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“You want him to crash the wedding?” James asked. “To what end?”
Grant shrugged. “Keep tabs on this woman he has the hots for? I mean, obviously he’s doomed, but he at least can have a front row seat to his own gory end, right?”
My mind was on Andi and what she might do to vent her anger with me. I thought of her finding some other guy—some person she might sleep with to get me out of her system.
The idea made me clench my teeth so hard it hurt. “Going to the wedding wouldn’t be the dumbest idea you’ve ever had, Grant.”
“No,” James said. “But that’s not saying much.”
“He makes jokes now?” Grant asked, jabbing a thumb toward James. “Guess what, you big, creepy asshole? Your jokes suck. You should stick to being a weird, grouchy statue. It suits you better.”
James turned to face Grant, who wasn’t short by any standards at a few inches over six feet, but he still seemed small beside James. To his credit, Grant stared up into James’ eyes and didn’t flinch back.
“Come on. Nobody needs to fight,” I said. “Grant, your plan was good. James, you really aren’t funny. Case closed.”
“Well,” Grant said. “What are you going to do?”
“What do you think?” I asked, grabbing my coat and standing.21AndiDana Whitmoore and I used to be really close. We went to the same high school and her father was friends with Grandpa Willy. But after high school, our lives went in completely different directions. She took over an important job in her father’s business and became ultra-successful in her own right. Now she was marrying a guy I didn’t know named Jim.
One thing was immediately evident when we arrived in St. Augustine, Florida, for the wedding. Money was not in short supply. Everybody who was invited had their plane tickets covered and a free room in this sprawling, beautiful old historic hotel. It was nestled in the shade of massive, oak trees and surrounded by green grass in every direction.
My sisters and I took rooms on the top floor, which we selected after taking an hour-long tour of the building. I could’ve believed I had been transported back to the 1700s when I was in the place. Every scrap of furniture looked antique, but stunningly preserved. The paintings on the walls were all regal and proud depictions of some ancient family line.
I flopped down on the four-poster bed in my room and sighed contentedly. This was exactly what I needed. Space.
I could hear Bree and Audria in the rooms on either side of mine as they unpacked their things, but it was still a different kind of quiet out here. After spending most of my life in New York City, I had stopped noticing the background noise a long time ago. I closed my eyes and drank in the silence that seemed to envelop this place like a comfortable little cocoon, but then my mind went somewhere dangerous.
I remembered the dark room and the sensation of feeling nothing as I floated in the tub. I remembered how my skin had tingled with the knowledge that Landon was so close. And I remembered his hands on my face—his thumb against my lips.
My door opened and a guy came halfway in with a bag over his shoulder.
I shot up on the bed, eyes wide and breathless.
“Oh, shit,” he said. “Sorry—I didn’t realize someone was in here. I was trying to find my room.”
I squinted. I recognized him. It had been several years since I’d seen him, and he’d put on muscle in the right places and grown up since then. “Tommy?”
He pointed, nodding with a friendly smile. “Andi. Right? Shit, yeah. That’s you for sure.”
I was more than a little startled when he dropped his bag and walked over to me for a hug. I was still sitting on the bed when he wrapped his arms around me.
He pulled back from the hug, smiling like he had no idea why it could be inappropriate to hug me while I was sitting on a bed. I wasn’t sure if I was the one reading too much into it, though, so I smiled like nothing was weird, too. “Do you still drum your fingers on everything within reach?” I asked. I tried to stand, which meant awkwardly slinking around him since he was still standing right in front of me.
“Actually, I use drumsticks most of the time now. I made a career out of it. I do recording gigs for big bands. Some of the really big ones, actually.”
“Oh, wow,” I said. I was still smiling, but I felt like a deer in the headlights. I didn’t think it had anything to do with the fact that Tommy Gallager from high school had grown up to be certifiably hot. I remembered his mom was actually from Okinawa, Japan, and his dad was Italian. The mixed heritage suited him well, but that wasn’t what had me feeling so nervous and awkward. It was the thought of Landon finding out.
