Page 63 of Honeymoon Phase
And as I look at Johanna gazing at me in the mirror with contemplative eyes, I wonder if this is what my mom would be like... if things were different.
I don’t have long to ponder that painful thought because I’m swept up into a dressing room to try on a mountain of dresses with ladies who make me forget about this wedding being fake, because they’re all so perfectly real.
“She said yes to the dress!” Dakota calls out to Pearl Street Pub in Boulder as we clink our glasses together in unison.
“Quiet down,” I shush her with a giggle while shooting apologetic glances to the other patrons at the bar.
“Sorry.” Dakota laughs as she reaches up to tie her blond hair into a ponytail. “I just thought they should know.”
“The strangers in the bar that we’ve never met do not care about my wedding dress status.” I eye her skeptically.
“You never know.” Dakota tuts before taking a sip of her Moscow mule.
“I’m so glad we’re doing this,” Cozy says, stumbling over to us as she fists four shots of Fireball she just ordered at the bar. Her short dark hair falls in front of her face and she shakes her head to push it back. “Since we didn’t get to throw you a bachelorette party, an impromptu bar crawl on Pearl Street is the next best thing.”
“Okay, but why do we have to keep having Fireball?” I ask, sniffing the cinnamon whiskey and wrinkling my nose.
“’Cause it’s like a breath mint and it’s delicious!” Cozy answers with a gleeful smile.
Trista holds her shot glass up and yells, “To another woman on Fletcher Mountain!”
“Hear! Hear!” Dakota confirms, lifting her glass to her lips and shooting her shot along with the rest of us.
“You guys are starting to make me feel left out.” Cozy winces and blows out her cinnamon breath all over us. “I’m going to make Max build us a cabin on Fletcher Mountain.”
“Do it!” Dakota slaps her hands on the table. “Max is so rich, it’d be like nothing to him. You guys deserve a mountain getaway house.”
“He does have a house in Aspen though,” Cozy replies regretfully.
Dakota shoots Trista a flat look. “When she says things like that it makes her really unrelatable.”
“Shut up!” Cozy whacks Dakota on the arm and Dakota nearly spills her drink, causing all four of us to erupt in laughter.
I shake my head, sipping my beer at a much slower pace than the rest of these girlies. This is giving Mexico vibes all over again, and these broads couldn’t hold their liquor then either.
But I have to admit, I’m having a blast. After I found a dress that literally took my breath away and didn’t need a spec of alterations on, we all went to dinner together and afterward, the girls convinced Johanna to take us to Pearl Street and we’ve been bar hopping ever since.
Jo stuck with us for the first stop, sipping her demure club soda and enjoying the live band, but then I think she could see where the day was headed and got the hell out of Dodge. The last thing she said to us was to be sure to call one of the boys when we needed a ride back up to Fletcher Mountain.
Johanna paused briefly before she hugged me goodbye, almost as if she was waiting for me to be ready for it. And something in that subtle shift in her embrace made me not recoil like I normally would have. I have to hand it to Luke’s mom... the woman can roll with the punches pretty well. I suppose having four boys would make her pretty used to adapting to all types of situations. And these three women around me have only added more color to the Fletcher family madness.
“Can we give her her gift now?” Trista asks, drumming her hands loudly on the table.
“You guys didn’t have to get me a gift.”
“You’re going to love it.” Dakota reaches under the table and pulls out a white bridal bag that I noticed she was carrying around from bar to bar. But I guess I didn’t think to ask her what was inside of it.
“I think Luke is going to love it a bit more,” Cozy adds with a wink.
I look inside the bag and wince when I see a whole lot of lace and straps. I slam the bag closed and shake my head. “You guys.”
“Come on, pull it out!” Trista cheers, shoving the bag at me.
I exhale heavily and pull out the tiny two pieces of lingerie. It’s a white lace embroidered set with lots of room for cleavage and ass.
“For your wedding night.” Cozy smiles and nudges me with her arm.
“Although technically she already had a wedding night,” Dakota corrects.
