Page 78 of Until You

Lanie tried not to look relieved, but Randy mistook her reaction and squeezed again. “It’s okay, Lanie. She’s not going to be mad.”

“Why would I be mad?” Britt asked.

“Because,” Randy said, “the guest list is tight, and Lanie knows how stressed you are. So she asked me if I would check into getting him an invite. I just hadn’t talked to you about it yet.”

“Lanie,” Britt said with a groan. “Your invitation was a plus one. Which means you didn’t even read it.”

Lanie was irritated because she had read the invitation. She’d actually planned to bring Stephanie as her plus one. But she also saw the silver lining. Aiden was a thousand miles away and out of Britt’s reach. If Britt thought she was dating Aiden, that took the heat off her and Tyler.

Britt must have seen this as a positive development and dropped her antagonistic attitude. “You want to bring a date.”

Randy turned to her with pleading eyes. He’d been a huge help to her and stuck his neck out on a limb, especially when he’d told her about Victor. He had to have some reason for lying to his fiancée, and he was obviously asking Lanie to trust him. She took a breath. What harm could it do to go along with Randy’s lie, especially when it helped her too? It wasn’t like Aiden would even know. She had three weeks for Aiden to “change his mind” to explain why he wasn’t able to make it to the wedding.

She only hoped it didn’t bite her in the ass.

“Yeah,” she said, and Randy dropped his arm. “And I did see the plus one. I planned to bring Stephanie. But if it’s okay, I’d like to bring Aiden too.”

“Well, of course he can come. Just give me his address and I’ll send an invitation to him.”

Shit.She hadn’t thought that all the way through. “Don’t worry about it. I can just tell him.”

“Not a chance. He’s getting an invite.” Excitement lit up her eyes. “What does Aiden do?”

“He’s an attorney,” Victor volunteered from several feet away. “Sorry. I heard loud voices and came over to make sure everything was okay. You are talking about your boyfriend from Atlanta, right?”

Britt’s gaze narrowed, no doubt pissed that Randy’s coworker had found out the “good news” before she had.

Lanie was in a world of shit, but she was more worried about what Victor had heard. Had she said anything to clue him in that she was associated with Margo Benson? Surely Randy would be freaked out if she had. But instead, he was over at the ice bucket, grabbing another beer.

Although thatwasn’t exactly reassuring.

But Britt was clueless to her inner turmoil and seemed to take it in stride, trying to pry as much information from Lanie as possible. For the most part, Lanie stuck to the truth. She and Aiden had dated in college and kept in touch over the years. They saw each other several times a year. He lived in Atlanta and had come to see her the day before.

And with every word, Lanie felt more and more sick to her stomach.

An hour later, Tyler still hadn’t answered her text, adding to her growing anxiety. Had she pushed him away?

After they ate, Lanie helped clean up and cornered Randy in the garage, where he was dumping bottles into the recycling bin.

“Why did you tell Britt I wanted Aiden to come to the wedding?”

He spun around, his eyes pleading with her. “Just trust me, okay?”

“I hate lying, Randy. I hate it.”

“I know. I’m sorry. But what’s it going to hurt? Just go along with it and tell her he can’t come.”

“I already told her his address.”

“Then he can come if he wants. Either way, it won’t matter.”

And yet it did, only she didn’t know why. But that was a lie. She knew exactly why. Tyler.

This was a disaster.

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