Waking up, I still had Masyn in my arms, but she was flat on her back, and I was wrapped around her. She had her hand extended in front of her, tilting it from side to side and staring at the ring I'd put there last night."You regretting your answer?" My eyes were still clouded over and my voice groggy."Nope. Not at all. It's beautiful, Lee. I can't wait to thank your dad.""About that..."She dropped her hand and turned to me, unsure of what I was about to add that I hadn't told her last night. In my defense, she had been naked-and still was-and telling her she couldn't move in wasn't at the top of my priority list. Getting inside her was. Granted, I was only heeding half of the old man's advice, but I wasn't sure how she'd take the conversation at all. I wasn't willing to stop showing her how much I loved her body and taking her to places where she screamed my name like I'd never heard. So, not living together before we got married might sound like a copout. "What?" s
It turned out that Masyn's family wasn't as opposed to a wedding as she believed they'd be, and all those men she swore had no interest in attending a ceremony had a real issue with not seeing her walk down the aisle. After spending the week with Beau in Atlanta, the three of us came back to Harden worn out. My dad was getting stronger each day, but he had an uphill battle to fight. If it weren't for the drill sergeant responsible for his physical therapy, he would have had everyone on that floor living in fear. But, Patty didn't put up with my dad's shit or his sass. I didn't want to leave him, and we'd argued over my need to be there-in the end, I lost. My dad thought it was a waste of my time and insisted we go home. Although, he didn't have a problem with us coming back every weekend so he wouldn't be by himself. I didn't stand a chance in hell of telling him no. Masyn was practically doing cartwheels at the thought of spending the weekends in Atlanta.By the time we'd spent t
"Mama, this dress isn't going to work." "Masyn, honey, you're walking down the aisle in five minutes. It's going to have to work.""I don't know how I let you talk me into this. The courthouse would have been much simpler." Not to mention cheaper. After Lee asked my daddy for his blessing, my mama had gone hog wild planning the only wedding she'd ever get to be involved in. It didn't matter that I wanted to keep it small or that I wasn't interested in having a ceremony in a church. In her mind, there was only one way to do things, and now, here we sat, six months, two weeks, and four days after Lee proposed.We were in the same church Lee and I had bailed Beau out of seven months earlier, and I sat in the same room I had that day, as well. Only this time, I wasn't surrounded by snotty women who wore too much makeup and thought Harden was the armpit of America. My aunts and cousins were all here, and Peyton had fussed over me all morning the same way my mom had. I didn't ge
The captain of the football team pinned me with an arrogant stare, narrowed his gaze, and silently dared me to challenge him. "Lee, I see now why you've never bothered to nail Masyn." Alex snickered and high-fived Mark Holloway, the guy sitting next to him. "You'd be better off with a warm apple pie. There'd be more participation from the filling."He wasn't really talking to me so much as running his mouth about my best friend. Alex had started dating Masyn at the end of our freshman year. They'd been hot and heavy all summer, and I'd listened to his shit in the locker room more times than I cared to admit, too afraid to speak up in her defense. Masyn Porter wasn't the girl he made her out to be to his buddies...or anyone else who'd listen to the filth he shared after practice. But just like everyone else who heard his pornographic tales, I didn't have the guts to call him out on any of it, even though I knew none of it had happened. Everything about high school was a popularity
"I just walked out." I answered my best friend's call as I punched the clock, finishing another week at the grind. "I have to go home and shower. Try to get the grease off my hands and look presentable."I couldn't stop the laugh that rang through the phone. Beau didn't give a shit if I had black outlines around my nails, but I knew his fiancée sure as hell did."Are you going to make it to the church on time?" Beau's apprehension could've been nerves or Felicity riding his ass. I'd never let him down and I wasn't going to start today. "I'll be there." "Sounds good. See you in a couple of hours."I ended the call as I continued through the parking lot of the machine shop I'd worked at since graduating from high school. Beau had gone off to college-where he'd met Felicity-but most of our graduating class had stayed in this one-horse town our parents brought us into. "Lee!" Masyn hollered from her car. I turned toward her and kept walking backward. "My car won't star
Beau Chastain came from old money, and he was marrying new money in Felicity Holstein. The difference was Beau didn't give a shit about the number of dollars in a bank account-probably because he didn't know what it was like not to have them. Those same dollars defined Felicity. This was where old money and new money differed. Old money had always been; for generations, these families were rooted in wealth, so no one alive knew what it was like not to have it. Whereas, new money typically came about with the dot-com era, and they flashed it as often as they did their business cards. And Felicity was definitely a flasher. Felicity Holstein was one of those girls who went to college to find a husband. And once they were married, she had their lives planned out. Not one minute of it would be spent in Harden, Georgia, either. Masyn and I begged Beau not to propose at Christmas, but the fool did it anyhow. They graduated from college two weeks ago, and she couldn't wait to add her
"If I'm done first, then I get to go home tonight, regardless of how much you drink.""And if I win?"She shrugged as though the answer were obvious. "Then I stay here.""I'm getting the short end of this stick. You already agreed to stay here." "Then what do you want?" Her brows dipped in the center and created a crease above her nose. She turned the shower on, waiting for me to answer. Cheating was clearly part of her plan."For you to dance with me at the wedding tomorrow." Not a clue where that request came from. I can't dance for shit."You can't dance. Pick something else." She unlaced her work boots, pulled each one off her feet, and dropped them with a thud on the tiles, gaining further ground in this race."Nope. That's what I want." I was being set up. She'd be in the shower before I reached my bedroom. My only saving grace would be her mounds of hair that she'd have to wash and dry...since it smelled like grease and likely had a good bit in it. "Fine." She
Wedding of the year was an understatement. Felicity was going for largest ever. I'd never seen so many people at a rehearsal in all my life, and weddings in the South were a big deal. I'd lost sight of Masyn within five minutes of walking through the doors to the sanctuary. Beau's brothers were the only people in the processional I knew, but that was two more than Masyn had on the bride's side. I stood at the front of the church waiting for instructions when Felicity found Beau to air her complaints in a stage whisper. "We should have had the wedding in Atlanta. This place is too small and pictures are going to look awful. There isn't enough space for the wedding party on the stairs, Beau." It was impossible to tune her whining out, and the mention of hicks and the backwoods didn't endear her to any of the locals within earshot, either. Yes, Harden was a small town filled with hardworking residents, but Beau's family and friends didn't lack for class or clout. She'd insisted o