Page 89 of That Time I Kissed The Groomsman Grump
Hawk trumpets, “I KNEW IT!”
“Come on, man.” Beau frowns at Hawk. “There’s no way you knew.”
“Are you kidding?” Hawk’s tone is wry, his smile lopsided. “I could tell the minute Natalie wasn’t interested in me.”
Olivia smooths a hand over her blonde tresses. “LuckilyIwas interested.”
“Indeed.” Hawk crosses the aisle, tossing an arm over Liv’s shoulder. “Quitelucky.”
“Brady!” Mrs. Graham hurries up to him, whispering something in his ear. When he nods, she glances at me, her mouth falling open. Then she lays a hand on her heart, but I can’t tell what that means.
Is she happy? Angry? Confused?
My mom rushes to my side, her eyes wide. She actually looks kind of hopeful, which—under the circumstances—is a relief. “Is this true, Natalie? Are you and Brady…” She pauses to wag her eyebrows at me. A lot.
I glance around. Everyone is listening in. “I can assure you, Brady and I are not…” I wag my brows back at her. A lot.
“Not atall?” My mother’s face falls.
“Well, we have kissed,” I say. “Once or twice.”
“Three times,” Brady says under his breath. “Maybe four or five.”
“Ha!” Darby passes a twenty-dollar bill over to Olivia. Tess does the same. Meanwhile, Kasey reaches out to slug her brother on the shoulder.
“Ouch.” Brady winces, averting his eyes.
Beau grimaces along with him. “Sorry, man. Looks like you got my bride all riled up.”
“I’m not mad,” Kasey says. “In fact, I think it’s kind of cool.” She cuts her eyes to me, her brow furrowed. “I just wish one of you would’ve told me.”
“We didn’t even know at first,” I blurt. “At least we weren’t sure, so we were really hoping to avoid”—I sweep my arm around the gazebo—“all this.”
“Yeah,” Brady says. “We didn’t want to make your wedding about us.”
Beau splays his hands, to indicate the entire wedding party. “You did an excellent job with that, guys.” He snickers. “Really stellar.”
I chew my lip. “Wetriednot to.”
“Wereallytried,” Brady says.
Ford chuckles. “Three times. Maybe four or five.”
“Oh, no.” Kasey sucks air in through her teeth, like something just occurred to her. “Poor Molly. What am I going to tell her?”
“Don’t worry about Molly,” Lettie chimes in. “She likes Grant now.”
“And Grant likes Molly,” Nella adds.
“Uh-huh.” Lettie and Nella high-five each other. “We saw them making out in the lobby last night.”
In the lobby too?
Wow. Abieville gets busy.
“But Molly has a crush on Brady,” Mrs. Graham squawks.
“And Natalie has a crush on Grant,” my mother tuts.
