Bridesmaid Lotto (20 page)

“We got the room for another night,” she said.

“Awesome, thanks. Jake’s asleep again.”

“You wear him out last night or what?” she teased.

“Ha ha.”

“Let’s go hang out at the pool ‘til he wakes up,” Jennifer suggested.

“Cool. You think they’ll bring us food out there? I think I might need something to help settle my stomach after last night.”

“You did sort of overdo it with the cocktails my dear,” Jennifer said.

“Oh yeah, like you didn’t?”

She gave me a sideways glance and chose to ignore the comment. “So which one of those bitches do you think cancelled our wake up call?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know, but I hope Emma is pissed at them, and not us. I’m sure they had enough giggling fits for her to figure it out.”

“Oh my God, yeah. What is with all that pointing and whispering? I mean seriously, when did time reverse and send us back into high school? I didn’t even like high school the first time around, and I don’t need someone making me feel like I’m back in it.”

“I know me too. My high school experience was less than stellar, there was this whole McMaster the Disaster thing.”

“McMaster the Disaster,” she said with an amused expression. “That’s actually pretty hilarious.”

I rolled my eyes. “It’s taken me eight years to try to get over that horrible nickname and the pitiful self esteem that went with it.”

“I can imagine,” Jennifer said. “But it looks like it made you a stronger person. You seem pretty confident now.”

I shrugged. “I guess so.”

“You guess so? Josie, you’re dating Jake Hall!”

“I wish,” I said. “I really don’t think that anyone in their right mind would call it dating.”

“Well, you’ve gone out on a date with him.”

“Yes.”

“Then you’re dating.”

I leaned back in my lounger and waited for the cabana boys, this time for food, not to gawk. Or drink, for that matter. I began to daydream about ‘dating’ Jake. In fact, I even started to daydream about calling him my boyfriend. But of course it wouldn’t stop there. I started thinking about if I would take his name when we got married. Josie Hall. Hmm. Has a nice ring to it. And I certainly wouldn’t miss the whole last name rhyming with disaster thing either.

~ 15 ~

I phoned Mattie to let him know that I wouldn’t be in to work that day. “Could you smooth it over with Don?”

“Of course,” Mattie said. “Now, tell me everything. Don’t leave anything out.”

“Um. I can’t really talk right now, but I’ll tell you about the trip when we get back,” I said.

“Oh my God, is he sitting right there?”

“Yeah.”

Mattie gasped. “You are so gonna marry him.”

“I’m hanging up now,” I said.

“Okay. But just to get our stories straight, I’m telling Don that you have a migraine.”

“Cool. Thanks Mattie. You’re a life saver.”

“He sounds like a good friend,” Jake said as I hung up.

“The best.”

“Is he your roommate?”

“No, that’s Calla. She’s pretty great too,” I said. “Actually I’ve been feeling kind of guilty lately because with all this wedding stuff going on, we haven’t really had much time to hang out, just the two of us. And then we were supposed to do something this weekend, but all this came up,” I said motioning around the room.

Jake nodded. “Well, the wedding isn’t that far away now.”

“And hopefully life will get back to normal again,” I said.

“How normal are you hoping for it to get?” he asked. He seemed to be fishing for something.

“Well, it doesn’t have to go completely back to normal,” I said.

He leaned in and kissed me. A soft, perfect kiss. A kiss that I could really get used to.

Before we went out for the day, I snuck to the bathroom to try to clear my big head.

Dear Disaster Diary,

I was so excited for the junior high dance. It was the first time that I had a date for a dance and was feeling pretty special. We’d just finished taking swing dance lessons in this special arts class at school, and my date had also been my partner in that class. That’s probably why he asked me to the dance, come to think of it. Anyway, there was one really difficult move that we had not yet mastered where the guy swings the girl over his head and then pulls her back down to continue dancing seamlessly.

So at the dance, a swing song comes on. Me and Mark get really excited and head out to the dance floor. Soon everyone stops dancing and forms a circle to watch us dance. I felt like a superstar. And I guess Mark must have too, because all of a sudden he decides we’re going to do “the move.” He pulls me up, over his head, and for a moment, I hang in midair, poised perfectly above him. I’m thinking, it’s working! It’s working! But then I begin to tip. The wrong way. Mark tries to compensate to catch me, causing us both to end up in a heap on the floor with the entire school circling around us, dying of laughter.

After a glorious day of relaxing on the island with Jake, who was a complete gentleman and made a point to include Jennifer, we flew home. We were all tired, but Jake was a pro when it came to flying and made sure that he was alert. I switched back and forth from the cockpit and the back to keep both Jennifer and Jake company. Jake even made sure that Jennifer took a turn up front so she’d have the experience of flying up front in a small plane. She absolutely loved it.

“I’ve got to go take some flying lessons,” she said when she came back to the rear of the plane. She’d spent quite a while up there and I could hear her asking Jake all kinds of questions about flying and his plane.

“Really?” I said.

“What a rush! Jake let me take over the controls for a minute and, oh my God, it was so exciting. I felt so powerful. I mean, I was flying!”

“Awesome. So you’re really going to do it?”

She nodded. “Yeah, I really think so. It’s kind of expensive, but I totally think it would be worth it. You can just do a little bit at a time.”

I nodded.

For some reason the flight home seemed shorter than the one on the way to the island.

I was certainly in no mood for the paparazzi, but of course they were there.

“How do they always know where you are?” I asked Jake as we were getting off the plane with camera flashes invading us from every direction.

He shrugged. “I stopped trying to figure that out years ago. There really is nothing you can do about these guys. It’s almost better to have them right in your face. At least you’re ready for it. I hate it when they are all sneaky and have zoom lens shots like that one at the cabin.”

I nodded.

Jennifer had called ahead and had a friend meet her at the airport. Jake offered to give me a ride back to my apartment. And really, who was I to say no to an offer like that? Not to mention, I couldn’t imagine anyone I’d rather spend a little more time with.

At my place, he walked me into the building again, and helped me carry my luggage. At the door I took a deep breath.

“You want to come in for a coffee or something?” I asked.

Shit. That sounded stupid. What is ‘or something’ supposed to mean?

“Sure,” he said, smiling.

I opened the door and Calla jumped up immediately. “How was your tri…” she said. “Oh hi,” she said to Jake. She looked at the floor and tucked a piece of hair behind her ear.

“Jake, this is my roommate Calla,” I said.

“Nice to meet you,” Jake said, flashing her that beautiful smile. She shook his hand but pulled away quickly, almost too quickly. Jake didn’t seem to notice, or at least pretended not to.

She cleared her throat. “Well, I’ll leave you two alone.” She started rushing out of the room.

“No you don’t have to Calla,” I yelled behind her.

She just kept walking.

“Was it something I said,” Jake asked.

“I don’t think so. She’s usually quite sociable,” I said. “I guess she just wasn’t expecting company.”

“Well, I won’t stay long. I have to get up kind of early. I’m heading back out of town in the morning,” Jake said.

“Oh really,” I said, hoping I didn’t sound as disappointed as I was.

“Yeah, I have to go to LA to some voiceover work for the movie I worked on in the spring,” he said. “It should only take a couple of days.” He said the last part quickly, like he wanted to make sure I knew he wouldn’t be gone long. “Maybe we could get together when I get back, or something.”

“That would be great,” I said, smiling broadly. But of course I was thinking, crap, what is
that
‘or something’ supposed to mean.

“I’ll just go see what we have to drink,” I said and headed towards the kitchen.

Jake followed me.

“Well, there’s beer or beer,” I said surveying the contents of our near empty refrigerator.

He chuckled. “Beer sounds good.”

Our tiny kitchen didn’t have room for a table, so we went back out to the living room. Jake sat on the couch rather than at the table, so I joined him there.

He stretched out, looking completely relaxed. “Man, it sure is nice to get home after being away.”

I smiled.

“I mean, you know, not home for me, but, you know what I mean.”

“Yes,” I said.

Was it just me, or was he acting a little nervous?

We both sipped our beer for a few minutes.

“Thanks for getting us home,” I finally said.

The silence was more than just starting to become awkward.

“Sure, anytime,” he said.

Yeah, right. I’ll just call up Jake Hall and ask him to fly me around. I smiled.

He set down his beer and moved a little closer to me. “It was really nice to have the extra day to hang out with you,” he said.

“Yeah, I only wish we could have stayed longer,” I said. “Oh, I’ve been meaning to ask you, why were you guys there anyway?”

“Actually, it was Emma. She’s a little clingy with my brother. Actually, I don’t know how he can stand it. She called him and asked if he would come out. I guess her friends were driving her nuts or something.”

“So your brother just called you up to ask for a ride?”

“Yeah, he knows I like to fly whenever I can. Plus I thought it might be a fun little getaway. And it was.”

He leaned in toward me and gently took the beer out of my hand. Somehow he was able to set it down on the table right beside his even while leaning in for a kiss. I adjusted myself to face him better and leaned back a little on the couch. Pretty soon he was lying completely on top of me, but it was all still fairly innocent, just kissing, not too much touchy feely kind of stuff, not below the neck anyway.

Several minutes later, Jake gave me one final kiss on the couch and we both sat up.

“I should probably get going,” he said.

“Okay,” I said, though his leaving was about the last thing I wanted.

“I’ll call you when I get back into town,” he said.

“Sounds great,” I said smiling.

He gave me one more kiss at the door, running his hands down my arms, giving me goose bumps from my shoulders to my fingers.

I closed the door behind him and leaned back so I wouldn’t fall over.

Calla came creeping down the hall. “Hey,” she said.

“Hey. Why did you do that little disappearing act?” I asked.

She shrugged. “I just didn’t want to be in the way,” she said. “Besides, I didn’t have any make up on, and my hair is a total mess.”

“That wouldn’t have mattered,” I said.

“Well, I just didn’t feel like myself,” she said. “It was a little shocking seeing Jake Hall in my living room.”

I had to admit, I probably would have done the same thing. I mean, it was Jake Hall, still a movie star no matter how much I wanted to think of him as a regular guy.

“So, how was it?” she asked.

“The island was great,” I said. “But some of the girls that Emma hangs out with. My God, what a bunch of snobs. Thank goodness for Jennifer, or I would have gone completely out of my mind.”

Calla nodded, but it almost looked like she was hurt. Was she jealous that I was spending so much time with Jennifer? Or was it still the Jake thing?

“The best part was the scuba diving.”

“You got to scuba dive?” she said. “I did that once in when I was in junior high. It’s really great, isn’t it?”

“Amazing. Not at all what I expected.”

I was starting to feel a little uncomfortable talking to Calla about all this stuff. She was the one who’d wanted to be a Bridesmaid in the first place.

“Um, I’m a little tired,” I said, which wasn’t really a lie. “I think I’d better get some sleep. Work is probably going to be hell tomorrow after my unexpected day off.”