Yes, I may have snapped a couple shots without him knowing. What he didn’t know wouldn’t hurt, right?
After we finished up at the house, we went out to grab dinner and take it back for the kids. While we were driving home, Cade had invited me to a barbecue that weekend at the Clubhouse.
Yes, you heard that right … Cade was finally introducing me to his brothers and allowing me into the other part of his life.
I might have had a minor freak out in the car, and was having one again the next morning.
“This is what you wanted, right? To be a part of his life?” Bea asked, being annoyingly practical. “Well, this has been his entire life up until you, so I’d say it’s a big, and necessary, step you guys are taking.”
“But,” I argued. “What will I wear? Do I bring something, like a potato salad? What if they all hate me? God, they’re going to hate me and think I’m terrible for Cade. Then what? Huh? He’ll drop me like a hot potato if he has to choose between me and his club.”
Like the angel she was, Amy May slid a beautiful white-chocolate cupcake under my nose while I was freaking out.
“I love you,” I managed as I shoved it into my mouth.
“You’re going to get diabetes, and your ass is going to grow as large as Texas if you keep eating cupcakes like that,” Bea said, her nose curled up.
“I work out,” I said, not caring that my mouth was full, since I knew it would annoy Bea even more.
“You need to start working out with me,” Bea replied. “Jogging after perverts three times a week isn’t going to counter your cupcake addiction.”
I swallowed and stuck out my tongue, then smiled at Amy May, who was slipping back into the kitchen before Bea started getting on her for feeding my habit.
“She’s a saint,” I said, ignoring Bea’s observations on my diet and exercise routine. “I’m going to nominate her for sainthood. Who do I write? The Pope? A Cardinal? The Vatican?”
“You’re asking the wrong woman,” Bea said with a snort. “Lesbian, remember? I’m not exactly in the know on the ins and outs of the Catholic Church.”
“Hey,” I said, her words bringing up something I’d been meaning to ask her about. “You never said how your vacation went … the proposal? We were so caught up in drinking and dancing, then dealing with that asshole in the bathroom, that I just realized that you never gave us all of the details. Was Shannon surprised?”
Bea’s face reddened, and I’d swear she looked guilty, except I’d never seen Bea look guilty about anything before in her life, so I couldn’t be positive.
“What?” I asked, my confusion apparent. Then something occurred to me. “Oh, no, honey, did she say no?”
“What? No. That’s not it.”
“Then what is it? Why are you acting weird?”
“Lila, I don’t know how to tell you this. In fact, I was hoping I’d never have to,” Bea began, and I swear, my boobs starting sweating as I thought of all of the horrible things she could possibly be getting ready to tell me.
Shit, is someone dying?
“We didn’t just get engaged, we got married.”
I stared at my friend in shock for a few seconds, then the weight of her words hit me like a ton of bricks and I stood up, my chair flying backwards as I did.
“You what?”
“Lila, I’m sorry,” Bea said, getting to her feet, her hands out in front of her. “We both are. Look, I didn’t plan it that way. I proposed, just like I told you, but then we got to talking and we figured, why not just go for it, get married on the beach while we were there…”
“I can give you three reasons why not. Me, Elena, and Elin. Make that four, Amy May. Or how about five, Carmen?”
“I know, and I would have loved to have you all there, but it was just so much easier to do it there.”
I crossed my arms, and, I’m not embarrassed to admit, threw a hissy fit.
“But we had it all planned out,” I whined again. “I was going to stand up for you, and Amy May was going to stand up for Shannon, with Elin and Elena in attendance. We were going to have dancing, and Amy May was going to make the cake. Carmen even mentioned a Taco Man that caters and puts out a helluva spread. We were going to have margaritas … I can’t believe you did this.”
“Not to sound like a jerk, Lila, but it wasn’t about you. Shannon and I went with what we were feeling in the moment, and although I’m sorry that it didn’t happen like we’d planned, I’m not sorry we did it.”