"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
By the time we reached the country club, Masyn had calmed down with the death metal music that rattled the windows. Good thing she'd worn her hair down, otherwise, an updo would be a complete mess with all the head banging she'd done in a handful of blocks. She took my arm again, and we walked inside. The scene was completely different, and so was Felicity.She and Beau greeted each person at the door and thanked them for coming. His parents were next in the welcome wagon, and I thought the whole thing was strange. This girl had more personalities than Sybil. I could only guess what her mother had said to her, or better yet, Beau's mother. Mrs. Chastain reigned supreme in these parts. She was head of every women's committee in the county, did countless hours of volunteering, led the church bizarre, and put on the town's fall festival every year. She was as Southern as apple pie and moonshine, right down to the accent and the debutante balls."Masyn, dear, you look lovely tonight. H
I was grateful there weren't assigned seats for this shindig. I couldn't handle being paired with Felicity's friends for a four-course meal. Luckily, Masyn and I ended up at a table for ten with seven other people we'd known for years-even if we weren't close to them-leaving one remaining seat next to me. I'd hoped it would stay vacant, yet just as I was about to release the breath I didn't realize I'd been holding, Peyton's hand landed on my shoulder."Is anyone sitting here?" Peyton directed her question to me, but others answered, and she pulled out the chair. It didn't escape my attention that she wasn't assigned to a seat with her sister or anyone else in the wedding party; I just chose not to address it. I might not be from her side of the tracks, but I wasn't raised in a barn, either. I introduced everyone at the table to Peyton, and in a few minutes, I was surprised by how readily she engaged the people sitting with us. Even Masyn talked to her with ease. By the second cou