Hard Fall by Brenda Rothert

Hadley

Seven years earlier

“You’re going to LOVE him,”my best friend, Lauren, gushed. “Seriously, Hadley, Wes is the total package. Hot, smart, funny and he’s a professional hockey player. If Ben wasn’t already the love of my life, I’d go for him.”

I gave her a skeptical look. “You’re always telling me how different the two of them are.”

She waved a hand. “Not in any of the important ways. Stop being difficult. My point is, he’s great, you’re in a major man drought and you’ve got a hotel room all to yourself tonight.”

I suppressed a sigh. Lauren had been my best friend since we met at orientation our freshman year at UCLA. She was the peanut butter to my jelly, and I’d have done anything for her.

Which was why I was pasting on a smile as she ushered me across the crowded lawn of her parents’ Naperville backyard. They were hosting an engagement party for Lauren and Ben, who were getting married in two months. After their three year, extremely long-distance relationship—her in LA and him in Boston—they didn’t want a lengthy engagement. We’d graduated college a couple weeks ago and Lauren was knee-deep in wedding plans.

It was all happening so fast. A few months ago, our biggest worries had been passing our final exams and finding the cheapest prices on our favorite wine and frozen pizza. Now, Lauren was getting married and moving to St. Louis with Ben, where he would be playing pro hockey, and I had just started my new job as a writer for Willow, a lifestyle magazine in New York City.

“Oh! I think I see him!” With a squeal, Lauren grabbed my hand and led me through the clusters of people drinking and eating mini cucumber sandwiches.

My stomach churned nervously. I’d been hearing Lauren talk about Wes Kirby for the entire three years she’d been with Ben. I knew he was hot—I’d seen pictures. And Lauren had assured me he was more than just that.

She was right about the drought. It’d been almost a year since I’d had sex, and seven months since I last went on a date. I wished I could chalk it up to being too busy with finishing school and graduating, but the truth was, I just hadn’t met anyone I liked very much. I was hoping Wes and I would have good chemistry. He was the best man in the wedding, and I was the maid of honor. We’d be seeing a lot of each other that weekend, and also the weekend of the wedding in August.

“Crap, Ben took him to talk to someone,” Lauren said, groaning. “He knows I want to introduce you two.”

“Let’s go eat,” I suggested. “I haven’t eaten all day, and I’m starving.”

“Okay. Just don’t spill food on your shirt.” Lauren gave me a stern look, very familiar with my tendency to spill a little here and there.

“I try not to,” I said, rolling my eyes. “It just happens.”

“You need a bib.”

I shrugged. “It sure wouldn’t hurt.”

She just sighed and put an arm around my shoulders as we walked over to the food line. “Maybe that can be your first story for the new magazine.” She put a hand out in front of us and waved it in a horizontal line, mimicking a headline. “Essential supplies for the woman who is forever spilling food on her shirt. You could include cute bibs, Tide wipes and bags big enough to hold extra shirts.”

“You’re an asshole,” I muttered, laughing.

“But you love me anyway.”

“I do.” I sighed and met her gaze. “What am I going to do without you, Lo? We’ve been best friends for four years and roommates for the past three years.”

Her light blue eyes widened as she gave me a serious look. “Nothing will keep us from being best friends, Had. Not ever. Even when I’m raising babies and you’re the executive editor of Vogue, we’ll still talk every day and see each other as much as we can.”

Lauren reached the front of the food line and picked up a plate, passing it to me before grabbing one for herself.

“I’m so glad Ben likes cookout food as much as I do,” she said, grinning. “We’re not prime rib and caviar people. Give me a burger and some orange-powdered Kraft mac and cheese any day. I don’t even need the fancy kind with actual cheese.”

I laughed and said, “Remember that time we were studying for finals and we hadn’t eaten all day and we cooked that huge pan of frozen mac and cheese in the oven and we both burned our mouths on it?”

“Oh shit.” She laughed. “That was the worst. I seriously thought I might never regain feeling on that part of my tongue.”

“We binge watched rom-coms the next day with a big bowl of ice between us, just putting new cubes on our tongues after they melted.”

Lauren loaded her plate up with pasta salads and a cheeseburger, and I went for a hot dog, mac and cheese and some fruit. She was one of those naturally thin women—a size four who stayed gorgeous no matter what she ate, while I had to work out every day just to stay a size ten.

She got stopped by an aunt and uncle who wanted to congratulate her, and ten minutes had passed before we finally sat down at a table to eat. Lauren was an only child, but her parents had multiple siblings and her extended family was big. They’d always included me in their holiday get-togethers, because the only family I had left was my brother, a Navy SEAL who was never in one place for long, and an uncle in Florida.

I was so hungry that I immediately shoveled a spoonful of mac and cheese into my mouth, following it shortly with a bite of my hot dog. If we got called away to have pictures taken again, I wanted to at least get a few bites in so I didn’t get hangry.

“Hey babe,” a deep male voice said.

I turned to see Ben approaching us, Wes right beside him.

Fuck. He couldn’t have gotten a less flattering first look at me, my mouth wide open. I chewed as quickly as I could, wiped my mouth and smiled up at Wes as Lauren stood to hug Ben.

“Hey, Wes,” Lauren said, hugging him next.

I nervously ran a hand over my face, praying I’d gotten all the leftover crumbs. My heart hammered as I stood and met Wes’s very blue eyes. He was tall, with dark hair, a handsome face and a smile straight out of a toothpaste commercial—perfect and pearly white.

Images of the four of us double dating flashed through my mind, and obviously, I was in his lap as I imagined it.

“Hey, Hadley,” he said, grinning. “I see you like to put wieners in your mouth.”

My heart sank and I gave Lauren the side-eye. This guy had so much potential until he opened his mouth. He grabbed a potato chip from his plate and popped it into his mouth. In addition to chips, his plate was loaded up with a hamburger, a hot dog, and at least a cup of every side dish on the serving table. It was a wonder the mountain of food wasn’t spilling all over the ground.

“Looks like you do, too,” I said, giving him a tight smile as I nodded at his plate.

“Heh, yeah.”

“Hey guys, we need to go talk to some people,” Lauren said, giving Ben a conspiratorial look. “Just visit for a little bit and we’ll be right back.”

I gave her a wide-eyed areyou fucking kidding meright now look, but she ignored me.

Wes plopped down in the chair Lauren vacated and gave me a shit-eating grin.

“What’s this I hear about the best man and the maid of honor hooking up at weddings?” he asked.

“It’s news to me,” I said, focusing on my plate and mentally composing the rant that would be directed at Lauren later for leaving me here alone with him.

“You want to meet up for a drink later, after we all go out?” Wes asked.

I narrowed my eyes and gave him a skeptical look. “I think we’re already going out for drinks after dinner.”

“Yeah, but I mean after that…you know, just you and me.”

I couldn’t stand men like him. He didn’t care who I was or what I was about—he just wanted to get laid later.

“I think I’ll be pretty tired after we all go out,” I said.

“Tired?” He laughed. “I think you need to loosen up.”

“I’m good.”

He shook his head like he couldn’t understand why I turned him down and exhaled hard. “Come on, Hadley. We’re both single, might as well live a little. Give it a chance and you might even end up liking me.”

I laughed, unamused. “You don’t even know me.”

“I know enough.”

I rolled my eyes. “I have too much self-respect for your taste, trust me.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means I have no interest in having sex with you.”

He put his hands up in mock surrender. “Hey, I wasn’t asking you to. We’re all going out tonight. I just thought you and I could spend some time together after.”

“Yeah, while already drunk,” I said sarcastically.

“Nothing wrong with having some fun.”

“You seem like the type of guy who likes to have some fun with a different woman every night.”

He shrugged and looked down at his left hand, holding it up and meeting my eyes. “Ring finger looks empty to me.”

“Ugh. Do you still live in a fraternity house?”

“I would if I could.”

“Living in filth, partying every night and being irresponsible. I bet you’d love it.”

He grinned. “You’d love having some fun, too, if you’d…you know, unclench a little bit.”

I balked at that. “Unclench? Did you seriously just say that to me?”

“I think I like you better when you have a wiener in your mouth, just saying.”

“How are you and Ben friends?”

“How are you and Lauren friends? She’s about the sweetest, coolest girl I’ve ever met.”

“Woman, actually.”

Wes cringed. “Whatever. You’re one of those people who corrects everyone’s grammar, aren’t you? And alphabetizes their shit. Are your spices alphabetized?”

My cheeks warmed, because yes my spice cabinet was alphabetized, but I wasn’t giving him the satisfaction of admitting it.

“Clearly we aren’t compatible,” I said.

“Yeah, clearly.” He widened his eyes and took a bite of his burger.

“Hey, how’s it going, guys?” Ben asked as he and Lauren approached.

“Fantastic,” Wes said sarcastically, standing up.

Lauren gave me a sympathetic look, and Ben cleared his throat, looking sheepish.

“Well, maybe you guys got off on the wrong foot,” he said diplomatically. “Let’s start over tonight.”

“Pass,” I said, shaking my head and getting up from my chair. “Wes might have better luck trolling college freshmen. I think I’m a little too old for him, intellectually speaking.”

“Fucking ballbuster,” Wes muttered.

“Asshole,” I fired back, taking a step closer to him.

“Why don’t you go label some shit? Or iron your power suits?”

“Go play with yourself, frat boy.”

“Okay, guys.” Lauren moved to stand between us. “Let’s go our separate ways and not turn our best friends’ engagement party into an episode of Jerry Springer, okay?”

I nodded, immediately remorseful for acting childish. There was no one close by, but still. Today was about Lauren and Ben.

“I’m sorry, guys,” I said softly.

“Yeah, me too,” Wes said. “I’m gonna…” He gestured to the other side of the back yard.

“I’ll come with you,” Ben said.

Lauren put an arm around me once they were gone. “Hadley, I’m so sorry. I never would have tried to set you guys up if I’d thought it would go like that.”

“I know. I just can’t see why Ben would be friends with him. He’s unbearable.”

“Why? What happened? He’s usually such a nice guy.” Her eyes were filled with worry.

“You know what?” I forced a smile. “It doesn’t matter. It’s your engagement party and we can talk about it another time.”

“Yeah, but what about tonight? Do you think you can maybe…ignore him?”

“Absolutely.”

She looked relieved. “Good. Because you’re our maid of honor and he’s our best man. You’ll have to see each other for wedding stuff. And later on, maybe during holidays and at baby showers and such.”

I gave my best friend a serious look. “Don’t worry, Lo. I don’t plan to ever speak to Wes again.”

She bit her lip and gave me an uncertain look.

“What?” I asked her.

“I didn’t want to say anything, but…you spilled macaroni and cheese on your shirt.”

“What?” I looked down and saw a smear of yellow cheese sauce on my light pink shirt, a single elbow noodle still stuck there. Perfect. Wes must have been laughing on the inside as I acted indignant toward him with food plastered to my shirt.

“Fuck,” I whispered.

“It’s okay,” Lauren said. “I have extra clothes in the house. Let’s find you something to change into.”

I followed her into her parents’ house, keeping my gaze on the back of her head. Not only did I not plan on speaking to Wes ever again, I also didn’t plan on so much as looking at him.

What a dick. Nothing would ever change my feelings about him—not just tonight, but ever.