Page 8 of Unforgettable

I placed the heavy black box wrapped in a red ribbon in his outstretched hands as he gave me a confused look.

“That’s fine, but why?” Luke asked, shaking the box and trying to guess what was inside.

“Well, probably because you’d likely kill them if they saw what was inside.”

Still trying to understand why, Luke shrugged. “Whatever you say. Josh has my gift for Hazel. She can open it with an audience if she wants to,” he said before slipping through a door at the back of the room to open his gift.

“Is it something dirty?” Reed asked from beside me, and I gave him a knowing smile.

“Just wait,” I said, tilting my head toward the closed door Luke had just walked through. I knew it wouldn’t take long for him to tear into the box and find the book inside.

Sure enough, it wasn’t more than ten seconds before Luke shouted, “Oh, fuck yes!”

It was exactly the reaction I expected from him, seeing photos of his bride dressed in minimal white lingerie and posed in many suggestive positions. Hazel had brought me along for the photo shoot as her hype woman, so I got to see it all—I think the ones with the halo were my favorite, based on his preferred term of endearment for her, “Angel.”

“I’m going to take that as a yes.” Reed chuckled.

A throat clearing at the opposite side of the room grabbed both of our attention. And just as it did when I spotted Reed, my breath hitched in my throat seeing Josh leaning against the wall, a goldwrapped box in his hands.

Josh, Luke’s brother, was the best man. And the third person in our threesome so long ago. He was dressed just as the rest of them were—black suit, white shirt, maroon bow tie—but there was something different about seeing Josh so dressed up. He’d always had a certain boyish charm which included his lack of thought when it came to the clothes he wore, so I guess it was odd because it was a significant contradiction to his usual jeans and a T-shirt.

Similar to Reed, Josh had opted not to shave, but the brown-and-dark-blond stubble across his jaw was neatly trimmed. He’d also mostly tamed his dirty-blond hair and pushed it toward one side. And even from across the room, I could see the vibrance of his bright blue-green eyes.

These men were going to send me to an early grave.

Josh walked toward me with measured steps and as he approached, I saw a look in his eye that I’d only really seen a time or two before. It was a look that he’d tried to hide since our one and only time together, but that randomly appeared anyway. And when I’d noticed before, he’d shut it down as quickly as it began. But he wasn’t hiding it that time as he stopped directly in front of me, the gold box between us. His lack of hiding, and the obvious outward expression of his thoughts, caused a nervous thrill to run through me.

It was a hungry look that didn’t just say,“I want you naked,”but also said,“I’ve seen you naked and know what you taste like.” And damn, that was a hard look to not pay attention to.

I hadn’t given myself the luxury of thinking about it for a long time for the same reasons I described to Reed the night before—it would simply fuck up everything. And I didn’t have the time or the energy for that.

But being with Reed, it seemed, had not only stirred up feelings for him that I’d long since suppressed but also feelings for Josh that I’d put in a tiny box some time ago. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t keep the butterflies from dancing in my stomach or suppress the urge to swallow around the emotion in my throat and my suddenly dry mouth.

“You’re devastating,” Josh said smoothly and in a husky voice that made me want to clench my thighs together.

The tension was thick between us and was only magnified by Reed’s presence that I could still feel to my right. Quietly, he was watching our entire interaction. He was just as invested in it as me and Josh.

Finally, under the weight of both of their attention, I cleared my throat. “You don’t look so bad yourself.” The words themselves were casual, but the way I said them—all breathy and slightly aroused—said all of the things I didn’t actually say.

It wouldn’t have taken a rocket scientist to conclude that I was affected by Josh. I was only a middle school science teacher, yet I could have figured that one out. It also didn’t help my case that both of them were sex on legs.

“Reed, you think you could give us a minute?” Josh asked, shifting his attention over my shoulder to Reed. I glanced back, following Josh’s eyes and noticed the tension in Reed’s jaw.

“No, actually, I think I’m good right here, Sunshine,” he said, taking a long sip of his drink and ever so slightly inching closer to me.

“If you say so. Amanda,” Josh said, turning back to me and setting the gift on the table next to us. “There’s something I wanted to talk to you about. I—”

The aggressive ringing of my phone—which I had forced just beneath my armpit in my dress—interrupted Josh midsentence. And based on the fact that the song was “Shut Up”by Christina Aguilera meant it was Bridget, my favorite wedding planner, calling me.

I huffed as both men looked at each other and then looked back at me as I pulled my phone out of my dress and held it to my ear.

“Yes?”

“You know how to sew, right?” Bridget asked in a high-pitched, panicked voice.

“Yes…”

“Okay, get back here now. Delilah just ripped her dress, and apparently no one else knows how to sew.”

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