“Play a song!” Monica insisted, sitting on a bench set back from the fire. After dinner, everyone had played on the beach until the sun went down, and now the wedding party was roasting marshmallows. It was a warm evening, so the fire was low, and the benches were nowhere close enough for the sticks to reach, so anyone who wanted a treat had to stand and approach the flames. Bree was content to eat the sugary snacks without warming them first.
“Do you know ‘Unchained Melody’?” Monica asked as Bree considered whether or not to make a
It took a while for Bree to break free of playing the guitar. When Dwayne asked if he could play something, she gladly handed the instrument over. It seemed to her that he likely wanted her to sit next to him and sing along, but she made an excuse about stretching her legs and headed out after Hank.She found him sitting by the cluster of rocks he’d found her at a few times already that week. He had a beer in his hand--and he was crying.
The next morning, the women were asked to attend a brunch while the men were doing something else. Bree wasn’t sure what it was, but she had a feeling golf was involved. She didn’t even want to go, but Lilly had sent her a text before the brunch started, and she ended up saying she’d be there.The pictures and video on her phone were burning a hole through it. She definitely didn’t want to watch the videos or study the pictures, but she also didn’t know what to do with them. If she told Trent they existed, he’d be so mad at Hank--he
Trent was already there when Bree arrived at the meeting location. She took her time walking over, not because she was puzzled about what she was going to say but because she was studying him. The sun was almost directly overhead. It picked up the golden highlights in his hair and reflected them like a halo around his head. His skin was more bronze now than it had ever been in all the years she’d known him, probably from so much beach time. His eyes were the color of the sea, and the way he worried his hand against his set jaw, he looked so handsome she could hardly handle looking at him, but she also couldn’t pull away.
“Bree, is there something you want to tell me?” Trent asked, his hand on top of hers in the sand.Slowly, Bree nodded and pulled her phone out of her pocket. “Yeah, I guess you could say that. Do you know why Hank was so upset last night?”Trent nodded, and she was surprised. She’d assumed he had no idea. “He still has fe
After Bree left, Trent sat on the beach for at least a half an hour or more staring out at the ocean, thinking about what Bree had said. He’d have to head back to the room and talk to Monica eventually. He had no idea how that conversation was going to go, but he had a feeling she’d deny everything, even with the pictures right in front of her face.He’d had an idea she was sneaking around with someone, but he didn’t know it was Hank. He never would’ve thought Hank could do anything like that to him. Granted, he did meet Monica first. The
Monica opened the door wearing a long, white nightgown made of silk, her dark hair hanging down past her shoulders, her makeup perfect, and her expression innocent. “Hi, babe,” she said, stepping aside so Trent could come in. “What’s going on?”He took a deep breath and crossed into the room, thinking the threshold was a point of no return he couldn’t go back from. “I have something important to talk to you about, Monica, and I need the truth from you, okay?”
Bree kept expecting to get a phone call from someone letting her know that the wedding was off. Either Lilly--or Hank--or if things were really heading the right direction--Trent himself. But the closer it got to the time she was supposed to leave for the rehearsal dinner, the more she began to realize nothing had changed.She’d done everything she could. She’d gone to Trent, proof in hand, showed it to him, poured her heart out, and it hadn’t been enough.
Aware that Bree had arrived, Trent did his best not to look at her. He wanted to; he knew she looked gorgeous in that green dress without even turning his head that direction. But Monica didn’t need to know Bree had anything to do with his discovery of her cheating, nor did she need to know that he had feelings for Bree, that he’d been in love with her for at least a decade and wasn’t sure how he’d ever stop loving her, even if he did go through with the wedding.Monica had made more promises in the last few hours than she ever had in the whole
Two weeks later…. Bree sat on the beach, a drink one hand, Trent’s fingers interlaced with her other where it lay in the sand. The ocean waves rolled in, wetting the sand near their toes, the sun baking down on their tan skin as it dried from their first dip in the ocean. There would be plenty more.&nbs
The sound of the gavel echoed throughout the courtroom. No one said a word for what seemed like the longest few seconds Bree could ever remember. Then, the people around her came back to life, and she found air in her lungs again. “Are you okay?” Trent asked. He was always asking her that, checking on her, making sure she was all right. Bree nodded. She was all right. She was going to continue to be all right, too. It seemed like a nightmare that had lasted almost two years was finally over.&nb
Yet again, Bree found herself speaking to a police officer. This time, she wasn’t the one lying in a hospital bed, though. Instead, after they’d pieced together enough of the story to know that the maintenance man had been trying to make it so that the pipe above her head would move down, Bree and her bandmates had been asked to come to the police station. The others were sitting outside, or maybe one or two of them were being interviewed by other officers now. All she knew was the man sitting across from her, Detective Coop Wellington, didn’t look like the sort of person one kept information from. “We know Monica and this&helli
“All right--Bree Matthews!” a stagehand shouted, coming over with a clipboard and a microphone on his head. “Are you ready?” “We are ready!” Bree said for all of them, bouncing on her heels. “Then, head to your spots.” He signaled for them to approach their section of the stage. The band had been prepped on how this would work before the show. They headed to the places they’d been told to earli
Sitting in a chair, staring at a runway, brought back way too many uncomfortable memories for Trent. Had it really just been a little over a year since he’d spent at least one or two days a week sitting in just such a chair, waiting for Monica to come down the stage? It seemed so strange now. He tried not to fidget, but his leg was bouncing up and down so quickly, he was glad he wasn’t outside because he might manage to start a fire with the right kindling--and like Bree, he’d had enough of fire for one lifetime. “Are you all right?” Celia asked, leaning over to whisper in his ear. “You’re making me nervous, an
Anxiety bubbled up in Bree as she stood in the staging area, getting ready for the big show. All around her, models and bands were putting the finishing touches on their makeup and hair, the models getting into their first outfits so that they’d be fully prepared to grace the runway as soon as it was their turn to take the walk and show off the newest fashions to an invigorated audience. From what Bree could tell, this wasn’t actually one of those fashion shows where the clothing was practical and might be bought by the average housewife. No, it was mostly lingerie, and it was mostly, well, ridiculous, in her point of view. None of it was s
The sound of voices from the television met Bree’s ear as she walked through the apartment door. She checked the time on her phone. It was only a little past 3:00. What was Trent doing home? She had to assume it was him watching the television because it sounded like the news channel, and if the housekeeper had turned it on, it would’ve been a soap opera or court show. Hanging her purse by the door, and placing her keys where she could find them, she went into the adjoining room to investigate. Trent was sitting on the couch with his laptop open on his lap, his stocking feet on the coffee table, typing away. She almost didn’t want to
Meeting Monica at the event center where the Nashville Nights concert was to be held was intimidating, even though Bree had her bandmates with her. She had insisted Trent go to work; it was a Thursday afternoon, after all, just after lunch, and there was no reason for him to miss work to walk with her through the building where she’d be playing in a couple of nights, not when she had three capable men and Shawna with her to give her moral support.Trent had protested, saying he’d feel much more comfortable if Bree allowed him to go along, that the rest of the band wasn’t aware of how Monica could be. It had almost led to an argument. Bree had insisted she wasn&
“This is a horrible idea. The worst one ever. In the entire history of the world, I cannot imagine one idea worse than this one.” Celia sat across from Trent in his office, her arms folded, her legs crossed, her face puckered.At the moment, he couldn’t even allow himself to snicker at her exaggeration. While he agreed that what he was about to do was a terrible idea, he could think of lots of other ideas that were worse, many of them involving wars that had killed thousands or millions of people. Or spread disease. Or polluted the environment. But she was right--of all of the decisions he’d been directly involved in, this one was pretty awful.