“Yes. But I’m allowed to invite friends. My step-brother is bringing a date.”
I wanted to ask what had happened with her and Kim, Dan’s wife, but Sadie was still waiting for my answer, and I was still trying to find a way to get out of it. She might not think she needed advice, but maybe all she needed was a good brainstorm sesh. One that did not include me being half of a wingman duo with Noah. No wonder she had suggested I just get Noah out of my system by hanging around him more. She’d had her own agenda all along.Thatwas the Sadie I knew.
“You could bring a date,” I suggested.
“Yeah, no. My future stepmom’s rehearsal dinner isn’t exactly first date material.”
“You could take Noah as your date.”
“Youcould take Noah as your date.” Sadie stared me down, knowing exactly what I was doing. “You’re my moral support, and Noah is my small-talk guy. That’s why I need both of you. And you need to face him before Monday. Think about what I said. The best thing that could ever happen to Noah is for you to make him think he has a chance with you and then blow him off. It will be much more effective than ignoring him for the rest of your life while pretending you’re over him.”
She made it sound so easy. But I wasn’t wired to flirt and not mean it. Not even with someone who had done the same thing to me. “Does Noah even know you want him to come? He could have plans.”Let him have plans.
“I’m asking you first, Jenny. Trust me, if he knows you’re coming, he won’t have plans.”
I blew out a raspberry. “Whatever.” She had way more confidence in his attachment to me than I did.
“This will be good for you two,” she promised.
“I didn’t say I was coming.” I was totally coming. Sadie wasn’t going to let me out of this one unless I had a good reason. Not wanting to go wouldn’t quite cut it. The fact was, I owed her and she needed me. And after venting about all my pathetic-ness, I had to admit it was nice to be needed. For once, I was about to come to someone’s rescue instead of someone coming to mine.
Chapter 25 – Noah
I had internet-researched the heck out of rehearsal dinners and what to expect, but did that mean I knew what I was doing as I walked up to a house I’d never been to, all to celebrate a couple I’d never met? No, it did not. For one thing, rehearsal dinners were supposed to be the night before the wedding. This one was a week out. I had a feeling nothing I’d read was going to help me.
In fact, if Dan hadn’t assured me there actually was a dinner tonight at his dad’s house and confirmed the address I’d been given, I would have assumed this was some sort of trap where I went up to some stranger’s door on a fool’s errand, all with the hope of seeing Jenny.
I’d asked Sadie to give me the level of Jenny’s anger towards me on a scale of one to ten. Just so I had a pretty good idea of what to expect. Her response? Eight. She said Jenny didn’t have a ten on her scale. She wasn’t capable of hatred that strong because she was a better person than the rest of us, and I was scum for using her feelings for me in a plot.
So, yeah. I was sort of expecting to have a drink thrown strategically to make it look like I’d wet my pants tonight. Or for Sadie to block me from touching anything dairy-related while loudly reminding me violent diarrhea wasn’t my friend.
I put my hand up and knocked on the door anyway. Because the only thing worse than admitting the past to Jenny would be giving up on us afterwards. It would only give her more reasons to believe she wasn’t worth fighting for. Jenny was worth every inconvenience those two could throw at me. She was worth everything, and I would pull out all the stops to show her that. Well, if she would let me.
A dog barked, and then Dan threw the door open and motioned for me to come inside, a little toy poodle just behind him. “You’re early. Let’s talk strategy before I throw you in there. Sadie and Jenny aren’t here yet. Come this way.” He led me down a tiled hallway, away from the voices I could hear in the kitchen. The toy poodle followed, but Dan told her to go get Mama, and she ran off to obey.
“Gina’s dog. Curly is a sweet little thing.”
He ducked into a guest bedroom and flipped on the light before rounding on me, suddenly all business again.
“Okay, what were you thinking, man?”
“I wasn’t.”
“Yeah. Clearly. Sadie and I thought last year when you started acting all weird towards Jenny that maybe you were just rusty or something, but finding out it was all game-playing?”
“It was never a game to me,” I growled. If even Dan didn’t believe me, I was doomed.
He stared me down. “Good. Now defend yourself like you mean it.”
I stared at him, not at all sure what he was doing. Was this part of Sadie’s torture she had planned for me? The psychological portion before she laced all my food with Ex-lax and put a slice of cake on my chair right before I sat down?
“You love Jenny.”
It wasn’t a question, and my answer had no hesitation. “Yes, I love her.” No words had ever felt truer, and I had no reason to deny it.
“Sadie told me everything Jenny told her. And while I’m sure some of it was lost in translation, I also know you. Let me guess. You plan to apologize your way back into Jenny’s heart. You’ll just stick around and wait her out until she starts talking to you again.”
“I… I guess, yeah. That was my plan.” Although obviously not a very good one, based on the way Dan was ripping it all to shreds.
