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This place left me entirely too hot for entirely too many reasons.
I blamed the firehose in his sorry excuse for shorts.
“Are you sure you’re okay with this?” Cass asked, watching me.
“Do I have a choice?”
“There’s always a choice. You could stay with me and I’ll make Davis sleep on the couch. He won’t mind.”
“I won’t kick Davis out of his wedding bed, but thank you for the offer.”
“Maybe there’s another couch out there for you to sleep on?”
“I think I’ll take my chances with your brute cousin.”
She chewed her lip as she pulled out of the carpark behind Remy.
“Why exactly are you so worried?”
“I don’t really know,” she answered. “It’s not like you’d somehow fall for Remy when Henry is right there at your fingertips.”
I laughed, slipping my sunglasses onto my face. “No, you don’t have to worry about that. I don’t think I’ve ever known anyone less my type, do you? Can you imagine?”
At that, she laughed too. “I honestly can’t. Not like...on a date. But Remy doesn’t date. He’s a love-em-and-leave-em type. The local good-time guy. The trick is not to forget just exactly what he is. Despite that knowledge, many a friend has been blindsided.” She paused. “I’d just hate for you to miss your shot with Henry because Remy wouldn’t keep his shirt on.”
“Have I been so weak?” I feigned offense.
“No, which is why it’d be even worse.”
“I admit, he’s fit. I’ve never seen anyone quite so fit. And I never seem to know what he’s going to say, or what he’s going to do.”
“We call that a wildcard. Unpredictable underdogs with nothing to lose. They get you when you least expect it, and I guess I’m just afraid you won’t see him coming.”
“I shall be ever vigilant,” I said with my hand on my heart.
“You’d better be, or I’ll kill him. And don’t look so excited—you’ll be an accomplice to murder.”
After a laugh, I looked out the passenger window, hoping I sounded nonchalant. “How was the rest of your night?”
“Boring. Henry and Davis were too busy catching up. I couldn’t get a word in, ended up back in the house with Mama and left them on the front porch talking half the night. But dinner went well, I thought. And we’ll all be together every day. It’ll be like our summers all over again.”
I sighed. “Honestly, it’s too much to hope for, isn’t it? Henry and I, I mean.”
“I fucking hope not,” she started, the leather of the steering wheel squeaking under her palm as she squeezed. “He’s the heir to the dukedom with no wife. You’re his childhood friend who he has a marriage pact that expires like right now. There’s literally no such thing as a better time than this. The stars have aligned.”
“But saying and doing are two different things,” I pointed out. “The pact could have been some sort of joke.”
“It wasn’t, and you know it wasn’t. Also, I don’t know if you know this, but you have gotten hotter in the last year. I don’t know what kind of virgin blood you’ve got stocked to bathe in, but it’s working.”
I barked an unladylike laugh. “Thank you, but I’ll never be Henry hot.”
Her mouth popped open and her eyes cut to me. “Are you kidding? You are a smokeshow,” she started, leaning into the steering wheel as she took a breath to fuel a rant. “Talk about fit—you are the most gorgeous woman I know. I’d do you, if you got me drunk enough. You’re confident now in a way you weren’t back then, sophisticated and kind times a million. You do charity work like him?—“
“Not save-orphans-in-Africa charity. It is not like?—”
“You know what I mean, Lady Jessamine Hastings. He’d be lucky to have the motherfucking honor of your attention. Honestly, it’s getting ridiculous. Maybe this should be it. Last call. If he doesn’t make a move now, of all times, he doesn’t deserve you. As much as I’d love for Davis and I to be in the Howard-Hastings wedding party, I will skin him and sell his pelt to Buffalo Bill if he doesn’t snap you up immediately.”
Laughter filled the car.
