Page 13 of June Bride
“So, you have the type of New Yorker parents that can’t stand it when things aren’t New York?”
“Sun, you’vebeento New York City with me. You know how people get there!”
Oh, Sunny remembered. She remembered so well that Brandelyn would have to pay for everything to get her to go back again. A small town Oregonian could as easily throw the shade right back at the city. “Yet you managed to move to the west coast and be perfectly content in a tiny town like this. Who would imagine?”
“Not my family, that’s for sure.” Brandelyn pushed herself up and turned off the TV. “You know my story. I went to OHSU for med school, stayed in the area for my residency, took up a practice in a smalllesbiantown, and Bob’s your uncle.”
“Would you have taken up a small town clinic if it weren’t full of lesbians, though?”
Brandelyn leaned forward, her pursed lips coming right for Sunny’s. Yet she didn’t seal the deal. That wasn’t Brandy’s style. She liked to instigate, but her romantic follow through left a lot to be desired.Good thing I like those kinds of games.Sunny loved it when she felt like the badass who did the brunt of the seducing, even if she was well aware it was Brandy’s idea.
“I came here because I knew it would change my life.” Brandelyn finally let a kiss linger on Sunny’s lips. “And it did. I met the love of my life in this tiny little town.”
“You could’ve met someone else in another place.”
“Maybe. Why would I want to? This is the kind of life I’m happy to live.”
Those were the kind of words that lit up Sunny’s heart and made her remember why she loved Brandelyn so much.Sometimes, I feel like the only person who sees that soft exterior she secretly possesses.Maybe not so secretly. Wasn’t like Brandelyn purposely put people off or acted like a stuck-up city girl displaced to the countryside (that she claimed to actually love.) Sunny accepted that Brandy was a certain way. People were… certain ways, weren’t they? There was always room for improvement, but that didn’t mean who they were deep in their hearts was a fault. Some people got along. Others didn’t. Some environments were ripe for propagating negativity in certain people. Lots of townsfolk thought that about Brandelyn, who was a perfectly good small town doctor, but lacked in the social skills department. But was Sunny that much better? She was more demure in her confidence, had the credibility of being a homegrown resident, and knew what it meant to live in peaceful isolation for most of one’s life, but that didn’t mean she was inherently better. She read the local social codes better, perhaps, but did that preclude someone like Brandy from ever fitting in?
Honestly, Sunny appreciated someone so different from her. Brandy brought out the voice that was often suppressed deep inside Sunny’s body. When a girl grew up in the country, went to a tiny high school, and had a small selection of friends who were away more often than close… it meant she was used to the quiet, including in herself.
Brandelyn’s brand of noise was a breath of fresh air.
“Soooo you’re staying the night, right?” Sunny asked again. “Don’t make me ask a third time. I might decide I’m sleeping solo.”
“Like I said, my family…”
“They’re gossiping about you right now, anyway. Why not prove them right?” Sunny took her fiancée by the hands and drew her toward the bedroom. Clothes were left unceremoniously behind on the coffee table. The laundry basket was kicked out of the way. Sunny was a woman on a mission to make love to the woman she would soon marry.
Brandy seemed into it, too. Her giggles and the sheepish way she turned her head when she realized what Sunny wanted completely went against the stoic demeanor of a doctor.How many women in this town can say they’ve slept with the doctor? Ooh, not many!Maybe there were one or two dates Sunny didn’t know about, but she didn’t care. Brandelyn was all hers, for now, and always.
Their kisses were as light as the dust swirling by the window. Their touches were as fervent as the birds singing their songs in the trees. Their little sounds beautifully melded into a place of private serenity.
Sunny held onto this moment. She didn’t know when she would get to experience it again, even during their upcoming honeymoon. Because nothing beat the simple bliss of a lazy day at home.
Chapter 9
BRANDELYN
Lest her mother disappoint her, Cathy chastised her daughter for “leaving us all alone in this strange house while you’re off having premarital relations. What? You think it’s different because it’s a woman? I don’t care how many babies can get made. It just isn’t done. Why are you bringing up Lizzie? This has nothing to do with her boy!” Brandelyn offered no apologies, although she did assure her parents that she would give them more notice if they were left to their own devices for so long again. At least they didn’t let Brutus go unwalked or unfed. The boy was gettingfatwith so many people around.
So was Brandy, who blamed PMS, stress, and binge eating when she wasn’t paying attention. Her mother’s cooking was so full of carbs and fat that Brandelyn was better off eating half and calling it a day. Especially with her dress fitting a week and a half before the wedding.
The final one.The final one!
“Please sit still,” asked Apple Abernathy, the qualified seamstress who had come highly recommended based on Yelp! reviews. She tugged on Brandelyn’s hem and tightened the waist that pooled around the feet. Every time Brandy’s bust was bothered, her breasts heaved toward her chin in the most unnatural ways. Monica thought it absolutely hilarious that both BrandyandLizzie must suffer for the bridal good. (Lizzie was having none of the spaghetti straps of her baby pink gown messing with her tan. When someone pointed out that her tan was sprayed on, she stormed off to the ladies’ room and refused to come out until her mother apologized.)
“How much do you weigh?” Cathy was definitely not apologizing for that. Not even with a Snickers bar in her mouth and her phone constantly pointed to her face. “Really, Brandy, haven’t you learned since prom? You always gain ten pounds at this time of year. You should’ve taken that into account when you bought this dress. Get a size up!”
“First of all, Mom.” Brandelyn almost lost the rest of her thought after the wind was momentarily knocked out of her. Apple apologized and loosened her grip on the waistline. “There wasn’t another size up. I counted my blessings that I could lose enough weight to fit intothissize.” She didn’t know when she became a size ten, but she’d be damned if she picked up a twelve for her wedding dress! “Second of all, I’m bloating from PMS.Youshould’ve learned that from my eighth grade graduation.” She didn’t bring up any further details. Like how eighth grade graduation was mired with a giant stain on her black and white skirt by the end of the ceremony. She was the only girl for the class group photo that had a sweatshirt tied around her midsection and tears coming out of her eyes.
“You’re really cutting it close having your wedding so close to your period!” Cathy had to shout that for the whole boutique to hear, huh? Lizzie snickered while Monica rolled her eyes. Apple Abernathy kept her head down and acted like she hadn’t heard anything. “You’re a doctor! Get yourself one of those pills that makes you skip!”
“You meanbirth control?”
“Is that what it does?”
Brandelyn didn’t have the time or patience to explain how birth control had that effect under certain circumstances. Cathy was a woman who rarely listened to her daughter’s doctoral advice, anyway. She was too busy asking websites for subpar information.That’s my whole family. How did I make it out alive? They always think it’s cancer!Like every single patient who walked through the door, but it was more infuriating coming from her own family.
