Kissing the Bridesmaid (A Finally Ever After Story & A Sherman Cousins Short Story) Read online

  Cover

  Title Page

  Kissing the Bridesmaid

  A Finally Ever After Story

  &

  A Sherman Cousins Short Story

  Dominique Eastwick

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  An imprint of

  Musa Publishing

  Copyright Information

  Kissing the Bridesmaid, Copyright © Dominique Eastwick, 2012

  All Rights Reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without prior written permission of the publisher.

  ...

  This e-Book is a work of fiction. While references may be made to actual places or events, the names, characters, incidents, and locations within are from the author’s imagination and are not a resemblance to actual living or dead persons, businesses, or events. Any similarity is coincidental.

  ...

  Musa Publishing

  633 Edgewood Ave

  Lancaster, OH 43130

  www.musapublishing.com

  ...

  Published by Musa Publishing, November 2012

  ...

  This e-Book is licensed to the original purchaser only. Duplication or distribution via any means is illegal and a violation of International Copyright Law, subject to criminal prosecution and upon conviction, fines and/or imprisonment. No part of this ebook can be reproduced or sold by any person or business without the express permission of the publisher.

  ...

  ISBN: 978-1-61937-476-8

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  Editor: Elizabeth Silver

  Cover Design: Kelly Shorten

  Interior Book Design: Coreen Montagna

  Content Warning

  This book contains adult language and scenes. This story is meant only for adults as defined by the laws of the country where you made your purchase. Store your books carefully where they cannot be accessed by younger readers.

  Chapter One

  HOW COULD YOU?

  Callie Sherman looked over the lawn of her family’s home, past the people and the white tents to the ocean behind it, into nothing. She just squeezed the stone railing beneath her hands and hoped she could make it through the next few hours. Just a couple of hours and she could disappear again.

  How could you?

  The memory of those three words echoed in her head just like they had over and over again for the last three years. After all this time, she still didn’t have an answer she could live with. She had kissed her best friend’s fiancé the night before their wedding because it was her last chance.

  Callie had been in love with Aiden Marshall since the second grade, and he had been breaking her heart a little piece at a time since. It had started with a pull to her pigtails, but as the years moved on, he began pulling at her heart strings. They had been friends—the Three Musketeers. She, Zia, and Aiden. She had never talked about her crush on Aiden, but everyone had known. Certainly Zia had. And if Aiden had known, he was unhindered by it.

  When they were twelve, and first starting to notice boys in any way that didn’t involve just climbing a tree or riding bikes, Zia and Callie had agreed neither of them would date Aiden. Promise, Callie; never let Aiden come between us?

  Pricking her finger, Callie had rubbed it against Zia’s, swearing as a blood sister never to break their bond. But as they had grown older, that promise had become harder to keep. And Callie, step by step, had pulled away from the other two. It had been a relief to finally leave home for college, even if it was only across the state. At least she didn’t have to see Aiden every day.

  Coming home from college junior year for Thanksgiving break had been the final step to the end of their trio. Aiden and Zia had never said anything, but Callie had seen the difference. She had felt their closeness. Then at Christmas, Zia had changed her status update to “In a relationship” with Aiden. In a relationship! Why the hell had Callie had to find out online that her best friends were now an item?

  She had done what any woman with low self-esteem would do. She had posted her congratulations, stared at the screen while waiting for a response, and cried. She had cried until her head hurt and her eyes were gritty. Then she went out and ate her way into happiness. And the twenty pounds she had tried so hard to lose after high school, her “baby weight” as her mother called it, came back with a passion. By summer, she was a healthy size eighteen. Summers usually spent with the family at the vacation homes in Maine or on the Cape didn’t hold the usual appeal anymore. Zia and Aiden’s families would most likely have been there too. So she had begged one of her uncles for an internship and spent the summer in the mail room of the Sherman family company.

  If anyone had ever noticed her absence, no one had said a thing. And so back to school she went, having gone the entire summer without seeing her best friends. Aiden had texted occasionally, said hi online, but he wasn’t good at keeping in touch. And Zia was too busy posting pictures of Aiden holding her perfect body in his arms she had little time to find out why her friend was in self-imposed exile.

  Summer, autumn, and long into winter came and went before Callie saw Zia again. Making a surprise visit out to see her in late February, Zia had hugged Callie and said all the right things. How she had missed her, how they hated she wasn’t around more. Then Zia said all the wrong things.

  “Aiden and I are getting married,” she’d squealed, waving her gaudy rock in Callie’s face. “Isn’t it wonderful?”

  The rest of their meeting was a blur. An hour later, Callie was a bridesmaid and assuring Zia that she understood why her new friend Jennifer would be best suited to be the maid of honor. After all, Jennifer was a size two and she and Zia had become close while Callie was away getting smart.

  The rest of the semester passed in a haze. Callie came home one weekend for the engagement party and wished she hadn’t, and then spent every waking moment with her nose in her books. Anything to forget the pain and hurt. She worked until she couldn’t see straight and only then was she sure she would fall into a dreamless sleep.

  In the week after Callie graduated from Smith College with her degree in Environmental Science and Policy, the man she loved was getting married. Callie rushed home for the week of preparations for Zia and Aiden’s wedding: fittings for a dress so very unflattering Callie was sure it had been done on purpose, and lunches and parties guaranteed to make her feel more left out than she already did. She smiled and pretended to be having a good time, when all the while she felt like a third wheel. Aiden hugged her, but his conversations with her were brief or interrupted by Zia making any excuse under the sun to keep them apart. But perhaps that was just Callie seeing misery where there was none. After all, what reason would Zia have to do that? Aiden loved Zia, no matter how much Callie wished it wasn’t so. And so she counted down the days.

  Five, four, three, two, one day before the love of her life married someone else.

  The night before the wedding, Callie went to the old club house in the woods where the three of them used to play. She hadn’t been back there since freshman year in high school. A few minutes passed, and then Aiden came through the trees.

  “Aiden?”

  “Hey, Callie, I didn’t expect to see you here.” He stood there looking at her, with the moon lighting up his face and hair like something out of movie. Callie could feel the tension in the air. Why was being alone with him so hard? “I can leave.�
��

  “Why would you leave?”

  Aiden leaned his toned physique against a tree and took a deep breath. “You’ve made it pretty obvious that the last thing you want to do is be involved with this wedding.”

  “It’s not been easy for me. I won’t lie. But if you two are happy, then I’m happy for you.” She could do this. She could pretend to be happy for him.

  “Zia told me you were upset about us.”

  Callie let her mind think about it and shook her head. “I was upset I learned you were an item at the same time her three million other friends online were told. I thought we were closer than that.”

  “Online? What are you talking about? Zia told you at Thanksgiving we were dating. She told me you weren’t comfortable being around us as a couple, that it made you feel like a third wheel, and that’s why you didn’t come out to Colorado with us for New Year’s like always.”

  “Really?” That should have come as a shock, but somewhere deep down it wasn’t. Callie had suspected for some time that Zia hadn’t been telling the whole truth about certain things. This was just one more example that Callie had outgrown her friendship with Zia a while ago. With a heavy sigh, Callie tried to explain. “Actually, I didn’t come out with you because I wasn’t invited. And as for telling me at Thanksgiving, perhaps she meant to but chickened out in the end.”

  “Perhaps. It doesn’t really matter now, I guess. It is nice to see you.” He sat next to her on the ground and stared up at the stars. “God, it seems so long ago we were here.”

  “It’s been eight years.”

  “Do you remember the summer our dads built this thing?” He bumped her with his shoulder. “Two less equipped men with hammers I have never seen.”

  She remembered and within seconds was laughing until tears rolled down her face. “I thought my father was going to seriously hurt someone that day. When he pulled back and the hammer went flying behind him—”

  “Then my father hit Zia’s over the head with a two by four.”

  “Thank god my uncle Joe was at the house to stitch him up.”

  “And our moms all came out and declared the fort done.”

  She smiled as she turned to look at the fort. “Good thing the gardener was handier with a hammer then our dads.”

  Callie looked back at him and froze. Aiden’s face was so serious now, no laugher in his eyes as they met hers for a moment before he looked off to in the distance again. “I miss you, Cal.”

  “I miss you too, Aiden.” She stared at the side of his profile.

  He made a sound that sounded like a sad little laugh, and her heart cracked a little bit more. “No, I miss you. I miss talking to you and laughing with you. I wanted to come up with your family for your graduation, had it all planned. Then Zia and her damned parties got in the way. Man, we fought about that.” He rubbed his hand around the back of his neck. “I am so proud of you, you know.”

  “And what about you? Graduating with a double major a semester early.”

  “Here’s hoping, right?”

  “You can do it. You’ve always been able to accomplish anything when you put your mind to it.”

  “I just wish…Never mind.”

  “No, what?”

  “I wish that Zia didn’t have her heart set on this May wedding. I wanted to wait until I finished school. But the thought of waiting another year didn’t sit well with her.”

  “I bet. Zia’s like you; once she puts her mind to something…” Callie let her voice trail off. Because she’d thought it was crazy that they weren’t waiting, but then she hadn’t really been a part of their life for a long time now. Then it occurred to her. “Oh my God, is Zia pregnant?”

  “What? No! Did she imply?”

  Callie placed a calming hand on Aiden’s shoulder. “No, of course not. I just wondered about the speedy wedding. That’s all. Sorry, didn’t mean to terrify you.”

  “I wasn’t terrified—much.”

  “No more than a deer in headlights.” She laughed like she used to with Aiden, laughed in an indelicate way that had her almost snorting. With her head on his shoulder for support, and Callie could feel his chest and shoulders shake until he too was laughing and pushing her away from him in a playful push.

  “You’re a mess.”

  Wiping the tears from her cheeks, she struggled to control herself. “You have no idea.”

  Pushing a stray hair behind her ear, he sobered again. “You’re right, I don’t. Because you’ve pushed both Zia and me out of your life over the last four years. Do you have any idea what not having my best friend did to me?”

  “I didn’t mean to,” she lied, and he knew it too.

  “Why didn’t you take my calls? I know there weren’t many, but I did get the message you didn’t want me to contact you.”

  “It wasn’t that. It was hard being away. And I was busy.” At that, he looked uncertain and hurt. “I know that’s the lamest excuse ever.”

  “Ah, forget it. I hate getting sentimental. God, what am I doing?”

  “You’re getting married in the morning is what you’re doing.” Saying those words hurt. But she offered him a smile, and then, with a soft laugh, smiled wider. He would never be hers anyway. It was time to realize that. And if she wasn’t going to have him, then at least he should be happy. “You are getting married.”

  He had looked at her, stared really, before smiling. “You know, you really are quite breathtaking. I always thought you were beautiful, but it’s more than that.”

  “Don’t say those things not to me, not tonight.”

  “When did being friends become so hard?”

  She looked at him and answered honestly. “When love got in the way.”

  And then Callie did what she had dreamed about a thousand times: she reached out touching his face. The ringing in her ears, the blood pulsing through her veins so quick blurred out everything else but Aiden. She leaned into him and put her lips against his soft, full ones. She had intended for that to be all it was. A simple, a little beyond friendly, kiss. Her last good-bye to her childhood dream. But then Aiden’s lips parted beneath hers and his tongue pushed through to hers.

  She took a deep breath, taking in his cologne and the smell of cinnamon from dessert at the rehearsal dinner. His tongue explored and danced with hers, and Callie shuffled to her knees to get more, get closer. She wanted to touch him, to deepen the kiss. The dead underbrush on the ground beneath her cracked and the cold night dew seeped through her pants. His fingers tugged the pins from her hair, releasing the tendrils, and he pulled back to watch the hair fall.

  But as they stared at each other, realization sank in and Callie pushed to her feet. What had she done? Shaking fingers traced her lower lip for just a second before she turned and ran. She ignored Aiden’s call in the distance. She had to get away.

  She didn’t stop until she was in her room, door locked. Numb, she hid behind the curtain when she saw Aiden’s form in the moonlight on the lawn. He stayed there for an hour just staring up at her window and she, in hiding, stared back at him. He finally left, walking with slow steps away from her house. And Callie’s heart fractured again for the last time.

  But she still stood in the church the next morning. She clapped and laughed at the right times and she danced. She made herself scarce during the bouquet toss and tried to stay out of the bride’s way, guilt eating her up.

  “What the hell is going on?” Zia asked, cornering her in the hallway to the bathroom.

  “Nothing.”

  “Don’t ‘nothing’ me. Aiden and you are avoiding each other like the plague.”

  Oh God. Callie was such a lousy liar, what could she say? “I said something last night, and I think I embarrassed us both. I really don’t want to talk about it. It was something stupid that I thought was funny. Well, it was funnier in my head.”

  “What did you say?”

  “Please don’t make me say it again.”

  “You always did have a knack for
embarrassing yourself in public.” Zia put her arm in Callie’s and led her back into the reception, keeping her at her side as if she knew it was sheer punishment to be there. Heartbroken, Callie’s eyes met Aiden’s and only then did Zia step away from Callie. As if she had planned it, Zia moved into Aiden’s arms and pulled his head down to hers for a passionate embrace. His eyes still locked on Callie’s for a second until finally they closed.

  Sneaking out the back door, Callie let out a pent up sob. Zia didn’t know Callie at all, because if there was one thing Callie had never done it was embarrass herself in public. But if that was how her friend perceived her, then there was nothing to say.

  She walked the three miles home. Numb and chilled to the bone, Callie managed to make it all the way to her room before the tears flooded her sight and she cried her heart out. Clawing at the ugly dress, she didn’t stop tearing it until it lay in ruins at her feet. Much like her heart.

  Two weeks later she received a text from Zia: How could you?

  Callie never responded.

  “You can’t spend all day on the sidelines you know,” said a deep voice behind her.

  “That’s like the pot calling the kettle black, isn’t it, Spence?” Callie smiled and turned, taking a second to look at her cousin. Like all Sherman men, Spencer was tall and commanding, his windblown blond hair making him more endearing. Damn the Sherman men and their genes, every one of them gorgeous. She embraced him and relaxed as the loving arms squeezed around her.

  “Touché,” Spencer whispered in her ear. He pulled back and looked at her. “You look great—love the darker hair. I’ve missed you; the ski slopes and the reggae bars are just not the same without you. Promise me you’ll come next year.”

  Nothing like family demanding a promise to put you on the spot. Everyone knew when a Sherman said they would do something, they did it. “I’ll try.”

  “Liar. I bet if your sister weren’t graduating from high school today you wouldn’t be here at all. You haven’t been to anything in, what is it now, three years? The only time any of us see you is when we come and drag you out with us.”