Page 43 of The Best Man Wins

“Mandy,” I say urgently. “You can’t. Not if you really care about Ray.”

Mandy gives my shoulder a pat. “Don’t worry about it. Those things only happen in movies, right? Hey! You hear that?” Mandy draws a smile. “I love this song.”

Before I can grab her, she ducks out and moves toward the band. Crap. I’ve got a sinking feeling that drops straight down to the pit of my stomach.

Braxton now seems like a molehill compared to the Mountain Mandy. Warning bells, not wedding bells, are going off in my head. There’s nothing more dangerous than a woman in love.

“What’s a pretty lady like you doing in a dump like this?”

I glance around and sigh. “Great. Trouble Number Two.”

“Well, not quite the welcome I was hoping for.” Braxton lifts a finger to motion to the bartender. Why is it everyone can get the bartender’s attention except for me? He’s in a black Ralph Lauren peacoat, and he looks a step above everyone around him. “What are you drinking?”

“I don’t know, something blue… Listen, you can’t just crash the bachelorette party. There are rules to this kind of thing. Protocols.”

“If you don’t want me here, just say that.”

Braxton’s eyes meet mine. His irises have gone dark again, and now I feel bad for taking it out on him. “No, I don’t want you to leave. Stay.”

My forearm brushes against his when I lean against the bar beside him. Braxton doesn’t budge.

“You texted me,” he says. “It seemed like you needed a distraction.”

Bingo. That’s it. Mandy needs a distraction. After all, what better way to get over heartbreak than to rebound?

It worked for me. Didn’t it? Get over Ace by getting under Braxton?

I look over at Braxton. He’s not unlike the first night I saw him, stormy eyes, that hair that constantly begs for fingers raked through it. Not that you can. His posture is too stiff, detached, as though he’d be doing you a favor to let you touch his flat, washboard abs.

Braxton orders me a cocktail, club soda and lime for himself. When my drink comes, I chew on the straw. “What’d you do today?” I ask.

“We all bought suits for the wedding.”

“How was that?”

“Great,” Braxton says at first. When I stare at him dubiously, he ultimately shrugs and confesses, “I wanted to blow my brains out.”

“I have something that will cheer you up,” I say casually.

“I’m listening.”

I stir my straw in between the ice cubes. “Well. It’s sort of a favor.”

“Forget it. I’m not helping you stitch this wedding back together.”

“You’ll like this favor, though. It’s about your plus one.”

Now Braxton’s eyebrows lift. His eyes flicker through the crowd until they find the curly redhead, and he tilts his head in her direction. “Ray’s Mandy?”

“That’s the one.” I sip from my straw and give myself a second to mull over my next words. “You remember when we first met…at the hotel? I told you about how I lost my mind after Ace broke off our wedding, and you told me that you’d fix it with your penis?”

“I hardly think those are the exact words I used.”

“Well, Mandy thinks she’s in love with Ray. She’s going to throw the wedding over it.” I twist my straw in my multicolored drink. “I need you to fix it.”

I feel Braxton’s stare like ice on my flesh. “What?”

“You know…” I wave my hand in a vague gesture. “Do that…thing you do.”

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