Page 14 of Practice Makes Perfect

Currently, my eyes are drawn to Carter as he helps Jake sling a piñata over a large tree branch in the backyard. He looks really good in his new clothes. His flannel fits a lot more snugly, giving a better hint at the body underneath, and his pants show off his amazing ass really well too. The best part is that his flannels aren’t quite as long now, so when he lifts his arms over his head to raise the paper mâché dinosaur higher, I get a peek of his hard stomach and the treasure trail I had my hands on just a week earlier. Grabbing a paper plate off the table, I fan myself a little to try and cool down from the barrage of heated thoughts that batter my brain. Children’s party, Billie. Keep it clean.

“You okay there?” Maya asks. When I turn to her, she has a knowing smile plastered on her beautiful face.

While I’m sure that the teensy, okay huge crush I’ve developed on her brother is obvious, I don’t need to give her confirmation of it. She would definitely tell Jake and he’s already warned me not to mess with Carter. The last thing I want or need is a lecture from my best friend about how I’ll just use and abuse his brother-in-law only to disappear back to Denver when I’m done. I don’t think that’s true, but even the possibility that I could hurt my new friend makes me leery of pursuing anything more or even mentioning my wanting to. “It’s just a warm day,” I lie. Placing the paper plate back on the table, I turn to Maya and smile. “Are you happy with the party?”

Her head bobs in approval, her blonde hair waving as she does, though she shoots me a look letting me know she’s not happy with the subject change. “The party is amazing,” she tells me, her wan look melting away into a smile. Nodding down at her son who is busy kicking up sand with his friends, she reaches over and pulls me into a hug. “JJ is having an amazing time, but more than that, it means a lot to me to have other people showing up and caring about him.” When she pulls back, I see her eyes are a little misty, but she blinks it away. “It was just the three of us for so long, but now we have so much more. Thank you.”

Getting a little choked up myself, I smile to cover it up. “It’s no big deal. Just a party.”

“It’s a lot more than that,” she breathes out. Her eyes are on her fiancé and my best friend, and I know she’s thanking me for dragging Jake back to Starlight Lake and back to his family.

“He would have come on his own eventually,” I confess. With as much love as Jake had for Maya, I’m sure he would have been back to her within a month of me having brought him.

Maya nods. “I know, but I’m glad I didn’t have to wait any longer than I already did.”

Her smile grows as Jake walks up to her and pulls her into his side, kissing her temple as he does. “Were you two talking about me?”

“That’s incredibly self-absorbed, but, yes, yes we were,” I inform him. Jake isn’t that full of himself, and it is a good bet that if Maya and I are talking, it would be about the one thing we have in common. My eyes catch Carter crouching down and helping JJ break one of his dino eggs. Maybe we have a few other things in common now too.

Jake looks over at me. “This is a great party, Billie.” He pulls me into his other side and gives me a hard squeeze. “I’m really proud of you.”

“Thanks.” His praise means a lot, especially since he was always the more hard-working and responsible of the two of us. “Maybe I’ll do this for a living.” The idea doesn’t immediately thrill me like I had hoped it would and my eyes flick over to Carter to see him studying me. Not wanting the scrutiny at the moment, I turn back to my friend.

Jake’s eyes light up and he nods happily at my proclamation. “I think that sounds like a great plan.” The mention of plans coming from him is no surprise, but I’m not fully on board with the party planning train yet to be as excited as he is.

When I turn back to Maya, she’s glancing over at her Aunt Sue with a smile. I met the woman earlier and she is just the right amount of sassy while still being funny. “You know, Sue said she would watch JJ so that we could have a night out. Why don’t the four of us go out on the town?”

Shock paints my face as I look over at the happy couple. “You want to give up the opportunity of a date night to hang out with me and your brother?” My eyes narrow in suspicion. I smell a set up.

Maya waves off my statement. “I see Jake every day now.” When her fiancé gives her a slightly affronted look, she smiles sweetly at him. “And I love every minute of it. But now that we don’t live together anymore and I’ve cut back on my hours at the store, I haven’t gotten to spend as much time with Carter.”

Her expression looks genuinely distressed at this and I feel slightly guilty for having questioned her motives. “Okay, but only if you let the two of us babysit Little J next weekend so that you guys can go out on your own.” When Maya nods her agreement, I rub my hands together and bounce on my heels. “Now, what should we do?” I need something fun to take my mind off the fact that I’m still not certain about this whole party planning business and that my life might not be coming together as much as I had hoped. “Oh, I know. Is there somewhere we can go karaoke?”

Jake groans and Maya winces slightly, but she nods. “Yes. There’s a pub on Main Street that does karaoke on Sunday nights.”

“Perfect.” I give both of my friends a taunting look. “I don’t like to brag,” I say, ignoring Jake as he sputters his disagreement with my idea of a good time. “But I’m not a bad singer, so you all better bring your A game.”

“Oh, I’m not worried about me,” Jake mumbles. I know for a fact that he’s not a great singer, so I’m not sure what he’s talking about.

Before I can get any clarification, Carter walks over and joins us, turning his head back to the kids before looking at the three of us with wide eyes. “The kids are starting to get a little squirrely, so we might need to move onto something else.”

Jumping into hostess mode, I clap my hands to gather all the kids’ and adults’ attention. “All right, everyone. Who’s ready to break a piñata?” The kids squeal, and the adults wince at the loud sounds, but we all move over to the big tree and get ready to watch them get out their toddler aggressions on the newspaper crafted tyrannosaurus.

As we walk, Carter comes up to my side. “This party has been a huge hit.” He leans closer and nods at me. “You don’t seem as happy about that as I thought you might be.” The sound of his low, honeyed voice has me reeling, but it’s his words that cause me to nearly trip over my feet. Busted.

Carter reaches out to steady me with a hand on my arm. With a fierce blush overtaking my cheeks, I right myself and look up into the deep green sea of his eyes. “You noticed, huh?” When Carter nods, I simply shrug. “I just don’t know if it’s the right fit, you know? Planning the party for JJ was great, but I’m not sure how good it will feel if I’m doing it for strangers. That seems a lot like the job I just left, and while it wasn’t all bad, it wasn’t great either.”

Carter nods in agreement. “I get it, and luckily you have time to figure it all out.” He reaches behind me and pulls me closer to him. “Either way, I’m proud of you for all you did for JJ and for knowing that even though you enjoyed it, it might not be the right fit for you.”

Floored by his words, I’m momentarily stunned into silence. “Thank you. That means a lot.” It means a lot more than I can express with words, but they’re all I have at the moment. Carter nods and continues on toward the piñata area while I’m rooted to the ground, wondering why the words he just spoke to me, the same words that my best friend of just about forever said earlier, somehow mean so much more when they’re coming from him.

****

The Ram’s Shed Pub is a lot busier than I would have expected for a Sunday evening, but Maya mentioned that summer brings in a lot more tourists and it’s not unusual to see crowds this size up until late fall. If I would have known that there would be this many people, I might not have picked karaoke. I’m not worried about myself. Working a crowd has been something I’ve done and perfected over many years of partying and playing hostess to clients, but I know Carter is a little more reserved and I feel bad that he might feel pressured to get up in front of everyone and sing. The last thing I want to do is ding his confidence when I know that’s something he has struggled with in the past.

“Maybe we should go somewhere else,” I suggest. The four of us have sat at a table closer to the front of the makeshift karaoke stage and have already placed our drink orders. “We can have a few drinks here and then move on to another spot.”

“Oh, ho, no way,” Jake argues. He smiles at the waitress as she drops off his beer, wine for me, and two cherry colas for Maya and Carter. The first time I had alcohol in front of the siblings, I felt bad since their parents were killed by a drunk driver. When I said as much, they assured me that just because they choose not to drink doesn’t mean they have a problem with other people indulging as long as they do it responsibly. Now I don’t feel bad about the occasional glass of wine, but make sure to refrain from even that if I plan on driving. “You wanted to show off your skills, so now you’re going to.”

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