“I’m here, I’m here!”

It was like a tornado had just blown in. One moment Reese was standing in her parents’ kitchen, slicing crudités, the next her fiancé had fallen through the door in a mad rush. He was looking wildly around, as if he expected catastrophe. His behaviour was more akin to somebody trying to defuse a bomb with ten seconds on the clock than a simple man who was arriving at his engagement party. Giggling, she dropped the knife and moved over to him, picking up the blue tie that hung loose around his neck and beginning to fix it for him.

“What’s the matter baby, cops on your tail?”

“Am I late?”

She couldn’t help it; it was the panic on his face that was making her laugh at him. Maybe she’d gone overboard with the threats earlier. “Five minutes, it’s not crucial.”

“Oh thank fuck.” Drake let out a long held breath, shoulders slumping as he pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Milly Cooper showed up at the last minute and I was thinking I wasn’t going to have time to shower.”

“Again?”

“Either she wants me or she needs an eye exam. Nobody manages to take off their wing mirror that many times in two weeks.”

“Well she can’t have you.” Tightening the knot and then smoothing down his collar, she reached up to give him a peck on the lips. “Ready to mingle?”

“Do we have to?” He pouted and yet again it made her want to laugh. A lot of his habits made her laugh.

Drake was simply not the type for ties and family parties and making small talk with the neighbours. Her parents had insisted on throwing a more formal party to celebrate the engagement (something she suspected was more for her mother’s sake than hers) but he would have been happy inviting a few friends to the bar and having some beers. That was what she found so refreshing about him; she’d grown up in a nice cosy middle class world with all its polite but awkward traditions, he had grown up too busy working to learn his Ps and Qs. People had raised their eyebrows when they got together, politely commented that the two of them made an ‘interesting pair,’ but everything that surprised them about her choice was what she loved about him. He had no airs and graces, he might not know the etiquette but she knew his intentions were solid. She liked his rough edges. When the worst thing you could say about a man was that he swore a little too often, you knew he was a keeper.

To be fair, the muscled torso and abs certainly helped. A life of manual labour and lifting heavy car parts around had toned her boyfriend up nicely as well as meaning that her car repair bills went down considerably.

“Sadly yes.”

“You sure? We could always sneak out…”

“And if we weren’t the bride and groom I’m sure nobody would notice, but unfortunately we’re the animals at this zoo and there’s no show without us.”

Drake let out a groan before wrapping his arms around her. Reese happily snuggled into the hug, breathing in his lightly scented soap. For that moment, all was well and she was content – it would be stepping back into the other room to meet the hordes who had started coming through the door that she was dreading. Being the centre of attention was not her favourite thing. She was particularly concerned about Justin’s threat to attend, but she had no idea how to bring the subject up. While her husband to be was aware of their past relationship, he knew very little about it and absolutely nothing of the break up. He’d managed to deduce that it had gone badly, but then a complete stranger could have worked that out; it was probably the way she started visibly fuming whenever Justin’s name was brought up that gave it away.

“You given any more thought to that whole eloping thing? Would save us more of this.”

“I’d love to, but Mom would kill me and you’re too young to be a widower.”

“This is the upside to hating the parental’s guts, no need to please.”

“I never thought I’d envy you on that score,” she groaned before picking the knife up and hurriedly slicing a few more vegetables before deciding there were enough on the platter.

“Well if it helps at all, you’ll look really pretty while you’re entertaining the crowds.”

“Thank you.” She gave a smile and a little blush as he left another kiss on her face. After no less than two hours of changing her mind, she had settled on a teal shift dress. If she’d had her way she’d have gone with Drake’s idea of casual wear, but her parents had cajoled and needled and prodded until she’d given in. It had been victory enough convincing them to have a party at home rather than hiring a hall and making a fuss, so she had figured that she would put up and shut up. This was the price of being an only daughter in the middle of a pile of sons – they only got to be parents of the bride and in charge once so they were determined to do it ‘right,’ whatever that meant.

“Red alert, red alert, the bastard has landed. Oh. Not you.”

“Hey to you too, Nadine.” Drake had what Reese liked to call his ‘Nadine expression’ and he was wearing it in that moment – it was a mix of bemusement, bewilderment and mild wariness. They got along well, but she was so gregarious that she overwhelmed him on occasions. He was the low key type.

“Bastard, Nade?” Reese asked quizzically.

“He crashed.”

“Who?” Drake asked.

“The ex.”

“Oh.” He frowned. “Is that a problem?”

“Only in that having an asshole around dampens everybody’s party spirit.”

“It’s fine,” Reese said with a warning glance at Nadine. The last thing she needed was Drake getting it into his head that Justin’s presence was a big deal – then he’d have to ask why and that was the route to jealousy and suspicion and drama. Even if the mere proximity of him was enough to make her head want to explode, as far as she wanted anybody else to know it was just peachy.

“Hmm. Can I hit him?”

“No.”

“Trip him?”

“No.”

“Spill a drink down him?”

“No.”

“Spoil my fun.”

“Remind me never to piss you off,” Drake said as he grabbed the plates before Reese could, carrying them for her.

“You’ll learn to love me!” Nadine replied brightly.

“You’ve been saying that a while now, how long’s it take?”

With a twinkle in his eye he winked, and she pretended to mull it over. “It’s a delicate process. Come on, people, time to party.”

The happy couple managed to groan in tandem.

***

“So you all talked out or what?”

“Oh my God.” Reese rolled her eyes as she turned to face Kate. Kate was an old school friend of Reese and Nadine – she had since moved a few towns over and was busy having babies so they didn’t get to see each other often, but still they were close enough that niceties were superfluous. “Just kill me now. Or just gag me so I can’t talk any more.”

“God, I remember this,” Kate smirked. “Only it was full of elderly relatives and I spent most of the night hearing about the food being too tough for their teeth and how it wasn’t like this in their day, they were lucky if they could afford a new pair of hose for the ceremony.”

“Wow.” She paused. “I’m so not sorry I missed that.”

“Traitor. Friends are supposed to provide back up in these situations.”

“By back up do you mean booze?”

“No, but now you mention it that’s a good plan. More red?”

“Please.”

There was a momentary pause as Kate reached for the wine bottle and began to pour for them both. Reese’s eyes scanned warily around the party. As much as she was making a show of complaining, it really hadn’t been that bad; people had been friendly, there weren’t too many folk she couldn’t stand in the room, it really could have been worse. Drake was obviously out of his element but trying gamely, and most people had commented on it being a nice party; the chatter was loud and liberally sprinkled with laughter, so she estimated that at least some of them were being sincere. Still, she couldn’t wait for the moment that she and Drake could cut out and go home to bed. Maybe she was turning into an old married lady already, but snuggling up and having an early night sounded good.

“Oh crap!” Kate had managed to lose her grip on the bottle and spill some down herself.

“At least it was your skirt and not my mom’s rug.”

“Bitch. Be back in a sec.”

“You need any help?”

“I’m fine!” Kate waved a dismissive hand as she walked away without even turning around.

Reese sipped her wine pensively. It seemed like wedding planning and festivities and engagement was all a very big hassle in order to get to the point and be married; that was a massive turn around from her last foray into matrimony. Back then she had been all about the plans, designing expensive bouquets with the florist and jetting all over the place looking for the perfect dress. Having an infinitely smaller budget this time around would have prevented her from doing those things anyway, but the fact was she didn’t want to. She was just itching to be married already and would have happily taken Drake’s suggestion of eloping if she hadn’t known it would deprive her mother of the event she’d been planning ever since she’d known she was finally having a baby girl and not another boy. In her heart she knew that her mother wouldn’t stand in the way if that was what she told her she wanted, but despite her complaints about her parents’ expectations she did genuinely want to include them. So, she kept right on wedding planning and meeting caterers and viewing venues and ignoring the headache which told her she didn’t like organising.

“So explain something to me, peanut.”

A mental ‘Oh God’ formed on her lips but never found its way out as she turned slowly to face her nemesis.

“Justin,” she said evenly.

“He’s not from around here, right?”

“If you’re referring to my fiancée, he has a name.”

“Uh-huh. But he’s not.”

Letting out a sigh, she took a gulp of wine to steel herself. Like the supermarket incident hadn’t been bruising enough. Still, as it was then so it was now; it was best to get it over with as quickly as possible.

“Not originally.”

“You can tell. It’s like you set a monkey running loose around the place. You have to feel for the dude, has to be awkward having so few social skills.”

“Well I appreciate your pity but there’s no need. Just because you’re an incurable snob with his head up his ass doesn’t mean the rest of the town are.”

Too late she realised that the tack she should have taken was defending her man instead of attacking Justin. Now looking at the evil grin on his face she could almost hear what he was thinking – that she hadn’t disagreed with his assessment of Drake.

“Seems kind of cruel of you putting him through it. But then you always were the consummate little hostess, be a shame to let him hold you back.”

“Oh, you flatter me,” she said bitingly. “I wasn’t half as good as you. Strutting around like a peacock was always your talent.”

Reese delighted in seeing that she’d finally landed a hit. It was only a momentary waver in his spiteful expression, but waver it was. Justin had always had a good poker face, she had to give him that, but seeing it drop even for a second let her know that what she said had actually got to him. It was petty and wrong of her to take so much comfort in seeing it… but he’d started it. And she didn’t care if that excuse meant she was behaving like she was still on the playground, he’d started it. Suggesting that his only talent was preening and looking good was a low blow, playing on every last insecurity he’d ever confided about his fame, but if Justin wanted to start a fight he had no cause to complain when he took a punch.

Before Justin could open his mouth to reply, she heard the tinkling of a knife against a glass and the distinct hollering of her father ordering the partygoers to “shut the heck up,” much to everybody’s amusement.

“Now, where’s my daughter and soon to be son in law?”

As much as she hated speeches and being the centre of attention, Reese was more than happy to scoot up to the fireplace to stand next to her father; it was a fabulous way to cut short the slanging match. Drake wasn’t far behind, quickly shaking her father’s hand and then taking hers.

“Well, I’d like to welcome you all to our home and thank you for being here to celebrate this very special occasion with us.” John Bennington was so used to public speaking in his role as a college professor that making speeches was of little consequence to him; his warm Southern drawl filled the room effortlessly.

“Y’all know that we’re here tonight to celebrate the fact that my little girl is finally being taken off my hands…” Loud laughter rang through the room. “Now, I couldn’t be happier that she’s so happy, but I must admit that like every protective father, I’ve been nursing a few concerns about my prospective son in law. Is he financially stable, does he have a good head on his shoulders, is he good enough for my baby, he’s from Atlanta so is he one of those damn Hawks fans…”

“Grizzlies rule!” Drake pumped a fist in the air and the whole room applauded.

“Well, thank you for letting my mind rest on that score son…” John clapped him on the back. “Still, we’ve decided that ain’t enough. Before you can have our formal blessing, we as her friends and family need you to answer a few questions.”

“Whatever you heard about that police car is a damn dirty lie.”

Yet more chuckles rippled through the room, and Reese felt a warm glow hit her face.  He was charming the pants off of everybody, and she couldn’t be more thrilled. A lot of people were only meeting Drake for the first time that night, and it was important to her that they liked him. She knew all too well that it was easy to look at his shaved head, scruffy demeanour and imposing stature and decide that he was trouble purely based on his appearance. The swearing and lazy drawl didn’t help on that front. He looked like he ought to be one of those boys your momma warned you about; she had quickly been proved wrong, however, and now she wanted everybody else to approve of him too.

“Now, young Nadine helped me with this list, so if any offence is caused to any parties then blame her. Question one was the Hawks but that’s already been answered… question two, Johnny Cash or Willie Nelson?”

“Umm…” Drake scratched his head. “Way to start with the tough one… Cash.”

“Correct! Question three, steak or crawfish at a barbecue?”

“Why would you choose when you can have both?”

“Man after my own heart. Okay… now Nadine’s questions are a little more, uhh, hypothetical. She felt you needed to display some knowledge of how to handle our girl here, so just tell us what you would do in the following situations.”

“God, it’s like social studies all over again.”

“You’re about to go wine and dine your lovely lady when disaster strikes – she breaks the heel on her favourite shoes and she’s making you late trying to choose another.”

“That is so me,” Reese smirked. More giggles from the audience.

Drake’s brow furrowed for a few seconds as he considered his answer, but it didn’t take long. “Help her pick and whatever you do, don’t tell her it’s just a pair of shoes.”

“Nadine, you’re our official judge?”

“Correct!”

After a brief moment for cheers, it was time for the next. “You’re going to the movies. You want to see the latest action movie; she wants to see a romantic comedy.  She tells you she’ll go with whatever you decide. What do you do?”

“Give in to her… but only every other time because I gotta at least pretend I’m in charge.”

“Survey says that’s a winner!”

Nadine put her hands on her hips and gave a mock pout. “I thought I was the judge?”

“I’ve been married thirty years, trust me on this one sweetheart. Finally… you meet Katy Marron in a bar and she’s throwing herself at you. This is a one time opportunity. What do you do?”

The blood drained from Reese’s face, and somehow when she looked up she immediately locked onto the only other face in the room that would have paled so much, despite not even knowing where he’d been standing for the short speech. She was going to kill Nadine. Already she had visions of clawing her eyes out, yanking out her entrails and letting some form of animal play in the wreckage. Of all times to bring the pop singer up, she had to do it at her engagement party?

Katy Marron had already destroyed one engagement without ruining this one too.

“Reese is prettier anyway.”

A cheer and a round of applause went up. Her father reached out to embrace first her and then Drake, declaring him officially welcomed to the family, but she was too numb to register it much. Justin couldn’t look more wounded than if Nadine had clawed her fingernails across his face, but this time Reese could take no joy in it. There was no satisfaction or justice to be taken in it now. Instead she was right back in that hotel room, still staring at the redhead writhing on Justin’s lap, her tongue down his throat as he groped her, oblivious to his fiancée’s presence until her legs buckled beneath her and she thumped as she hit the floor.

Hell, that question probably her hurt more than it hurt him. She really was going to massacre Nadine for this.