The loft dressing room was large and open, white couches and chairs scattered throughout and a vanity in the far corner, perfect for hair and makeup. On the east wall, French doors opened up to a balcony that overlooked the barn below, where rows of long wooden tables were set up for the reception later tonight and thousands of white lights were strung from the beams. It certainly was a far cry from the rubble she, Asher, and Nash used to wade through just to find someplace private to sneak a couple beers.
“Yeah, well, that’s Rory’s hard work for you,” Will said from where she was seated in front of the vanity, eyes closed as Avery swept eye shadow across her lids. “This was, what, your fifth job together?”
Rory nodded. “Something like that. It’s definitely the biggest one we’ve ever taken on. This place was amess. Nash was mad as all get-out I’d even taken it on—always worried about me comin’ in here because of how dangerous it was. He started leavin’ hard hats everywhere, just in case I forgot mine.”
Nat huffed out a laugh and shook her head. The man Rory was in love with was a far cry from the troublemaker Nat had grown up with. The one who’d dared her to walk from one beam to another in this very barn, with nothing but air below her. “He never made me wear a hard hat when we came around.”
“Probably thought your head was hard enough,” Gran said.
“Probably,” Nat echoed. “Y’all remember when me and the guys used to sneak out here all the time?”
“I remember havin’ to drag your sorry butts home more than once,” Mac said with an eye roll. “The last time was the summer before I started college. You remember that? Hudson was with me ’cause Will bailed.”
“Hey,” Will said. “I just wanted to spend time with my friends before goin’ back to school.”
Mac shrugged. “Doesn’t change that you bailed.”
“Wait a minute,” Momma said, pinning Nat with a glare even as she fastened Will’s necklace. “I distinctly remember forbidding you from settin’ foot here sometime around Memorial Day that year.”
Rory snorted, smoothing a wayward strand of hair back from Will’s face. “Momma, since when has forbidding Nat fromanythingdone any good?”
“She’s got a point,” Will said, even as Avery applied lipstick. “You probably only made it that much more enticin’ to her.”
“Rude.” Nat raised her camera to her face and captured her momma making sure Will’s necklace was sitting just so as Avery applied Will’s lipstick. “True, but rude.”
Her mom expelled a put-out sigh. “Honestly, Nat, is it any wonder your daddy’s got a head full of gray hair, all of ’em courtesy of you?”
Laughing, Nat adjusted her camera’s settings as she focused on Will’s dress hanging in the window, the light pouring in around it. “Sorry, Momma, but that’s why I left Havenbrook so quick. Me and rules don’t work so well together.”
“Speakin’ of leavin’…” Gran said from her perch on a love seat, her eyes on the crossword puzzle she’d been working through. “How’ve you been handlin’ bein’ here? Gotta say, never in my wildest dreams did I imagine you’d be back in Havenbrook.” She lifted her eyes, her gaze studying Nat. “And settlin’ down, no less.”
Settling down…right. God, she hated lying to everyone. Hated that she couldn’t just be honest with them. Though, really, what would that honesty look like now? The basis of her marriage with Asher may have been false, a means to an end, but the more time they spent in the same house…in the same bed…was starting to make things between them feel awfully damn real.
“It’s weird but good, Gran.”
“And how about Asher?” Momma asked. “It looks like he’s been handlin’ things all right, but is he really? This must be so stressful for him. Losin’ his sister and now fightin’ for those kids.”
“I’m sure Nat’s been helpin’ him take the edge off,” Gran said, winking.
“Gran!” Nat said on a laugh. “You perverted old woman. What’s the matter with you?”
Gran shrugged, completely unrepentant. “I was once a newlywed, too, you know.”
“Well, I’m not sure I need to hear all that,” Momma said. “From either of you. But I would like to hear how y’all’ve been doin’. How’re things?”
“They’re…” Nat trailed off, shaking her head. It felt wrong saying everything was fine when the custody was still up in the air, June was about to start therapy, and Asher still didn’t have a job. Not to mention their entire relationship was a farce. “Things are hard, but we’re figurin’ them out.”
“I have no doubt you two are.” Momma smiled and swept Nat’s hair behind her shoulder. “Y’all always were so good together. I know you and Nash have been friends longer, but you and Asher…” She shook her head. “Well, y’all just had a spark, you know? I’ve always thought so.”
“Me, too,” Gran said. “And that’s certainly something that can’t be faked.”
Nat snapped her gaze to Gran, where their eyes locked. She studied her grandma, trying to suss out if she was reading more into it than she should, because it’d felt an awful lot like her gran had picked those exact words for a reason.
“Me three,” Avery said, sorting through a makeup carrier that rivaled Nat’s camera bag. “I thought you guys were together for the longest time. Figured Will just wasn’t in on it when she told me it wasn’t true.”
Nat glanced down, busying herself with swapping out her lenses. “Yeah, well…”
Will cleared her throat. “I, um, I hope my askin’ him to play today didn’t add any stress.”
