Match Made in Valley View (Valley View Book #2)

Chapter 9

I’m standing in the middle of Jimmy and Tiff Brown’s living room at their housewarming party and Stacy just dropped the bomb of a lifetime on me. I’m not sure what I am more shocked at right now. The fact that Wes is Wes Brown, brother of Jimmy Brown, his sister-in-law a person who I consider a friend. Or the realization that I slept with a man without knowing his last name. All I can do is stare out onto the patio where he is laughing with other friends and people from the city, completely oblivious to my current panic attack.

“Stacy! Holly! There you are.” Candy’s cheerful voice pulls me out of my state of shock and I try to recover some sense of myself. Based on the look on Stacy’s face, I must look like I’ve seen a ghost or something.

“Hi Candy! Hey, not to be total poopers, but I forgot something in Holly’s car, we’ll be right back.” Stacy grabs my arm and yanks me outside and we start making our way down the driveway. But being the stubborn person I am, I plant my feet to the ground and stop her forward momentum.

“What are you doing?” I put my hands on my hips and stare at her.

“I’m taking you back to your car.” Stacy tries to grab my arm again, but I pull it away.

“Why?”

“Why? Are you serious, Holly? You are as white as a North Dakota morning in December. Come on, let’s just go and we can come back to see Tiff another day.”

“I’m fine,” I insist, lying through my teeth.

“You’re fine? You don’t look fine,” Stacy calls my bluff.

“I guess I’m just surprised. You never said that Wes was Wes Brown.”

“Yeah, I kind of figured you all had that conversation before. Especially since he had to have known you made Tiff’s wedding cake. Right?”

“I don’t know, Stacy, we never exchanged our last names. I don’t know if he knew who I was. I never went to the wedding. I just dropped off the cake. I only ever met Jimmy, Tiff, and Betsy.”

“Okay, I’m sorry, let’s just get out of here.” She goes to grab my hand again, but once again I take a step back.

“No. We’re staying.”

“We’re staying?”

“Yes!” I say insistently. “Tiff is my friend and I told her that I was going to be here tonight so we are staying.”

“What about Wes?” She side-eyes me.

“Wes can kiss my ass.”

Stacy gives a wide smile and then throws her hands up in the air, “Oh, well then okay. Keep up that fiery attitude if you happen to run into him.”

“Don’t worry, I intend to.”

I take a few moments to compose myself and I loop my arm in Stacy’s and we walk back into the house like we own the place. My insides might feel like a swarm of bees, but my outside is calm and cool. I think. I hope. Fake it until we make it. When we get back inside we find Candy and Tiff hanging out in the kitchen.

“There you two are! I thought I saw you come in but then I couldn’t find you again.”

“Hey Tiff, sorry we just ran out to the car for a second.”

“I forgot my cell phone.” Stacy holds up her phone. “You know us millennials, can’t go anywhere without our phones.”

“You don’t have to tell Tiff that,  they made it so this entire house can be run off their phones.” Candy teases her friend.