Trent waved, smiled, did everything he was supposed to do as a groomsman. Finally people were leaving. With minutes before the pouring rain would start by the looks of the clouds all but sitting on top of them and the sheet of gray streaking the skies over the back half of the yard. Oh yeah. They were about to get dumped on with buckets and buckets of rain. With all this shit from the reception still laid out and needing to be picked up. The reason they’d waited to clean up even a little was because the last thing any of them wanted was a bunch of drunks sticking around even longer to help pick up.
Tonya was at his side, smile slapped on her face, words whispering out the side of her mouth. “Get the hell out.”
He chuckled. “Just a couple left. You would think they would have left when the bride and groom did.”
“
Pfft
.” She shook her head. “With an open bar? I bet half these people don’t even know Lane and Gretchen left an hour ago.”
He was laughing again. “True.”
And the only reason the bar was shut down was because he’d gone over, closed the ice bin and told the bartender that was enough. He hadn’t needed to repeat himself. Thankfully the local sheriff’s department had shown up to attend the wedding and they were working on getting all the complete drunks home with help from his baby brother, Grant, and sister-in-law. One less thing to worry about, but it put them down to four on a quick clean up.
Tonya and Flora had thought just the four of them would be enough.
He personally thought they were nuts, but well, hell. Hard to argue with those two women.
The wide-open gate to the backyard tapped closed and they didn’t wait a second. Tonya and Flora took off their heels, threw them towards the back of the house, turned and started grabbing decorations.
Flora worked on un-stacking the big glass thing holding small sandwiches and Tonya was after the chocolate fountain.
Jacob reached for one side of the bride’s cake and Trent got the heavy baseboard on the other side and carted the remaining layers of thick white cake in, through the side door and directly into the kitchen.
He passed through the doors and Tonya stopped, eyes widened. “Oh, thank God y’all got the cake.”
He stepped over the threshold, took small steps and maneuvered. “Will it still be good when they get back?”
She laughed. “I don’t expect it to exist when they get back. It’s
wedding cake
, also known as breakfast, lunch, and supper until it’s gone.”
Good point. Thunder cracked and Trent looked up. “Can you get the groom’s cake then? It’s chocolate.”
Tonya ran out the door without answering, her voice echoed as she yelled Flora’s name. Chocolate was Tonya’s favorite. The groom’s cake was in good hands while they got this one out of the way.
They wedged the cake on the center of the kitchen table and headed back out.
They made it to the door as the girls stepped through with the chocolate. Tonya glanced at the door. “It’s sprinkling now. Get the rest of the food!”
They started out and Flora yelled. “Get that punch!”
Jacob laughed, stacked up trays of cheese snacks, pigs-n-blanket, and deli meat. “I always liked how these girls loved food, but damn.”
Trent shook his head and poured several trays of cookies together as the sprinkle got a little heavier. Big drops thudded on the back of his neck. Drips soaked down his shirt. He wrapped an arm around the punch bowl, got the tray with the pile of cookies in the other hand, and started toward the door. He crossed under the porch, Jacob just behind him.
Lightning streaked the sky and the bottom dropped out in a flood of rain. Tonya was running back out and slid to a stop at the curtain of rain streaming off the balcony. Her hair had started falling from the twisting thing on the back of her head. Dress straps loose on her shoulders as she shrugged them back on.
Oh no. He knew that look. The sheer determination. “The only food left is a fruit and vegetable tray. Let it go.”
“The fruit?” She shrieked and ran back in the rain.
“Tonya!” he yelled after, but she either didn’t hear or chose not to stop. He had an idea which one. Nothing was worth getting sick over. It was spring and warm, but the rain was cold.
Tonya grabbed the board holding the fruit mountain, tried pulling at it but it tipped and tilted. The base was plywood that had been covered in some frilly girl stuff to look pretty and there was no way she’d get her arms around it.
“Shit.” Trent put the cookie trays on nearby lounge chairs and ran through the pounding rain to her side. He squinted through the downpour, blinked it off his lashes. “This is stupid.”
“Do you know hard it is to cut up fruit like this?” Her hair was slicked against her face. Rain drenched her, dripped off her nose, over pouty red lips, off her chin,
rivered
down to the low cut of her dress. With the mound a pineapple diced up in a hallowed out watermelon, that’s as far as he could see. She twisted the bottom board around, tugged the edge to the side of the table. “Get the other side.”
He didn’t wait or try arguing. With Tonya, it would be pointless and they were already soaked anyway. Completely drenched all the way through to his undershirt as they stepped under the overhang of the back patio.
Laughter rang out of her voice, her eyes bright with humor. She glanced back at what was left of the wedding reception, droplets of water flung out from her hair. “Is anything left?”
“Cheap wedding mints.”
Her eyes lit up and he shook his head. “I’ll buy you thirty bags of those things if you want them. Don’t even think about going back.”
She stuck her tongue out and maneuvered with the fruit tray. “I’m going, I’m going. The rain would have them mushy by now anyway.”
He walked backwards, guiding them through the turns and into the kitchen. Water dripped off the sides. Grapes dropped as they moved. He slid the edge on the kitchen counter and reached for a rag. Not that it was going to do much, but he dried his face. “Still don’t think it was worth it.”
She moaned and he glanced up to find her chewing on something. Her eyes were closed. Lips turned up in a smile. “So worth it.”
He blinked and pulled in much needed air that had been robbed from his chest by watching her. Common problem. Nothing he couldn’t continue handling. He cleared the lump out of his throat that he was used to as well. “Until you get a look at yourself. I’ve seen drowned cats look better.”
She threw a grape at him. “Ha ha ha.”
She walked around the side, out from behind the pile of fruit and he suddenly saw the appeal of getting soaked. She shouldn’t have done that. He should stop looking at her too. But he couldn’t. The white dress was plastered against her. Every last inch of her on display through the thin thing. Pert berry color nipples. Dark hair at the part of her thighs.
He closed his eyes, wishing he could forget. As much as he tried, it was no use. The image was stuck. He dropped his coat off his shoulders and held it out. “Tonya.”
“Thanks, but I’m not cold. And I’m going to need my arms free to bag all this food up.”
He peeked as she leaned over the fruit tray, this time her side to him. Her arm was up and there was no missing the curve of her breast. The shape of her ass rounding out and tucking back in. No panties that he could tell. No bra either. He cleared his throat. “Tonya.”
“It’s just water. And it’s not cold. They cut the air off today since so many would be in and out and there was a nice breeze.” She looked up from the fruit mountain and shoved a piece of pineapple past her full, kissable lips.
He kept the jacket out and waved in her direction. “I can see you.”
She frowned.
Flora walked in, unfolding towels and laughed. “Nice ass, Tonya.”
She turned. “What?”
And that’s when Jacob walked in, turned around, and walked back out. “Holy shit.”
She finally dropped her gaze. Shoulders lifted to her ears. Arms came up and covered her chest. She looked back at him, eased closer with her hand angled out and took his jacket. Finally.
Even with her covered in his coat, the ends of it reaching to the middle of her thighs, the sight was still stamped all over him. He walked out of the room and followed in the direction of his brother.
Unfortunate that Tonya’s naked body followed him in his mind. Even more unfortunate was that she planned to marry someone else.
He stepped through the doorway and found Jacob leaning against the wall, arms over his chest and laughing. “I’ll never look at her the same way.”
“Shut up.” Seeing Tonya naked was bad enough, knowing his brother had too was worse. But if Jacob thought for one moment Trent was going to let him make comments and jokes, his brother had another thing coming.
Jacob lifted a brow. “What do you care?”
Because she was his friend. That’s why. And if she was more than that, he wouldn’t be sharing. “What do you think Flora would say?”
Jacob shrugged. “She’d laugh?”
“And you claim to love this woman. She’d be okay with you checking out another woman? And remembering what she looked like?” Disgusting. He just didn’t understand his brother sometimes.
Jacob was laughing at him again, head tipped back against the wall. “I guess I’d just remind her of that time last year when your trunks hit your ankles after you dove in the pool. She still talks about your
whitie-tighties
and how well they…fit.”
Trent hugged himself a little bit. Ankles hell. He’d barely felt his swimsuit going past his toes. Damn string on his shorts was untied and he hadn’t known it. Had anyone helped with his shorts? No. Flora had taken them and tossed them across the pool like a fucking volleyball. Who the hell knew how that all worked out with his brother because that would not have worked for him.
If it was Trent, it would not be okay to be stealing another man’s shorts and flinging them around in a game of hot potato.
Flora walked out and backhanded Jacob in the arm. “Told you she was a looker. I’m going to check the baby and watch her sleep.”
Jacob pushed off the wall. “I’ll come with you. Sleeping is the favorite way I like my niece. There’s only so many times I can take
fwip
me,
Unni
Wacob
!
”
As the two disappeared up the stairs, Tonya walked in, his jacket thankfully on her shoulders and buttoned at the center. That’s where the thankfully ended. The coat hung long on her body. He was a tall, thick guy and while she wasn’t short, she wasn’t big enough to wear his clothes.
The shoulders hung off her arms. The front button latched at her belly button. With the sheer white and still soaking wet dress, it was basically all bare skin with the collar of his coat hiding her nipples. But not the barely there, delicate inside curves her breasts. Lord have mercy, she looked like a hot Popsicle.
She pulled her hands up on her hips and looked at him. “Well I guess we’re square.”
“Square?”
“From when you had the flu.”
He remembered the flu. He recalled Tonya bringing him soup and bread. He remembered sweating. That’s about it. The flu had been the eighth level of hell. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Her hand came up and covered her smile. “Never mind.”
He blinked. “What?”
Her cheeks pinked and she flushed all the way down to the wet
v-neck
of her dress. That was not a good sign. She stuffed her hands in the deep coat pockets. “You had the flu. You wanted a bath.”
“What?”
She rubbed the back of her neck. “You were going to the bath with or without me. Granted, you did try to go without me. You made it a step.”
There was no memory of this. He was completely blank. That was terrifying.
“I…helped.”
“You helped me to the bathroom.”
A smile turned on her lips. “You could say that.”
Oh, shit. “What else could I say?”
“That I undressed you, helped you in the tub, bathed you and somehow we got you back out…and dressed.”
Warmth flooded up the back of his neck and through his face.
She rocked on her heels. “It wasn’t a big deal.”
He rubbed his forehead. Just completely blank. If this was his brothers, he would say they were lying about it. He’d never known Tonya to lie though. “Why don’t I remember this?”
“You had meds going. High fever and you slept in the tub. Lucky I was there. You could have drowned.”
He stroked over his face, beyond the point of humiliation. “Tonya, I am so sorry.”
She shrugged. “No big. Happy to help.”
No big, his ass. It was a big,
big
. A big fucking, huge kind of big. The kind where she was practically engaged to another man and he’d been naked with her. “This doesn’t go past me, I swear. If you want Marc to know…” He stroked over his face. “Jesus. Now I sound like an ass.”
She caught his arm as he started away. For her slender fingers, she had a strong grip. “Trent. It’s fine. For days you’d had nausea and vomiting. That night you got some meds to settle your stomach and they knocked you back. I got you dressed. Got you in bed and I stayed with you—”