Page 30 of My Best Friend's Mardi Gras Wedding

“Oh,” she said softly.“It definitely does.”

“So when do the festivities kick off?”

She winced slightly.“Tomorrow night, actually.Cocktail welcome reception for the family and bridal party.”

“Okay.I’ll rearrange a couple of tours and be there whenever you need me.”

“It’s at the Buckworth Plantation.Do you know where that is?”

He laughed.“I do.”Everyone knew where the Buckworth Plantation—known locally just as “Buckworth”—was.

“Good.It’s there.Starting at seven.”

“I’ll be there.”

She gave him a huge smile and kissed him again, then sat back.“Thank you.”

“Not a hardship,” he told her, gruffly.He was going to have her all to himself tomorrow night at a fancy cocktail party at Buckworth.Well, sure, it would be a party full of other people, but she needed an ally.A boyfriend.He had all kinds of built-in reasons to sneak off into a corner with her, or pull her into the shadows of the oaks outside.

“Well…I’m going toreallyappreciate it,” she said, with a sexy, adorable little smile.

“As in, you’ll want tothank mesomehow?”he asked, dropping his voice to a low rumble.

Her lips parted and she was staring at his mouth again.“Yeah,” she said softly.

“Well, honey, I think I warned you that bayou boys are dangerous,” he said.“But you walked right down my dock anyway and asked me for a favor.There’s no going back now.”

“I’m okay with that.”

He grabbed her hand, pulled her up out of the chair, and in between his knees.Then he kissed her again, knowing he was never going to get enough of it.It was a deep, hot, slow kiss that seemed to set his nerves on fire from his scalp to his toes.

Then, when she made a needy little sound in the back of her throat, he lifted his head and looked into her eyes.“Really fucking glad to see you,” he said.

“Ditto.”

Pulling in a deep breath and telling himself he only had to make it about twenty-four hours, he nudged her back and stood.He took her hand and started for the office door.

“I’m gonna send you back to N’Awlins,” he said.“And I’ll meet you at the Buckworth Plantation tomorrow night.But this time”—he stopped with his hand on the doorknob and looked down at her—“you’re giving me your number.I’ll text you when I get there.”

She nodded.“Perfect.”

He opened the door with a smile.

That died on an exasperated sigh the next second.

Owen, Kennedy and Sawyer were on the other side, leaning against the railing directly across from the office.

But it was way worse than that.

His father, granddad, and grandmother were there too.

“Well, finally,” Ellie—the matriarch of the Landry family—said, getting up from the bench where she’d been waiting.

Tori lookedfrom the older woman up to Josh.

He looked…resigned.He glanced down at her.“Sorry about this.But it was bound to happen.Might as well get it over with.”

“Get wha—”

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