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“If your right leg was Thanksgiving, and your left leg was Christmas, I’d love to meet you between the holidays.”
His final pickup line is ridiculous enough that I snort a little. Setting the rocks glass back down, I cock my head to look at the man next to me. “Really, Jim? Are these your tried-and-true pick-up lines? How any woman sleeps with you is beyond me.”
“Naw,” he shrugs, smiling that classic, boyish grin. The change in the outdoor light lets the sun perfectly reflect off his singular cheek dimple, and for a moment I’m transfixed by it.“These lines I keep in the vault for when I need to pull out the big guns.”
I reach for my glass again, swirling the straw through the ice cubes before turning to take in the man standing next to me.
Jim Charlebois.
Handsome, yes. Successful trauma doctor, check. An impossible flirt I want to hate, but somehow always manages to make me laugh? Yes, and check.
“And tonight is the perfect night to break out the big guns?” I ask as I turn my back to the bar and prop my elbows up behind me. Jim does the same, mirroring my body language. Both of us instantly find Ryan and Lainey on the dance floor. Our two best friends, now husband and wife. His arms are wrapped around her protectively and they’re barely moving, swaying back and forth to the beat of their hearts and not to the song the band plays. They’re lost in their own little world, only focused on each other and the miniscule space between them, when Ryan pulls her closer to whisper something in her ear. Lainey blushes, and playfully slaps his chest. If I were a betting woman, I’d guess he said something naughty.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen two people happier to be in love,” Jim says.
I nod in agreement as I take another sip of my drink. “I’m so fucking happy for them. No one deserves this more than Lainey.” After what that girl has been through, finding a man who is so desperately in love with her is the bare minimum of what she deserves.
I turn back around to lean on the bar, giving my ankles another break. “So, on a scale of one to ten, how depressed are you that your wingman finally fell in love and settled down?”
“I’d say a ten, but that’d make me a shit friend.”
True. “So, a hard nine then?”
He huffs a laugh as he swallows his scotch, gaze still on the dance floor. “Naw, I’m happy for them. If I had to lose my wingman, I’m glad it’s to someone as cool as her.”
“He really cherishes her.” And if he didn’t, he’d have myself and Jenna to answer to.
Jim watches them for another minute before turning back around, elbows on the bar and inching closer to me to brush his shoulder against mine. “So, what about you?”
“Whataboutme?”
“Couldn’t help but notice you didn’t bring a date to the wedding. Is that because you knew you’d be walking down the aisle with me?”
I roll my eyes so hard it hurts. “I’m pretty sure the only reason Lainey and Ryan put us together in the bridal party is becauseI’mthe only one that can keepyouin your place.”
He feigns being hurt. “Ever think it’s the other way around? Maybe I’m the only one that can tame you.”
I throw my head back, letting my laugh catch on the summer breeze and carry it away. “No one willevertame me.”
My laugh fizzles as I take a drink and turn, seeing him stare at me with inquiry.
“I can see that,” he murmurs.
I think what has always put me so on edge around Jim is the way he talks. Everything about him is seductive. And not in a ‘I’m a cliche, slimy asshole’ sort of way, but more like ‘I’m confident in my ability to make a woman have a screaming orgasm’ sort of way. Whichever it is, the start of a crimson flush crawls up my chest as he stares at me, and I hate it.
He takes the glass from my hand and sets it on the bar as the band starts a new song. “Come on, you haven’t danced all night.”
“That’s because I don’t dance,” I tell him, digging my heels into the grass and leaning back in resistance. I wish I had Jenna's confidence when it comes to dancing. All night, she’sbeen on the dance floor with her stepdaughter Allie, teaching her every classic Jenna-move from the sprinkler to the shopping cart, not forgetting the robot.
Lainey was sweet enough to ask Allie and my nephew, Jackson, to be in the wedding as the designated flower girl and ring bearer. Jackson has been talking for months about how late he was going to stay up, and how he was going to outlast everyone on the dance floor. He had big plans of kiddie cocktails and “boogying” as he calls it, so I booked us a room at the on-site hotel.
I would have been willing to dance with my little man, and only him, because it’s impossible to be grumpy when he’s around. But then he snuck too many pieces of wedding cake and promptly threw up all over himself. He left thirty minutes ago with my parents. Leaving just me.
Jenna struts over to her husband, Emmett, who has been the designated babysitter the entire evening. She grabs his sunglasses from the table, slips them on and whispers something into his ear before kissing him. His laugh echoes across the dance floor as she moonwalks back to Allie. She looks killer in her bridesmaid dress, even after giving birth to their second daughter three months ago. The sweetest little princess has been curled up on Emmett’s burly chest all day, barely making a peep. With how wild Jenna and Allie are, I hope baby Sophie keeps that calm temperament to give the poor guy a break.
Jim comes close and grabs both elbows, pulling me out of my daydream and to his chest. “Everyone dances, Meg…and our best friends just got married, it’s time to unwind. I can offer you a personal guarantee,” he says, hovering closely, “I promise I’ll make you look good.”
I sigh, knowing he’s completely right. Not necessarily the part that he will make me look good, but the part that one of my bestfriends married the love of her life. The wedding is beautiful, the drinks are flowing, and the band is on fire. I have my first kid-free night in years, so I should take advantage of the situation. I hold up a pointer finger to Jim. “Onedance. Just one.”
