Winston (BBW Bear Shifter Wedding Romance) (Grizzly Groomsmen Book 3)

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Winston

Grizzly Groomsmen III

by

Becca Fanning

Waking up to rain was usually one of Rosie's favorite things. The soft patter of the drops on the window, the promise that she had a reason not to leave the house that day-
did you see the weather, no way I'm going out in that, I'll just stay in.
But today was one of the few days that she'd been praying to wake up to anything but the sound of rain outside her bedroom, and, of course, that was what she'd gotten.

Rosie rolled over in her bed- it was unfamiliar, a too-sleek hotel-room deal, and she hadn't slept well anyway. As soon as the wind had started up earlier in the night, she'd found her rest disturbed, and struggled to push through the rest of the night without just getting up and watching the storm pull in. She'd begged out of the party the night before a little early, hoping to catch up on some of her jet lag, and she still remembered the potent look of disappointment on Dina's face.

"Are you sure? Can't tempt you to stay up a little longer?" Her brow creased, a small V forming between her eyes- Dina had always been the hostess with the mostest, and Rosie knew it was probably annoying her that she couldn't make her stick at the party a little bit longer. "This isn't about him, is it?"

"I'm sorry, I'm just knackered," Rosie yawned, a wave of tiredness causing all her muscles to sag. "I'll be up early to help with stuff tomorrow, though, yeah?"

"Sure," Dina beamed, the couple of glasses of champagne she'd been sipping on throughout the night clearly softening the blow. "See you at breakfast, right?"

"Yeah, see you then," Rosie leaned over to give her a hug- part of her really wanted to invite Dina back to her room, and stay up all night drinking and laughing and gossiping like they'd done back in the day, but she knew she needed rest.
 

She'd slid out of her fancy reception dress and into her pajamas, and fallen almost straight to sleep as soon as she pulled the covers up around her neck. She barely had time to think about everything that was coming over the next couple of days- the wedding, the parties, the dancing, the socializing. If Rosie was being honest with herself, she knew that this wasn't really her scene, but she would never have let Dina down. The two of them were cousins, the kind that grew up almost as close as sisters,
 
and it wasn't in Rosie to disappoint her.
 

Rosie was an over thinker, if she was anything, and the thought that she might end up stuck on the island Dina had picked for her wedding had crossed her mind- but she tried to push it from her thoughts as she caught the private jet out to the gorgeous location. She had marveled at how well Dina had done for herself, to be able to afford a wedding this opulent and luxurious, but then, she'd moved to the city to make something of herself, and if this was how she wanted to spend her cash, who was Rosie to suggest anything different?
 

But then she'd woken up to the sound of a storm whipping through the island, and she'd known that it probably meant she'd be stuck there for at least an extra day or two. She turned back over in bed and pulled the pillow over her head, hoping that if she just shut out the noises outside she could pretend none of it was happening. It was still early-maybe five, six in the morning- and she could already imagine the state of panic that Dina was in now that the storm had begun. Rosie didn't envy her the stress, on top of everything else she was trying to hold together. Even still, Rosie couldn't help but feel a little bit resentful, knowing she was going to be stuck in the nexus of coupledom while she was painfully and totally single.
 

When she'd received that invitation- it must have been six months ago now- she had happily ticked the plus-one box without a second thought. Well, she'd been with Jacob for more than two years at that point-why should she think anything different? Maybe she should have spotted the look on his face when she mentioned the date, the flash of fear that crossed his eyes when she said the word "wedding". Ever since they'd moved in together, everyone had been nudging them towards answering the big question-when were they getting married? Where they thinking of settling down soon? Was he ever going to make an honest woman out of her? She had always laughed the question off, reminding the asker that they were both only twenty-four and certainly in no rush to hurry on the next bit of their relationship. And he'd always nodded and agreed and put his arm around her waist and made her think that he felt the same way. They would get there when they got there, and neither of them were in any rush. Deep down, Rosie had always thought he was the one- the big one. She'd known the chances of meeting her actual other half at her age were pretty slim, but hey, people got lucky, didn't they? Why couldn't she?
 

And then, of course, came the big revelation, the big reveal, the curtain-drop moment. When Jacob had been in the shower one afternoon- just a normal afternoon, the two of them kicking round the flat separately- his phone had buzzed and, without thinking, Rosie had grabbed it to check who was texting. And instead of a sweet message from his mom checking in, or one of his friends organizing a night out, she found…well, it made her go red and angry and all sorts of things just to think about it, but it wasn't the kind of thing any woman should be sending her live-in boyfriend. And just like that, her entire life collapsed around her in one swift motion. She'd heard about things like this happening to other women- women who weren't her, women in magazines and sitcoms and romance novels- but she had honestly felt her entire world tilt on it's axis as soon as she saw that photograph.
 
She'd sat, holding his phone limply in her hand, until he came back through and gave her that look. It was as if he knew, straightaway, without question, what she had seen- sometimes Rosie wondered if he had intended for her to see it, just to save himself the bother of breaking up with her himself.
 

What came next was both painfully hard and oddly simple- he left, moved everything out of the apartment, and left her with a giant, gaping hole in her life. He never apologized- part of her knew that he blamed her for what had happened, just the way she blamed herself. If she'd just been a little more attentive, tried a little harder, none of this would have happened.
 

So she'd had to go about telling everyone what had happened, as he'd left too abruptly to inform any of their friends or family what had gone down. One of the first people she'd called had been Dina- partly because she knew the practicalities of planning a wedding would require her to know about any changes of plan as soon as they happened, and partly because she knew that Dina would find some way to comfort her and make it all seem a little bit easier. Even though they lived at opposite sides of the country, there was an unspoken agreement between them that nothing would really change, nor ever would. Dina had immediately told her that she didn't need to come if she didn't want to, but Rosie knew the dress was already fitted and paid for, and she wasn't about to put her cousin through the stress of finding a new bridesmaid at the last minute. She would just have to suck up the relatives asking where her boyfriend was, and all the lovey dovey be-with-you-forever shit, and then she could go home.

But, of course, the weather had other plans. After a few more minutes lying in bed, staring at the ceiling, Rosie dragged herself upright, stretching out and feeling all her bones crack in the process. Ever since Jacob had gone, she'd slept in a tight little ball most of the time, and she always woke up aching and sore. Slipping in to a shower, she thanked God for good hotel water pressure, and threw on the pair of cigarette trousers that she'd packed precisely for this day. Just because she was an eternal single trapped in the seventh circle of relationship hell didn't mean she'd completely given up on looking good.
 

She wandered downstairs just as dawn was breaking, watching with wonder as the first light broke across the stormy sea outside. In some ways, there was nowhere she'd rather be- she had always been a traveller at heart, even if Jacob had always found some way to wriggle out of all the little trips and visits she had planned. At reception, she found Dina looking frazzled, clutching what Rosie seriously hoped was just an orange juice.

"Everything okay?" She yawned, looking around. She was the first of the guests up, by the looks of it- not that it surprised her. Everyone else had looked as if they were going pretty hard the night before, and Rosie assumed they were all trying to sleep through the worst of their hangovers before they emerged for the opulent breakfast the hotel had laid on for them.

"Fuck no," Dina shook her head. "We're probably going to be stuck here for at least the next few days. The airstrip's closed while the storm passes over, and no-one knows when it's going to be done."

"Oh, Deen, I'm sorry," Rosie put a hand on her shoulder, doing her best to comfort her while cursing her bad luck. At least another few days- that was longer than she had anticipated.
 

"Not your fault. Are you doing okay?"

That was typical of Dina- even in times of crazy crisis, she would find a way to make sure everyone around her was dealing with their own little disasters too.

"Yeah, course, why wouldn’t I be?" Rosie grinned, trying to put on a convincing game face. But her cousin knew her well enough to tell when she was lying through her teeth. Dina observed her for a moment, and offered her a supportive smile.