Pete’s eyebrows rose as he finished his sentence. “—then I found out she’s Noah’s girlfriend and ordered myself a consolation drink.”
She’s mine.He’d said the words without thinking, so he couldn’t really tell himself he’d been keeping up the appearance of their fake relationship. He saw Pete looking at Carly and the words just popped out of his mouth.
It wasn’t a lie. He didn’t remember a time when Carly hadn’t been his best friend, and he didn’t particularly want to. This was the first time they’d ever pretended to be a couple, though, and it was messing with his head. That was the only explanation for his reaction to the lace and the way he’d put his hand on her ass in the elevator.
She had an exceptional ass.
“How long have you and Carly been dating now?” Jim asked him. “About six months, right?”
“Yeah, about that.”
The guy standing next to Pete smirked. “You’re heading into theshit or get off the potzone.”
“You started ring shopping yet?” Jim asked.
Noah felt heat prickling around the collar of his polo shirt. “There’s no rush. Neither of us are really there yet.”
That was a lie. Carly definitely wanted to get married. Besides owning the bookstore, having a husband and a bunch of kids had always been high on her list. But it wasn’t totally a lie, he supposed, since she had no intention of marryinghim.
“She will be soon,” Pete said. “Come six months, her friends start asking if you’re going to move in together or if you’re going to pop the question and they start planning the wedding. They tell themselves it’s in a hypothetical sense, but still. Wedding planning starts happening.”
Noah chuckled along with the other guys, though he didn’t have to worry about it. What he might have to worry about was a guy across the room who kept looking over at the group of women. He wasn’t sure if he was checking out Carly or Sara, but if he was a guest of the wedding, it sure as hell wasn’t Emily.
Just in case it was Carly, Noah excused himself and made his way back to her. He didn’t want to give her an opportunity to forget she was taken for the weekend if a somewhat attractive, single guy started chatting her up.
She’s mine.
“Admit it. This is one of the greatest plans I’ve ever had.”
Carly shook her head, but she couldn’t stop the smile as she leaned against Noah’s shoulder. “It’s still one of the most asinine plans you’ve ever come up with, but it’s turning out okay, I guess.”
This night was more than okay. They’d walked to a quiet spot on the shore away from the other guests for a few minutes. With cool, tangy night air washing over her skin, the ocean lapping at her bare feet, a drink in her hand and her best friend at her side, the night was damn near perfect.
Sitting on her grandfather’s dock, watching the sun set over the lake, was her favorite happy place, but there was something about the ocean she loved. The gentle slapping of the waves. The endless expanse of dark water. It had a restorative power she could feel in her soul. But at the same time, there was a restlessness inside her that was growing, and she couldn’t tell if it was the ocean or Noah.
She really didn’t want it to be Noah, and she turned her back on the ocean as she took a sip of her cocktail.
“Your drink is very pink,” he said.
She shuddered. “It tastes as pink as it looks.”
“Why didn’t you grab a beer? There’s an entire cooler of them over there.”
“I was going to, but I noticed all the women are drinking these and I didn’t want to stand out. Apparently it’s a special cocktail for the occasion so it seemed rude to refuse it.”
“What is it?”
“I don’t even know. Sara told me it’s called a ‘blushing bride’ which is ridiculous because if Emily blushed this color, we’d call an ambulance. She didn’t tell me what was in it, though, and I didn’t ask.” She took another sip, wrinkling her nose. “Vodka, definitely. And fruit juice. Grapefruit, maybe, and...something else. Something very pink.”
“I remember the last time you drank vodka.”
“I don’t.”
He laughed. “It was years ago and that asshole with the Miata—I don’t even remember his name—tried to...well, be an asshole.”
“Right, that guy. I don’t know what happened to him. I remember having a hangover the next day and I remember calling him, but he’d busted his nose and didn’t want to talk. He said something about falling off the deck, which Idon’tremember, and then he stopped returning my calls. It was weird.”
“Yeah. Weird.”
