Page 17 of Tiger Bitten

She was queen of rejection.

“It’s okay,” she murmured, preparing her mind to see Abe and his beautiful girlfriend. She’d known Uncle Ronnie’s goddaughter most of her life. Taryn was stunning and super nice and successful. She was everything Ren wasn’t.

She pursed her lips and grabbed her purse with shaking hands and then left her house and locked up. Bright side, Mom would be over the moon. She was loudly not a fan of Mars on account of his Cat-status.

Maybe she could hang around her and her friends tonight and not look so alone.

She nearly rolled an ankle on the way to her Bronco. She’d put the top back on it this morning because the weather was calling for a summer rainstorm. Indeed, the churning clouds above promised some kind of drama.

Her stupid eyes were prickling and burning, and she blinked hard so the tears would stay inside. So annoying. Mars was just a boy she’d met like one minute ago, and she didn’t even know him. Her positive spin on it didn’t work though because it was more than that. It was being stood up without even an excuse. It was being ghosted. It was having to walk into the wedding reception alone, and sit alone, and watch everyone else dance with their significant others, and endure the pitied looks while Abe was moving on in front of everyone.

It wasn’t about her though. This was fine. This was Uncle Ronnie’s day. Technically they’d gotten married two months ago secretly at the courthouse, and this was just the reception for their family and friends, but it was absolutely Uncle Ronnie’s and his new wife’s day. And he deserved all the good stuff. He’d been married before, but the woman had been an extreme narcissist and had alienated his children away from him. He’d been a great dad. She knew, because she’d been there while he was fighting for time with his kids, and she’d witnessed him as a father with them, but as his two daughters had gotten older, the mother had grown angrier that Uncle Ronnie had become happy without her, and she’d weaponized the kids against him. She taught the daughters to target him in the narcissistic ways she had done all those years, and she bonded with them over their shared hatred of Ronnie. No matter how much he tried, to them, he could never do anything right. It had been the saddest thing she had ever witnessed in her lifetime. They’d tortured him and broken his heart, but then Kelly had come along. They’d been together for years, and she’d been his rock as he’d mourned the loss of his kids. She’d waited for his heart to mend and be open for marriage again. And all the while, he’d been the best uncle ever to Ren, and his new wife, Kelly, had always been kind to her too. She got a little of the attention he’d wished to give his own daughters, and so she got the softball coach, and the father-daughter dance partner. They’d had a bit of a symbiotic relationship. She’d needed a father figure, and he’d needed somewhere to place his protectiveness and care that his daughters had been trained to reject. Because of that, Uncle Ronnie was her closest family member and had her sitting right at the front table of the reception.

The drive only took fifteen minutes before she was pulling up to the huge barn on the pristine lawn.

She needed to focus and not think about Mars standing her up.

That’s what boys did.

She parked between two trucks and hiked her dress up as she stepped carefully across the manicured grass, careful not to stab the earth too deeply with her strappy high heels.

It was a warm summer day, and a little bead of sweat traveled southbound between her breasts by the time she fell in line with the other wedding attendees filing into the open barn doors. She recognized distant cousins, and Ronnie’s two best friends she’d grown up calling Uncle Jack and Bart-Bart. They were looking dapper in gray suits with pale pink ties to match the bridesmaids pink flowy dresses. They were greeting the line as they entered, and both gave her big hugs. Bart-Bart frowned at her through his thick glasses. “Where’s the guy?” he asked.

“What guy?” she asked innocently, feeling the heat touch her cheeks already. Mom had such a blabbermouth.

Bart-Bart narrowed his eyes. “The drinks at the bar are free.”

She snorted. “Want me to get you anything?”

“A beer. Make it frosty. I’m sweating my kneecaps off in this suit.”

“I’ve got you,” she said softly, and then made a beeline for the bar in the back.

The barn had a tall ceiling with exposed barnwood rafters. All of the sliding doors on each wall were open, and a soft breeze lifted the pale pink tulle that was draped from the rafters. Rows of rustic tables were lined up with fine linens in whites, light grays, and petal pinks. There were gorgeous candle sticks and dazzling bouquet center pieces, and greenery adorned the tables between the nametags.

For a moment she stood by the bar, taking it all in. Uncle Ronnie was talking to the DJ, but he caught her eye and grinned so big. Her heart was pounding. Kelly was dressed in a gorgeous white dress and slipped her arms around his waist and said something to him as he waved at Ren. He leaned down and kissed Kelly on top of her head and said something sweet to her. She could tell because Kelly looked so happy and in love.

She’d never seen Uncle Ronnie so happy.

The DJ began his welcome speech and invited Uncle Ronnie and Kelly to the dance floor to kick off the night. This place looked fancy, but the bar was all beers and cheap wines, and no one here was stressed about the order of events for the night. They were here to just celebrate love.

“Can I help you, Miss?” the bartender asked. He was a tall, lean man about her age.

“Oh, yeah. Can I get a beer and a…” She squinted at the menu. “white wine.”

“Sure thing.” He popped the top of a glass bottle and poured wine into a little plastic cup.

“Hey man, can I get a beer too. And wine?” a familiar voice asked from her right-hand side.

Abe.

Ren had been digging through her purse looking for the dollar bills she’d shoved in there for tip money earlier, but at Abe’s voice, she froze.

“What kind of wine?”

“Uh, I think my lady likes red.”

“You got it.” The bartender settled Ren’s drinks in front of her and started working on Abe’s order.