Page 6 of My Best Friend's Mardi Gras Wedding

So what the hell was she doing even thinking about running down Bourbon Street to the bar where she’d first met Josh?They’d only spent about six hours together total and that hadn’t even been all at once.She’d sat across the bar from him as he worked for two nights.The first had only been for about an hour.The second had been for five hours.Five hours that had flown by.They’d only talked.And laughed.

But, as she was leaving each night, he’d come after her.And kissed her.

The best kisses of her life.

Seriously.They were easily the best four out of the twenty-three she’d had.

And then he’d asked her to come back a year later.After two nights of just talking.And four amazing kisses.

That had all been enough to get him to ask her to come back.

That was just…wow.

And she was right here, after all.OnBourbon Street.On Mardi Gras.She could just pop in and see if he was there.He was maybe even working tonight.

“Victoria!”

She cringed as Paisley called to her across the bar.Paisley refused to call her Tori, no matter how many times Tori told her to.

“Yes?”

“You have to go and stall Andrew, okay?”

It wasn’t a big place.Why did the girl think she needed to yell like that?Tori moved around the group of people between her and the perky blonde socialite with the hope that if she was standing closer to her, Paisley would lower her voice a little.

“Stall him?”Tori asked.

“Yeah, the girls and I are heading to the Hustler store,” Paisley said.Loudly.“But we’re supposed to meet them in like ten minutes.I need a little more time.”She winked from behind her pink sequined mask with the tiny bit of tulle attached like a veil to one corner.

Well, helping Paisley pick out sex toys or lingerie for her and Andrew wasnoton Tori’s To-Do list tonight and hell yes, she’d love an excuse to meet up with the guys somewhere besides the craziness of Bourbon Street.

She’d enjoyed it last year.It had been a part of the whole I’m-so-not-in-Iowa-anymore whirlwind she’d experienced.But Paisley had insisted that Andrew needed to attend her grandmother’s family dinner.Family only.Left out and pissed off that she’d nearly had to sell a kidney to afford her hotel room on Canal Street, Tori had stubbornly headed to the French Quarter on her own.It was freaking Mardi Gras.She wasn’t going to sit in her hotel room alone.

But as soon as she’d stepped out onto the crazy, loud, crowded, holy-crap-there’s-nothing-in-Iowa-like-this street, she’d had a mini panic attack.It wasn’t safe.What the hell was she doing?So she’d ducked into the first place that had no neon in its windows.Bourbon O.She’d taken a seat at the bar and ordered a drink as she pulled her phone out to search for a local taxi company.Then she’d looked up and met Josh Landry’s gaze.He’d grinned at her.And she’d put her phone away.

And now, here she was in New Orleans on Mardi Gras again…and irritated on Bourbon because of Paisleyagain.

But if she went and found Josh, he’d make her grateful for the turn of events all over again.She couldn’t help that thought.Her trip to New Orleans had turned out to be amazing last time.Maybe it could be again.

“I will definitely go find Andrew,” Tori said, setting her glass down and pulling her phone out to find out where Andrew was.

“Oh, they’re on their way to Bourbon O,” Paisley said.“It’s just up the street.”

Tori lifted her head and stared at her.She would have had Paisley repeat the name of the bar if the other girl wasn’t completely incapable of talking softly.Tori had not misheard her.Andrew was on his way to the very place Tori wanted to be.

“Great.I’ll meet them there.”She tucked her phone into her back jeans pocket, her heart thundering.

This was a great chance for a little time with her best friend.She’d come in that morning and had been promptly caught up in getting settled at the plantation—of course Paisley was having her wedding at a plantation—and then heading for Bourbon.

Tori and Andrew hadn’t had any alone time just to talk in over a year.Even when they got on the phone together, Paisley was there in the background.

So yeah, she and Andrew needed some time alone to catch up and talk.And, yes, Tori needed to hear andseein his eyes that he really wanted to marry Paisley.

But she was going to be meeting him at Bourbon O.Where Josh Landry might be working behind the bar.And if he was, and she walked in, he’d think she was there for him.

And she would be.

She definitely would be.

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