He hugged me tight against him. His scent filled my nose, and I sagged against him as he placed me back on my feet. I was momentarily lost in his light blue eyes. His smile was infectious, and I felt one spreading over my own lips. My best friend was positively giddy with the prospect of marrying Rachel. I should have been supportive of and happy for him. I mean, I would have been if he were marrying anyone else but her.
He took my hands in his and kissed me on the cheek. “Thank you. I wouldn’t want anyone else by my side on my wedding day.”
I caught the double meaning in his words, but it was obvious that he hadn’t intended to say I was the one he wanted by his side as his wife. Only as second best.
Chapter Five
Parker
Tuesday morning, I woke up later than normal. Since proposing to Rachel, our relationship had been different. Even though she’d claimed that she would have sex with me once we were engaged, she extended the deadline to our wedding night.
“We’ve already gone this far,” she’d said to me.
And as much as I wanted to have sex with her, she was right. What were two more months when we were going to be together the rest of our lives? I put my needs aside and focused on her. Marriage would be filled with compromises, and this was the first one.
Another thing that changed was my sleeping habits. I was able to sleep through until six, and sometimes seven in the morning. I felt more refreshed than I ever had in my life, and I had Rachel to thank for that.
When I woke that morning, Rachel was looking at me. I smiled over at her. “Good morning.”
“You were snoring,” she said and turned over.
I propped myself up and kissed her on the cheek. “How about we do some wedding planning today?”
She tugged the blankets closer to her. “I have plans with my mom today. But you should get your tux fitted.”
Along with the positive things about being engaged, I found Rachel to be just as standoffish as before, at least at times. We hadn’t done any of the wedding planning together. And even though planning events wasn’t my thing, I was being supportive and encouraged us to do some of the planning together, but she always had something else to do. Maybe she was stressed and not showing it. I hoped everything would be better once we were married.
“Okay,” I said. “I’ll do that. Maybe later this week we can do some cake tasting.”
“Yeah, sure,” she said with a yawn. “Let me know which day so I can schedule my trainer ahead of time. I don’t want to look like a cow in my dress.”
I didn’t want to disturb Rachel anymore, so I decided to head over to Sunny Daes. I needed another opinion on my tux, and I hoped that Sienna would come shopping with me.
When I arrived at the back door of the diner, I heard a scream. I rushed inside to find Sienna and Tony laughing together. Tony lobbed a piece of toast at Sienna and it stuck to her hair.
Tony laughed and saw me at the door. He came over to shake my hand while Sienna untangled the bread from her hair.
“Gross! Now I have butter in my hair! I’m going to get you back for that!”
Tony ducked just as a hard-boiled egg left Sienna’s hand. I didn’t have time to move. Thankfully it didn't have a shell on it, but when it hit me, the force was hard enough for the egg to make a slapping sound against my cheek.
Sienna gasped and covered her mouth, giggling through her fingers.
“All right!” Tony said. “Truce.”
“Truce?” I asked. “I wasn’t even playing.”
Tony clapped a hand on my shoulder. “Thanks for taking one for the team, man.”
He left Sienna and me alone in the kitchen.
I picked up the larger pieces of egg from the floor. “You still have a strong arm in your old age,” I teased.
“If we hadn’t called a truce, I’d throw another one at you for that remark.”
I helped her clean up the mess. “I guess you’re not too busy today?”
“No, the weekdays won’t pick up again until after school ends. We had Harriet and Kenneth in this morning. I didn’t tell you that they were here for their fortieth anniversary the other day.”