A Brambleberry Summer and the Shoe Diaries by RaeAnne Thayne

Author:RaeAnne Thayne
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2023-04-04T12:29:52+00:00

* * *

Right before leaving the wedding, a few of us gathered around Lance and Candice for one last shot to celebrate them. With our purses and shoes in one hand, we raised our glasses in the other, ready to clank them together to mark the occasion.

“To the McCoys!” screamed out the best man.

“To the McCoys!”

I instantly felt hair grow on my chest after downing my shot of whiskey and slammed the glass on the table to try to mask the fact I felt like my insides were burning.

I covered my mouth, coughing, but hoping to still disguise it when I felt a man’s hands and arms wrapping around my waist from behind me. I knew it was Jake without even needing to turn around.

“Um, what are you doing?”

“Oh, my bad, is this not allowed?”

“No, it’s not allowed,” I replied, joking and twisting myself away from his grasp.

“Hmm, just in public or like, period?”

“What are you talking about?” I was genuinely confused about where he was going with the conversation. Is he drunk? I wondered. Or maybe taking our moment on the dance floor a bit too far?

“Don’t worry about it,” he said, changing the conversation and gently pulling me off to the side so we could speak privately. “Can you believe Candice and Lance are married? This stuff’s still pretty wild to me.”

“I know. It’s like, of course they are because they are couple goals, but also, when did we get old enough to be in weddings and watch our friends pledge their lives to each other?”

“For real.” He paused. “There’s a part of me that always thought it would be us first, though.”

“Oh?”

“You didn’t?”

I didn’t know what to say. Obviously, I’d thought of us being married, but in the time that had passed since we broke up, I’d also worked really hard to get over my heartbreak from him. And there he was trying to pull the Band-Aid off a wound not fully healed yet. “Of course I did, Jake, but—”

“Yeah. I know. Always a but,” he said, interrupting me and clearly wanting to avoid where our conversation was going. “Hold that thought. I think we need another shot.”

I watched him as he ran off to the bar and began telling the bartender exactly what he wanted. Standing somewhat with a nervous energy, I saw him practically instruct her on which drinks to mix, all the while glancing back at me ever so slightly. It wasn’t long before he was back before me with four shot glasses in his hands.

“A shot, huh?” I laughed nervously.

“Eh, I figured we probably really needed two to take the edge off a bit. Just don’t die like you almost did earlier trying to hold in your cough.”

“Oh, my God, don’t do me like that!”

“Just saying, I thought I was going to have to perform the Heimlich on you or something.”

“Whatever. Bring on those shots, jokester.” I grabbed my two glasses from him and quickly noticed why he’d been instructing the bartender so much.

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