Holiday Inn Bed

Chapter 3

“May i come in, Eric, or are you going to let me turn into a Popsicle out here?”

Standing in the doorway of the cabin where he and Jess were supposed to spend the next four days alone, where they’d just been on the brink of making love for the first time in weeks, Eric stared at Kelley and tried his damnedest to swallow his frustration and annoyance. But it proved extremely difficult, especially when he caught sight of Jessica’s brother, Marc-or the incredible glaring hulk as he mentally called him-and his future mother-in-law-who in spite of being a good foot shorter than Eric still somehow managed to look down her nose at him-making their way along the snow-covered path toward the cabin.

Damn. In less than two minutes this situation would deteriorate from worse to catastrophic.

“C’mon in,” he said, not seeing that he had much choice.

“Thank you.” Kelley sailed into the room, and Eric closed the door to keep out the snow and cold air until the next batch of uninvited-and unwanted-guests arrived.

Jess, who clutched their parkas to her like a down-filled shield, came to stand beside him. “Hi, Kelley,” she said. “This is a, um, surprise.”

Eric wrapped an arm around Jess’s shoulders, noting the stiff tension in her body. “A really big surprise,” he agreed, failing at his attempt to not sound irritated. “Kell, I left the message telling you where I’d be this weekend in case of emergency only.”

“This is an emergency, Eric,” she said. “We need to discuss the menu, the invitations, the decorations…dozens of details you both have been putting off. I told you last week that these things had to be finalized by this week. Obviously you forgot because here it is this week and now they can’t be put off any longer. Tomorrow is the drop-dead date to have everything ordered and since you decided to go away until Tuesday, you left me with no choice but to come here.”

“You could have called.”

“I did. I left half a dozen messages on your voice mail. Have you checked your cell phone at all today?”

“No. Because I’m on vacation.”

She cocked a single brow at him, in that I’m-not-gonna-take-any-crap-from-you-or-anybody-else way of hers. “Believe me, Eric, I’m not any happier about driving all the way here than you are to have your weekend escape interrupted. But if you’d bothered to check with me before taking off instead of just leaving a message on my machine, I could have saved us both a lot of trouble. This shouldn’t take more than a couple of hours, so why don’t we get started? That way you can get back to your vacation and I can get home.”

Eric raked his free hand through his hair and bit back the terse hell no that rushed to his lips. God knows he hated fighting with his sisters, especially Kelley to whom he owed a debt of gratitude he could never hope to pay. At the age of nineteen she’d quit college to raise him, Lara and Chloe after their parents were killed in a car crash. Kelley’s new fiancé had decided he didn’t want to take on the responsibility of caring for three kids under the age of twelve and had dumped her. To the best of Eric’s knowledge she hadn’t had a serious relationship since. Dates, yes, but nothing serious. He’d often wondered if her career choice was in some way connected to her heartbreak over her own thwarted wedding plans.

Yet while he hated to fight with her, he couldn’t take the pressure this wedding and both their families were putting on him and Jess any longer. Damn it, he didn’t even care if they had a freakin’ wedding. All he wanted was for Jess to be his wife. For him to be her husband. To share their lives. He didn’t want or need any fancy-schmancy wedding. But knowing how girls dreamed about that sort of stuff, he was willing to do whatever Jess wanted.

But like him, Jess was caught in the cross fire of the missiles being lobbed between her mother and Kelley. Kelley, although she meant well, tended to come on very strong. She’d planned Chloe’s and Lara’s weddings with a military-like strategy and coordination-as she did for all her clients-plowing through any and all obstacles until the perfect results were achieved. Her efficiency simultaneously awed and scared the crap out of him. And occasionally annoyed the hell out of him, especially when it caused arguments. The tension between Kelley and Jess’s mother-who had her own strong opinions about the wedding-hovered like a thick fog whenever they were in the same room together. It had gotten so bad, especially during the last month, Eric worried that Jess might cave to the pressure and just call the whole thing off.

A knock sounded on the door. “Jessica?” came Carol Hayden’s muffled voice. “It’s Mom and Marc.”

Speak of the devil. Oh, boy. His gut churned with unease. He had a bad feeling about this. His future brothers-in-law, especially Marc, had all made their low opinion of him perfectly clear. He was the bad guy, Jess was a haloed saint and at any given moment they looked like they’d relish getting him alone in a dark alley and flinging him into a Dumpster-after they roughed him up and loosened a few of his teeth.

He could certainly understand a brother’s protective instinct toward a sister. Hell, he had three sisters he felt that way about. But the fact that he was the business “competition” had pretty much sealed his fate from moment one with the Hayden brothers. And with Carol Hayden as well, although she also objected to Kelley being in any way involved in planning her only daughter’s wedding.

Lord, what a mess.

For at least the hundredth time he wished he and Jess could just hop on a plane and go to Vegas and get married. He’d suggested as much to her, but she’d demurred, saying she just didn’t have the heart to disappoint her mother that way. In truth, he didn’t want to disappoint Kelley by running off to Vegas, either. But with each passing day, he grew closer to believing he could find a way to live with it.

But he wasn’t sure Jess could. Even though she was twenty-five and her own woman, her family meant a lot to her and they were really putting on the hard-court press and doing their damnedest to interfere in her life. And even though he knew Jess loved him, he was afraid she might think the chasm forming between them might prove irreparable. Which meant they had to fix it. Now.

Reaching for the doorknob, he tried to remind himself that Jess’s family loved her, that she wouldn’t be the vibrant, wonderful woman she was without their support. But sometimes, like right now, it was damn difficult to remember that.

He opened the door and Carol and Marc marched in amid a swirl of fat snowflakes and icy air.

“Hello, Eric, Kelley,” Carol murmured as she walked past him and his sister on her way to envelop Jess in a hug, blobs of snow plopping off her coat with each step. “Are you all right, dear?”

“Of course.” Jess accepted a brotherly peck from Marc, who offered Eric a terse nod and his usual glare. Jeez, did the guy ever smile? Eric felt his own tension rise at the frosty hello and frowning scowl Marc bestowed on Kelley-as if she was Public Enemy Number One. Kelley’s greeting to him was equally curt and her glower just as forbidding. He could almost see the sparks of animosity bouncing between them.

Great. Just another happy family reunion.

“What are you and Marc doing here, Mom?” An anxious look crossed Jess’s features. “Is something wrong at home?”

“Everything’s fine,” Carol assured her. “I needed to speak to you but you didn’t answer your cell. Marc offered to drive me to the lodge, so here we are.”

Jess shook her head, clearly confused. “If nothing’s wrong, what on earth did you need to talk about that couldn’t wait until after the weekend?”

“Why, the wedding, of course. When I couldn’t reach you, I called Kelley’s office hoping she could give me Eric’s cell phone number.” Carol flicked a glance toward Kelley whose frown resembled a thundercloud. “That’s when I learned that Kelley was on her way here.” This last statement was said in an unmistakably accusatory tone. She then turned fully toward Kelley and hiked up her chin. “Since it was obvious you were coming here to discuss my daughter’s wedding plans, I figured I’d best get here as quickly as possible.”

Eric could almost hear Kelley bristle, like a porcupine extending its quills. “They’re also my brother’s wedding plans, and since I have all the contacts-”

“Listen,” Eric broke in, knowing this was about to escalate into another nasty argument. Looking at Kelley, he said, “This is exactly why Jess and I came here this weekend-to get away from all the stress.”

“There wouldn’t be any stress if we could just nail down the details,” Kelley said. As much as Eric wished that were true, he knew the wedding details were only part of the problem. “It needs to be done. Now. Then I’ll happily go home. It’s not as if I don’t have a life besides this wedding, you know. I actually have a date tonight.”

Eric raised his brows at her defensive tone, but saw that she wasn’t even looking at him. She was glaring at Marc, who stood in tight-lipped silence, glaring right back at her. Good God, he needed a machete to cut a swath through the tense undercurrents clogging the room.

He glanced at Jess who looked like a teakettle about to spew steam. He knew exactly how she felt. He wanted nothing more than to tell all three of their uninvited guests to scram and leave them alone, that the only voice he wanted to hear between now and Christmas Eve was Jess’s. Unfortunately he knew that would only lead to World War III, which would only upset Jess, which would only lead to more tension. Damn, it was like the freakin’ Bermuda Triangle of ulcer-inducers.

So in an effort to keep peace, he swallowed his frustration and said in as pleasant a tone as he could manage, “As long as you’re all here and this has to get done, why don’t we go up to the lodge, order some hot chocolate and take care of this so we can all get back to our plans?”

Right. Because hopefully no one would cause a scene in the lodge. But instead of hot chocolate he might have to opt for a stiff drink. Or two. Or twelve. Not exactly the chilled champagne he’d planned to share with Jess in the cabin’s jet tub, but the sooner he got rid of their uninvited guests, the sooner he and Jess could get back to their weekend.

Everyone agreed. After he and Jess had slipped on parkas, they all filed out of the cabin. The snow was falling in earnest and the wind had picked up considerably, jabbing icy needles of stinging cold in his face. Holding Jess’s mittened hand, they trudged back to the lodge, with Kelley leading the way, followed by Carol and Marc who had their heads together, with Carol whispering to her son. With each step Eric tried to bury his growing resentment that both their families had not only thrust them into this untenable situation, but had now intruded on their private time together. Especially since their families were exactly what they were trying to get away from. He slowed their pace until he and Jess fell behind enough to not be overheard.

“You okay?” he asked in an undertone.

A humorless sound escaped her, causing a puff of frosty air. “Not really. I’m suffering from a major case of coitus interruptus.”

He stifled a groan at how close they’d been. “I hear ya.”

“Although I suppose it could be worse. All my brothers could have come with Mom.”

Since agreeing with that statement might be tantamount to tossing gasoline on a fire, he did what generations of men with sharply honed survival instincts did-he kept his mouth shut.

“I’m not happy about this, Eric.”

“Neither am I.”

“This has disaster written all over it.” She pulled her hand from his and pressed her mittens to her forehead. “This was supposed to be our time together. We need this time.”

“I know. And we’ll have it.” He took her hand again, not liking the sensation of her pulling away from him one bit. “I could have insisted they all leave, but I figured it would save time in the long run and be easier all around to just hammer this out here and now and be done with it rather than to first spend two hours arguing about whether or not to hammer it out here and now.”

“I suppose. Especially since I don’t think insisting they leave would have worked.”

“It would have required several tons of dynamite, and I’m fresh out.”

She didn’t so much as crack a smile. “The crazy thing is that all these nitpicky little decisions just don’t matter to me, and they’re making me crazy. I don’t care if the napkins are ‘dusty rose’ or ‘desert blush.’ Maybe because I’m more tomboyish than girly-girl. Or maybe I’m just weird because my wedding dreams have never centered around a white poofy dress and a fancy party. They’ve always just revolved around the man I’d someday marry. Just me and him. A simple setting-a few flowers, lots of candles. Speaking our vows.”

That sounded…perfect. “Have you told your mom that?”

“Of course, but she doesn’t listen. This wedding she wants for me? It’s really the wedding she always wanted but never had.”

Eric nodded. She’d told him how her parents were married by a justice of the peace. How they’d planned to renew their vows on their twenty-fifth anniversary, throw the sort of elaborate party her mom had always wanted. Unfortunately her father died before they could do it. “She has four unmarried sons whose weddings she could plan.”

Jess shook her head. “Maybe she could help, but wedding planning is pretty much a bride thing. Sadly for us, Mom’s become a Bridezilla without actually being the bride.”

“Kelley’s suffering from the same thing.” He leaned closer and brushed his lips over her cheek. “Maybe we should just lock them in a room together and let them hammer it out themselves.”

“Don’t think I’m not tempted. Yet even if, by some miracle, we’re able to work out all this wedding stuff, there’re still all the underlying hard feelings simmering between everyone. I feel as if I’m walking through a field of land mines. I’m just so damn tired of it. It’s exhausting. I’m at my wits’ end. I honestly don’t know how much more I can take.”

Her words suffused him with a dread he didn’t want to feel. Didn’t want to so much as acknowledge. But one that he couldn’t ignore. Although she didn’t say the words, he sensed-no, damn it, he knew-that they had to fix the situation this weekend-or else. He halted and turned to face her then clasped her shoulders. She looked up at him and the dismal expression in her eyes cramped his insides with an unpleasant sensation that felt very much like fear. Fear that everything he wanted was somehow slipping through his fisted hands.

“We’ll get this meeting over with quick, Jess-like yanking off a bandage. A fast meeting, then off they’ll go and we’ll resume our weekend.”

Her bleak expression didn’t change, twisting the knot gripping his insides even tighter. “Yanking off a bandage can really hurt, Eric.”

His fingers clenched, pressing into her parka. “We’re not going to let it hurt us, Jess.”

The fact that she didn’t instantly agree made him actually feel ill. Her gaze searched his, then she said quietly, “I don’t want it to, Eric, but-”

“No buts,” he cut in, not willing to even contemplate what she might have said next. “Everything is going to be fine.”

He just hoped like hell he was right.