Page 23 of My Best Friend's Mardi Gras Wedding

“We’re thinking she’s either a stalker or she’s pregnant with your baby,” Owen told him.

Josh froze.“What?”

“She’s very…jittery,” Kennedy said.“She won’t tell us what she wants to talk to you about.And even when I told her she could be waiting for three hours in the hot sun, she said fine.”

“Three hours?”Josh asked.“Where the hell did you think I was taking that last tour?”Their tours lasted about ninety minutes, maybe a little more if the gators were out and being show-offs, or if they happened to get the boat stuck in some of the lower grassy areas.

“I just told her that to try to get her to leave,” Kennedy said.She frowned at Josh.“She said she wasn’t going anywhere until she talked to you.”

“And you think she’spregnant?”Josh asked.“Does shelookpregnant?”That seemed like something that should be pretty obvious.Though he hadn’t had sex with anyone in over a year, so there was no way it was his no matter how pregnant this woman looked.

“She doesn’t,” Kennedy said.“But it could be early.”

“It’s not mine.”

“How can you be so sure?”Owen asked.

“Because I haven’t—” Okay, his brother and cousin knew that he’d been less…promiscuous over the past several months, but since he worked in New Orleans a couple of nights a week, they didn’t know for sure that he hadn’t had sexat all.They were already wondering what the hell was going on.If they knew he’d been celibate for almost a year, they’d take him to the doctor.

Or, if he gave them Tori’s name, they’d load the truck up and take him to Iowa.

Either way, they’d realize that this was a big deal.Was he ready for them to all know that Tori was a big deal?

And why was he using present tense when thinking about her?Shewasa big deal?Shouldn’t he be thinking in terms of shehad beena big deal?It was over.She hadn’t shown up last night.

“I’m just sure,” he finally said.“If she’s pregnant, it’s not mine.”

“Then she really might want to kill you,” Kennedy said.“I gotta say, that was my first guess anyway.You made her fall in love and then never called her again or something.”

Josh frowned at his sister.“First, your faith in me is overwhelming.”

She shrugged, clearly not caring that she might have wounded him a little.

“Second, does she seem homicidal?”

He couldn’t say that he’d never pissed a woman off to the point that she might come looking for a confrontation, but he didn’t think he’d ever made anyone murderous.

“Not really,” Kennedy said.“She’s just sitting there with Gus.She didn’t want anything to drink.She isn’t even on her phone.She’s just sitting there on the dock, watching the water.”

“She’s sitting there withGus?”Josh asked.Gus was the river otter that lived under the far Boys of the Bayou dock.He’d shown up one morning and after about a week of watching him, the guys had decided he’d either gotten lost or was orphaned.The boats coming and going kept a lot of other animals out of the immediate area and the guys let Gus stay because, well, he was cute and he entertained the tourists.He rarely got uponthe dock though and he didn’t sitwithpeople.The guys would toss him food and he didn’t run from them, but he also didn’t get too close.

Kennedy shrugged.“He climbed up on the dock and waddled over to her.He’s just sitting there by her feet.”

Wow.That was different.“What didshedo?”

“She didn’t freak out or anything,” Kennedy said.“She did talk to him a little.And she kept the other people from touching him or getting too close.”

“She seems…contemplative,” Sawyer said.The oldest of the business owners, he was often the voice of reason, the calm one who naturally took charge.Quit fucking aroundwas his favorite phrase and he said it at least once a day to Josh and Owen.Sometimes both at the same time.He was also the only one of them who would use a word likecontemplative.“Not angry.Maybe a little nervous.”

“Nervous?”Josh repeated.Now he was even more curious.“So you’re all out here to protect me?”

That was…nice.

“I got a picture of her,” Owen said, holding out his phone.“We just wanted to make sure you knew her and to give you a heads-up.Just in case.”

Josh stepped closer to Owen’s phone.And his heart kicked so hard against his ribs that he felt a little light-headed.

Tori was here.

---