Page 33 of The Other Plan

Valentina waved at Jenna. “Jenna! You guys can move over here now!” she called across the bar. “We’re gonna play bar dice!”

Jenna looked apprehensive, but her sister quickly hopped up and dragged her fiancé along behind her. She sat at the farthest stool from me, placing Matt in the middle and leaving the stool beside me open.

Well played, Jo.

“Go ahead and take it.” Evan gestured for Jenna to sit. “I don’t mind standing.”

She chewed on her lip before thanking him and sliding in next to me. Evan winked at me when she wasn’t looking. Now I liked this guy even more, and this time I didn’t hate the fact I did—now that he wasn’t competition for the woman who’d stolen my heart and never really returned it.

“You guys in for a round of dice?” Valentina spun the little brown dice cup around on the bar.

“Oh, hell yeah,” Jo answered quickly, cracking her knuckles.

“Jo’s a bartender,” Matt explained. “She basically plays bar dice for a living.”

“And kicks ass at it!” Brandon said as he blew by with a round of beers for the bachelorettes across the way.

“Oh, I’ve got some competition, huh?” I arched a brow. “You’re on.”

Jo snorted and brushed her nails across the shoulder of the black leather coat she wore. “Bring it, city boy.”

“City boy.” Jenna chuckled. “Now, that’s something I never thought anyone would use to refer to you.”

“What’s wrong with being a city boy? I happen to have a pretty kick-ass life, thank you very much.”

“Nothing.” She shrugged. “It’s just that the guy I knew in college would have said the city would kill his soul.”

“Well, I guess I grew up. Matured.” Now that I knew I had a fighting chance, I jumped on the opportunity to show Jenna how much I’d grown. How capable and stable I’d become. That I wasn’t just a wandering, free-spirited surfer anymore. Now, I was husband material... or at least that’s what Camilla had drilled into me for years.

“That’s still highly debatable,” Eric teased.

Jenna laughed and glanced over at me. “Well, good. I’m glad your maturity is contested. I’d be a little sad if you’d changed into some soulless, power-hungry suit.”

“Ouch,” I responded. “I definitely haven’t turned into that.”

“Also highly debatable,” Eric chimed again.

I opened my mouth to argue, but Valentina slammed the dice cup on the bar and cheered when she rolled a fifty-six in one.

“Beat that, baby!” she taunted her soon-t0-be-husband.

“That’s not fair.” Eric grabbed the cup and gave it a shake. When he slammed it down and revealed the dice, he grimaced. “Damn it. Still fifty-six in one to you.”

I shook the cup and failed to best Valentina, then passed it over to Jenna. “You’re up.”

“Oh, I don’t think so. No shots for me.”

Valentina stuck out her lip and pouted, a trick she must have learned from her mom and Aunt Tilly. It seemed the Bronson ladies had a knack for guilting people into doing whatever they wanted. “Please? Just one round?”

“Come on, Jenna. Just one round,” I echoed.

“Yeah, sugar bottom. Go ahead and roll the dice.” Evan reached forward and pinched her cheek—the cheek that darkened to red as he started cooing pet names at her. “You love winning at stuff, babycakes sugar pie. Show them what you’ve got!”

If I hadn’t been looped into the truth moments ago, I’d have tossed my entire dinner back up on the bar watching this interaction between them. But now? Now it was all I could do to hold back the laughter trying to bust out like a herd of stampeding horses.

Damn, I really like this guy.

I jutted my chin at the dice cup in front of her. “Yeah, sugar bottom. Show us what you’ve got.”