I grinned. That mouth hadn’t changed. “So your mom is already there?” I asked, my brow puckering.
“Yep.” She shook her head softly, sending a cascade of auburn waves over her shoulder. “She went over with your mom hours ago. They banned the bridesmaids from setting up the shower.” She cringed slightly as she turned to face me. “I’m worried she’s living a little vicariously, honestly.”
“How do you mean?” We walked down the steps and headed for the SUV I’d rented at the airport.
“You’re a boy. You wouldn’t get it.”
“Try me.”
“Jenny eloped when she was twenty-three. When your older sister doesn’t do the whole big wedding thing, it leaves us little sisters in a pressurized lurch. Mom’s been planning my wedding since Chuck and I got together years ago, so the breakup hit her pretty hard.” She climbed up into the SUV, and I kept my gaze firmly locked on her bare shoulder blades until I was sure she wasn’t going to slip off the running boards. I definitely didn’t look at her ass.
Okay, fine, maybe there was a glance. A small one.
I popped her gifts into the back seat and got behind the wheel, shoving my shirtsleeves up to my elbows. Thankfully, I’d left the engine running to keep the AC on so the car was nice and chilled.
“I forgot about Jenny eloping.” Ry’s older sister was my age, but even though we’d grown up next door, we’d always run with separate crowds, so it wasn’t like I kept up with her.
“Exactly. She lives in Oregon with her wife and baby, and then there’s Evan, who’s still at college. When Dad died at Christmas, Mom coped by throwing herself into dreaming up the perfect wedding for me. She has an entire binder filled to the brim with coral-colored everything.” She tucked her hair behind her ears and stared out the window as we pulled out of the driveway. “I don’t even like coral, but I wasn’t going to say anything. Then Chuck called it quits, and here we are.”
A wedding binder? How serious had it been with Chuck?
“Were you and Chuck engaged?” I didn’t really keep up on small town gossip, but I’m sure I would have heard about a ring. Hell, I’d certainly heard about Chuck leaving Ryleigh in tears on Main Street.
“No, but I’m sure he would have asked soon. You don’t build a house with someone you’re not planning on building a life with.” She glanced at her empty ring finger as her tone got more than a little defensive.
Avoid the engagement topic, too. Got it.
You didn’t walk out on someone you wanted to plan a life with, either, but I kept my mouth shut. If Ry wanted to marry Chuck Stewardson and have a couple of kids in a house with a white picket fence, that was none of my business. I was just here to help her get him back, even if I was about ninety percent certain she’d be better off without him. The guy had all the warmth of a shark, and that was putting it nicely. Did that mean I was a fuzzy teddy bear? Hell no. I’d broken up with my share of women, but never in public, and I’d sure as hell never started building a house with someone just to call it off.
The drive was quiet as we headed into town, both of us content to let the radio fill the silence in the cab.
“Cherry Creek has grown,” I noted as I followed the GPS, turning down a street that hadn’t been here the last time I’d visited.
“That happens when you stay away for years at a time,” she hoisted her eyebrows at me.
“Not always by choice.” My grip tightened on the steering wheel. “Playing in the NHL doesn’t exactly leave you a lot of time to vacation during the season.” I was a hundred percent dedicated to my team.
“And the off-season?” she challenged.
Guilt socked me in the stomach. “Yeah, that one is on me. Life gets busy. But it’s not like I don’t see my folks. London lives in Charleston, too, so Mom and Dad visit a lot, which I’m sure you know, considering you’re one of her bridesmaids.”
She nodded. “We don’t talk as much as we used to. Like you said, life gets…busy.”
We pulled up in front of a farmhouse-style restaurant with a wide porch that sat on the edge of Lake Faith…which was more of a huge pond than an actual lake, but I wasn’t going to start on the town’s most controversial subject. The parking lot was full of rental cars, which meant the guys hadn’t had any trouble finding the place, and we were right on time.
We got out of the SUV, and I grabbed her presents from the back seat. When I came around the front of the car, Ryleigh was staring up at the sign above the restaurant’s door.