Is he even listening to what I’m saying? Does he even register that I’m answering his questions?
“What?”
“That girl wants youbad,Boss, and I have never seen you left speechless by a woman before. I’m not putting you in a position where things might happen, because then I’m putting you in a position to meet an early grave and I don’t want to bury one of my groomsmen at my own wedding.”
“It’s not like that,” I say, and it’s not. I won’t let it be.
“I’m serious. It would kill him and then he would kill you.” His hazel eyes are full of warning, and we both know he’s right. It would destroy everything. His wedding. My relationship with Fork. Fork’s relationship with his sister. Our team.
“I’m not going to touch his fucking sister,” I grumble.
“You’re sure?” he asks carefully.
“God, Lowesy. I didn’t ask for this; he askedmeto do this. It’s what he wants.” I am regretting ever agreeing at this point.
“I get that, but I’m just being preemptive.”
“You don’t have to worry about anything, alright? I’m doing this as a favour. You don’t have to let me have the plus one since I’ve already declined, anyway. Just say the numbers have been finalized or whatever.”
“Well, I don’t want to do that. I like Ari. Penny loves her, too. If she wants to come, we’d love to have her.”
I cannot wait for this conversation to be over, whatever his decision may be.
“You should have just invited her. This is already proving to be a headache.” I sigh, running a hand over my face. If she had her own invite, we wouldn’t be worrying about this. She could come with Jared, or Paul, or someone else who would piss me the hell off.
Lowesy grins, dimples and all, and smacks his hand on my leg. “Let’s enjoy our beer until Lucky gets home and then we’ll sort it all out, Mr. Plus One.”
“Don’t fucking start.”
He laughs, snatching my beer from me and hitching it to the bottle opener on the side of the table. He pops it open and hands it back, his eyes full of intrigue, but laced with an underlying layer of worry. Worry that I’m about to fuck everything up for all of us.
I’m not. I got this.
She’s not my date.
august
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
ariana
“I know. Listen, take a breath.”
I glance at my brother. He’s leaning against his G-Wagon after loading up our luggage, a patient smile on his face. He nods, as if the person on the other end of the phone can see him.
“Sweets,” he says calmly. His grin grows a bit before he cuts her off again. “Sweets! Listen. I’m going to stop at your place before I leave—no, he can’t. Boston’s flight took off an hour ago. I will stop by the house and make sure I grab their outfits, okay? It will take me forty minutes and we’re way ahead of schedule.”
Arden walks out of the building, her eyes wide. When she sees Carter on the phone, speaking calmly, she relaxes. Running a hand through her red hair, she pulls her sunglasses onto her nose.
“She forgot the matching collars for the dogs when they left yesterday.”
“This is about herdogs?”
She lets out a breath of relief. “Those are her babies. They’re the whole reason they’re driving up there instead of flying. Declan texted me to try and rectify it, and she must have called Carter at the same time. Apparently, she is a wreck.”
Dog people. So weird.
“The wedding week anxiety,” I muse, shaking my head. I’ve seen it time and time again and it always manages to work itself out in the end. “She’ll be fine once we’re at that lakehouse and she’s home.”
