But a larger part of her also didn’t care. She looked at him, at his beautiful face, and all she felt was nostalgia.
She swallowed and said, “It’s history, Ben—all is forgotten.”
His eyebrows went up and he turned his head a little, like he wasn’t sure he’d heard her correctly. “What?”
“I’m over it, so we’re cool.”
“Wow.” He smiled, looking totally surprised, and she wondered if she’d ever be able to look at him and not feel a tiny bit sad. She’d never want to get back together with him, but she’d probably also never feel nothing for him, either. “I can’t believe you’re being this nice about it all.”
“Why?” she asked, and they both shared a smile. Because the last time they’d spoken, she might’ve called him Satan (amongst other choice words) and taken his beloved World Series baseball.
She shrugged and said, “You weren’t that hard to get over, Scarf.”
Jack
Jack: Are you cold or just really happy to be at this rehearsal?
Hallie: First of all, you will not make me look down at my own breasts with your childish behavior.
Jack laughed quietly and looked up from his phone long enough to see her stick out her tongue at him. She looked down at her device and started typing again.
Hallie: Second of all, I got sent to the principal in junior high because when Jon Carson said that exact same thing to me, I went on a rant in the lunchroom about how he obviously knew nothing about nipples. I got in trouble for saying NIPPLES and he got off.
Jack: I bet he did.
Hallie: You’re an idiot.
“Hallie, for God’s sake,” her mother said, putting her hands on her hips and yelling, “can you put down your phone for five minutes so we can have a damn rehearsal here?”
Hallie rolled her eyes and set her phone on the empty seat beside her.
Jack laughed again from his spot in the gallery. The wedding was going to be outside the following day, but they were rehearsing inside because another wedding was going on today.
Everyone else in the room had a role in the wedding, but Jack’s only job was to sit and watch the train wreck. Hal’s mom and sister both seemed to be intense about every single detail, and Hal’s ex wouldn’t stop staring at Hal, but she had spent the entire time looking bored because she was on her phone.
Texting him.
Busted, he texted.
He watched her absolutely ignore her mother’s warning as she glanced at her phone and quickly sent: Quit getting me in trouble.
Hallie
“That is disgusting.”
Hallie looked up from her phone and at Carolyn, her sister’s maid of honor, who happened to be standing next to her and grinning with her nose wrinkled. “What?” she asked.
“The way your boyfriend watches you. I want to vomit with jealousy.”
Hallie followed Carolyn’s gaze to Jack, who was giving her that sarcastic little smirk she loved. “He’s actually being a brat—that’s what that look is.”
“I don’t mean this minute,” she said, glancing toward Hallie’s mom, who was having a shitfit about the violinist. “I mean that since we got here, your boyfriend has been sitting there staring at you as if you’re the most amazing thing he’s ever seen.”
Hallie needed to remember to tell him to tone it down a little so he didn’t come off as a clingy creep. He was good at looking at her like she was amazing, though; the look he was giving her at that moment did wild things to her stomach.
She opened her mouth to downplay it, but remembered that she did actually want everyone to think Jack was the perfect boyfriend who worshiped the ground she walked on.
“He’s just, um,” she said, trying to think of the right words. “Jack is just very focused.”
“Well, bravo, Hallie,” Carolyn said, looking downright wicked as she gazed at Jack. “A focused man is hard to find.”
* * *
? ? ?
“Okay, so I bribed the server to put us at Chuck and Jamie’s table.”
“What?” Hallie asked as they walked into the lodge’s great room. Jack had immediately reached for her hand when the rehearsal ended, and she’d yet to find a way to one-up him in their current situation.
“The server told me that there isn’t a head table, so you and I were already seated together.” His thumb stroked over her palm and she felt it everywhere. “I just had her flip it so we get to sit by your friends instead of your uncle Marco and aunt Tam.”
Hallie looked up at his mischievous face and wondered how he could be so perfect. Marco and Tam were loud, obnoxious people, and that would’ve been the worst. She said, “My sister’s going to kill you.”
He said, “Are you, though?”
“You are the greatest boyfriend in the world. I could never.”
He pulled out his phone and sent a text, and her phone buzzed.
She pulled it out of her pocket and read the message.
Jack: But you could kill ME, yes?
She smiled, pulled her hand free, and replied: I’ve spent hours daydreaming about that very thing.
Jack: Freak.
Hallie: I’m not, but your girlfriend told me you like teeth on your neck.
Jack: Don’t tell her what I’m about to tell you—this is just between Hal ’n’ Jack
Hallie: Yay! The country ’n’ is back!
Jack: Told you we’d revive it.
Hallie: You’re nothing if not dependable. Anyway, what don’t you want me to tell your beautiful, charming girlfriend?
Jack: When she kissed my neck today, I was this close to begging her to go back to the room with me.
At the thought, Hallie’s stomach dipped and she felt a little light-headed. So . . . you wanted her to go back for more biting?
Jack: Biting ’n’ more. ’N’ much more.
“Would you two put your phones away?” Chuck yelled from his seat. “Come on, it looks like you’re at our table.”
Hallie and Jack walked over to the table, and Hallie was glad the moment had been broken, because she’d been about to beg her best friend for “?’n’ more” all night long. She took the seat between Chuck and Jack and immediately reached for the glass of wine beside her plate and drained it.
“You drank that very fast, young lady,” Jack said in a low voice next to her ear.
She glanced at him and rolled her eyes when he gave her that funny little squint that called her out on her flustered state.
The room was set up to put Hallie’s sister in the spotlight. There was a table in the center of the room covered in white linens to accentuate her and her husband-to-be’s bloodred formal wear (yes, Riley had opted for a red suit to match his bride). A huge, glowing chandelier hung over their table, literally putting them in the spotlight.
Everyone else was seated at white tables dispersed around the room in near-darkness, aside from the candelabra centerpieces.
Hallie had to hand it to her sister; the girl knew how to create a mood.
“So what’d you two do all day?” Chuck had already loosened his tie, and it was very crooked. “I figured we’d run into you somewhere.”