Page 62 of The First Best Man

No.

No way.

But Blaine keeps watching me, waiting for the arrow to strike home.

“Are you trying to say you slept with J.T. this morning?” Penny asks, not beating around the bush at all.

Blaine just shrugs as her eyebrows shoot up. “I don’t kiss and tell.”

“Bullshit,” Penny grits out. “And I don’t know what you’re trying to stir up, but you can stop it right now.”

I reach over under the table and grip Penny’s knee. When she looks at me, I give her a slight shake of my head. I don’t want her fighting with Blaine the day before the wedding. Especially not over me.

And especially when it’s not necessary.

I have no doubt she’s lying. And it will be my pleasure to catch her in that lie.

“So how was it?” I ask, my voice filled with mild curiosity. “I heard he has averyinteresting piercing…”

Blaine’s smile drops, and panic flits through her eyes for a moment before she regathers her confidence. “Again, I don’t kiss and tell.”

Her tone deepens to a husky purr like she’s trying to confirm the fact without saying it outright. A smirk twists my lips, and I quickly look down at my lap, letting Blaine think she’s got me right where she wants me––jealous and hurting.

But of course, Tucker doesn’t have a piercing. I know that for a fact.

Sam arrives, effectively ending the conversation. Penny looks like she wants to call Blaine out again, regardless of the audience, so I squeeze her knee one more time. When she looks over at me, I mouth the words, “Let it go.”

Logan materializes next to us, sliding into the chair on the other side of Penny while saying, “Sorry we’re late. We spent the whole morning taking care of some top secret groom and best man stuff.”

As he speaks, Tucker drops into the chair next to me and gives me a warm smile. I return it, then my eyes dart over to Blaine, whose face is unnaturally pink. She’s either embarrassed to be caught in her lies or angry that Tucker is so focused on me––I’m not sure which.

But it doesn’t matter.Shedoesn’t matter.

All that matters is that Tucker is acting like his normal self now, all that weird tension from this morning gone. Whatever he and Logan got up to thismorning, it helped him, somehow. And for that, I’m glad.

Miguel and two waitresses approach before anyone else can speak, delivering a platter of enchiladas, a bowl of rice, one of beans, and some chips and salsa. The table is already set with plates and silverware, and a waiter comes in right behind them, handing out glasses of ice water.

“Excuse me. Can I please get a side salad, no croutons, with vinaigrette on the side?” Blaine asks the waiter as the rest of us start to serve ourselves.

Typical. Miguel whips up this feast for us, but Blaine refuses to eat it. Too many carbs, I guess. Why can’t she just take a day off and actually enjoy herself?

Then I remember what she tried to pull a few minutes ago, and screw it. Let her starve, eating a joyless meal of bland rabbit food.

“Okay,” Penny says, gaining everyone’s attention. “This afternoon’s agenda consists of mani-pedi’s for the girls at Margie’s Salon while the boys go bowling. At four o’clock, we’ll all meet up at the venue for the rehearsal, then go to our place for the rehearsal dinner. We’re grilling steaks.”

Everyone nods in agreement to the plan, and I slice a bite off my enchilada with the edge of my fork before stabbing it and pushing it through my lips. It’s filled with chicken, green chilis, and gooey, melted cheese, and I can’t stop the quiet moan that rumbles in my chest as the flavors burst on my tongue. I see Tucker go still in my peripheral vision, and when I look over at him, there’s a fire burning in his eyes that wasn’t there a moment ago.

Oh. Oops.

“Sorry,” I whisper. “This is really good.”

He shakes his head as if to tell me I have nothing to apologize for, then opens his mouth to say something, but his words are cut off when Penny shouts, “What?”

My head whips around, and I see she’s got her cell phone pressed to her ear. She’s ghost-white, and her eyes are filling with tears as she tells whoever it is that she’ll be right there and hangs up.

“What’s wrong?” Logan asks.

“That was Peg over at the bridal shop,” she says, the words broken while she huffs out choppy, irregular breaths. “Something’s happened to my dress.”

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