The Best Man Read online

  “What?” I asked.

  “My dessert is so much better.” Samuel dug back into his chocolate cake while I laughed.

  “Really, Samuel?” I giggled. “Our dessert has to be a competition for you, too?”

  “I can’t help it. All evidence supports that the chocolate cake I chose is by far superior to the cheesecake you’ve got over there. Case closed.”

  “That’s some mighty fine lawyerese you’ve got going there,” I laughed. “Isn’t that circumstantial or something?”

  “Just stating the facts as I see ’em,” Samuel continued.

  “It’s not a crime to like cheesecake.”

  I looked up with surprise as a blond head raised itself above the floorboards at the door. Andy climbed into the tree house and sat between us.

  “Did someone say cheesecake?”

  “What are you doing?” I asked. “I thought you were sick.”

  “It passed,” Andy said, reaching for my plate. “No pun intended.”

  “How can you want to eat now?” Samuel laughed while Andy tucked into my dessert.

  “I’m empty. I need to fill ‘er up,” Andy chuckled. I shook my head at his silly logic.

  “Well, I’m glad you’re okay.” I leaned forward on my knees and kissed Andy on the cheek. “Good night, boys. I’m going home and going to bed. Samuel? Thanks for the night out. It was fun.”

  “Yeah, it was.” He smiled. “Thanks for going with me. Good night, Emelia.”

  Andy muttered a good night around a mouthful of my cheesecake, and I carefully made my way down the tree house steps. I carried my shoes in my hands while I ran through the damp grass to my own back door. I could hear the boys talking in the tree house. The sound made me feel carefree and happy. Their voices were a couple of octaves lower than they had been when they were children, but surprisingly, their laughter felt the same in my heart.

  I followed Andy along the river’s edge, still laughing at his fishing attire. Our fathers were both standing side by side farther down the bank. While I’d opted to roll up my jeans and shove my ponytail through the back of a baseball cap, Andy had borrowed one of Larry’s floppy fishing hats and a giant pair of wading boots.

  “So...Emmy has an admirer...” Andy sang out.

  “Huh?” I asked, trying to concentrate on my footing. The rocks below my feet were tiny and not conducive to helping me keep my balance. “Stop teasing. You know we only went out to dinner alone because you were sick.” My cheeks felt warm. Again, I had to remind myself that Samuel and I hadn’t actually been out on a date, even though it sort of felt like we had.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Wait. What are you talking about?” I asked.

  “Nick.” Andy stopped and turned to look at me with a grin in place. “He was asking me all sorts of questions about you while we were waiting for you and Samuel to come in off the paintball field.”

  “Really?” An unexpected feeling of disappointment flickered in my chest before I took a deep breath to chase it away. “Like what?”

  “Like...he wanted to know if you have a boyfriend. Stuff like that.”

  “What did you tell him?”

  “I told him no, and that you would never date a drummer. They’re nothing but trouble.”

  “You did not,” I gasped and shoved my shoulder into his arm. Andy dodged away from my push with a laugh.

  “No, I didn’t. I told him you were single,” he said. “Nick’s a pretty cool guy. He’s going places too. You could do worse.”

  “Going places?” I sat on the rocks at the edge of the water and started poking a long stick into the muddy bank in front of me. Andy lowered himself to sit to my left.

  “His band,” Andy continued. “Crawl?”

  “Should I have heard of them?” I asked.

  “Maybe not yet.” Andy shook his head. “Some movie filmed up here for the better part of last year.”

  “I remember Dad mentioned that.” I shrugged. Extra traffic in the area kept Dad busy.

  “Well, Nick’s band recorded a song that was picked up for the soundtrack,” Andy said. “They are gonna get huge. You should snap him up before the video hits and he becomes a megastar.”

  I laughed and looked down. “Nick is a good-looking guy,” I admitted. That hardly covered it. He probably could have rocked the runways in Milan.

  “Do me a favor? Wait until the competition is over if you two decide to start something up, okay?” Andy played with a hook on the edge of his hat. “Samuel would have a stroke if he thought you were trying to influence the competition that way.”

  “I promise.” I nodded. I still had a year left of school in Florida. I doubted much could come of encouraging Nick while I was home. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to flirt and have a little fun. I sighed.

  “What’s wrong, Em?”

  “Nothing.” I shrugged. “I guess not all of us are lucky enough to meet our ‘Lily.’”

  “Aww, you’ll meet your Lily,” Andy promised. “He’s out there waiting for you.”

  I laughed lightly at his continuation of my phrasing. Lily was obviously Andy’s soul mate. I longed for that same type of connection. When my best friend tipped his head to study the sky, I mimicked his posture and did the same.

  “Tell me how you proposed,” I suggested, while watching the puffy white clouds move lazily against their lazuline background.

  “You might be disappointed.” I heard him chuckle beside me. “It wasn’t planned.”

  “Tell me,” I repeated.

  “Well...we were in my apartment, studying,” Andy began. “Lil was on her stomach across my floor, working on a project that required showing her complete plans for the school she hopes to open eventually.”

  “Go on.” I smiled. I looked for the images of the story he told in the clouds above me.

  “I watched her doodling in the margins of her paper. She does that when she’s thinking. Anyway, I wondered what she was concentrating so hard on. Paint color? Furniture? You know she has a unique sort of style. I was guessing that she was lost in her thoughts, thinking of interior design and stuff like that. You know—the physical aspects of the assignment.”

  “And?”

  “It turned out, she was busy planning how to get funding for scholarships that would afford underprivileged children the ability to attend classes. That’s the most important part for her.”

  “Wow,” I breathed with a smile. I turned to look at Andy. His profile was set with a dreamy smile of his own.

  “I know. I moved to lie beside her on the floor. And I took her pen. She didn’t say a thing when I grabbed her left hand and drew a little band all the way around her ring finger.”

  My breath caught in my throat. I just watched him smile up at the sky while he finished his story.

  “I said, ‘Lil? One of these days I’m gonna make you marry me. And I’ll put a real ring on this finger as soon as you want one.’”

  “What did she say?” I whispered with tears in my eyes.

  “She rolled over to face me. And she said, ‘What are you doing next summer?’” Andy and I both laughed. My heart was light.

  “You make me proud,” I told him.

  “I try,” Andy said.

  I stood up and reached to grab the stick I had left on the ground. When I leaned forward, my balance shifted, and I began to slide down toward the water.

  “Andy!” I yelled and threw my arms out to grab his outstretched hand, but it was too late. I stood with one foot on the rocky bank and the other firmly buried up past my ankle in mud. Andy looked at me with a dumbfounded expression before tipping his head back and laughing. “There is nothing remotely funny about this. Pull me out, will you?”

  Andy finally raised his lanky frame off the ground and wrapped his hands around my forearms. He held my body upright while I pulled my leg out of the murky sludge it was trapped in. A new round of laughter flew from his generous mouth when we both realized that the muddy bank of the ri
ver was holding my tennis shoe captive.

  “Should have worn waders,” Andy snorted. “Then you wouldn’t be in this mess.”

  “Shut it,” I muttered. Still holding one of his arms for balance, I reached down and stuck my hand into the slimy mud, arguing with the mire until it finally saw reason and returned my footwear.

  “Better now?” Andy chuckled and helped pull me up to the drier ground.

  “Peachy,” I groaned. Having had the foresight to roll up my jeans, only the edges of the denim were dark with water. But my left foot was completely covered with mud, as was my right hand and the sodden tennis shoe I held in my fingers.

  “Only you”—Andy shook his head—”could get covered in mud on a mostly rocky river bank.”

  “You too,” I joked. “You like my luck to rub off on you. Remember?” I lifted my hand to deliberately wipe a long, dark trail of mud down the center of his T-shirt. “Well, share my luck today.”

  “You are gonna pay for that, Sullivan!” Andy stomped into the water in his large rubber boots and grabbed two handfuls of the sticky muck. I squealed and tried to dodge his attack, but I still ended up with mud on my shirt, arms, and across one cheek. Using my shoe as a weapon, I managed to streak Andy with a fair amount of mud as well.

  “Damn it...You kids get on outta here and head back home,” Larry yelled down the bank. “You’re scaring all the fish with that god-awful noise!”

  “Sorry!” Andy and I called back in unison. We laughed again and turned to make our way back up to where we’d parked the truck.

  “What’s Samuel doing today?”

  “I don’t know.” Andy shrugged. “My guess is that he’s got his face stuck in a book. I made him promise to wait a couple weeks and take a break before he started to study for the bar. But I suspect he digs around in his books when he has some free time anyway.”

  “Any idea what he has planned for tonight?” Samuel’s nighttime activity was on our schedule for the evening ahead.

  “No clue. I bet he’ll tell us when we get home.”

  “It would be nice to know ahead of time,” I said. We didn’t have to search far to get our answers. Samuel was just getting out of his car when we pulled into the Daltons’ drive.

  “Where were you off to?” Andy asked while closing the truck door behind him.

  “I went to the diner for lunch,” Samuel replied, looking at both of us with an amused expression. He stepped close to me and tugged the brim of my baseball hat down over my eyes. “Well, there you are, Emelia! Just when I get to missing that little girl next door, you show up all covered in mud.”

  “Whatever.” I rolled my eyes with a huff.

  “So, what are your plans for the night?” Andy turned toward his brother. Samuel kept his eyes on me while he answered.

  “What’s a bachelor party without exotic dancers?”

  “You hired Andy a stripper?” I asked incredulously.

  “No.” Samuel shook his head. “There is a...gentleman’s club...less than an hour from here. We are all going.”

  “Hell yeah!” Andy did a happy little jump in his giant boots and pumped his fist up in the air. “I’m gonna grab a shower. Catch you two kids later!”

  Andy left me standing there, squinting unhappily up toward his older brother. “The Slapping Beaver is a strip joint. I don’t see where being a ‘gentleman’ has anything to do with throwing dollar bills on a stage to get tits rubbed on your face.” My hands were on my hips as I frowned up at Samuel. I really wanted to kick him in the shins.

  “You’re cute when your face is all covered with mud,” Samuel laughed.

  “Don’t change the subject, Dalton,” I snarled. “You only chose to go to a strip club to make me uncomfortable!”

  “Could it be that I really just thought it was something Andy might like to do?” he asked, feigning innocence.

  “No,” I ground out. “Because if you gave it any real thought, you would have come up with something like I did. My nighttime event includes beer pong and darts at a local bar.”

  “Ah. Playing up the fact that Andy loves to throw darts?” Samuel nodded appreciatively. “Well, he also loves naked women, so we’re even. You’re just put out because your curvy little figure won’t be so unique where we’re going.”

  “Argh!” I threw my hands out to the side. “You make me so mad.”

  “It’s fun to piss you off.” Samuel smiled. The humor in his eyes forced a smile from me in return. I felt the dried mud on my cheek pull at the skin.

  “Fine. Play the game the way you want.” I shook my head in defeat. “But you won’t break me, Samuel. I’ll have a fistful of dollars and a cigar between my teeth. It’s going to take more than nipple tassels and G-strings to get me to back down.”

  “Good. Be ready to leave at eight.”

  I was eleven years old, and I was wearing my brand-new purple bikini. It had tiny white flowers on it, and I thought it was the prettiest swimsuit in the store. Andy and I sat in his kitchen, dripping water on the floor while we took a break from running through the backyard sprinkler to eat cherry popsicles.

  I rubbed my tongue against the inside of my lip and felt the small scratches that the soft wood of the popsicle stick left behind. My fingers and my mouth were sticky with the taste of summer. Andy had a red stain down his chin.

  “You look like a vampire,” I laughed at him.

  “I vant to suck your blood!” He stood with his arms extended, his fingers curled like talons.

  “Not so fast, young man.” Andy’s mom stopped him. “You need to get cleaned up.”

  “I’ll meet you out there,” Andy said as we tossed our garbage into the kitchen trash can. “I’m going to wash my face.”

  “Okay. Thanks for the treat, Joy!”

  “Anytime, dear,” Andy’s mom replied. She was already scrubbing at Andy’s face with the wetted corner of a dish towel. She apparently thought she would have a better chance at removing the stain than Andy would. I went out the back door but stopped on the top step when I saw Samuel in the backyard, throwing a Frisbee back and forth with a couple of his friends.

  None of them stopped the game to acknowledge me, so I skipped lightly down the steps and started to make my way to the sprinkler Dad had set up for Andy and me in my own yard. I slid a little in the wet grass when I heard a low wolf whistle behind me.

  I had seen enough on television to know that the sound was usually delivered by a man toward a pretty woman. I felt a blush heat my face. I wasn’t sure which of the older boys had whistled, but I was the only girl around. I turned to face them. As soon as I did, a skinny red-haired boy held the Frisbee to his side and started laughing.

  “Oh man, Samuel! I thought that was your brother in a bathing suit for a minute.”

  “She’s built like a hockey stick!” The other boy laughed. Samuel stood there, frowning as they taunted me. “She ain’t got no tits!”

  “Cut it out, guys. She’s just a kid.” I heard Samuel’s scolding voice even as I was turning to flee to the safety of my own house.

  “They shouldn’t make bikinis in baby sizes,” one of the boys said behind me. I couldn’t tell who the voice belonged to. Tears filled my eyes, and I tried to get away from their mean comments.

  “Her boobs are bigger than your IQ, asswipe!”

  I smiled as I recognized that voice. Andy jogged up beside me and threw his arm over my shoulder.

  “Don’t let Mom hear you cussing,” Samuel called over.

  “Your brother has a smart mouth,” the nasty redheaded boy complained. “He needs to be careful, or I’ll shut it for him...”

  “Try it and see what happens.” I heard Samuel warn.

  “Don’t listen to them,” Andy said once we got inside my house. “They’re asswipes.”

  I laughed and rubbed away a tear from my cheek. Andy was fond of his new favorite curse word, and it always made me giggle when he used it.

  “Yeah. They’re asswipes,” I agreed.
/>   I reached down to pull on my shoe, then stood and smoothed my hand down the front of my shirt. While I wouldn’t be as voluptuous as the silicone-enhanced dancers we would be spending time with that evening, the years had been generous in supplying me curves that I was now proud of. My red button-up blouse was probably a little too dressy for a strip club, but I figured it would be classy enough when paired with skinny jeans to prohibit me being mistaken for an employee. I took a deep breath and checked my watch. It was time to meet the boys.

  I noticed that Samuel’s eyes scanned my appearance as I walked toward his car. The two brothers were leaning against the driver’s side, talking while waiting for me.

  “Drawing strength from your clothing choices again?” Samuel asked smugly. “Red is supposed to be a power color. Is it not?”

  “Samuel, I could be wearing baby-duck yellow, and I’d still kick your ass in this competition,” I muttered. Andy laughed heartily, and I reached for the door handle to get in the back seat.

  “We aren’t taking Samuel’s car.” Andy put his hand out to stop me. “Nick offered to be the designated driver tonight. He’s got a van his band uses for hauling all their band equipment. It’s big enough for all of us to ride together.”

  No sooner had Andy explained, a large white van pulled up in front of the Daltons’ house. Nick jumped from behind the wheel and opened the sliding side-door to reveal two bench seats, with Zack and Dan in the back.

  “Nice,” Andy complimented while ducking his head and climbing into the van. I moved to join him.

  “Care to ride up front, with me?” Nick asked quietly. I smiled at his sweet suggestion.

  “Nah,” I replied. “This is Samuel’s night out. He can sit up front. Consider me just one of the guys.”

  “That’s going to be tricky to remember,” Nick said. “Especially with the way you look tonight.”