Page 5 of The First Best Man

“You love me,” she coos.

“Fine,” I concede. “Iloveyou as a friend. But that’s all, so stop with the green ones or go find Logan.”

“Already found him, nabbed him, and I’m locking him down insixdays,” she cheers, sliding from her seat on the couch to the floor to grab another bag of chocolate candies.

“Shit, you’ve had him locked down for years, and you know it,” I say, stretching a leg out to poke her thigh with my bare toe. “Are you nervous about the wedding night?”

She rolls her eyes at my joke, making me chuckle, then shakes her head. “I’m afraid that ship sailed back in high school.”

I try my best to hide my unintentional reaction, but Penny knows me too well. We’ve been best friends for over twenty-three years, ever since the first day of preschool when she pushed Tommy Filcher down on the playground for stealing my graham crackers. I’ve never been able to hide anything from her. And she saw that miniscule flinch I just performed and knows exactly why.

“Sometimes, I wish I’d waited,” she says in a wistful tone instead of calling me out, directly.

“What?” I blurt, incredulous. “Why?”

“I don’t know,” she says with a small shrug. “I just think it’d be romantic.”

“But Logan was your first. That’s pretty romantic,” I say, tossing a few candies into my mouth.

“Yeah, but if I’d waited, he’d be myonly.”

“But then you wouldn’t realize how good you have it with Logan,” I counter. “Tommy Filcher?”

Penny pretends to gag, and laughter rumbles from my chest. Yes,thatTommy Filcher.

Penny ended things with Logan when he graduated high school, much to his disappointment. We still had another year, and he was headed off to Alabama for college. She didn’t want to hold him back, so despite his insistence they could make it work, she broke it off with him and sent him on his way. She ended up taking online business courses after graduation, and she’s been running the financial side of things for me at the Grill ever since I took ownership.

Logan ended up coming back here after college and opening Bush Monkey Isle’s first accounting firm. He and Penny picked right back up like they hadn’t spent four years apart, proving the love they had for each other as teenagers was the real deal.

But that doesn’t mean Penny didn’t date while he was gone. She dateda lot, but no one ever stuck. The worst one of the bunch being Tommy Filcher.Blech.

“And don’t think I don’t know what you’re doing,” I go on when she stops miming the dry-heaves. “My lack of experience isn’t and never will be romantic. It’s just plain sad.”

She sits up and levels a hard gaze at me. “Being picky and not settling isn’t sad, Kate. It’s smart.”

“Or pathetic,” I counter.

“Kate Reid, look into my eyes.”

I twist around to sit cross-legged in front of her, carefully arranging the skirt of my dress so I don’t flash her. She mirrors my position. This is a thing we dowhen we’re serious. When either of us wants the other’s full attention. When we’re sharing something important, breaking good news or bad, or simply determined to pump each other up.

When one of us says “look into my eyes,” the othermustcomply and take her seriously.

“You are not sad, and you’re the farthest thing from pathetic. You are a catch. Smart, funny, gorgeous. A loyal friend. A truly kind soul. And whoever locks you down is going to be the luckiest man on the planet.”

“Second only to Logan,” I say without missing a beat.

“We’ll call it a tie,” she says, a smile breaking through her serious expression.

“I love you, Pen,” I say, leaning forward to hug her.

“I love you, Kate,” she replies, hugging me back with a familiar ferocity.

“Speaking of men,” I say, releasing her, “I have to tell you what happened last night at the Grill.”

“You met someone?” she asks, her eyes flaring wide.

“Not really. Kind of.”

---