Forever and a Day. Sophie Love

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СКАЧАТЬ shook her head. “I don’t want to say. I don’t want to sound like a bitch.”

      Jayne gave her a look. “Honestly, this is me you’re talking to. I’m the Queen Bitch. I doubt anything you could say would even come close to sounding bitchy to my ears.”

      Just then, Amy rushed over and grabbed Emily’s arms. She dabbed some perfume onto her wrist.

      “Smell!” she exclaimed with excitement.

      Emily sniffed. The fragrance was fresh and floral. “That’s much better,” she said.

      Amy grinned. “Okay. I’ve got it. I’ve got the perfect smell to complement this.” She rushed away again and bowed heads with the girl behind the counter as they sifted excitedly through the samples.

      “So?” Jayne pressed Emily. She clearly wasn’t going to let her drop it.

      Emily sighed loudly. “It’s just those guys at the inn.”

      “The boars who looked like they hadn’t showered in a week?”

      “Yup, those ones,” Emily replied. She bit her lip. “Well, they’re Daniel’s friends. His best men.”

      “Oh dear God!” Jayne exclaimed with a theatrical gasp. “They’re going to be in the photos?”

      Emily felt her cheeks burn. Jayne’s horrified response was making her feel worse.

      “It’s just the way that he keeps these things about his past from me,” Emily explained. “Like I would never have imagined in a million years that his best friends would be like that.”

      “Me neither,” Jayne replied. “I thought he’d have some hunky lumberjack types.”

      Emily sank her head into her hands. “I wish I’d have let him ask his boss now,” she replied glumly. “I’d prefer paint-stained hands over those three any day.”

      Amy came over with another scent stick, a look of concentration on her face. Without even speaking she grabbed Emily’s arm and dabbed the new scent inside her wrist, on top of the first one. Amy sniffed. Frowned. Sniffed again. Then grinned.

      “I think I’ve got it,” she said.

      Emily sniffed. “Yeah, that’s nice,” she replied in a lackluster voice.

      “You don’t like it?” Amy asked.

      “It’s not that,” Jayne interrupted. “Emily met the groomsmen today.”

      Amy raised an eyebrow. “Oh? Daniel’s elusive friends?”

      Jayne grabbed Amy’s arm. “You’ll never guess. It was those three in the foyer!”

      Amy’s eyes widened. “The ones I almost unleashed all hell upon?”

      “The very same.”

      Amy looked at Emily then. “Oh, babe. I’m sorry.”

      Emily cringed again. Daniel’s friends were oafs, but she was revealing a very nasty side of both her and her friends’ personalities. She knew they were being judgmental and petty. But she couldn’t help it.

      “Look,” Amy said, taking charge of the situation as she was often wont to do. “Why don’t we finish up here now we’ve found the scent and head back to the inn? We can have some drinks, get everyone’s tongues loosened up a bit. Then we’ll get to the bottom of it for you. Find out the deal. Who they are, what they do. Find out any juicy gossip.”

      “It’s the juicy gossip I’m worried about,” Emily replied glumly. “I just don’t understand how Daniel can be who he is with this mysterious past and these strange friends. None of it matches up. There’s like young Daniel who hated his home life and was flunking school and almost ran away, the one who was friends with those three. Then there’s Tennessee Daniel, the one who fathered a kid and beat a guy to a bloody pulp. Neither of them are my Daniel. It just freaks me out.”

      Amy rubbed her shoulder. “You’re just getting wedding jitters. It’s fine. Everyone has pasts.”

      “But not everyone hides them like Daniel does.”

      “He’s just embarrassed,” Jayne said. “I would be if those were my friends!” She cackled.

      Emily wanted to let her friends lift her spirits but it just wasn’t helping. The idea of all of them sitting around a table conversing, not to mention with alcohol added to the mix, didn’t seem that appealing to her. But it was going to have to happen sooner or later. May as well get it over with.

      “Okay, fine,” Emily said. “Let’s just get it out of the way.”

      Amy paid for the fragrance, exchanging business cards with the girl behind the counter, and they left the store. Emily’s friends linked arms with her, supporting her, like always, through every step of her journey.

      “I don’t know what I’d do without you guys,” Emily said as they strolled together back to Amy’s car.

      “I do,” Amy said with a mischievous twinkle in her eye. “You’d smell a whole lot worse!”

      CHAPTER FIVE

      It was an awkward mix of people, to say the least. The only relief Emily could feel as she looked at the strange array of faces scattered around the porch table was that her father and Chantelle weren’t here, since they were too absorbed in their work in the greenhouse to participate.

      Conversation was stilted. Even a pitcher of beer didn’t seem to help.

      “How did you all meet, then?” Amy asked, evidently trying to be as friendly as possible.

      “I’m Daniel’s oldest friend,” Stuart said. “I met him at school, way back. Back when he was still called Dashiel!”

      “The less said about that the better, thanks,” Daniel replied. He’d changed his name from the one that matched his father’s at a young age.

      “I joined the gang in middle school,” Evan added. “We picked Clyde up in high school.”

      “We got into mischief from that point onward,” Clyde finished. “Then sort of went our separate ways.”

      “Daniel was the only one who left the state though,” Stuart added. “Maybe to get away from us.” He laughed.

      Emily wondered. Maybe Daniel had wanted a fresh start away from his past when he left for Tennessee.

      “There’s nothing like a wedding to bring old friends back together,” Clyde said.

      “And it’s great timing, Danny Boy,” Stuart said, grabbing Daniel roughly around the neck. “I’ve only just gotten out on parole.”

      Emily took a huge swig of her drink. She felt Amy and Jayne shift uncomfortably beside her.

      “What were you in for?” Jayne asked.

      Amy and Emily shot her daggers. Jayne was clearly just trying to make conversation and, never one to think more than a millisecond before СКАЧАТЬ