His smile vanished completely, and then he took a step back. “Well, your friend Aiden should be happy to know you’re free and single now. If he has the balls to come and finally make you his. Too bad I figured out a way to beat him to it by getting you knocked up, and even got my ring on your finger. At least I know he’ll be getting my sloppy seconds.”
I slapped him across the face. “I hate you,” I said, clenching my hands into fists.
“I think chat time is over,” Bree said, her hand on Brian’s chest as she gave him a push back.
“Keep in mind what I said about where your focus should be, Willa.”
My entire body trembled as I lunged for Brian.
“Okay, down girl,” Bree said. She took my arm, and we started to walk toward her BMW.
“He had the nerve to tell me I needed to focus on Ben and not my sex life! Who in the hell does he think he is?!” I shouted as I slammed the car door shut.
“Hey, take care of my baby! She didn’t cheat on you and accuse you of being a whore.” Bree rubbed the dashboard of her Beamer.
“I hate him. I hate all men. I never want to see a penis again,” I said. “Now I know for a fact that he got me pregnant on purpose. Stupid! Stupid! I’m so freaking stupid.”
Bree choked on air for a few moments before she got control of herself. “Okay, whoa. First off, I think you’ve always known the little shit got you preggers on purpose. The whole stunt where he asked you in front of your family made that clear. So let’s hit the brakes on giving up on all men. That’s a pretty big statement to make, especially since I’ve arranged a celebratory night out.”
I stared at her as she started driving. “What do you mean, a celebratory night out?”
She shrugged, then turned and flashed me a smile. Her long, light brown hair whipped in the air when she hit a button and the roof of the BMW opened. Of course, Brighton’s hair looked stunning as the wind tossed it about. Mine, on the other hand, kept hitting me so hard I swore I’d have whiplash marks across my entire face when this ride was over.
I blew out a breath and pushed the hair away before I reached into my purse and pulled out a ponytail holder to put up my blonde hair. “I’m not going out tonight.”
“Yes, you are. You haven’t been out in…how many years?”
I stared straight ahead. “Probably since before I married ass hat.”
“Exactly! I already talked to Lacy, and she said Ben can spend the night there. Hunter is in, and he said he’s bringing some friends of his.”
“Oh no!” I moaned. “That means Bishop will be there.”
Bree laughed. “Yes, it does! You think he still has the hots for you?”
I turned to look at her. “Do you even have to ask that question? Why don’t you hook up with him? He’s cute.”
She smiled but kept her eyes on the road. “I plan on going home with Hunter tonight.”
I felt my lip snarl. “Gross. Too much information.”
Bree laughed. “I think I need to buy a little place of my own for when I come back home. I can’t really bring a guy back home to my folks’ B-and-B.”
“Do you plan on coming back to Boggy Creek more often?” I asked. The law firm she worked for was in Boston, and although it was only an hour-and-a-half drive—sometimes two if the traffic was bad—it was still a haul to drive back and forth.
She shrugged. “Now that your ball and chain is gone, I have a reason to come back home on the weekends. And the last time I saw Hunter, he was looking mighty fine. Plus, I heard he broke up with that teenager.”
“She wasn’t a teenager. He’s a cop, you know he wouldn’t do anything like that.”
Bree rolled her eyes. “Well, she certainly looked like one. I have no idea what he saw in her. She could barely carry on a conversation.”
“I know what he saw in her. Big boobs and the willingness to lie on her back,” I grumbled. My brother wasn’t a manwhore, but for some reason he couldn’t seem to find anyone to settle down with. The only woman I’d ever seen him pay attention to was Arabella Adams. She had graduated the same year as Hunter, and they had even gone to prom together. I wasn’t sure what had happened between them, but whatever it was, Arabella avoided my brother like the plague.
“Hell, I’ll give him that, if he would only ask,” Bree said.
I made a fake gagging sound but smiled as I looked out the passenger window. Bree had always had a crush on my brother. He was three years older than both of us, and he hardly gave her a second look when we were younger. Even throughout college.
Bree and I both ended up going to the Boston University. She went in the direction of law, while I went the business route, knowing someday I would be taking over the orchard. Bree never had any intentions of staying in Boggy Creek. She’d wanted the city life and nothing to do with her parents’ bed and breakfast. They’d even named Bree after the inn that had been in her mother’s family for years. Well, her middle name, anyway. Brighton Willow Rogers. The bed and breakfast was called the Willow Tree Inn. The best and only bed and breakfast in Boggy Creek.
“You need Hunter to see you as a beautiful woman, not that nerdy girl he remembers you as,” I suggested as I focused back on Bree.
She sighed and nodded. Hunter hadn’t seen Bree in a few years, so in my brother’s mind, she was still the skinny girl who wore glasses, her hair up in a tight bun. After I married Brian, her trips home ceased, and Bree and I mainly talked via phone or text. I hadn’t actually seen her myself until a year ago, when I called and told her I needed a lawyer. Every time she’d made it to Boggy Creek, she never crossed paths with Hunter.
A part of me couldn’t wait until Hunter saw her tonight. He was going to shit his pants. The nerdy girl had grown into a stunning woman with long, toned legs and a body that proved she was a health freak and an exercise fiend.
“I take it you brought something to wear tonight?” I asked.
Bree stopped at a stop sign and looked at me. “I didn’t just bring something…I brought the dress.”
“The dress?” I asked with a slight chuckle.
“Yes. That one dress that every woman puts on and smiles at herself because she knows she looks damn good in it, and that every single guy is going to come in his pants when she walks by.”
I let out a roar of laughter as I shook my head. “Goodbye lawyer, hello hot stuff!”
Bree stared at me for a moment too long, and I motioned with my hand for her to go.
“Wait. Do you have the dress?” she asked.
I shrugged. “No. I don’t even own any dresses that I didn’t buy pre-Brian.”
A horrified expression moved over Bree’s face before she cupped her hand under the steering wheel and made a U-turn.
“Where are you going?” I asked.
Giving me a smirk that said I was going to regret everything that happened from this point on, Bree replied, “We’re going to go buy you…the dress.”
Willa
Less than an hour later, I stood before a sea of mirrors with Bree to my back left and Annie to my back right. Annie owned Annie James Boutique on the main square in Boggy Creek. After owning a boutique in Boston for almost twenty years, Annie decided she wanted to live a simpler life. She’d stumbled upon Boggy Creek on a drive she’d taken with her husband, Ray. It was love at first sight, she claimed. There was an empty storefront with a “For Sale” sign in the window, and she’d promptly bought it.