Wild For You (Always a Bridesmaid 3) (6 page)

“I hadn’t thought of it that way,” Melody said, biting her lip. “I’m pretty into him. I think it may be more than a crush, you know?”

“I think he’s into you, too, but like I said, I wouldn’t take that too seriously. You’d still be playing with fire. If he’s that spooked by what he’s feeling, it would make for a rocky start to a relationship.”

Melody fought the urge to smile. “I’m okay with rocky starts.”

Aria held up a hand in the universal sign for ‘slow down.’ “I could be wrong, you know. Remember that.”

“I know,” Melody said, even as she really,
really
hoped Aria was right.

“And you should take it slow,” Aria admonished. “See if you two have anything in common aside from wanting to get naked and sweaty together.”

“Ew,” Melody said, her prudish side lifting its head. “Don’t be gross, Ra.”

“I can’t help it,” Aria said with an evil grin. “It’s my nature. Could be his nature, too. He might skeeve you out long term.”

Melody lifted one shoulder, feigning a casualness she didn’t feel. “I don’t think so. I think he has the opposite effect on me.”

Aria laughed beneath her breath. “Oh, man. You do have it bad. Just promise me you’ll be careful, okay? Use protection. Lots of it.”

Melody’s cheeks heated. “Yeah, yeah, I know.”

“If mentioning birth control makes you blush, I’m thinking you should wait on the nasty for a while,” Aria said. “Don’t you?”

“Talking about it with my sister makes me blush,” Melody said, lifting her nose in the air. “But I’ve been on the pill for almost two years.”

“Really?” Aria’s cocked her head. “Brian?”

“Brian and I talked about taking the next step a few times, so I went to Dr. Miller and got the prescription. It helped even out my cycle so I stayed on it, but…” Melody shrugged. “But in the end it never felt right with Brian.”

“But Nick feels right after knowing him less than a month?” Aria was careful to keep judgment from her tone, but Melody felt judged all the same.

“I’m not sure,” Melody said. “I just know I’ve never felt anything like what I feel when I’m with him, and I don’t want to lose my chance at that because I’m trying to live up to someone else’s idea of who I’m supposed to be. I’m only twenty-two. I’m still growing up, you know. It’s okay for me to change…right?”

Aria reached across the table and took her hand. “Of course it’s okay for you to change. You don’t have to be Nana or even Mom’s idea of perfect for people to love you, you know.”

“Sometimes it doesn’t feel that way,” Melody said, squeezing Aria’s hand. “Sometimes it feels like everyone has their mind made up about me and there’s no changing it. It’s like I’m expected to be sweet, baby sister Melody forever. And sometimes I like that, but sometimes… I don’t know.” She let out an audible breath. “I’m so confused.”

“And that’s okay, too,” Aria said with a smile. “The early twenties are all about being confused. It’s normal.”

Melody wrinkled her nose. “Still feels pretty cruddy.”

“But exciting, right?”

Melody laughed and nodded. “Yeah. Exciting, too.”

“Nash told you I was wise.” Aria stood, dropping a kiss to the top of Melody’s head before grabbing their coffee cups. “You ready for a refill before more chat?”

Melody pushed back her chair. “I think I’m good on chat, but I’ll take more coffee and a bagel. Then I need some Aunt Melody time with Felicity. I’ve been missing her.”

“You’re welcome to babysit anytime,” Aria said, heading for the back door. “Nash and I never turn down a chance to be alone.”

“To get hot and sweaty,” Melody added, making Aria laugh as she spun around.

“Touché.” She lifted a considering brow. “You
are
getting naughty in your old age, aren’t you?”

“We’ll see.” Melody shrugged and led the way inside, feeling a hundred times better. She was still almost as confused as she’d been before her talk with her sister, but at least she felt like someone understood what she was going through and was rooting for a happy ending.

With any luck, that happy ending might include discovering Nick really did have feelings for her, feelings she’d have to convince him it would be stupid for them to ignore.

Chapter Five

The rest of Saturday passed in a blur of running errands—
Ever After Catering
was low on just about everything and a visit to the bulk store was no longer avoidable—and prepping all the food for the massive wedding Melody and her sisters would be catering the next day.

In the past year,
Ever After
had seen a huge uptick in Sunday weddings, which was intensely annoying to the sisters’ Nana, who insisted all three of them should be in church honoring Jesus on Sundays, not working.

They placated Nana—who claimed she was already on the verge of having a nervous breakdown because Lark and Mason were living together while they were only engaged, not bound by the chains of holy wedlock—by reminding her that a wedding was a holy event and promising to attend the early service with her on days when they had to work later in the afternoon.

That meant all of the food prep had to be done by the end of the day on Saturday, since there wouldn’t be time to do anything but load the van and drive to the venue after church.

By the time Lark, Aria, and Melody finished making ravioli, stuffing twice-baked potatoes, and icing everything that could be iced before the big day, it was almost ten o’clock. After her sleepless night the night before, Melody had to fight to keep her eyes open on the way back to her apartment.

She fell into bed and began to drift off almost immediately, not even her anxiety about seeing Nick tomorrow for the first time since their steamy make-out session enough to keep her awake.

The more she thought about what Aria had said, the more sense it made. If Nick didn’t care about her, he wouldn’t have left the bar alone Friday night.

She held tight to that little coal of a thought, letting it warm her as she sank into a deep, dreamless sleep.

***

Sunday dawned gray and drizzly, but by the time Melody and Lark got out of church—Aria had pled a sleepless night with Felicity, who was teething, and managed to worm out of going to the early service, the traitor—the sun was peeking through the clouds.

By the time they reached the botanical gardens just outside Atlanta where the wedding and reception were being held, the day was nearly perfect. Although it was a little muggy, it wasn’t nearly as bad as some of the humid events they’d worked earlier in the summer, and Melody could tell both of her sisters were in good spirits.

She, on the other hand, was a bundle of nerves, her warm feelings from last night going up in a hiss of smoke as the clock ticked closer to two o’clock, when the waiters—and Nick—would be arriving.

“Relax,” Aria murmured when Melody almost dropped one of the wine glasses she was removing from the carrying crate. “Just be cool and act like nothing happened.”

Melody’s brow furrowed. “But something obviously happened. That’s the whole problem.”

“But now’s not the time to discuss it. Just put him at ease today and then take some time to plan your attack.” Aria winked. “Better to make your move when his guard is down.”

Melody nodded and did her best to appear calm, cool, and collected. She even managed to convince herself she had a grip on her emotions until Nick walked through the rose garden and into the outdoor kitchen at ten after two, and the world stopped.

Their eyes caught and held and something passed between them, not the familiar wave of attraction, though the hum of chemistry was definitely present. But this was more than chemistry. It felt like Melody was seeing Nick for the first time, seeing past the dimpled grin and the swagger and the “couldn’t care less” persona to the deeper person inside. A person who had the same fears and worries that she did, who sometimes felt lost and out of control and who was still sorting out who he wanted to be.

He looked like someone with questions, someone who wondered what it might be like to try something new, and for a moment Melody was positive
she
was that something. She even dared to dream that he’d walk over to her prep station, lean in, and ask her if she wanted to go grab a coffee after the wedding and talk about where they went from here.

Melody pushed her hair from her face and smiled her widest smile; Nick turned and walked away without a word, following Manny and the other waiters out to the parking lot for their last cigarette before the event started.

Melody’s heart fell into the burning pit of acid her stomach had suddenly become.

Nick didn’t even smoke, but he’d rather stand around inhaling cancer-causing fumes than acknowledge Melody’s existence. She was a fool. A dumb, sappy, wants-to-believe-in-rainbows-and-unicorns-and-happy-endings fool.

The rest of the afternoon passed with miserable slowness. Nick went out of his way not to interact with Melody—or even touch a glass or plate that she had recently touched—and Melody kept her head down and her hands busy, dreading making eye contact with Nick again.

How could she have been so stupid? That look obviously hadn’t meant anything except that Nick was uncomfortable being in the same room with her. Melody had let her talk with Aria get her hopes up too high, and now she was going to pay for it with a long, miserable fall back to reality.

The only bright spot in the entire afternoon was when Seth, the drummer of
Ghost Town Double Wide
, texted to let her know she had made it past the first stage of auditions. The band was having final callbacks for their top three singers tonight at
The Horse and Rider
, and wanted to know if she could come by around eight to sing through her set again. The bar was closed on Sundays, so this time they could all have a little more privacy.

I’ll be there with bells on
, Melody replied to Seth’s message.

Awesome! Can’t wait to see you again,
Seth texted back a second later.

Really?
Melody thought, one eyebrow arching as she read Seth’s text. He certainly hadn’t been very warm or inviting the other night—pretty much the opposite, in fact. Seth had given her the coolest reception of all her potential band mates. She’d gotten the impression he wasn’t even close to being in her corner.

She wondered what caused his sudden attitude change. Whatever it was, she decided to take it as a good sign.

Holding tight to her happy news, Melody made it through the long afternoon without giving in to the urge to drown herself in the industrial sized container of salad dressing, but just barely. By the time five o’clock rolled around she was more than ready to get the heck out of Atlanta and far away from Nick Geary. Simply breathing the same air as someone who clearly loathed her so profoundly was starting to feel like a violation of her basic human rights.

For the first time since she’d joined Lark’s staff, Melody took advantage of the fact that her sister was also her boss and begged off helping with final clean-up and packing the van.

“I have a callback for the singing gig tonight,” Melody said, pressing her hands together as she pleaded with Lark. “Could I please, please leave early so I can shower and get pretty before the audition? Aria said I could take her car.”

Lark laughed. “Spare me the baby animal eyes. Of course you can go. Get out of here. You don’t want to smell like duck wrapped in bacon for your audition.”

“I don’t know. All the musicians I’ve known were pretty into bacon,” Aria said, stopping on her way by with a stack full of empty dessert plates to drop her keys in Melody’s hand.

“Be careful,” Aria added with a stern look. “Don’t go anywhere alone with those guys, don’t drink anything you didn’t see the bartender pour with your own eyes, and don’t leave your drink unattended.”

Melody smiled and rolled her eyes. “Aria, these are men from Summerville. They’re harmless. And besides, Lily, the girl who plays bass, will be there.”

“Okay,” Aria said. “But be careful anyway. And remember, if you hurt my new car, I will kill you. Slowly.”

“Yes, mother,” Melody said, giving Lark and Aria both a quick peck on the cheek and heading for the parking lot.

Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Nick carrying in a load of serving trays to be washed, and picked up her pace until she was jogging toward the parking lot. She hopped into Aria’s new Prius, her sister’s twenty-ninth birthday present from Nash, and turned the key, feeling like the star of an action film roaring off into the sunset seconds before the building behind her exploded.

As she pulled away, she glanced in her rearview to see Nick staring after her, a strange mournful look on his face, but his pathetic expression gave her no satisfaction. He could keep his broody, confusing, hot-and-cold nonsense. After the way he’d embarrassed her Friday night and made this afternoon an exercise in torture via the silent treatment, she just wasn’t interested anymore.

Liar
.

The voice in her head was uncomfortably loud. Melody cranked up the radio and ignored it, determined not to let Nick ruin another second of her day. She had an audition to dominate. She planned to leave
The Horse and Rider
tonight a newly minted lead singer.

Soon Nick Geary would be nothing more than fodder for an ex-boyfriend-revenge-song. Maybe, once she got the job, she’d even write one in his honor.

***

After showering, blow-drying, hot rolling,
and
a little flat-ironing at the ends of her curls so they weren’t
too
curly—Melody zipped herself back into the red dress she’d worn for the first audition. It had brought her luck the first time she’d walked on stage; she hoped it would do the same tonight.

She added brown and white feather earrings, touched up her bright red lipstick, and pulled on her boots before giving herself a critical once-over in the full-length mirror. She was definitely curvier than most of the other girls who had auditioned, but she was curvy in all the right places, and she looked like a girl who knew how to have a good time. She was definitely no longer an uptight baby sister who, until a few months ago, considered watching movies at home with Brian and her parents an acceptable way to spend a Friday night.