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Alexis gasped. “I thoughtIwas going to be your maid of honor!”
“BeforeI knew you were besties with these people!”
“Okay, y’all are officially dragging it,” Alexis huffed. “Titan is the baby of the family, and everybody knows the baby of the family isn’t like the rest of them. He’s practically the black sheep.”
“Because he’s a damn hoodlum, or used to be,” Morgan mumbled, bringing our attention to her.
“And how do you knowthat?” Alexis asked. “Because of the supply deal gone wrong?”
Morgan sighed. “No. That’s… not my only connection to that family.Unfortunately.”
“Oh God,” I grunted. “What else could there be?”
“I don’t want to talk about it,” sheattempted, but — “I don’t fucking think so.” Alexis was the one to speak. “IfI’mgonna be in the hot seat, girl you can bring your ass too. What are you not telling?”
Lookingtrulydefeated, Morgan flagged down a server to request another round of mimosas, making us wait for them to be delivered before she answered.
“I… may or may not have been… high school sweethearts with Ares Sterling.”
My mouth dropped. “Say sike!”
“You don’t know how bad I wish I could,” she groaned. “I wasn’t good enough for his family though. His mother called methe fish market girl.”
“To yourface?!” Alexis asked.
Morgan shook her head. “I overheard it. But Ares must’ve agreed because he never talked to me again after that summer. And then I went off to BSU, and… blah blah blah. Y’all know the rest.”
“Sohe’sthe boy that broke your heart and had you hoeing all over the yard?!” I asked, completely serious.
For a moment, there was complete silence at the table, the three of us just looking at each other before we broke into laughter.
“Wow,” Alexis gasped, the first to somewhat regain her composure. “So all this time…Ares Sterlingwashe who must not be named?”
Dabbing away tears of laughter with her cloth napkin, Morgan nodded. “Yup.”
“So what the hell are we going to do?” I asked, giving up my previously established limit to take a deep gulp from the fresh mimosa. “I’m supposed to marry this man while one of my best friends has a secret blood feud with the family and the other is their fucking accountant? No shade, Lexi.”
“No shade my ass.” Alexis laughed. “Thisaccountantcould’ve kept you out of this position in the first place. Y’all should talked to me!”
“Trust me, if I’d known, I would’ve! Alan’s ass should’veneverlet my father sell the building. Zero debate there. But again… what do I do now?”
“You make the best of a fucked-up situation,” Morgan spoke up, reaching across the table to grab my hand. “Marry him and destroy the whole family from the inside.”
“Mo, please.” I giggled. “You know damn well that wouldn’t work in my favor.”
“A girl can dream though, right?” She laughed. “But no, in seriousness… you know you have my support, right? The thing with Ares was damn near twenty years ago at this point and more than a decade sinceStellar Foodstried to pull their bullshit. I’m sure I can tolerate them for the length of a wedding.”
“I wish that was the only amount of time I had to tolerate my soon-to-be-husband,” I muttered, draining the rest of my glass.
Across from me, Lexi’s eyes went wide and so did Morgan’s.
“Speak of the damn devil,” she whispered.
I glanced behind me to follow her gaze, and indeed… there the damn devil was.
It wasbeyondirritating that the sight of Orion’s handsome face instantly took me back to the dream that had pulled me awake this morning. He locked eyes with me immediately and the visual of his head between my thighs was hard to shake as he sauntered towards our table wearing a confident smirk.
And turning heads.
