Cassie and Finley together were like a pair of super-charged dynamos. Taylor and I had a hard time keeping up with the ideas that they volleyed back and forth. Nix had warned me that Cassie would probably get a little crazy with involvement, but I was thankful. I had absolutely no idea what went into planning a wedding. But I’d made her promise to keep it small and low-key. Of course, adding Nicky King, the lead singer of Black Thunder, to the music list might just have taken low-key off the table completely.
“So, is it all right if my dad sings at the wedding?”
“Are you kidding, Finley?” I asked. “Nix just might pass out when I tell him. Please be sure to thank him for letting us use his place, and tell him that having him sing will be something that I’ll never forget.”
“I’ll just have to make sure he doesn’t get too drunk, otherwise his song lyrics become one long smear of British slang.”
“Really?” Taylor asked.
“Yeah, when he’s too drunk, he forgets the words and sticks in the phrase ‘bloody hell’ to fill in any gaps.”
Taylor laughed. “O.K., now we have to make sure he drinks too much.” She stared down at the sketchpad she’d carried out to the sand. “Scottie, have you decided on a color to add?”
I relaxed back. “I have. My mom’s favorite color was hot pink. I think we could use a softer, more twenty-first century, shade of hot pink. What do you think?”
She tapped her pencil against her chin. “Yes, pink will work.” She lifted the sketchpad up and showed us her drawings for the bridesmaid dresses. They were beautiful, mid-thigh length with petticoats sticking out from the skirt and a halter style top.
Finley leaned forward. “That is gorgeous. You and Cassie will look adorable in that style.”
I looked over at her. “What about you, Finley? Would you please be a bridesmaid? I know Nix is planning to ask Rett.”
Finley flipped her sunglasses up on her head. “Really? I would love it. Are you sure?”
“To be honest, Finley, I just assumed you were going to be up there with me.”
She reached across and our chairs nearly toppled together as we hugged.
Cassie harrumphed. “We’ve got a problem. Nix’s two nephews can be in the wedding party, but what about flower girls? I don’t know any little girls.” She looked at Taylor, who shook her head.
Finley picked up her phone. “I know two of the absolutely cutest little girls on the planet.”
“Finley, I don’t know if Some Pig can carry a basket of rose petals.”
“No he can’t” Finley laughed. “And he would eat the rose petals before they fluttered to the ground. Besides, Some Pig is a boy.” Finley tapped her head. “Which reminds me, I need to make a mental note to remember to have a tuxedo made for Some Pig. He’ll be really pissed if he doesn’t have something to wear to the wedding.” She looked over at me. “Will it be all right if he comes?”
“Of course. I’d be hurt if Some Pig didn’t attend.”
Finley started dialing her phone. “Anyhow, back to the flower girls.” Someone answered. “Hey, Eden, do you think Sophie and Janie would like to be flower girls in a wedding? No, Rett didn’t propose. Nix and Scotlyn are getting married at our house at the end of August. Scottie’s right here.” She paused and pressed the button for speakerphone.
“Congratulations, Scotlyn. You two are so perfect together.”
“Thank you, Eden.”
“And as far as my sisters wanting to be flower girls— let me just say, those two breathe, eat and sleep princesshood. Hand them two frilly dresses and baskets of rose petals and they will be the two happiest girls on Earth.”
“Great,” I said. “Thanks so much. We’ll get the dresses if you can just get us their sizes.”
“You bet, and congrats. I’m excited for you.”
Finley put the phone back to her ear. “Thanks, Eden. I’ll let you break the news to your sisters. Bye.” She hung up. “Man, we should all start a business called Insta-wedding. Scotlyn, you’ll still have to pick a cake and flowers.”
I looked out to the water. Nix and Dray were laughing about something. “You guys, thanks. This all means so much to me.” Not having my mom and sister around had cast a shadow over any thoughts of marriage, but my friends had stepped in to fill the void. I thought about how rough things were just a few weeks ago and the despair I’d been feeling, but at the moment, I was having a hard time keeping myself from floating up off the beach chair.
Chapter 22
Scotlyn
Two weeks into the wedding planning and I wondered when and why we’d dropped elopement off the table. But I was lucky. Cassie loved this kind of stuff, and she’d stepped in to do most of it. All I had to do was make some superficial decisions, and she handled everything else.
We’d kept the budget pretty small. Both Nix and I had agreed that we didn’t want to pour a lot of money into it. We just wanted to make sure our friends had a good time. And it was mostly friends. Once we got back from the beach trip, we’d sat down to make a list for invites, which Cassie had insisted needed to go out right away. Nix and I had a good, long laugh at how pathetic the list was on the family end. I, of course, had no one, which I’d known all along, but it looked especially sad when I saw it on paper. My aunt, my only one living relative, was not going to be invited. Nix would, of course, send an invite to his mom, but he was sure she wouldn’t come. Nix’s friends were my friends too now, which made sharing spots on the list much easier. I had some friends in nursing school, but they were about the only people on the list who hadn’t actually come from Nix’s side. It was as if the accident had severed all my ties with the world. And in truth, it had.
Clutch had given me the rest of the afternoon off to check out florists. I’d visited five shops and had received the same look of shock from all of them. The wedding was too close. Each of the florists had scoffed and told me there was no way. But I remembered a new, little flower shop had opened just blocks from Freefall, and it seemed to be having trouble competing with some of the bigger stores in town. I parked the car in one of the three spaces out front of the shop.
It had taken me a good week to get back behind the wheel of a car. Nix had been thoroughly patient with me as if he was teaching me to drive all over again. And that’s almost how it felt. Getting back on the horse as they say isn’t all that easy when you’ve taken a really bad fall. But it was nearly impossible to live in California without a car. Finley, whose trouble with anxiety had made driving a challenge as well, taught me several more breathing techniques. And they worked surprisingly well.
The shop was called Flower Power, and the whole place reminded me of my bohemian parents. A young girl came out from behind a long curtain of beads. She was wearing a suede vest with long fringes and a thin headband of small roses.
“How can I help you?” she asked.
“I’m getting married in four weeks, and I need a florist. I know it’s short notice.”
She pulled out a catalog and a pad of paper. I hadn’t noticed her giant smile until she pulled up a stool. “I’ll do it.”
“You will? Oh, thank you.” She pointed to another stool, and I sat down. “You know, my dress designer has been trying to decide on a headpiece to go with the dress. Do you think you could make me a headband of small pink and red roses? Or is that too much to ask at such short notice?”
She wrote it down. “I can make you an absolutely gorgeous one. Not that you’ll need much help in the beautiful bride department, but red and pink will look stunning in your blonde hair.”
I reached over and patted her hand. “Thank you for taking this on at such short notice.”
She glanced around at her sadly empty shop. Her arrangements were uniquely beautiful and all she needed was some exposure. “No, thank you. I’m afraid the reality of breaking into this business has hit me hard. I can’t wait to do this. Where will the wedding take place?”
“In Beverly Hills at the Nicky King estate.”
She nearly slipped off the stool. “You’re marrying Nicky King? No wonder you’re so gorgeous.”
“No, his daughter is a friend of mine. He will be singing at my wedding. Tell you what, make an extra nice boutonniere for him, and I’ll see that my photographer gets a picture of him wearing it. He’s a super nice man. I’m sure he’ll let you put the picture in your wedding catalog.”
Her smile brightened more. “Let’s get started.”
***
Nix’s car wasn’t in front of Freefall. Cassie had taken him to get fitted for a tux, but I was sure they would have been back already. Our cake tasting session had been moved up half an hour. It was the only thing that Nix had wanted to be involved in, only because it meant trying a variety of cakes and frostings. I decided to go inside and wait for him. It had been months since I’d had time to visit Freefall.
Cassie had rearranged some of the furniture, and there were new art samples up on the wall. Otherwise, it was the same shop where I’d met and fallen in love with the owner. The first time I’d stepped inside the place, I hadn’t wanted to be there at all. But Lincoln, the man who had saved me from the streets only to make me his possession, had insisted that the owner was considered the best in town. Lincoln couldn’t stand the long jagged scar on my side, left behind by the windshield of my dad’s car. He’d had an artist design a long, trailing vine of pink flowers to cover it. It was during those intimate tattoo sessions that I’d fallen in love with Nix. I was unable to talk, but he listened to every word I had to say, whether through gestures or print. Lincoln had sensed something between us. Anyone could have seen it. The heat between Nix and me had been palpable. Lincoln had decided to switch artists, but I’d put my foot down, something I’d rarely done, mostly because after losing my family nothing else ever mattered enough for me to bother. But Nix had mattered. He had been the first thing that mattered after my life had been shattered on that mountainside.
A girl with red hair and a tiny skirt and halter top came out from the back. She was pretty, but there was nothing inviting about her smile. “Stormy, right?”
“Yep, that’s me.”
“I’m Scotlyn,” I stuck out my hand. She took it, but still acted as if she had no idea who I was. I knew that Nix had my picture on his desk. It was obvious she was going to play dumb. “I’m Nix’s girl— fiancé.”
“Oh, right,” she said, sounding bored with our brief conversation. “Congrats on that.”
I’d planned to wait around for Nix, but Stormy wasn’t making that idea seem to palatable. I reached over to Cassie’s sticky note pad and grabbed a pen. “I’m going to leave this note for Nix. If you could see that he gets it.” I scribbled down that cake tasting had been moved up half an hour and to meet me at the bakery. I would get there early and treat myself to a brownie. With the flower order behind me, I was feeling like I needed a reward.
I handed her the note.
“Okie dokie,” she said tersely.
I walked out. It’d definitely been her perfume I’d smelled on Nix’s sweatshirt.
Chapter 23
Nix
Cassie had gone home early. She’d been doing double duty working at Freefall and being the wedding planner of the century. I finished arranging the next week’s schedule and had just enough time to get to the bakery to taste cake. My phone buzzed.
“Hey, baby, I’m just leaving the shop.”
“Didn’t you get my note?” Scotlyn sounded confused. “They moved the tasting up half an hour. I just finished.”
“What note?”
“I wrote it on a pink sticky note and told Stormy to give it to you.”
Stormy was cleaning up tools in the back room. I glanced around the counter. “I don’t see it. Stormy was with a client when I got back from the tux fitting. She might have forgotten. I’m sorry about that. I’m bummed I missed tasting all that cake. Did you make a decision?”
“Yep. Marble. That way chocolate lovers and white cake lovers will be satisfied. And now I’m feeling like slipping into a sugar coma.”
“Damn, I should have been there. I love cake.” As I walked past the end of the counter something pink caught my eye in the trash can. Scotlyn said something else but I missed it. I leaned down and grabbed the pink sticky note with Scotlyn’s message out of the trash. “Shit.”
“What’s the matter?” Scotlyn asked.
“Oh, nothing, but I’ve got to go. Hey, I’m closing up in an hour. Why don’t you come back to the shop, and we can go get something to eat.”
“Doubt I’ll be able to eat anything after all that cake, but I’ll be there. I’m about forty minutes away with traffic.”
“See you then.”
I walked into the back with the pink note stuck to my palm. Stormy was washing up. She turned around for a second and then returned to her work.
“I guess Scotlyn came in to leave me a message, huh?”
Her eyes were wide as she turned back around. She smacked the side of her head with her palm. “Oh, that’s right. Your cake tasting has been moved up.” She spun back around to the sink.
“I guess my next question would be why the hell did you drop the note in the trash?”
She shrugged but kept wiping off her equipment. “Did I? Must have been an accident. Sorry.”
I scrubbed my hair with my fingers, a gesture due to a mix of frustration and disappointment. “Yeah, me too.”
She was either clueless about my anger or purposely ignoring it.
I walked over to her. “Look, you’re an extremely talented artist, Stormy, and some other shop will be glad to have you. But you’re done at Freefall.”
She paused for a second and twisted her lips angrily. “Seriously? I throw away one note, and you’re fucking firing me?”
“Yeah, I am. But it’s not just the note, and you know it.”
She started piling up her tools. “Whatever. But you’ll be losing customers.”
“Chance I’ll have to take. I’ll go figure out what I owe you and write you a check.”
It didn’t take Stormy long to gather her stuff. I was bummed. She really did great work, but there was something about her that wasn’t sitting right. I was relieved when she huffed out the door with her bag. Scotlyn walked in just a few minutes later.
She leaned over to look through to the back room. “Stormy is off for the day?”
“For forever. I let her go. I found your pink note in the trash.”
“Oh.” She looked a little perplexed. “Maybe it fell in there. Although, I have to say her manner at the counter when I walked in earlier was a little off-putting.”
“Yeah, she did off-putting really well. I’ll find someone else.” I reached for her hand and pulled her into my arms. “Hmm, you smell like buttercream frosting.”
She pressed her hand to her stomach. “Oh my gosh, don’t even bring up frosting. You know I consider myself the queen of the sweet tooths, but that was too much cake even for me.”
“You poor baby, I sent you to do that treacherous work all by yourself.” My hand swept beneath the hem of her shirt. I smoothed my palm along her back. “I wonder if I can still taste our wedding cake choice on your lips.” I lowered my face and kissed her. Her hands wrapped around my neck and her lips parted for my kiss to go deeper.
I lifted my mouth from hers. “You know, I am done for today. I just need to put a few things in the autoclave. Why don’t you come into my laboratory, my sweet cake taster?”
“Only if you promise to keep kissing me like you are now,” she said.
“Among other things.” I walked to the door, turned over the sign and locked up the shop. I spun around. “It is good to be boss.” I took her hand and led her into the tattoo room. She hoisted herself up on the table. It was propped up in the back, but the leg piece was down.
“You know, I’ve been thinking,” she said. “I would like to have my lover’s name tattooed on my body. I know I don’t have an appointment, but I’ve heard you’re t
he best in town.”
I pulled up my chair and sat in front of her. I trailed my hands along the skin of her legs. “Your lover? Lucky man. And exactly where would you like this tattoo?”
She tapped her lush bottom lip, and I wanted to draw that lip in between my teeth. She parted her legs and moved her fingers along the creamy white skin of her inner thigh stopping just an inch from the top. “Right here. Can you do it?”
The thought of tattooing my name just a hair’s breadth from her sweet pussy made me hard. I peered up at her. She was the perfect mix of innocent and sultry, and, as always, she made me nuts with wanting her.
“You’ll have to be willing to strip down,” I said.
“If I must.”
“I’ll get my tools, you get naked. And I mean completely naked.” I walked to the counter and flipped on the radio. Scotlyn jumped down from the table and slid off her sandals. I busied myself for a few seconds with the ink but couldn’t keep my mind on my task. The next time I glanced back, Scotlyn had removed her shirt and shorts. I couldn’t stop myself. I was in front of her in two long steps. I slid her bra straps down over her shoulders, exposing her breasts. I yanked her panties down to the floor, and she stepped out of them.
She stepped forward, and I held her naked body against me.
“I remember when I first sat in this room with you.” She gazed up at me with her blue eyes. “My life changed that day. For the first time since my accident, I badly wanted to talk. There was something so compelling about the way you looked at me.” She reached up and put her palm against my face. “I wanted to tell you everything about me. I wanted every emotion that I’d been holding in just to spill out onto this tile floor. You were basically a stranger, but you listened to me with your heart.” She pressed her hand against my chest. “I couldn’t believe how quickly I became attached to you.” She smiled but tears came with it. “I remember the first time I heard my voice again was when you touched me. We were on the houseboat, and you touched me. I wanted you so badly, a sound rolled out of my throat.”