Page 7 of Wedding Bet

Live a little, like everyone always urged me to do.

What did I have to lose?

>>Jamie: Maybe try it again tomorrow morning at skiing, and we’ll see.

2

LANDRY

In my dream, I was the one at the altar.

It was the first time I’d dreamed about a wedding. It wasn’t in the Rocky Mountains, but instead at the beach, with the shimmering waves as a backdrop. Excitement clamored around in my chest like a caged bird.

My husband-to-be started down the aisle, stepping through the sand to make his way toward me.

With hair the same color as the sand. And slightly tanned skin, eyes as blue as the water, and a shy smile that sent me to the moon. He even had a few tiny, light freckles beneath each of his eyes. I didn’t know who he was, but he was refreshing. Different. I was strangely drawn to him, and in the dream, I didn’t care that he was new.

From there, the dream got ridiculous in the way that dreams often do. Instead of the wedding continuing, suddenly we were shifted into the ocean, then on the beach. The man pulled me in and kissed me deeply as the waves crashed over our feet.

I woke up slowly, like a cloud was dissipating in my mind. I opened my eyes to find myself in the plush white sheets at theski resort, with a view of the sunrise over the slopes past the big, paned windows of my room.

Gorgeous, no doubt. But something inside me just wanted to return to the dream, about the cute stranger who I barely even knew.

Freakin’weirddream.

I groaned, turning over in bed, my limbs still heavy with sleep.

For God’s sake. I wasn’t supposed to be dreaming about weddings.

If there was one thing that everyone knew about me, it was that I hated weddings. Sure, Iwentto weddings. Tons of them. I had attended an average of two weddings a year for the last five years, actually, and I showed up to each and every one of them dressed to the nines and ready to celebrate with a smile on my face.

But deep inside, each one I went to made me more of a wedding grinch than the last.

The loving platitudes. The gifts. The crowds of people, half of which were just jealous onlookers anyway.

And they had gotten much worse this year. Since Parker cheated on me, every glimpse of other people’s success in love was just a reminder that I’d failed at it, yet again. I had decided to swear off the idea of love and finding The One, and for the last year, I’d been successful at it.

I’d tried to be the perfect boyfriend—and hoped to be the perfect husband—for three different guys over the last decade, and each relationship had fizzled out in its own, sad way.

The worst part was that Parker was set to be attending the wedding here this week, too. I hadn’t seen him yet, but he had been Chase’s coworker on the camera crew.

I’d tried to be the bigger man.

I’d never even told Chase that Parker and I had dated, let alone that had cheated on me. My relationship with Parker had been a secret. None of the Fixer Brothers crew had known—not the TV crew or the construction crew. Parker had claimed it was because he was in the closet, and so I’d kept it under wraps for him. Then he’d been perfectly fine coming out of the closet for hisnewboyfriend. The same guy he’d cheated on me with.

It had been painful. Beyond painful.

But Chase had no idea that it was going to be uncomfortable for me this week, and I didn’twantChase to know, either.

This was his wedding. His week. And my own little sad story wasn’t going to ruin that. My colleague Emmett and I had worked the marketing side of the Fixer Brothers Construction company dutifully for the past year, taking their TV show and home goods brand to the next level. We wereexcellentmarketers. Excellent businessmen.

Thatwas what mattered. And I was going to be here for my friend.

But I knew I was going to have to encounter my ex this week at some point, and I wasn’t looking forward to it.

Now, all I wanted was no-strings-attached fun.

Hookups, flings, or casual things only.

---