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The four of us are seated in a nice booth in the back of the restaurant. I slide in first, and Briggs follows.
“Are you ready to head back to the lake?” I ask them as the hostess hands us our menus.
“Yes,” she and Clay say simultaneously as they glance at each other and then back at me. “While it’s been great to finish the summer here in the city, we are ready for space and the quietness of the lake. And I think Moose is ready for long walks uninterrupted by people and traffic lights. Plus we have Avery’s baby shower coming up.” She wiggles excitedly in her seat.
“That we do, and a wedding. Have you decided on anything?”
Four waters are placed on the table, and the four of us stop talking. It’s not that we mind speaking freely in public, it’s just that Emma and I learned early on to be wary of prying ears over topics we really don’t want splashed across every media channel.
“Good evening, my name is Kyle, and I’ll be your server this evening. Can I get you all something to drink?”
We each tell him our drink preference, and after he walks away, Emma shocks me.
“Actually, we have. We’ve decided to get married in February in Horizons Valley at the ski resort. A winter wedding just felt right for us. White fur, silver, lavender, snow on the trees, maybe in the air . . . I can just see the pictures now, and they’ll be beautiful.”
“February! I talk to you almost every day. Were you ever going to tell me?”
She laughs. “There’s not much to tell. I was finalizing the big things before we announced, like renting out the resort. We hired Avery’s wedding coordinator, and she’s taking care of all the details. She’ll tell you when it’s time to buy your dress, and you just need to show up.” She leans into Clay, and he wraps his arm around her to pull her close.
“This just feels so wrong! I feel like I need to do all the things for you.”
She laughs.
“You really don’t. I have it handled. Well, the planner does.”
“Avery’s coordinator was crazy. Crazy in the type A psycho kind of way. Are you sure that’s what you want?” My mother knows people—well, her assistant does—so I’m sure I could find her someone else in a heartbeat.
“Yeah, we’ve talked about it and talked with her about how we need her to calm down a bit in order for us to agree to hiring her, and she said she understood and was on board. I mean, this is another celebrity wedding for her portfolio, so it’s not like she was going to argue with us. And you have to admit, she really did a great job with Avery’s.”
“Yeah, she did. What about the band? Who are you hiring to do the music?” Because of course music is one of the most important questions for all of us.
“I asked Melanie Alverez if she and her band, The Druthers, wanted to come perform, and they said yes.”
“Oh, I love Melanie. They really are perfect for your wedding, especially since they were there for the engagement.”
“That’s what we were thinking.” Emma and Clay smile at each other, that new, exciting kind of love still pouring off them.
“Are you ready to order?” the server asks, almost disrupting the moment. He’s not returned with our drinks yet, but that’s okay. I’ve been craving this place, and knowing we were coming, my stomach would growl on demand. Thai food is the one type of food Horizons Valley is missing. We’ve got so many other flavors, but not this one.
“He’ll have the panang with crispy duck, and I’ll have the hot basil with chicken,” I tell the server.
Emma pipes up and says, “Same for us, and two orders of fried spring rolls for the table.”
He glances briefly at the guys, Clay nods his head, and off he goes.
I catch Briggs looking at me as if he’s just shocked that I ordered for him, but I don’t care. This is my day. He glances at Clay, and Clay just shakes his head in a nonverbal way that says, “Don’t even try. You’ll lose.”
Briggs huffs next to me, then leans back in the booth and angles my way. His smell flutters over to me, and I’m so busy inhaling the scent of apples and pine that it takes me a moment to realize his hand has drifted and found its way on top of my leg. I glance down and stare at his large fingers. He squeezes me once, and the fabric of my dress bunches just a little. Heat from my skin presses back in search of him, and my breathing picks up.
What is happening to me? You’d think a guy has never touched me before by the way my central nervous system reacts, and I’m too busy being shocked that he’s touching me and thinking about what I should do when Emma starts talking, and I miss part of what she’s said.
“How’s the orchard doing this season?”
“It’s doing well. In fact, Cole, who works with me, and I have just signed with a contractor to expand the cidery. Over the past couple of years, we’ve talked about increasing our cider production and adding a larger tasting room, and that’s finally going to happen.”
I twist to face him more. “You did? You didn’t tell me this.”
His eyes lock with mine. They’re such a soulful brown, so warm. Not only is my leg soaking it up but it seems my chest is too. “Not yet, I didn’t.” He gives me a shy smile.
