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“Oh well, Owen’s obviously won, so he gets to have a menu item named after him down at Ellie’s.”
“Won what? Menu item? What are you talking about?”
“Oh, you didn’t know?” Josh asked, leaning in, with a grin. “In addition to the trophy and the reserved table, Ellie threw in having an item on the menu named after the winner.”
Becca heard Beau groan. “When did this happen?” she asked.
“After you two came back from Evendale not even talkin’,” Owen said.
Becca shook her head. “So I guess we’re all just going to give up pretending that you all don’t know that Beau and I knew all about the matchmaking competition?”
They all laughed.
“We aren’t sure when exactly you figured it out, but yeah, we realized you’d caught on,” Tori, Josh’s wife, said with a grin.
Becca looked at Owen. “Okay, I’m curious why you think you’re the winner.”
“Well obviously you’re together. And I was the last one of this group to see you single.”
“We’re officially together?” Becca asked, amused as she always was by Owen. “Do you have proof?”
“Girl, please,” Owen said. “I’ve seen that look on many a girl’s face the morning after, thank you very much.”
Maddie elbowed him hard.
“From you, honey,” Owen said, holding his ribs and grinning. “I meant from you.”
Maddie rolled her eyes. Owen had been a notorious playboy before she’d come back to town and tied him down.
“Well, that was just a crazy, drunk moment,” Becca said, feeling a little sassy this morning. “When in Vegas and all that.”
“Sure, okay,” Owen said, nodding. “I’ll give you that. Hookups are hookups. But I’ve got it in writing.”
“You’ve got what in writing?” Becca asked. Had she declared her love for Beau on a cocktail napkin or something? God, that would be mildly humiliating. Though not surprising.
“That you’re Mr. and Mrs.,” Owen said.
“Excuse me?” Becca asked, her heart doing a somersault in her chest. “How do you have that in writing?”
“Well, I guess the state of Nevada technically has it in writing. But that marriage certificate is real. I made sure.”
Beau had just taken a drink of coffee and he started choking. Becca just felt her mouth drop open. If they hadn’t been in Vegas, of all places, she would have scoffed and chalked this up to Owen being Owen. But…theywerein Vegas. And something was niggling at the back of her consciousness that wouldn’t let her just laugh it off. And no one else at the table seemed astonished by this revelation.
Oh…crap.
She blinked at Owen for a good ten seconds.
He just let her. Grinning back.
“The what?” she finally managed.
“The marriage certificate. That definitely takes things beyond a hookup.” He looked around the table. “I knew I would need proof. And when I do something, I do it right.”
Multiple people around the table laughed atthat. Owen Landry was a lot of things—some of them very good and admirable even—but meticulous and responsible were not two of those things.
“Explain yourself,” Beau said, butting into the conversation.
It wasn’t really butting in. Obviously he was sitting right there, and the conversation wasabouthim. In part.
