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He’d stepped back to let me through the doorway. Total gentleman move.
“Out there,” he said. “But they probably ate breakfast like the wedding party did.”
“You all had breakfast?” I asked, hearing the disappointment in my own voice. It was my fault I missed it, but still…
“Mini omelets and fruit. The usual stuff you’d expect from a catering company.”
I shoved my feelings about missing breakfast aside to focus on the food in front of me. I stopped in front of the pizza tray and picked up one of the little pepperoni slices.
“These are so cute,” I said just seconds before I took a generous chomp.
I probably could have pushed the whole thing into my mouth, but I didn’t want to look like a glutton. When I turned to look at him, still chewing, that was exactly what I felt like. He had a smile on his face. But deep down, was he judging me?
I’d never been stick thin. My generous curves had always made me feel a little self-conscious when I was eating, mostly because when I was younger, girls had been assholes. But Emerald got me. We’d taken on the bullies together.
“A little heavy on the sauce,” I said once I swallowed. “And the crust needs work.”
He stared at me as he chewed on a lettuce wrap. He’d shoved the whole thing into his mouth by then. I tossed the pizza crust into the nearby trash can and reached for one of the mini quiches.
“What about that one?” he asked after I’d swallowed my first bite.
“Moist and flavorful.”
I had a friend who hated the word “moist.” As someone who’d baked most of my life, it was a regular part of my vocabulary, though.
“The filling could use a little more seasoning,” I said, looking down at it. “Maybe some fresh parsley too.”
His eyebrows arched. He was thinking of me as some hoity-toity society girl. Quite the opposite. My dad was a pastor, and not of one of those megachurches with a fitness center and coffee shop. No, we’d been a small-town church with maybe fifty members in a good year. My mom was a church secretary until she had to take work as a virtual assistant to pay the bills.
So yeah, far from a society girl.
Behind Brody, a woman entered. She wore a white shirt and black pants—an outfit I recognized as the one all the catering crew members were wearing. She gave me a strange look, and something about it made me feel like I’d been caught breaking the rules.
But when she walked around us and grabbed a tray from the counter behind me, I realized what we’d done. They were taking these trays out to people, and here we stood, chowing down in the kitchen like we’d never been taught manners.
I was still smiling as we emerged from the kitchen. I’d never been a rule breaker, but it sure felt like we’d been doing something naughty. I was surprised how giddy it made me.
My smile faded once we arrived in the living room and I saw everyone gathered in the corner near the window. The bride and groom were cutting the cake. That was definitely something the maid of honor and best man should be present for.
I looked over at Brody, who seemed to have the same thought I did. We’d better get our asses over there.
But as we stood with the crowd, watching, I couldn’t help but think about Bo’s age. When I heard my best friend was marrying someone so much older than us, I’d been a little weirded out. She was twenty-one and I was twenty-two.
But after meeting Brody and realizing he was around Bo’s age, my mindset had shifted. Thirty-six wasn’t as old as I thought. Thirty-six was…hot.
“I’ll go help,” I told Brody, splitting from him and squeezing through the crowd to get to my best friend.
Emerald had cake smeared all over her face, thanks to her groom, and she was taking it in stride. But she needed someone to get her presentable again, especially if there would be pictures.
As the two of us headed off toward the bedrooms, I glanced back over my shoulder at Brody, who was helping corral everyone into the line for cake. It was more a stampede than a line, actually. Our eyes met over the crowd, and my heart skipped a beat.
Oh yeah. There was definitely something there. I just hoped I could control myself. The last thing I needed was to fall for someone in a town I could never, ever live in.
4
BRODY
“You brought us cake!”
