Forgiving History Read online

  Forgiving History

  A Wedding Novella

  Jenni M Rose

  Contents

  Author’s Note

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Also by Jenni M Rose

  Author’s Note

  Thanks so much for taking the time to pick up

  Forgiving History: A Wedding Novella

  * * *

  This is the story of Andy and Owen’s wedding.

  If you didn’t read Andy and Owen’s love story, check out Forgiving History. It’s a small town, second chance romance featuring (my favorite) a secret baby!

  * * *

  I hope you’ve enjoyed being on this ride with Andy and Owen. I loved writing their story and look forward to seeing them and Jenna in many more books to come!

  1

  This is ridiculous,” Andy Walker muttered, looking herself over in the mirror. “I’m too old for this.”

  “Can we talk about thirty not being too old?” her twin sister, Alex, complained, hands on hips. She looked gorgeous, her sequined skirt far too short and far too tight for Andy’s taste.

  “Not your thirty. My thirty,” Andy corrected. “I’m too old for this.”

  “We’re the same thirty. Born at the same time, remember?”

  “One of us is the mother of an almost-teenager and about to get married tomorrow. The other is single and ready to mingle.”

  “Okay.” Alex laughed. “You’re right. You’re old. No one says that.”

  “I say that,” their younger sister Beth interjected, coming out of the bathroom wearing a little red dress with a pair of sky-high heels. Her red hair had grown in the few months since Andy had seen her last, now a short little bob. As usual, she looked sleek and sexy, but her eyes didn’t hold the sparkle they once did. Andy wondered how much of it had to do with her on again/off again relationship with Logan. “Some people are single and ready to mingle, like me,” Beth said.

  Andy cut her eyes away, not touching that stick of dynamite with a ten-foot pole. Logan Hallowell just happened to be the best friend of the man she was about to marry. Owen Monroe, the love of her life, had spent more than a decade in the navy with Logan by his side the entire time. They were close and there weren’t many secrets between the two. Logan and Beth’s relationship was no exception.

  Andy knew more than she wanted to, probably more than Beth thought she did, but she kept her mouth shut. If it were Alex, she’d stick her nose right in the middle of it. They were twins and that’s what they did. Beth, on the other hand, could be skittish about her personal life. She also tended to skip town when things got hard, and since Andy’s wedding was the next day, she wasn’t going to do anything to jeopardize the opportunity to have her family all together.

  Her twin sister, Alex, on the other hand, had no problem calling things like she saw them, especially where little sister Beth was concerned. “You might want to check yourself, little sister. Last I heard, you were as hung up on Doc as your panties were from the ceiling fan after your last go-round with him in Owen’s guest room.” She laughed at her own joke.

  Andy took a casual step between them, pretending to borrow some makeup from her sister’s bag, in case fists started flying.

  Surprisingly, Beth didn’t take the bait.

  “Well, I’m trying to unhang myself, not that it’s any of your business. Besides, he lives in Virginia and I’ve got a contract with the cruise line. Neither of us are in a position to get into a relationship, so I’m letting it go and enjoying life where I can.”

  “I also heard—”

  Beth cut her off. “I don’t care what you heard, Lexi. I’m doing things the way I need to do them. If you don’t like it, pretend I’m not here.

  “Alright.” Andy held up her hands, hoping for peace. “You do remember that we’re supposed to be celebrating my wedding, right?”

  Finally, after years apart and a miscommunication that nearly cost them both everything, she and Owen were tying the knot. At the very least, their time apart cost their daughter an entire childhood with her father. It was time to celebrate what she and Owen had finally reclaimed, not for her sisters to bicker back and forth.

  Beth raised a brow. “I thought we were here to take you out and make sure you get in one last night as a single woman.”

  Andy rolled her eyes. “I’m not single, nor do I have any interest in being single.”

  “Okay, not married,” Beth clarified.

  “We all know you’re committed to Owen,” Alex agreed. “But it’s tradition and you get one last hurrah as an unmarried woman. And no, for the last time, we’re not doing a paint night. We’re going out and we’re celebrating.”

  “Celebrating I can handle, but if I get one whiff that you’re luring me into some kind of stripper party…”

  Alex snickered.

  “Why the hell didn’t we do a stripper party?” Beth asked, surprised with her oversight. “I want to see strippers.”

  “No strippers,” Andy repeated.

  “If I wear the Bride sash, can we go see strippers?” Beth negotiated.

  “I look most like the bride. I should wear the sash and be her stand-in,” Alex reasoned.

  The two of them launched into a play argument over who was a better stand-in bride. As they ignored her, Andy strolled away, grabbed her phone, and shut herself in the bathroom.

  On their own, her fingers swiped the screen and brought up Owen’s contact information.

  When he answered, the stress of her sister’s bickering lifted off her shoulders and a smile lit her face.

  “Hey,” he greeted. “I thought you’d be gone by now.”

  “My sisters are arguing over who’s going to stand in as the bride when they take me to see a stripper show.”

  “It should be Lex. She’s oldest and she looks most like you.”

  She could hear the smile in his voice.

  “That was her argument.”

  “And Beth’s?”

  “I don’t know. I left before I heard her side.”

  “We could still back out of this whole thing, you know. Fly to Vegas or some tropical island and do this without all the hoopla.”

  She shrugged, even though he couldn’t see it. “I thought I wanted the hoopla. Now that it’s here, it all just seems like a pain. I’d rather be on the couch with you and Jenna than pretending I want to go out and party.”

  “I know the feeling, honey. One more night and it’ll all be over. We’ll be married and go back to living life out of the town’s spotlight. Just me, you, and J.”

  Andy listened to the sound of her sisters, still bickering in the other room.

  It was going to be a long night.

  There was nothing that could dull the smile on Owen’s face as he slid his phone back in his pocket. The very idea that, less than a year ago, he’d hated Andy beyond measure, blew his mind.

  A misunderstanding, one that had devastating consequences for Andy, had driven a wedge between them for too many years. He was thankful he’d blown out his hip, an injury that had tanked his navy career. It had forced him to come home and face his demons, his past, head on. In doing that, he hadn’t found what he thought he would.

  He’d found Andy, just as sweet as she’d always been, if not a little more hardened. Not only her, but their daughter, Jenna.

  His mistake had cost them all too much and he vowed he’d never let either of them down again.

  When Andy had slid that ring on his finger, they’d promised each other and Jenna the best forever they could manage. That’s exactly what he intended to provide.

  But to get to their forever, they both had to suffer thr
ough the damn wedding, which was proving more difficult than he’d imagined.

  Andy had insisted on having a hometown wedding. She’d been entrenched in Freehope her entire life and he couldn’t blame her. These were the people who had loved her and looked after her when he’d been gone. They were the ones who’d held her up when she lost her mother and lent a hand when she was a single mom. They deserved to see Andy’s happily-ever-after.

  But he’d be damned if he didn’t want to whisk her away and keep her all to himself. The words elope and please had come out of his mouth on more than one occasion during the planning process. Between her family having their hands in everything and Andy making sure everyone had their say, the planning had been less than ideal.

  It didn’t help that his best friend hadn’t arrived yet. Logan “Doc” Hallowell had been rock steady and by his side since his first week of naval training. They’d had each other’s backs and held each other up countless times.

  Doc’s navy career was still thriving, though Owen suspected his most recent knee injury would be a major setback. At their age, injuries like that didn’t just go away, they lingered and ruined futures. Doc was flying in from Virginia, after months of rehabbing his knee and manning a desk, but he hadn’t been able to get off in time to make it to the bachelor party. His flight landed early in the morning though, and he was scheduled to be in town by breakfast.

  Mike, a local cop and one of his oldest friends, had taken the reins when Doc couldn’t make it. Like Andy, he’d requested an event sans strippers, but Owen doubted any of them had listened.

  “What’s with the dreamy eyes?”

  Owen looked up to see Phil, another of his childhood friends, standing at the door. Like Mike, Phil had been by Andy’s side the entire time he’d been gone. They’d been better friends to her than he’d ever been. He owed them both an enormous debt of gratitude he didn’t think could ever truly be repaid.

  “Just talked to Andy. Her sisters are trying to talk her into going to a strip show and they’re fighting over who gets to wear the Bride sash if Andy refuses.”

  A sly smile lit Phil’s face. “Sounds about right. I’m sure Andy shot that down.”

  “Yeah, but you know the Walker girls. It’s two against one.”

  “Hard to tell who’ll win the sash if they duke it out. Lex is tough as nails but Beth’s a scrapper. Fights dirty.”

  “I call Lex,” Owen admitted. “But I’d never count Beth out.”

  “She doing okay?” Phil’s cheeks reddened and Owen wondered if he had a secret thing for Beth. “Heard she fell hard for your friend and then took off.”

  Owen shrugged as he rose and led Phil back to the living room of Mike’s apartment. They were pregaming: getting ready to go out and celebrate his last night of freedom.

  That’s what his friends kept saying. He wondered if they knew that he felt freer now that he was with Andy than he had in all the years he’d spent without her. He suspected the very idea would fall on deaf ears but it was the truth.

  “Doc’s one of the best men I’ve ever known. I couldn’t imagine a better guy for Beth, but she’s got stuff going on and he does too. If they’re meant to be, they’ll figure it out,” Owen said, slapping a hand on Phil’s shoulder.

  Beth may have run long and far from Doc, but Owen knew his friend was contending with issues of his own.

  “Got a soft spot for the Walker girls,” Phil admitted. “All of ‘em.”

  “Don’t we all,” Owen laughed, leading his old friend back into the party fray.

  2

  As he passed the sign welcoming him back to Freehope, Doc Hallowell admitted that he wasn’t sure if he’d truly be welcomed back or not.

  By Andy and Owen, yes. They’d invited him. They were expecting him in the morning but he’d gotten out a few hours earlier than expected and had hopped a quick flight north.

  It was Beth Walker he was unsure of seeing again.

  Seven months ago, they’d come together like a tornado, knocking each other sideways with the force of their passion, and that wasn’t waxing poetic. He’d taken one look at her and known she was it for him.

  Love at first sight, a ridiculous concept. One he’d scoffed at more than a time or two. When it had hit him out of nowhere, he’d finally understood. Beth was the one for him. Their eyes had connected and there was magic inside his skin, tingling and forcing him into action. Oh, there was physical attraction, too. Beth was a sassy little sprite with a mischievous twinkle in her eye. She had a certain look that spelled trouble and when it surfaced, he’d dare anyone to look away.

  They’d been dynamite in bed, not that he’d been surprised. She was fun and open, and God love her, willing to try anything.

  Gotta respect that.

  He’d gotten too heavy, though, and she’d run away from him faster than an Olympic sprinter at the great games. No note, no call, just up and left one morning after he’d nearly whispered his undying love.

  He rolled his eyes and let out a sarcastic laugh under his breath.

  What the hell did he know about undying love? He had his mama and some extended family he loved dearly, but what did he know about loving a woman? He assumed it would be easy. He falls, she falls, they love, the end.

  Not even close.

  He loves, she runs, they torture each other, the end, was more like it.

  They were in the torturing each other stage. Beth had called him a few months ago, not long after banging a stranger in a bar bathroom. He’d watched her fall asleep over video chat, but hung up, knowing he couldn’t put himself through that torture again.

  Was there anything worse than seeing the woman you love, crying over the fact that she’d just been with another man?

  He wasn’t going there again.

  In fact, he probably could have gotten a few more days of leave for Owen’s wedding, but didn’t dare. The less time he was in Freehope, the better.

  The less he saw Beth, the better.

  He had a feeling that was going to be awfully tough as they were both in the wedding party. He’d missed just about everything due to his schedule, but there was no way he was missing the actual wedding.

  He’d just have to be very careful when he saw Beth.

  He’d keep his distance as best he could. He’d be polite but remote, in hopes that they’d both survive the weekend.

  “This isn’t happening,” Andy muttered as Alex sat in the chair of honor while an oily man gyrated in her face.

  Her sister looked like any red-blooded female might when coming face to crotch with a well-endowed man.

  Andy wasn’t sure the smile would ever leave Alex’s face, her eyes wild and dancing with laughter. She wore a white sash that said Bride, slung across her top. She hadn’t thought her sisters actually meant it when they were arguing over who would play her. She hadn’t thought they’d disregard her wishes when she’d plainly told them she wasn’t interested in strippers.

  In their defense, they didn’t hire any strippers. Instead, they’d taken her to a club that hosted a strip show.

  It was different, they insisted.

  She took in the looks of enjoyment on their faces and sighed. Who was she to ruin the time of their lives?

  “You look a lot like the bride,” the bartender commented. “Sister?”

  “I’m the bride,” Andy corrected. “She’s just a pushy maid of honor.”

  The woman chuckled. “But sister, right? Because that’s totally what sisters do.”

  “Yeah, her and the redhead are both mine.”

  The bartender, tall and gorgeous, dressed in leather pants, paired with a leather vest, looked onto the scene.

  “Wouldn’t have pegged her as one of yours, at first, but I see it. Doesn’t seem like your kind of place, though.”

  Andy plopped into the stool, belly up to the bar. It was crowded, but most of the patrons were out enjoying the show and not sitting at the bar, waiting to go home.

  “Can I get a water?”
Andy asked.

  “Hittin’ it hard tonight, girl,” the woman joked. “When’s the big day?”

  “Tomorrow.”

  The woman’s brows raised. “Don’t you know you’re not supposed to have the parties the night before. In case someone gets wasted and doesn’t show up.”

  Andy pointed to the water. “I think I’ll be okay.”

  “Yeah, but what about the groom? Men are infinitely stupider than women.”

  With a laugh, Andy nodded her agreement. “True. If he doesn’t show, I know where he lives. Plus, I can sic our daughter on him.”

  “How old?”

  “Twelve.”

  “That’ll do it. My niece is about that age and can nag like no other. I keep hoping she’ll grow out of it but she’s like a dog with a bone. Auntie Fiona this, Auntie Fiona that. When can you dye my hair, I swear my mom said it’s okay. When can you take me shopping, my mom said I could get a pair of kitten heels.” The woman’s head snapped up. “Sorry,” she winced. “Too much.”

  “No, just right,” Andy told her and pointed at herself with a thumb. “Fellow bartender.”

  “So, tell me about this man of yours that has you sitting over here and not underneath Alex, the stud muffin over there.”

  Andy smothered a laugh. “His name is Alex?”

  “Why’s that funny?”

  “My sister’s name is Alex.”

  They shared a laugh over that, even clinking water bottles.

  “So, spill. How’d you end up with a twelve-year-old with the man and are only getting married now? Tell me your story.”

  It was an impossible story to tell, impossible to know where to start but she tried. “Owen and I split right after high school. He came back last year, not realizing I had his baby.”