Page 78 of The Dating Pact

“I know he’s gonna be so hot in a tux.”

Kim laughed. “At least you know why you’re marrying him.”

With last checks in the mirror, we exited the dressing room so Sabrina and Everett could have their first-look photo shoot. I noticed Jude with Henry and my parents off to the side. I studied him, laughing, telling some story with his hands, how relaxed he was with my family.

How good he looked in his suit.

With his chin-length hair pulled back into a little ponytail, a few wisps hung down by his ears, and he tucked them away before running his hand over his beard in that absent-minded way I loved. Maybe because I would have liked to be the one combing my fingers over it.

Kim elbowed me. “What’s got you all starry-eyed?”

“Hm?”

My sister pointedly shifted her line of sight from me to Jude, but I played dumb. “Nothing.”

She shot me a dubious glare. “You and Jude, huh?”

I shrugged. She didn’t fall for it.

She flicked her hand through the air like a queen speaking to her servants. “I’m not saying I knew it would happen eventually, but it’s not like I didn’t say it.”

“When? To who?”

“Like, all the time. To Sabrina and Mom. You two are—” she crooked her fingers in air quotes “—best friends.”

I shoved her shoulder. “We are best friends.”

“Straight men and women can’t be friends.”

“Yes, they can.”

She spun to face me, blocking out my view of Jude. “So, you two are doing it?”

I snorted a laugh. “Doing it.”

“Well, are you?” She backhanded my arm hard enough to knock me off-balance.

“Ow. And, yes!”

My outburst caught everyone’s attention, the bride and groom’s, the photographer’s, my family’s, Jude’s. I pasted on a smile, my shoulders up by my ears, and Jude’s brows narrowed.

I waved off his worry then flipped around on my sister. “You’re embarrassing me.”

“Me?” She pushed her hair over her shoulder, as if she would never embarrass me, and arched her penciled-in brows. She’d overplucked in college, and they’d never quite recovered. Served her right. “Are you together or what?”

“I don’t know, and I’m not talking about this with you.”

“Why not?”

“Because, apparently, I can’t trust you with any information since you go around gossiping about me to everyone.”

“Brina and Mom are not everyone.”

I huffed. They were the ones who mattered. Dad, too, of course. I folded my arms over my chest. “It’s new, okay? We haven’t even talked about what we are or are not, so I’m not going to talk about this with you until I talk to him.”

“But look at him over there.” She pointed at Jude, and I smacked her hand down. Honestly. A few months home with a baby, and she’d lost all sense of propriety. “He already gets along well with everyone. He’s been around so long, he could slip right in. You, I guess I should say. Right?”

Her lascivious eyebrow waggle sent me over the edge, but before I could reply, the photographer called us over to take some photos with Sabrina and then Everett’s two groomsmen. And before we knew it, we were shuffled back to the dressing room because the guests had begun to arrive.

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