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“I don’t recall…” her voice trailed off as her eyes got wide.
Amanda smirked, and Tria simply looked astounded.
“I do remember y
ou,” Tria said.
Mandi just nodded as she turned to Ryan.
“Tria and I were in the same group home together,” she announced. “Right before I was adopted by the Madisons.”
“No shit?” I said. I focused on Tria for a moment as I tried to understand her expression.
“Damn small world, huh?” Ryan remarked.
Neither one of them seemed to care to elaborate. I thought about some of the stuff Tria had said about her time there and wondered if she had mentioned Amanda before, but she hadn’t talked too much about the other kids there. Tria had only mentioned the one girl who had been adopted before her.
When the stretch of silence became uncomfortable, Ryan piped up again.
“So…you’re coming, right?”
“To what?” I asked. As if I didn’t know.
Ryan tilted his head and raised one of his bushy brows at me.
“The wedding, asshole.”
“Wasn’t planning on it.”
“Told you,” Amanda said. “I bet he threw the invitation away.”
I had, but I wasn’t about to tell her she was right. I was half tempted to change my mind just because they obviously had a bet going, and I didn’t want her to win. I could be spiteful that way.
“Come on, Lee,” Ryan said. “It’s a good opportunity.”
I wasn’t going to ask him what kind of opportunity. There were dozens of answers, and I wouldn’t like any of them.
“I don’t have a tux.”
“I have your tux.” Ryan tossed his words at me.
“Won’t fit,” I said. “I’m a lot bigger than I was then.”
“He’s too stubborn,” Amanda said. “He’s going to continue to be an ass and a brat, and not—”
I was about to start calling my cousin’s girl a variety of names, but someone else beat me to the punch, so to speak.
“Don’t you talk to him that way!” Tria snapped as she stood up and tilted her head up to look at Amanda. She was easily six inches shorter than Mandi and wasn’t wearing three-inch heels either, but that wasn’t about to stop her. Her face darkened, and her eyes flared. “I will not put up with that!”
“Aren’t we the feisty one?” Amanda remarked.
For some reason, this was nothing like the verbal sparring Tria and Yolanda had done in the past, and I didn’t find the scene the least bit amusing or comfortable. Ryan stepped a little closer and put his arm around Amanda’s waist to hold her against him, and I stood to move between the two women.
“Mandi, give it a rest,” Ryan said softly.
She shrugged him off.
“Well, you certainly found your voice,” Amanda remarked. “But I wonder just how much you know!”
