Meant to Marry Me: Nashville Country Dreams Part 1 novel Chapter 31

The ocean waves rolled beneath the boat as Bree looked out the window at the setting sun. Normally, a dinner cruise would seem like a relaxing, romantic event. This evening, sitting in a dining room with the wedding party, romantic was the last word she would’ve used to describe it.

Dinner was delicious. The lobster was buttery, the crab cakes flaky, and the wine was flowing. She sat with some of Trent’s family, aunts and uncles, a cousin, no one she’d met before. All of them had arrived earlier that day. The rest of them spent a great deal of time talking about how proud they were of Trent, how he’d grown up to be such a wonderful young man, and how beautiful Monica was. They weren’t wrong on either account. Bree didn’t want to hear it.

“Did you go with the kids out to play volleyball today?” Susan, Trent’s aunt, asked Bree, attempting to get her involved in the conversation, no doubt.

“I did,” Bree replied, forcing a smile. It had not gone well. Not only had Monica spent most of the game trying her best to make Bree look silly, after Monica’s team had won by a couple of points, she’d made a point of making it seem like it was Bree’s fault saying to Matt, “You might’ve won if you had some height on your team,” and looked right at Bree.

It didn’t make a lot of sense to Bree. Why had Monica wanted her there if she clearly didn’t respect her as a person, or an artist? Had she only wanted her there so that she’d have someone to pick on?

“I heard it was a lot of fun,” Uncle Rob said.

“We had fun.” It wasn’t the truth, but it was close enough. Some people had had fun, Bree supposed. She wasn’t one of them.

“Now, you’re the singer, aren’t you?” Susan asked. “Is it odd being around all of these people you’ve never met before? I bet most people don’t invite the musician to the entire wedding event--how nice of Monica and Trent to do so.”

“Actually, I went to school with Trent--elementary school through high school. And Lilly, Monica’s sister, was my college roommate.”

“Wait--you’re Bree, from high school?” Trent’s cousin, a young man a few years younger than Bree named Simon, asked, his eyebrows arching. “Oh, I didn’t realize….”