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She turned to go without a backward glance, and Thatcher gave us an apologetic smile before he followed after her. When they were gone, I pulled out my phone and pretended to check a very important email. It would be better than standing in silence with Will after that not-so-subtle exchange.
“Did you hire that wedding date guy for Paul and Shelby’s wedding?” Will asked, his question shocking the crap out of me. I blinked up at him in response, and when I didn’t say anything, he laughed quietly. “I’ll take that as a yes.”
“What? No, don’t. I didn’t.”
His eyes met mine then, and a gap in his usual mask allowed me to glimpse a flicker of relief in them. “Oh. You didn’t?”
“No. Why would I hire Beau?”
“I don’t know. I mean, you’re not dating that lawyer anymore. And Paul said you and Shelby were talking about him being there.”
“He will be there. But not with me. With Layla.”
“Layla?” He ran a hand over his smooth jaw. “Right on.”
“Yeah, she’s sick of always being the bridesmaid at all of these weddings and her dates are always duds for some reason. I figured it would be good for her to have some no-strings-attached fun with Beau.”
“How many weddings has she been a bridesmaid in?”
I looked up, pausing to count. “Well, a handful of friends from high school and now Shelby. Probably six in the last couple of years.”
“That’s better than that chick in that one movie.”
“Katherine Heigl? You’ve seen27 Dresses?”
His mouth dropped open. “Really? You don’t remember that night you made me and Paul watch it with you when you were upset over that breakup in high school?”
“Oh, duh.” Shuffling my feet, I nodded, remembering that night and how ridiculously sweet they’d both been even though I knew they were happy about the breakup. They were always happy when things didn’t work out with a guy, those smug jerks. But I hadn’t remembered what movie I made them watch because through the whole thing I’d been too distracted thinking about the six inches of space between my leg and Will’s as we’d sat on my parents’ couch. I kept thinking that if I could just shift a little…
“Anyway,” he said, breaking me out of my memory, “that’s nice of you to set Layla up. Is she still hung up on that guy she dated a few years ago?”
“Yeah, I think she is. She compares everyone to him.” I looked down so my face wouldn’t betray how much I knew that feeling. I compared everyone to Will. It sucked.
“Man, that’s a bummer. Layla’s good people. She deserves better.”
I bit my lip, looking out at the dark street as couples on date nights meandered past. Apparently, we weren’t the only ones out to dinner on a weeknight. “The heart wants what the heart wants, I guess.”
He didn’t reply, and I couldn’t bring myself to look at him. Desperate for a subject change, I let out a short laugh. “I can’t believe you thought I’d bring Beau to Shelby and Paul’s wedding.”
“Why?”
“Will, I’m not only the maid of honor, I’m the freaking wedding planner. I don’t have time to worry about a date. Do you know how hard I’m going to have to work to make sure I handle everything and also do my maid of honor duties?”
“And have fun,” he said, a sexy half-smile on that tempting mouth of his.
I rolled my eyes and gazed out at the street again. “Fun? I won’t have time for fun. Pulling double duty means no fun for me.”
“Well, I’m going solo too, so you should save me a dance. Isn’t that a duty of the maid of honor? Dancing with the best man?”
Slowly, I turned to look at him. Why would he even suggest that? Even before the kiss in high school, if Will had asked me to dance, I would have died. And I figured he either didn’t know I had a crush on him or had ignored it because he didn’t look at me the same way. But after? After he’d confirmed that it was the latter, it had taken us years before we were anywhere close to normal again. So given what happened on Valentine’s Day, I couldn’t wrap my head around this.
“What?” he asked after too many beats of silence from me. “Is that not a thing?”
“It’s not,” I replied, looking away. “The only thing we have to do is walk down the aisle together. As best man and maid of honor, that is.”
“Right. And the intro into the reception,” he reminded me.
“That too.”
