Chapter Three
“I ’m telling you. His arms were too hairy.” Vickie curled her feet underneath her and sank deeper into the plush navy sofa.
“Seriously? Hairy arms?” The incredulous tone was audible in Kristy O’Neal’s voice despite the miles that separated them. “I think you’ve used that excuse before. Maybe you should come up with a new one.”
Vickie sighed. “Other than that, I’m sure he is perfectly nice. Some kind of manager or something.” She examined her manicured nails. “But all I could see was hair. Not only on his arms, but there were little tufts poking out of the neck of his polo shirt. Like Chewbacca from Star Wars .” She shuddered. “Ugh.”
Kristy let out a groan. “Vick, you never cease to amaze me. I think you could find something wrong with Prince Charming himself.”
Vickie doubted she’d ever be so lucky as to find a Prince Charming. And as the days drew ever nearer to the date circled in thick red marker on her calendar, she’d settle for an earl or a duke. She wasn’t picky—or at least she didn’t mean to be. But it seemed her friends held a different opinion.
“I should’ve taken a picture when he wasn’t looking. You’d believe me then.” She paused. “I’m telling you, Chewbacca.”
“Where’d you find this guy anyway?”
Lloyd jumped into Vickie’s lap, purring for attention. She absently stroked the gray cat’s head as he rubbed against her. “Chris set us up. He’s told me nearly every day for the past month about his single cousin. You know how much I hate setups. But he finally wore me down.” She sighed. “Plus, I figured it was time I tried a new tactic. Clearly my whole ‘waiting on the perfect man to find me’ plan wasn’t working very well.”
“Does this mean that all the rangers at work knew about your date? If so, be glad you aren’t at Shiloh because you’d never hear the end of it.” Kristy worked as a park ranger at Shiloh National Military Park in Tennessee.
“That’s the beauty of living in a city like DC. Plenty of people here have lives way more interesting than mine to talk about.” Vickie giggled. “Not like you, out there in the middle of nowhere where it’s big news if you so much as catch a cold.”
“Hey, now. Don’t talk bad about my town.” Kristy had grown up fifteen minutes from Shiloh’s four thousand acres and had spent her childhood among the cannons and monuments. She was connected to the land there in a way most people couldn’t understand. Last year, she’d given up her job as a ranger and planned to leave Shiloh for good in order to get married. But when her fiancé left her at the altar, she’d managed to get her old job back. Today she was happily engaged to Ace Kennedy, a wonderful man, and they planned to make their home near the boundaries of the park. Vickie was thankful things had worked out so well for her friend.
“I’m kidding and you know it.” Vickie sighed. “Believe me. Sometimes I think about chucking it all and moving back to Tennessee myself.” Vickie had been raised right outside of Nashville and had worked with Kristy as a seasonal ranger at Shiloh during college. Her parents still had a home in Tennessee, although they spent a lot of their time traveling these days.
Kristy was silent for a moment. “Not that I’d discourage you too much, because I’d love to have you live nearby. But I thought you loved it in Washington. Are things not going well in our nation’s capital?”
“Oh, you know how it is. I get this way every year.” Vickie switched the phone to her other ear and glanced over at the calendar. One week to go.
“Birthdays aren’t supposed to be things you dread, remember? You should be celebrating another year of health and wisdom and all that.”
“I’m thankful for my health. But at this point, I’m beginning to doubt my wisdom. If you’d told me ten years ago that on the cusp of thirty, I’d still be waiting to fall in love for the first time, I’d never have believed it. But here I am. I’ve never even had a movie-worthy kiss,” she said glumly.
“Now wait just a minute there. I seem to remember during our junior year that—what’s his name? Brian Jones, I think it was. Anyway, didn’t he kiss you after that formal banquet? You know the one. You wore that gold dress that Ainsley had worn in her sister’s wedding.”
Their friend, Ainsley Davis was the other member of the “three musketeers posse” they’d jokingly established while they were in college. The three of them had gotten their start with the National Park Service as seasonal rangers at Shiloh. It seemed like so long ago. Ainsley was currently on a temporary leave of absence from her job as a ranger at the Grand Canyon. At least Vickie hoped it was temporary.
Kristy continued. “I mean, he liked you so much he rented a tux even though all the other guys were in suits. And he brought you flowers. Wasn’t that movie-worthy?”
Vickie blushed at the mere memory. “Not really. Besides, he barely kissed me.” She paused. “Are you really going to make me re-live that moment?”
Kristy laughed. “I guess not. Although it’s still beyond me how someone can barely kiss you. Either he did or he didn’t.”
Vickie couldn’t help but laugh. “Maybe that’s only something that could happen to me.”
“Must be.” Kristy was quiet for a moment. “Seriously, though. How are you really doing? Hairy men aside.”
“My parents are coming to town to take me out for my birthday. You can imagine how excited I am about that.”
“At least try to have fun. You know they mean well,” Kristy said. She knew all too well of the difficulties in Vickie’s family.
“My dad means well. My mom, not so much.” Vickie said glumly. “How much do you want to bet that within the first ten minutes, she’ll say ugly things about my haircut, my clothes and my apartment décor?”
“She only wants the best for you.”
“Yeah, well her idea of best and my idea of best are usually two different things.”
“At least your parents love each other.” Kristy’s parents had gone through a nasty divorce several years ago, and even though she was an adult, she still had problems adjusting to their situation.
Vickie groaned. “You’re right. I just wish Mom could be more tolerant of me. Or maybe if I had a few brothers and sisters for her to worry over, it wouldn’t be so bad. Being the only child isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.”
Kristy laughed. “Poor, pitiful Vickie.”
Vickie grinned despite herself. “I know, right? I’m awful. I’m sure it will be fine. They’ve made reservations at Fiola, so at least I know the food will be good. I partly think they’re only coming because Mom’s been hoping for an excuse to eat there.” She watched as Lloyd jumped from her lap and curled up underneath the coffee table. “How about you? What’s the latest from West Tennessee?”
“Well. . .” Kristy trailed off. “The wedding plans are moving slowly. We’ve finally picked out a few potential dates, but still haven’t settled on a location.” She sighed. “To tell you the truth, I don’t even care. I’m ready to marry him. It doesn’t matter the day or the place or what we wear.” She sighed. “I’m sure it has something to do with the fact that I’ve been through all this before.”
Vickie was silent. She remembered the day more than a year ago when Kristy, clad in a beautiful wedding dress, had stood in front of her closest friends and family and explained to them that there wouldn’t be a wedding. It was no wonder she wasn’t the most excited wedding planner in the world. It must dredge up old wounds. “Have you thought about eloping?” she asked gently.
“Ace would do whatever I wanted. But I feel like that would somehow be cheating him, you know? Just because I nearly married the wrong man is no reason to deny Ace a ‘real’ wedding. And before you say it, I know that a nice wedding does not a marriage make. But still. I want to celebrate our love for each other in front of the people we care about.”
“That makes sense.”
“To tell you the truth, we’re sort of considering a destination wedding. What would you think about that?”
“I think that sounds really nice. Where are you thinking about?”
“Maybe somewhere along the Gulf Coast. I’ve always thought a wedding on the beach could be fun. And at least that way, it would just be the people who mean the most to us who attend.” She paused. “Because those are the only people who’d bother traveling so far.”
Vickie giggled. “Well count me in wherever you decide to do it. I could use a little vacation anyway.”
“As my maid of honor, I expect you to follow us to the corners of the earth.” Kristy laughed. “And it certainly sounds like you could use a vacation. How about work? Is that at least going okay?”
“If it weren’t, I’d go crazy. Things at work are going great. They’ve actually offered me a different shift though, but I haven’t decided yet. It would be four days a week, but longer hours.”
“But a three-day weekend? Sounds great to me,” Kristy said.
“I guess. Although I mostly see it as three days alone with nothing to do. Those cooking classes I was taking are over now. I guess I could see if there is anything else I’m interested in. Maybe painting.”
Kristy was silent for a moment. “Or maybe you could take some action. Sign up for an online dating service. Pretty soon, you’d probably have someone to spend all your extra spare time with.” Kristy and Ainsley had been trying to get Vickie to sign up for online dating for the past few years, but she refused.
“I’m not going to meet someone online. My luck he’d be some kind of serial killer or stalker or something. No thank you.”
“Whatever. But if you ask me, it’s about time you do something drastic.”
“Drastic isn’t my style.” They said their goodbyes and Vickie glanced again at the calendar. Which was worse? Being all alone or being out of her comfort zone? Maybe Prince Charming would show up on her doorstep next week to wish her a Happy Birthday. But if not, maybe it was time to get a little drastic.