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“Not drinking ever,” I replied with a smile.
“As you wish.” With a nod to my friends, he sauntered away, and all three of us watched him go.
When he was out of earshot, Layla reached out and smacked my arm. “He did not just say ‘as you wish.’”
“He sure did,” Lyndi said. “And it looked way better on him than it ever did on that Westley guy.”
We all laughed like teenagers, and I waved a hand. “He’s really sweet. But you know, he’s working. This isn’t a thing.”
“Oh, please. It’s just us here. We all know it’s not a thing because of Paul,” Layla teased, keeping her voice low. “You should have seen his face when you and the professional dreamboat walked in. I swear, I almost told my date to leave right then and there. From now on, if a guy doesn’t look at me like that, I don’t want him.”
The blush appeared again as the image of the look I actually had seen on Paul’s face flashed in my mind. “Yeah, he definitely hadn’t seemed pleased when he’d found out about this arrangement at dinner last night.”
“Did you ask him about coming over to your place next weekend?” Lyndi asked. “You said you were going to do it after dinner.”
I shook my head. “Nope. Honestly, it wasn’t a good time. I don’t know if he was still freaking out about what happened with Roxy or if he was really conflicted about this weirdness between us, but it was bad timing. And then there was this whole talk about me not wanting to have a serious relationship, and that confused me, too. But he did ask me to save him a dance tonight. I’ll ask him then.”
“You’d better, girlfriend,” Layla said. “You have to put the ball in his court. I think it’s pretty clear that the only thing standing between you guys is… well, you guys. You know what I mean.”
Lyndi and I chuckled, and we all stood straighter as Beau reappeared with two identical drinks in hand. I peered into his glass. “Is that vodka soda or are you copying me?”
He winked—yes, winked—and smiled down at me. “I don’t drink at weddings.”
Understanding washed over me. Of course he didn’t. He was working. It probably wouldn’t do for him to get all sloppy while he was trying to be the world’s best wedding date, as advertised. “Well, cheers.”
“Cheers,” he replied, including Layla and Lyndi on the salute.
“We’re going to head back to our terrible dates now,” Layla said with a pout and a jerk of her head toward the two guys they’d been standing with earlier.
“That bad?” I asked.
Lyndi nodded. “To be fair, they aren’t bad individually.”
I frowned. “What do you mean?”
“Well, I’ve been seeing Roger on and off for a while, and I knew he was into cars, but it doesn’t come up much when we’re together,” Layla explained.
“And I met Sam at a wedding—he has a videography company—and we hit it off right away,” Lyndi added. “A wedding as a date sounded like fun to both of us.”
“So where’s the problem?” I asked sharing a smile with Beau, who also seemed curious.
Lyndi blew out a breath. “They haven’t stopped talking about old cars since we got here. I don’t even know how they figured out that they were both obsessed with those hot rod car shows, but it’s been all downhill from there. We honestly might as well not exist at this point.”
I reached out and rubbed her arm, but Beau rolled his eyes. “Boys and their cars.”
“Hey, can’t we say the same for you and your guns, Mr. Expert Marksman?” I joked.
Beau shook his head with an adorable quirk of his lips. “Nope. Boys play with cars. Men play with guns.”
His tone made it obvious that he was trying to make us laugh, so we did. Because goodness, the man was no Paul as far as the room he took up in my busted-up heart, but he sure was charming. Then he leaned toward Lyndi. “Hey, I know I’m here with your friend, so I hope none of you take this the wrong way, but if you ever need an amazing wedding date, I’m your guy.”
Lyndi’s mouth popped open and she nodded slightly. “Good to know.”
I couldn’t help but laugh as I watched them walk away, heads bent together, whispering. Looking back up at Beau, I shook my head. “How did you make that seem okay even though in any other circumstance it totally wouldn’t have been?”
“Honestly, in my line of work, it helps to just embrace how strange it is that I’m the hired help. Aria told me Layla and Lyndi were the only ones outside of the two of you who knew I was your fake date. So with them, I’ll joke. But with everyone else, I’m a real date. I’m here to support you, whatever way you need me to.”
“I see,” I replied, thinking it was interesting that she hadn’t told him that Paul and Will knew. What would that be like?
