leo grumbled.
Mary rolled her eyes. “He saw some show years ago, and the husband had the wife buy two-ply toilet paper, unroll it, peel the layers apart, and then reroll that into two rolls. He looked over at me and opened his mouth, and I’m not sure what my expression was doing, but he snapped his mouth shut and changed the channel pretty quick. ”
“Then that guy probably used twice as much of the one-ply rolls, making the entire thing a waste of his wife’s time with no money saved,” Lisa said, and then everybody started talking about the financial aspects of toilet paper.
Brian moved closer to Siobhan, who was hovering to make sure Oliver didn’t get too close to the fire. “It was a fun game. I’m sorry it went sideways like that.”
“Oh, it went about like I suspected it would.” She chuckled. “Maybe not the fire, I guess. That was an unexpected twist.”
Once the toilet paper was cleaned up, the two parties blended into one.
There was the usual storytelling and laughter.
Conversational groups changing as people got up to refill their mimosa glasses, grab another beer or get a snack.
At one point, Brian and Steph made eye contact, and the smile she gave him made all the headaches from the planning and group texts worth it.
She was beaming, and as long as tomorrow went off without a hitch, he and his brothers would have pulled off the wedding of her dreams.
When he spotted Ellie ushering Nora and Oliver into the tots’ tent with water bottles and coloring books, he looked over at Siobhan. She looked uncertain for a moment, as if she thought she might take Oliver inside, but then Steph said something and she laughed, relaxing into her seat.
From that moment on, Brian’s body felt as if it was on high alert. Most likely, Oliver was going to fall asleep in that tent and Siobhan was going to need help carrying him to her camper again. The boy would be sound asleep. Brian had a few beers in him. She’d had a few mimosas.
They’d be alone.
It was going to be very, very hard not to kiss her. Very hard.
Two hours later, when Nora stumbled sleepily out of the tent looking for her mom, Siobhan stood and he knew it was time. He pushed out of his chair, and she smiled at him as they approached the little tent.
“I tried to balance mimosas with food and water,” she whispered. “But at some point we started running low on juice and the ratio was adjusted.”
He chuckled. “Funny how the Kowalski women can calculate the exact amount of peanut butter the entire family needs to get through a week at camp, but they can never bring enough mixer for the alcohol.”
She giggled and then slapped her hand over her mouth. “Shh.”
He pushed aside the netting and smiled at Oliver, who was sound asleep with a blue crayon in his hand. It took some maneuvering, but Brian got the crayons into the cup and closed the coloring book before lifting Oliver out of the tent.
He was able to concentrate on not tripping over rocks in the dirt road, but the click of Siobhan closing the door behind them clanged like alarm bells in his mind.
There was no way he could kiss her again, he reminded himself as he laid Oliver down. He’d told her it wouldn’t happen again. Right now, Oliver waking up and demanding Siobhan’s attention would be the best case scenario.
But of course he didn’t. The kid was out like a light.
When he turned, Siobhan was leaning against the counter by the door. The heat in her eyes when she smiled did nothing to cool him off, and he wasn’t sure he was capable of getting past her without touching her.
Especially when she pushed away from the counter and took a step toward him, holding up her index finger. “Just one more.”
“We both agreed it wouldn’t happen again,” he pointed out, using every last scrap of willpower he could summon.
“Then we can both agree it’ll happen just one more time.” And then she hooked her finger in the neck of his tee and tugged.
He was lost.
When their mouths collided, he wasn’t sure which of them moaned, but he felt it through his entire body. The fingertips of one of her hands bit into his upper arm while she slid her other hand up the nape of his neck. When her fingers tangled in his hair, he groaned and deepened the kiss.
It was gripping her hips and pulling her hard to his body, making her gasp against his lips, that broke through the hunger and reminded him this was just a kiss. One more kiss, and nothing else.
With a reluctance he hoped she could feel, he released her hips. Then, pressing his hand to her cheek, he planted a final quick kiss to her mouth. Then more absolutely the last final kiss.
“I have to go,” he whispered, and his voice was so hoarse, they were barely words.
“I know. I wish…”
With every fiber of his being, Brian wanted her to finish that sentence, but he knew pushing her would only end in more frustration for both of them. Their situation was what it was.
He also knew some of the nosier members of his family were probably still sitting by the campfire, counting how many minutes he was inside Siobhan’s camper. They’d given his family more than enough to talk about this week already.
“Good night, Siobhan,” he said, moving past her.
“Brian?” When he turned back, she gave him a grin that was going to keep him up half the night. “Sweet dreams.”