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Paige groaned under her breath, seeing the problem. Too bad Colt didn’t.
“Yes, we did.”
“And you came back wearing the same clothes you wore at the wedding?” She glanced over her shoulder at Drake and Paige. “How come…she’s in different clothes then?”
The hesitation before “she’s” surely had to do with Mrs. Trent’s tendency to call her “the Yank”, at least when she thought Paige wasn’t listening.
“We swung by Paige’s to take her out for breakfast before work. You know how she is, all work and no play,” Drake said with an easy smile, crossing the lawn to stand with Colt. On the way there he seemed to realize that left Paige on her own and he hesitated, halfway between them both.
That was just fine. She probably should’ve stayed to herself to begin with. Then none of them would be in this sticky mess.
She started to speak up to try to deflect the heat from the men when the front door opened once again. This time, Wade and Charli were the ones who darkened the step, and Paige lost her voice completely.
As hard as it was, she intended to tell Charli the truth. Just not right now. She refused to take Colt and Drake down with her, at least as far as Mrs. Trent was concerned.
“Charli,” Paige said, rushing across the lawn and up the steps to give her friend a quick hug. She hung on longer than she might’ve normally, because she was half convinced this might be their last hug ever. “Y’all haven’t left yet?”
“We were going to.” There was something in Charli’s voice, a thread of uncertainty as she pulled back to look up at Paige. There were more than a few inches height difference between them, and right now, with Charli dressed in a floaty white dress that made her look angelic, Paige felt like a ginormous wanton woman. “But then Mrs. Bennett saw the truck, and she got a little nervous, considering. So then we got a little nervous…and well, we’re still here.” She pursed her lips. “Then I noticed your truck was still here, Paige, so I called you too.”
“What did y’all think? That I’d wandered off to drown my sorrows because of the wedding?” Colt asked.
“We didn’t know what to think, so we stuck around for a few more hours.”
“I didn’t get a call,” Paige began, then she smacked her head. “I turned my phone off for the wedding. Totally forgot to put it back on.”
“You?” Charli laughed unsteadily. “You live on your phone. I’ve never seen you go ten minutes without checking the thing.”
Yeah, well, apparently having two well-hung studs in my bed supersedes who just tagged me on Facebook.
Paige’s already shaky smile faltered even more. “Must’ve had a bit too much to drink.”
“Must’ve.” Charli grabbed her arm. “We’re
going inside,” she said to her new husband, who nodded, appearing as perplexed as Paige felt.
Charli tugged her inside and up the stairs, past Mr. and Mrs. Bennett. They also passed Hollie, who was shoveling in oatmeal and making her usual snarky comments. The last thing Paige heard before the bathroom door shut behind her and Charli was Hollie’s remark that her big brother had probably sneaked off for a “not-so-secret booty call.”
Yeah, she wasn’t touching that one.
Charli pushed Paige’s butt into the sink and pulled herself up to her full five-feet-nothing height. “Talk to me, amiga.”
Oh God. She knew. She had to know. But how? The evidence was pretty damning, she’d give her that, but still, there had to be another possibility. Surely people didn’t immediately leap right on “tawdry threesome” as the sole reason for two men and a woman to abscond together into the night.
Paige groaned inwardly. Abscond into the night? Dear lawd, she needed to stop watching soap operas.
She took a deep breath. She’d promised herself she wouldn’t lie to Charli. The fact that her stomach was twisting and turning as if it was a wet dishrag gripped between two fists wasn’t going to change her mind.
“We slept together,” she blurted.
“Define we.”
“Me and Drake.” There was no missing the way Charli’s shoulders sagged with visible relief. Unfortunately, she wasn’t done yet. “And me and Colt too. I’m sorry. So sorry.”
Charli’s eyes bugged out. “Both of them? At once?”
“No, no, of course not. Not at once, once.” Her voice lowered. “Not like…DP.”
“DP? Dios mio, I haven’t had coffee yet.”
