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Sadie’s eyes turned sympathetic as she focused on me. “Does she even realize the pressure she’s putting on you? I know professional event coordinators who would struggle with something like this, and they thrive on the pressure of pulling off awesome events in a blink.”
“It’s fine,” I said.
“It’s not,” Connor said, matter-of-factly. “Jenna’s mom is kind of a selfish diva, which means she’s exactly my dad’s type. She’ll get what she gets.” He nodded at the binder. “She can fill three of those things with details of what she wants. Doesn’t mean she’s getting it. Jenna’s not bending over backward to make this happen, and neither am I. It can be nice and simple and they can both be grateful they didn’t have to lift a finger. It’s supposed to be about the marriage, not showing off.”
Sadie and I both stared at Connor, our jaws dropped and eyes wide. Sadie recovered faster than I did. “Have you met Vanessa? It’s always about showing off and never about the marriage.”
“That doesn’t change the fact that Jenna’s not overdoing it for her mom who won’t appreciate her taking on that level of stress anyway.”
He held Sadie’s gaze like he was daring her to question him. A lump formed in my throat as I stared at him in wonder. The feminist in me once again was saying I should be pissed that he was speaking for me, but I’d never had anyone that wasn’t my dad, uncle, or Sadie defend me against my mom. Peter never bothered to get involved, and barely noticed when I was frustrated or hurt by my mom’s actions and the way she treated me like either a trophy or a servant, but never a daughter.
“Alright, well, let’s take a peek at this binder and see what’s even feasible. I don’t want to give Vanessa any ammo to guilt trip Jenna for anything.” Sadie pulled the binder closer and opened it, but my gaze was still focused on Connor, who finally looked at me.
That lump in my throat grew as my heart swelled at the tenderness in his gaze—the care and protection barely hidden under the surface. No one had ever looked at me like this. No one had everseenme the way he did.
The way he looked at me every time we were in the same room.
He scooted his chair closer so he could look over the binder with Sadie, but it also brought him closer to me, and he put his hand on my thigh under the table where Sadie wouldn’t see. He gave it one little squeeze and he might as well have been squeezing my heart.
My body was having an internal freak-out—my heart swelling with an emotion I refused to acknowledge after such a short amount of time, my stomach in knots with what this meant, and my stupid vagina wet for him already at his mere presence.
Sadie started talking and I tried to focus, but I was way too distracted. Connor was too close and he smelled too good and every time he looked over at me, there was that tenderness in his gaze that felt like so much more than “just sex.”
I stood up abruptly. “Uh, I need to go to the bathroom.”
Sadie looked at me like I was a weirdo for announcing it to the room, and Connor grinned like he knew I was freaking out. But he shouldn’t have been able to read me that well. We’d only known each other a few weeks, for fuck’s sake.
I dashed off to the bathroom and splashed some water on my face. I stared at my reflection in the mirror—my flushed cheeks, my frantic eyes, my bottom lip which had a slight indent from where I’d been nibbling it too much.
“What is wrong with me?” I whispered to my reflection. “Why can’t I do no-strings-attached sex? Why does my stupid heart have to get involved?” I was actively whisper-chastising myself. I shoved my fingers in my hair. “God, I’m really losing it.”
The door opened and Sadie walked in, her perfectly manicured brow arched and her arms crossed. “So, how long were you going to wait to tell me that you’re hooking up with your new stepbrother?”
My eyes bugged out. “He told you?!”
Her smile turned victorious. “Nope. But you just confirmed what I suspected.”
Damnit.
“It’s not like that,” I said.
“Sure, it’s not.” She walked over to the mirror and fixed her hair which didn’t really need fixing in the first place. “But riddle me this. If it’s nothing, why do you look like you just ran away from your grade school crush after saying something embarrassing?”
“I do not look like that.”
She cocked her head to the side in a gesture that shoutedyou really want to play it that way with me.
My shoulders dropped and I leaned against the sink, my back now to the mirror. This was my best friend. If I couldn’t tell her, who could I tell?
“I had a one-night stand.”
“What?!”
I held my hand up. “Not even close to the part you’ll be shocked about. Anyway, I had a one-night stand with some guy I met at a bar, and then the next day I showed up for brunch with my mom and he was there.”
“Connor?”
“Yep. My new stepbrother who also happened to be the man who’d just blown my mind the night before.”
