Accidentally Married to Brother's Best Friend Read online

But now we couldn’t even see to drive. I could barely see my hand in front of my face. How on earth was everyone supposed to get up here for the reception tomorrow?

  Thank God the wedding wasn’t until the afternoon. I’d figured out pretty quickly during this whole process that Bree and Chad were the kind of people who hated getting up early in the morning, so I’d scheduled for everything to be later in the day. Hopefully it would also be helpful to people who were traveling to this destination wedding and weren’t in the wedding party, so they could arrive the night before and wouldn’t have to worry about not getting enough sleep.

  Now it was working out in my favor, just in case this snow didn’t let up.

  At least everything else was in place. I went around the house, turning on the heat so I wouldn’t freeze to death, making sure that all was in order. We had the catering ready to go, in the fridge or warming in the oven, everything completely set up so that the waitstaff could get up here tomorrow and all they had to do was serve it.

  The outdoor “winter wonderland” ice sculpture garden was complete, and it was going to look great—it was all out in the backyard, since the garden obviously couldn’t be enjoyed for the flowers this time of year. I’d have to dust the snow off of the ice sculptures tomorrow after this storm finished, but that could be done tomorrow morning, no problem.

  While I made sure that the centerpieces were ready for the floral bouquets, I tried to call Bree, then Chad, then Bree again.

  No reception. I couldn’t get through.

  Dammit!

  Well, at least the flowers were still good, and I’d wet those bouquets up tomorrow before I headed to the church…

  “You’re not going to be able to reach them,” Preston said, entering the side room from the large living room he’d been in. I didn’t plan on the party using that living room, one of the more ‘casual’ rooms in the mansion. We’d be using the dining room, ballroom, backyard patio, library, and main hall.

  “Maybe not right now,” I agreed, “but once this snow stops…”

  Preston shook his head. “I just turned on the television and checked the weather report. It’s supposed to snow for the next two days and they’re not sure they can clear the roads off.”

  Shit. Fuck. I was stuck here unable to do my job, with the wedding possibly ruined, and I was with Preston Clark of all goddamn people. Oh, sure, he was polite enough in the car and it had been almost… nice. But I couldn’t let that faze me. I couldn’t let him make me think that he was a good person just like he had the last time.

  “I’m still going to act like the wedding is on,” I insisted. No way was I going to undo all of my hard work only to find out that my panic was for nothing. And to think, up until now my only concern had been the fear that the wedding party wouldn’t be sober enough to attend the wedding.

  Now the state of sobriety of the bride and groom was the least of my worries.

  Preston sighed, then turned and left. I wasn’t sure what he was thinking—maybe he was trying to get better reception for his phone—but then he returned a moment later with his suitcase.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” I demanded.

  “I went straight to the chapel from the airport,” Preston explained. “I didn’t check into the hotel. So, here’s all my stuff. I’m going to pick a room.”

  “Absolutely not!” There were four bedrooms, so it wasn’t like there wasn’t room, but these were supposed to stay nice and clean for the wedding tomorrow. I couldn’t have him messing the bedrooms up so that someone might stumble into a room with toiletries and clothes everywhere and the bed unmade.

  “What do you want us to do?” Preston replied calmly.

  Somehow it was even more infuriating that he was staying calm through all of this. I wanted him to get angry, to get pissed, to snap back at me. It made me feel like I was some stupid, hysterical woman instead of someone who was rightfully distrustful of him.

  “This snow isn’t going to die down in time for us to get out of here and sleep in the hotel tonight,” Preston continued. “I’ll tidy up my room tomorrow morning before the wedding, if we even have the wedding. I don’t know that we’ll be able to get down there. If it’s snowing for two days straight then we’re stuck here whether we like it or not, and I bet a lot of guests that were supposed to fly in tonight are going to be grounded.”

  Fuck. This was such a mess. I wanted to scream. “Fine, do whatever you want. I’m going to do my job.”

  “You might want to have something to eat,” Preston pointed out. “You look like you’re going to fall over.”

  It was true, I hadn’t eaten in a while, but the only food in the house was the catering. “We have to save the food for tomorrow. It’s for the reception.”

  Preston shrugged as if to say suit yourself.

  “I’m going to bed,” I announced. I could kip out on the couch in the living room, no problem.

  “Sleep well,” Preston said, heading upstairs. He sounded like he knew I wasn’t going to sleep well at all. Well, what did he know? And how cared if I slept well or not? All that mattered was that I found a way to have this wedding go forward in spite of the weather.

  I set myself up on the couch and went to sleep, using the surprisingly comfortable throw blanket. The heat was going, nice and steady, and before I knew it, my eyes were closing. I really was exhausted, and I was so grateful to slip into sleep and enter a world where I didn’t have to think or plan or deal with Preston or…

  My eyes snapped open.

  It was dark all around me, including outside, and a quick glance at the clock up on the mantlepiece told me it was two thirty in the morning. I shivered. It was so cold, I needed another blanket—why was I awake at two thirty in the morning—

  Then it hit me.

  I had woken up because I was so cold, my body had snapped me awake to find more warmth. I had also probably woken up because all of the sounds of modern technology, the humming machines around us that we took for granted, were gone. It was utterly silent in the house, and that change must’ve alerted my subconscious. And the reason I was freezing, the reason it was silent, was that the heat had gone out. Which meant the power had gone out.

  Shit, the food!

  I sat bolt upright, scrambling for my phone so that I could use it as a flashlight as I got out of bed. The food was going to spoil in the fridge if I didn’t get it onto something that would keep it cold—thank God we were surrounded by snow.

  Part of this felt like a nightmare—a horrid, awful nightmare, all of my biggest anxieties from my work and my personal life slamming together to create my personal hell—but no matter how much I pinched myself, I didn’t wake up. This was real.

  It made me want to faceplant in the snow and just not get up again.

  7

  Preston

  I woke up shivering.

  Shit.

  That wasn’t a good sign. I sat up and looked around. This was a pretty fancy bedroom, and there had been a digital clock on the nightstand next to the bed. The clock was now blank. Fuck, the storm must’ve knocked out the power.

  I got up and put on a bathrobe, then went out to see what Lyric was doing. I was sure that she was probably cold, so I could throw a blanket on her if nothing else, but I wouldn’t be surprised if she had noticed the power being out too…

  Sure enough, Lyric was carrying food out into the snow, packing the snow around it so that the food would stay cold. Obviously this was the stuff that was supposed to be for the reception tomorrow. I thought I’d seen that the oven was a gas oven, so this food could at least be warmed up when the time came, but…

  “Lyric, you should leave it.” I wrapped my arms around myself. It was fucking freezing outside. “Nobody’s going to come. The wedding’s off.”

  Even if people could get to the chapel from the hotel, Lyric wouldn’t be there to see it, and nobody could get up here for the reception.

  “Absolutely not! This can still clear up, the wedding’s
not for another twelve hours!”

  I went back inside. Poor girl was draining her phone battery by using it as a flashlight, and there were candles everywhere. If I could just find a lighter…

  “What do you think you’re doing!?” Lyric dashed towards me as I lit candles around, trying to take the lighter from me. “Those are for the wedding tomorrow!”

  “Lyric, please.” I hated to see her upset but she had to face the truth. I grabbed onto her wrists, stopping her from grabbing at me. “I get that you’re frustrated. I really do. But you won’t be any help if you’re starving tomorrow, or if you drained your phone battery because you wouldn’t light the candles. You have to take care of yourself, too.”

  Lyric stared at me with wide eyes, apparently surprised that I was taking such care with her. I wasn’t quite sure what I’d done to make her think I was so heartless that this simple thoughtfulness was surprising, but I was determined to turn around her opinion of me. I wanted her to see that whatever she thought of me, she was wrong. A strong protectiveness seized me. I wanted to look after her, as she was stretching herself so thin for people who didn’t even deserve it.

  She tugged her wrists away from me, as if she’d just realized that I was still holding them. “You can go back to bed if you want. I’m going to make sure that things are still good for the wedding tomorrow.”

  The urge to insist that there wouldn’t be a wedding tomorrow as on the tip of my tongue, but I held it back. Lyric seemed to be the kind of person who coped by being productive, so if this was what she needed, I’d let her be productive. But fuck if I was going to go to bed and let her work herself until she passed out. I’d help.

  By the time we finished taking care of the food, I was freezing and I was sure that Lyric was too. I went into the living room and started up the fire—took me a few tries since this fireplace obviously hadn’t been used in a while, but at last I got it going.

  Lyric was still looking over the food, muttering to herself like she was running down a checklist to make sure she hadn’t missed anything.

  “C’mon.” I took her gently by the shoulders and led her inside. “You need to warm up before you freeze to death. Can’t keep everyone organized if you’re dead.”

  Lyric snorted with bitter humor.

  I got her settled on the couch with some blankets and then settled on the other couch opposite. Sure enough, within minutes, she was asleep. I turned my phone and hers off so that the batteries wouldn’t run, and set an alarm on my wrist watch so that we would wake up in time. Having done everything I could do, I fell asleep.

  When my alarm woke me up, the snow was still falling. Fuck.

  I looked over at Lyric. She looked so beautiful and peaceful, her red hair falling around her face, and I hated having to wake her up, but I knew she’d kill me if I let her sleep in too long no matter how much she needed the rest.

  “Lyric.” I crouched down next to her and gently shook her shoulder. The temptation to brush her hair out of her face, to tuck it behind her ear, was like a living wolf howling inside of me. “Hey, time to get up.”

  Lyric’s eyes slowly blinked open. She looked at me for a second, and for the first time, there was no resentment. There was this soft, warm look on her face, like she was happy to see me, and in that moment—I felt like I would’ve done just about anything to have her keep looking at me like that.

  I would do whatever it took to get her to look at me like that all the time. To have her smiling at me, soft and trusting.

  Then Lyric’s eyes got wide, as if she was properly awake and realized what was going on, and she sat up straight. “The wedding!”

  I glanced out the windows. There was nothing but white as far as the eye could see. Snow was still falling in thick fluffy blankets. There was no way the roads all the way up here had been cleared in time. We couldn’t get down the mountain.

  “You might want to call the wedding party,” I told her, turning her phone on and handing it to her. I had a phone charger so if worst came to worst we could charge her phone up in my car, but I didn’t want to run my gas out or drain my car battery.

  Lyric got up and immediately began dialing on her phone. “There’s no service. Ugh!”

  “The phone lines must be down.” This high up in the mountains, I wasn’t surprised if she couldn’t get a cell tower.

  “No.” Lyric shook her head and started pacing, calling again. “No, no, no…”

  I had a feeling she wouldn’t appreciate me just standing there staring at her, so I went outside to check on the food. Everything had been covered, which was a good thing because it was all blanketed in snow. I dusted off the containers. The food was perfectly preserved. We could warm it up in the oven (thank God it was gas-run) so at least we had something to eat.

  After that, I went up and washed up and got dressed. The water power wasn’t connected to electricity and there was a window in the bathroom, letting light in so that I could see.

  By the time I was dressed—just in slacks and a blue sweater—and back downstairs, Lyric was still sitting on the couch, trying to reach people on the phone.

  Her back was to me, and I could see her shoulders hunched over, the way she ran her hand through her hair… she looked so frustrated and exhausted. I wanted to reach out and massage her shoulders, release some of that tension for her, but I knew that it wouldn’t be appreciated.

  I walked over and Lyric jumped to her feet. “There’s still no way for me to reach the wedding party—you have to drive me down the mountain.”

  “No. No way. I’m not about to risk your life just for a wedding, I don’t care whose wedding it is.” Even if it had been the wedding of someone I actually cared about, I would’ve said that—but to be honest I wasn’t sweating all that much over my annoying cousin.

  “I have to get down there! I’m in charge!” Lyric’s voice cracked a little. “You think that any bride or groom is going to be good at handling things on their wedding day? That’s why they hire me! So they don’t have to think about it! Especially those two, God help us if they’re in charge, nothing will get done—and I need to arrange a different meal for everyone if they can’t get up here, and talk to the hotel, and—”

  “Lyric.” I took a risk and grasped her shoulders, rubbing gently with my thumbs. Lyric stopped talking—I was pretty sure just out of shock. “If the snow is bad up here, it’s bad down in the town, too. We’re not that isolated. I don’t think anyone’s going to be able to get to the wedding.”

  For a second, she looked like she might cry. Then a fierce look came into her eyes. “I’m not going to let this go down in my record as a failure.”

  “It won’t, because this isn’t your fault. You can’t control the weather. Nobody’s going to blame you for this.” I paused. “And if they do, I’ll fight them. Physically. I box.”

  Lyric snorted in amusement. “Of course, you box.”

  “I’m going to bring in the catering and warm it up in the oven. Okay?”

  Lyric sighed. She didn’t look happy. “This was supposed to be perfect.”

  “I know.” Lyric was detail oriented, a perfectionist, and a small business owner. This had to be a blow for her. “I’m going to go get the food.”

  Lyric shook her head and started trying to get in contact with people on her phone again, but she didn’t try to stop me. I went out into the snow, got all the food, and brought it in. The oven fired up, thank God, and I started dividing food out into some portions for the two of us.

  I had to admit, the food that had been picked out was delicious. Lyric had to have chosen this stuff. It wasn’t the kind of frou-frou fancy just for the sake of being fancy food that Bree probably would’ve chosen, or the basic frat food like nachos that Chad would’ve chosen.

  There was roasted chicken pesto pasta, creamy black truffle mashed potatoes, and grilled chili asparagus and artichoke. My mouth was watering as it all heated up, and then I covered the food again and stuck it all back into the snow. I
had no idea when the fridge would work again, and the snow would keep it all frozen so that we could just grab out portions as we needed them.

  When I came back into the living room with the two plates, Lyric gave me the stink eye. She was still mad at me for heating up the catering food, as if there was a chance in hell that we’d actually be serving it for the wedding party anytime soon.

  “C’mon.” I waved the plate under her nose. “You can’t tell me you’re not hungry. There’s bread rolls too, if you want them.”

  Lyric sighed and took the plate and fork from me, like this was the worst thing she’d ever had to do in her life. I went back and got the bread rolls, and we dug in.

  Damn, this food was delicious. “You did good,” I told her. “This food is great.”

  For the first time since she’d woken up, Lyric cracked a small smile at me.

  8

  Lyric

  Okay, fine. I would eat the catering.

  It was delicious food—of course it was, I’d picked it out after gently coaxing Bree away from things like caviar and Chad away from things like greasy, fried food. Not that there was anything wrong with fried food and it could be delicious too, but it wouldn’t match the rest of the elegant air the wedding had. And I had a feeling most of his family would’ve lost their shit if they’d had to eat fried chicken.

  God, I’d had no idea how starving I was. I devoured my food, nearly choking, and then had a few of the bread rolls that Preston warmed up for me. I’d made sure to order a lot of extra bread rolls, because people always ate a lot of those.

  Finally, I felt full—and like I could actually think straight. Okay, so maybe eating was a good idea. I could admit to that. I could think better and my temper would be more… even-keeled, with food in my stomach.

  I cleaned up the dishes, and noticed that Preston had put the catering all back out in the snow to preserve it. That warmed my heart. We’d eaten some of the catering, but I could still make it work, so long as the food was preserved. I’d just stir up the food while it was warming up so that nobody would notice that some of it had been eaten. And there were some platters around here, I was sure, that I could have the caterer put the food into so that it would look nice.