Page 100 of My Best Friend's Mardi Gras Wedding

He gave her a look.“You sure?I have the feeling it would take a lot to top kittens for you.”

She laughed.“It would.But you did.”

And he felt stupidly proud of that.

Liquid eyeliner wasone of the cruelest inventions ever.

Who the fuck had come up with it?And why did women buy it?Why weren’t they writing letters to Congress and protesting in the streets?This industry needed to be shut down.

Tori stared into the mirror.The women who were able to apply it beautifully on the first try were witches.It was that simple.

Feeling frustration welling up, she pulled another makeup remover from the plastic tub by the sink.She wiped her eyes clean.Again.And tossed the remover cloth on the counter with the other eight.Her eyes were bloodshot, the lids were now bright red, she’d lost a few lashes, and worse than looking like she was having an intense allergic reaction to something was the fact that she was going to have to admit that she shouldn’t have ducked out of the makeup session early.

Of course, it had been worth it.So worth it.

She was tired today.She and Josh had come back from the barn and had sex twice more before falling asleep.They’d also talked about their day in New Orleans.He’d told her some history of the plantation.She’d told him about the first time her dad had taken her to their shed and showed her the mother cat having kittens in her little red wagon.

Being tired today was worth every bit of that.

But Paisley was going to kill her if she came down looking like this.

Her phone lit up from where she had it propped against the mirror.She’d been watching YouTube tutorials.And ignoring the five missed calls from Andrew.Three last night and two this morning.

Make that three this morning.

Tori didn’t reach for the phone.She just stared at the screen that said ANDREW, until it stopped and went black again.She wasn’t sure why she was avoiding him.He was probably nervous about today and needed to talk to his best friend.

But she didn’t want to answer.She didn’t want to listen to his voicemails.Yeah, there were five of those too.

A little notification popped up and again she corrected the number.Six.Six voicemails.

She was avoiding her best friend on his wedding day.What was that?

But she knew.She was mad at him.He’d been trying to talk her out of being crazy about Josh.He’d gotten into her head.He’d made her pull back.

She knew he wasn’twrong.She did do this.The overreacting thing.But with Josh it just felt so damned good.In the past, when she’d put her feelings out there, the other person hadn’t wanted it.But Josh wanted her.She could feel it in everything he did and said.Even how he looked at her.

Sure, it might be just for fun.Or just for sex.Or the combination of the two that they had going.But even if that was all it was, even if this was temporary, even if this was going to break her heart, it was going to be absolutely worth it.

But she didn’t want to talk to Andrew about it.That made her stomach hurt a little.Andrew had always been there for her.He’d protected her.He’d buffered things for her.He’d been on her side.

Now it didn’t feel like he was on her side.In the past, he’d been doing it to keep her from being embarrassed.She wasn’t embarrassed with Josh.There was nothing about Josh or being with him that made her feel anything but good.Happy.Hot.Sexy.Interesting.Fun.Why was Andrew trying to talk her out of that?

She looked at the voicemail notifications.Maybe this wasn’t about Josh.Maybe this was about Andrew.

We need to talk before the ceremony.

And now he was texting.

She was surprised he hadn’t done that before now.Whatever this was, he wanted to literallytalkabout it.

Yeah, this was bigger than her getting involved with Josh.

Shit.

She looked back in the mirror.She had one hour before photos and about two hours worth of work to do here.She didn’t have time for a conversation.

But how could shenottalk to him if he needed her?

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